UK to get hands-on with the PS3

The Playstation 3 will be arriving in Europe on November 3rd. Unfortunately this isn’t some major reversal in decisions by Sony but a display at the What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision show at Novotel London West Hotel and Convention Centre in Hammersmith, London.

The event runs from the 3rd to the 5th of November but some of you lucky souls who make the trip will get to see and play the PlayStation 3 at first hand.

Tickets are £13 and you can get hold of one from the What Hi-fi? website.

We expect pictures galore of your smiling mugs at the PlayStation 3 stand.

eBay, the Playstation 3 and pure greed

Supply and demand. The basic facts of life in the capitalist economy.

This November expect to see capitalism in full effect on the internet auction site eBay.

As I have mentioned before I expect the PlayStation 3 to rapidly sell out on launch date, unfortunately these 500,000 consoles will not find their way in to the hands of eager fans ready to play the next generation games, or watch next generation cinema.

A sizeable proportion will see this as an opportunity to make a pretty penny or two.

A thread on a PS3 forum was dedicated to the ’sale of the century’. Here are a selection of some comments:

• Im going to be getting one..or more…and Im not keeping any of them.

• Supply and demand along with some truly stupid and uninformed rich folks equals opportunity. I plan to sell 5-7 units like I did the 360. Not crazy profit margins but enough to get mine and all the games/accessories for free. I also want to purchase a 1080p display so hopefully the profit margins will be a little higher.

• If the people that did not get one put more effort into it they would be the ones getting one. Only reason people dont get one is they dont prepare enough put enough effort into it and then cry later on b/c they dont have a system. If someone has a system and not you its b/c he got inline before you or per ordered his before you. The only one to blame is yourself, not the guy selling the PS3 on Ebay that you “think” you were intitled to. Just b/c somoene is a gamer does not give them presidence as far as getting a system over anyone else.

• i am getting 2-3 systems on hte launch day, it is allredy in plan will wait 13h in advanced with my friends. it tottal we will get abotu 6-8 systesm form ebay selling. i have no problem selling it on ebay, not my problem some child was lazy to wait on line

Apologies for some of the spelling in these above posts. I wouldn’t trust any of them to put the stamp on the package anyway.

These are the kind of people who would double the price of food in a famine, start bottling water to sell to flood victims.

One word of warning for those who believe the road to eBay is paved with gold, and a reminder for those who dare to let themselves get fleeced on eBay by some spotty 10 year old – Sony intend on continuing production lines at a much better rate than Microsoft could manage with the Xbox 360. Around a million units every 19 days is Sony’s estimates for ongoing production.

IF you don’t get lucky on day one, then relax – take a break – keep reading this blog as we assess the carnage (!) – your Playstation 3 will be with you soon – at the standard RRP saving you money for all the extra goodies you can buy.

Don’t be an eBay sell-out. You’re a long time in the afterlife remember…!

PS3 Billboards appear

The Playstation 3 advertising campaign has swung in to gear with the billboard campaign beginning to take shape.

This first billboard has been spotted by Kotaku in Los Angeles.

It’s good to see Sony won’t be using that ‘Spiderman 2′ font for all it’s advertising – these images seem in line with the predictions back in September on the ps3pad.com Playstation 3 forum.

Money wasted as far as I am concerned for all you Sony shareholders. Surely the purpose of advertising is to attract customers to a product. After day 0 there isn’t going to be any ‘product’ left. It’s a tricky one though – Sony has to herald the arrival of it’s most important product in a decade, but it’s going to suffer some very bad press towards the end of November and the Christmas season.

Mind you, who was it that said any advertising is good advertising.

PlayStation 3 – Why bother advertising it?

So let’s get this straight, we all know only 500,000 PS3’s are going to be available for launch date yeah? And that their going to be on eBay and the like left right and centre. In fact if there is a PS3 left in a shop 24 hours after launch then I will be surprised.

So….

I was astonished to read that Sony are planning on spending $30 million on creating 15,000 store demo kiosks for the holiday season in North America! This is 5 times as many as were used when the Playstation 2 was launched.

