All Game Consoles to Drop Prices in 2011 - Analyst
The 2010 was the last year when developers of current-generation video game consoles could sell them at current price-pints. All three platform holders - Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony - will have to cut the prices of their consoles in order to sustain sales, according to a well-known industrial analyst.
Prediction: Consoles Price Cuts Inevitable"After maintaining console prices at historically high points throughout 2010, all three console manufacturers appear to us to be poised for price cuts in 2011. U.S. PlayStation 3 sales were flat in 2010, while Wii sales were down more than 25% and Xbox 360 sales up over 40%; we think that Microsoft is in the driver’s seat on price cuts, and expect the company to lower price on its console at the first sign of a year-over-year sales decline," said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, reports Industry Gamers web-site.
At present the most affordable versions of PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 4GB and Wii cost $299, $199 and $179, respectively. The analyst believes that the platform holders can trim the prices by $50 this year in order to boost software sales by 5%. But in addition to reducing the prices (which is more likely to happen in the second half of the year), the companies may introduce competitively priced bundles. For example, Microsoft and Sony could may bundle Kinect and Move with X360 and PS3.
"Since the 'whisper quiet' black Xbox 360 was launched in June 2010 and Kinect launched in November, we think that sales will be up year-over-year at least until June, and we don’t anticipate a price cut for the 360 until then. Microsoft has the ability to bundle Kinect with any of its 360 models at a compelling price point (we remain convinced that the manufacturing cost of Kinect is under $60), and we expect to see a Kinect console bundle priced attractively by June 2011 if not sooner. A $299 price point for a Kinect/250Gb 360 bundle would force Sony to bundle Move with a PS3 at the same price point, and we think that Wii sales will suffer mightily with such competitive pricing," explained Mr. Pachter.
Naturally, neither of the mentioned companies commented on the news-story and no company would ever predict a price-cut. But indeed, the one is inevitable simply because the consoles turn five or six years old in 2011 and have not seen a price-cut for a long time.
Source: Xbitlabs.com
Sony NGP vs. PSP Asian price comparison
GameSpot Asia takes a look at the prices of past PSP models before taking a stab at what the Next Gen Portable's regional price tag may be.
Sony's recently revealed handheld gaming platform--tentatively named the Next Generation Portable (or NGP)--is scheduled for release in Japan in holiday 2011. The new machine wowed many gamers last week with its impressive specs, its OLED touch-screen display, and the assurance that it can play games of near-PS3 quality. What Sony Japan didn't reveal, however, was the price of the console. While the world speculates on its potential price tag, GameSpot Asia dug through the official launch prices of PSP models in Asia set by Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong to see what the company's track record has been when it comes to portable pricing.
(The order of countries per price are: Hong Kong/Singapore/Malaysia/Thailand/Indonesia/The Philippines/ Vietnam/India)
2005 - PSP-1000 (the first model) - HK$1,980/ SG$455/ MYR1,155/ TH 12,890/None/None/None/None
2007 - PSP-2000 (PSP Slim) - HK$1,280/ SG$280/ MYR690/ THB 6,990/None/None/None/Rs 8,900
2008 - PSP-3000 - HK$1,380/ SG$299/ MYR760/ None/ IDR 2,599,000/ PHP 999/ VND 5,990,000/ Rs 9,490
2009 - PSP Go - HK$1,899/ SG$412/ MYR 1099/None/None/None/None/Rs 13,990
If GameSpot Asia factors in the recent announcement of the 3DS's price tag in the US, we can always state the obvious and predict that the NGP's price tag will be significantly higher than the 3DS on a local standpoint. Since Sony HK also has to make sure that its price doesn't exceed the current PS3 console's official price (SG$512), we'll take an educated guess: SG$485.
With the hardware and features tacked on to the NGP and given Sony HK's track record of pricing its new hardware a little high, SG$485 sounds about right to justify the extra cost for potential power.
Source: Gamespot.com
Battlefield 3 Shows Up At GDC, Looks Great
8:20 PM - March 2, 2011 by Tuan Mai -source: PCGamer
Next major installment of the Battlefield series shows up.
Tuesday night, at the Game Developer's Conference of 2011, a select few members of the press were given a sneak peak at the highly anticipated Battlefield 3. EA revealed a bit of the single player campaign along with an in depth analysis and preview of the game's incredible engine. The Frostbite Engine 2, unlike the console-limited engine of the CoD franchise, is designed for PCs which makes Battlefield 3 a force to be reckoned with. Look out Crysis.
Here's a snippet from PCGamer's coverage of the revealing:
The demo opened with a precis of the tech. Frostbite 2 uses animation systems developed for sports games to give characters heft and weight. As the soldiers turn into doorways, you can see the weight shift on their feet. The destructability of the old Frostbite engine has been ramped up; bullets can chip away at masonry and concrete, while full bore explosives can tear down entire buildings. And when buildings collapse, they don’t vanish in a cloud of smoke and magically transform into burning husks – the destruction is more complex – signage wobbles and shakes, concrete awnings tumble down. The sound is as violent and deafening as Bad Company 2; bullets echo and snap with nightmarish cracks.