There is going to be 15,000 PS3’s sitting in store’s that will have no PS3’s to actually sell, and Europe is left to wait until March 2007 for the machine even though it is the biggest video games market in the world. No wonder there was no big surprise when Sony admitted it doesn’t mind making European’s wait.

I think the marketing men at Sony have been, well how shall I put it, spending too much time playing PlayStation….!

Sony take 5 awards at video games BAFTA

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) scooped 5 BAFTA British Academy Video Games Awards to become the most successful software developer at an event held in London last night.

LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment’s Japan Studio) picked up two awards for best Children’s game and best Character while Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment’s Japan Studio) also picked up a double for best Action and Adventure and Artistic Achievement. BUZZ! – The BIG Quiz (SCEE/Relentless Software) was awarded top honours for best Casual and Social game.

“On behalf of the development teams who worked so hard to push the limits of creativity and innovation, I’d like to thank the members of the Academy for recognising these titles. It’s a great honour and inspiration to our entire development organisation,” said Phil Harrison, President, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios.

In total SCEE had eight titles and a total of 20 nominations across 13 of the 17 categories.

The British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) is the United Kingdom’s leading organisation dedicated to the recognition and promotion of excellence in the fields of the moving image. The BAFTA British Academy Video Games Awards recognise artistic, creative and technical innovation within all aspects of the video games industry and are now poised to be the global benchmark for excellence in video games. 2006 is the debut year for the awards.

Playstation 3 News Article – Sony take 5 awards

Sony in special cinema giveaway for PS3

It is looking more and more likely that the PS3 system when purchased will come with a free Blu-Ray movie. Not much is known at the moment what the title could be, however any movie would be great, just so everybody who has the right tv can finally witness what all the fuss is about with high definition movies.

I for one could not be more pleased, as any freebee, be it small or large is always a welcome addition in my book.

Sony will be hoping that the addition of the movie will be a vital marketing tool in the battle in the next generation DVD war.

Sony don’t mind upsetting European’s

Maybe next time Sony release a console they can actually look in to actual manufacturing capacity first…!

From ps3pad.com

In a statement which would enrage even the most laid back of gamers, Sony has stated that European’s really “don’t mind” waiting when it comes to Playstation console launches. While lucky NTSC gamers will be happily playing with their PS3’s come the end of the year, PAL gamers will still be left clutching their Playstation 2’s.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz this week Sony’s Jamie McDonald (European vice president) had this to say:

“European consumers have shown that historically they don’t mind [the delays], because they end up buying as many PlayStations, if not more, than the US and Japan.”

“If we were sitting here in five years’ time, I don’t think we’d really think about or notice that PlayStation 3 was four or five months later in Europe. I think in the long run, PlayStation 3 will succeed because of the great product it is and the great software we make for it,” he said.

Although not very nice to hear, he does have a point. Even though historically the PAL market has always been last with Sony hardware, it still remains the market leader in terms of Playstation sales and activity.

Playstation 3 peripherals released

 News report from ps3pad.com (PS3 website link)….

Sony has officially unveiled pricing and details on the PS3 pad – the ‘Sixaxis’, the remote control and a memory card reader designed for your PS2 save files.

The revolutionary pad, called the SIXAXIS by those boffins at Sony, will retail at about 22 UK pounds or $40.  It uses Bluetooth technology to connect with the PS3 and uses motion sensing technology to be able to sense your movement in real-time

Further releases

The memory card reader will also be released on launch date, enabling PS2 memory cards to fit in to the PS3, so you can migrate your save files across – hell why not even complete your PS2 game on the new machine.

This reader will be around 7 pound or $12.

A purpose built remote control will be released a couple of weeks later on the 7th December to enable you to use your brand spanking new PS3/Blu Ray player to maximum effect.

Cost – around 15 pounds ($28).

A number of add on peripherals are in the pipeline and will no doubt be released as we get nearer to launch date.

The wireless controller will more than function as a remote control but the card reader will be handy – enabling connection of both the PSone and PS2 game save cards – but will we ever be playing PSone and PS2 games on the next-gen machine???