But it’s the sheer visual quality that’s the real star. I think it’s down to the lighting – the bright sunshine of the Iraq level was extremely impressive. When the demo transitioned to the indoors, shafts of sunlight shone through any open windows, creating gorgeous pillars of dust. It absolutely looked a step ahead of last year’s big shooters.
And if the screenshots aren't enough to give you chills, check out some video of in-game footage:Battlefield 3 Footage
Sony Drops PSP Go Down to $150
Late last month, Sony announced a price drop for the PSP-3000 moving it down to $129.99. That left a few wondering what would happen to the PSP Go, which at the time kept its same price. Now, however, we find out that the PSP Go has dropped down to $149.99.It's official now on the U.S. PlayStation site here, so the price should be in effect everywhere.
Budgets aside, with the Nintendo 3DS just around the corner and the NGP/PSP2 already a sure thing, these older systems seem more like older, quick fixes for portable gaming.
We would still lean towards the $129.99 PSP-3000, thanks to its UMD slot that opens up the door for many more games at budget prices.
Watch the Next-Generation Unreal Graphics NOW
7:00 AM - March 11, 2011 by Marcus Yam -source: Tom's Hardware US
Epic Games is now more than just a games developer – it's an engine technology maker that licenses its software to other developers to help designers make the games rather than the tools.
At GDC, Epic showed off the most bleeding-edge version of Unreal Engine 3. It was so advanced that it could be called Unreal Engine 4 -- except that it runs all on present-day hardware. Of course, it took no less than three GeForce GTX 580 in SLI to get this done, but it's amazing to think that something like this is possible with readily available hardware. Now all we need is the software.
You've seen the screenshots; now feast your eyes on it in motion:
Watch Epic's Mind Blowing Graphics in Video
Zoom
Crysis 2 Performance Previewed And Analyzed
12:00 AM - March 18, 2011 by Don WoligroskiA year is an eternity when it comes to the ever-changing world of PC graphics technology. It is, therefore, a testament to the developers at Crytek that the original Crysis, released November 2007 (more than three years ago), continues to set the bar for PC game graphics. This title created a standard so lofty that we continue to get requests for benchmarks in Crysis in our graphics card reviews, more than three years later.
Yet, this game is not without its faults. Despite some shining examples of free-form single-player arenas, as Crysis nears its conclusion, it sometimes feels muddled and rushed. The successful sandbox approach often gives way to on-rails shooting and racing sequences that feel out of place. Crysis’ multiplayer component is unique, but not as successful as it aspires to be, with colossal maps and a capture-the-building mechanic that never seems to reach its potential. The ‘Power Struggle’ mode seems better-suited for a large-scale army than a handful of super-soldiers. Simple standbys like team deathmatch aren’t included.
In the final analysis, Crysis was probably more successful at showing off what PC graphics can do than it was at being a great game.
But Crytek has been far from idle for the last three years, and Crysis 2 is about to hit store shelves on the 22nd of March. Happily, the company gave us a chance to experiment with the game via a free multiplayer demo (that demo that is no longer playable, by the way; Crytek disabled it on March 16th). Because of this, we’re able to provide you with detailed information regarding graphics card performance in Crysis 2.
The Crysis 2 Multiplayer Demo
Before we look at that data, let’s discuss the gameplay aspect. Crytek went back to the drawing board with the multiplayer component of Crysis 2, and it’s clear the company paid a lot of attention to the Call of Duty series. Crysis 2 tracks kills and unlocks ranks and achievements in a very similar fashion. Even the feel is similar.
But Crytek’s newest title is so much more than a Call of Duty clone. Of course, the nanosuit’s strength, speed, armor, and cloaking capabilities remain, but the addition of a new ‘nanovision’ mode helps you see other combatants and even cloaked enemies. And all of these wonderful abilities come with an associated energy cost. This adds a whole other dimension to the standard first-person shooter combat formula.
Yes, the controls have been streamlined, but not necessarily in a bad way. It’s easy to point a finger and say the game is dumbed-down for consoles. But in practice, the new scheme makes much more sense. The default mode is strength and speed, but these abilities don’t take any energy unless you use them by jumping or running. Armor and stealth modes can be toggled with the Q and E keys, respectively, but enabling either of these modes will constantly consume energy. Nanovision mode also eats energy, but at a much slower rate than armor or stealth. Energy management is key, and the most successful players are the ones who do that effectively. The simple-but-sensible control scheme helps with that.
The two maps included in the demo are Skyline and Pier 7, both of which are just the right size for a team deathmatch of eight to 12 players. But there’s also a new game mode called ‘capture the pod.’ an alien ship drops an item, and the team that occupies the area surrounding it gains points over time. After a couple minutes, the pod becomes unstable and explodes, and this sequence of events repeats until one of the teams has gained enough points to win. It’s a good metagame alternative to simple team deathmatch.
And that’s about it. Crysis 2 multiplayer might not sound groundbreaking, but it’s certainly very addicting. In this author’s opinion, it contains the best PvP elements of Call of Duty and Aliens vs. Predator, but ends up being more fun and challenging than both.
With no single-player demo for us to try, that’s as much as we can say about the game play until we get our hands on the full release. Now let’s talk about performance.
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Ubisoft: 3DS Can Handle Unreal Engine 2
5:30 PM - March 25, 2011 - By Kevin Parrish -Source : Gamespot UK
Ubisoft is reportedly using Epic's Unreal Engine 2 for Splinter Cell 3DS.
So just how powerful is Nintendo's upcoming 3DS handheld gaming system? According to Epic Games' Mark Rein, there aren't enough horses under the hood to run the company’s more recent Unreal Engine 3. In fact, the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3 and 4, and a number of recent Android smartpohnes can run the engine without a hitch. Nintendo's new 3DS system apparently cannot."There's nothing against Nintendo," he said during GDC 2011. "I hate that people somehow think that's the case. If we felt it could run [Unreal Engine] and deliver the kind of experience people license our technology to build, we'd be on [the 3DS]. There's only so much time in the day; our engine requires a certain level of hardware capabilities to make our pipeline, our tools work -- and we work on the ones that do. The second Nintendo releases a piece of hardware that can run our engine well, we'll be on it like water on fish."
However in an interview with Gamepot UK, Ubisoft's Fabrice Cuny claims that Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3DS is running on the Nintendo 3DS via Epic's Unreal Engine 2. "The 3DS is powerful, and we are able to run the Unreal Engine on this console, which is pretty impressive for a handheld machine, and the 3D doesn’t affect the performance (thanks to my amazing programmers)," he told the site. "The architecture is different compared to a Wii or some other platforms that we had to work with here at Ubisoft Montreal."
Fabrice added that the 3DS can be much more comparable to a platform between a DSi and a Wii. "We are able to create games anywhere from a puzzle game to very high-end game such as Splinter Cell 3DS," he said. "The tools on the 3DS were brand new, and with every development phase, we had some tools with bugs and crashes. But with version after version, Nintendo provided us a set of tools and the support to help us debug and optimize the game."
So if the 3DS can't run games using the Unreal Engine 3, but can do so with the previous engine, what does that mean for gamers? Look at it this way: if Epic were to bring the Unreal Tournament franchise to Nintendo's handheld, the device may have the ability to support the original Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004. It wouldn't be able to handle Unreal Tournament 3.
Of course, that's just an example, and doesn't mean any Unreal Tournament title will be ported to the 3DS. It's also currently unknown if the 3DS can handle the Unreal Engine in a first-person perspective (running at an acceptable frame rate). Even more, Epic has also tweaked its Unreal Engine 3 to work on iOS and Android platforms, so it's likely Ubisoft did the same for Unreal Engine 2.
The Nintendo 3DS launches here in the States this Sunday at 12 am EST. Various Best Buy locations will host a launch party starting Saturday at 9pm EST. Check your local store for details.
E3 Rumor: Powerful Wii HD with HD Controller
source: Tom's Hardware US
A deluge of Wii 2 rumors with your coffee, sir?
ZoomEarlier in the week it was reported that Nintendo would be dropping the price of its motion-sensing Wii console to $150, bringing the cost down a full hundred dollars from the launch price. Though it was hard to argue with the logic (the Wii is five years old at this stage, and sales are declining), rumor had the price cut scheduled for May 15, just three weeks before E3. Many wondered why Nintendo would make that kind of announcement so close to E3. Why not just wait a few weeks and announce it at the convention?
Well, today’s rumors lend credence to reports of a price cut while also providing a reason for not waiting until E3 to announce it: Nintendo is planning a Wii 2 launch for E3. That’s the latest. According to sources from both IGN and Game Informer, the device will be revealed at or before E3 (which runs June 7 to 9), and will support HD. Though GI’s sources couldn’t agree on how the graphics would compare to that of the Xbox 360 or the PS3, IGN’s sources say "significantly more powerful than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360." These same sources also revealed that the new Wii will be backwards compatible with older Wii games.
Throwing yet more turf on the Fire of Hope is a report from CVG claiming that 1080p is not the only thing the new Wii will have going for it. Nope, Computerandvideogames.com reports that the new Wii will also come with a new controller. Sources say the controller will be quite different to the original in that it will also feature an integrated HD display. CVG’s sources also confirmed IDG’s report regarding the power of the console and backwards compatibility.
"Nintendo's plans sound unreal," one source said. "Publishers are already planning launch titles and it's all very exciting.
"The hardware is even more powerful than current HD consoles and backwards compatible with Wii.”
All three publications are saying it’s going to be an E3 reveal but a 2012 launch.
So, who’s excited?
