Article now confirms the UK price of the 40 GB PS3 will be 299 pounds. Article notes that there will still be software-emulated backward compatibility, much like the 80 GB machine. Also, 60 GB PS3 will be reduced in price.

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/ne...official.phtml

Halo 3 takes the #1 spot in Japan in its opening week........

I, for one, am shocked that Halo 3 beat out Tamagotchi Petit Petit Omisecchi Minasankyu!

That's got to be close to 100% attachment rate for Halo 3 in Japan. :D

I think MS has sold about a half million 360s in Japan but yeah the Halo 3 sales are impressive.

That article about the PS3, what is the card reader? For PS2 memory cards or is it something different?

The 60 and 80 GB consoles have card readers for things like CF and SD memory cards that are often used in digital cameras, MP3 players and video recorders. I'm guessing not that many people transferred stuff using those slots, so they decided to save a few dollars and cut those from the system. Most of those devices have USB cables anyway, so you still can likely transfer images and media to the PS3 if you really wanted to do so.

I'll give you another take on the 720P vs 640P issue: one cheap way of handling AA is rendering at a higher resolution, then downsampling to a lower screen resolution. Sure, you get a blurrier scene, but do they get to check the 1080i box now, even though they are presenting at 720P? Where is the 1440 box? How much resolution is 4xAA multisampling worth? What box should you check then?

There's a ton of discussion about the Halo 3 situation over at the Beyond 3D forums with topics about the various scenarios, much like the one you present. Pretty good discussion as they have several console developers posting in the thread.

Microsoft press release reporting they met their $300M Halo 3 sales goal over the first week.....

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...rstWeekPR.mspx

Almost confirmed new prices in Spain from Oct 10th from leaked superstore catalog and some magazines, Sony is suppossed to confirm it tomorrow.

Starter pack (Ps3 60gb + 2 games + 2 controlers) = 499€ that is a 100€ ($135) reduction.

The new PS3 40gb = 399€

For comparision, the 360 Elite price here is 449€ so the price difference would start to become a non factor.

But atleast we have the 3 year warranty, right?

Ignoring the fact that you may have you send in your console 3 or 4 times for a month and that it could be a paperweight after the warranty is up. It's nice that MS finally owned up to their issue, but it wasn't like they were doing anyone a favor - if they hadn't created an unstable system in the first place there would of been no need. The 360 gets alot of praise for it's online and the fact that it's similiar in specs to the PS3 but clearly no matter any of that it's still built on a faulty design.

Man, for those eyeing MLB Power Pros for the Wii and PS2, it's getting great feedback from every place I've looked thus far. Only complaint is that the rosters are a bit dated, but they can be edited to bring them up to date.

Here's the OS forums impressions thread:

http://forums.operationsports.com/vB...d.php?t=223290

Some are saying the fielding stinks.. but overall, good impressions. I still can't believe a kiddy looking game like this is getting rave reviews over the next gen stuff. lol

Never played it, but I'm assuming it's the techmo of baseball games?

Has the PS3 been able to run at 60 frames? I know some of sports games have been running at 60 on the 360, but they run at 30 on the PS3.

In this year's sports games, the answer is mostly no. Lack of development time was cited as the issue. Honestly, not many of the sports games have been world-beaters on either console. There's a whole lot of $60 updates this year for the most part.

They will all run at 60 FPS next year on the PS3.

That just shows how bad the next gen stuff is. There's not a lot that stands out at all on the 360 or PS3 in regards to sports games.

Not EA games, but other developers games do:

MLB the show 07 runs at 60fps
NBA2k8 runs at 60 fps

What about the NBA 2k/College Hoops franchise? NHL 2008 has that series on the right track.

Don't listen to the Sony viral marketer. College Hoops and NBA 2k7 are great games. NBA 2k8 looks like a significant improvement to an already great game. Lots of games have performed substandard on the PS3 including the EA football games as well as some of the 2k games, so he wants to downplay the sports games, even the ones that are good.

I disagree.

There are PLENTY of great games for the 360 as far as I'm concerned.

Right now, I'm playing: Bioshock, MLB 2k7, NHL 2k8, NHL 08, and APF 2k7. I wish I had more time to play.

One guy said this game was better than "The Show".. I mean, that sounds crazy.

Far from it.

It plays a very solid, realistic game of baseball. Tons of stats, 10 year franchise mode, this game is a baseball sim but with cartoon-like graphics. The animation is even top-notch, it's just the player models that look unrealistic.

I fully recommend that everyone try this game out, but leave your inner graphics whore at the door.

I don't know about that, but it has had a Madden like number of editions in Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jikky%C...y%C5%AB_series

I picked up a copy of MLB Power Pros at lunch today, but haven't had a chance to play yet.

I don't have a Wii and my PS2 has long since died, but I have to ask. Why, why, why, do they have to make the players cartoons?! I'm not looking for photo-realistic 3-D representations of every guy's mole, but, they can at least TRY to make it look like you're playing baseball right?

It's probably a fun to play game, but little goofy heads running around the field is a gamekiller for me.

I have the opposite reaction. I would rather them not even try (to make realistic graphics) than to try and fail.

I'd rather a cartoon that looks like a cartoon than a realistic depiction that just makes me wish that it were done better.

Same here. If I get a Wii for Christmas, this sounds like it will be the first game I will pick up for myself.

I have always preferred the games from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras. I prefer the more cartoonish graphics over them trying to be photo realistic.

Hardball was one of my favorites, so the players don't have to be photo-realistic...maybe I have some strange fear of large-headed baseball players?

I think you shoudl rent it and see if you like it.

Yeah, pretty much my thoughts as well.

Cartoony all the way for me, I love that look.

I saw a kid a few minutes ago who has a fear of baseball mascots and actually ran out of the ballpark because of one.. perhaps, you should seek help ;)

Either that or me and the kid should hang out more :)

OK. MLB Power Pros is a fun game on the PS2. Here are my random observations. I was in practice mode, getting use to the defense an accidently hit the L2 button instead of L1 (which shifts the infield and outfield) and my pitcher grabs the rosin bag. Heh, and I bet it probably affects his pitches in this game. :) The pitching and hitting mechanics are well implemented and the pitching and hitting cursors and aids are quite customizable. I need to work on my fielding a little because I keep hitting the fake throw button (L1) instead of the throw to the cut-off man (R1), but I will train myself to get it right.

I love the RPG success mode. :D A really fun way to create a player. It's like having two different games on one disk. I haven't finished with my first player yet, but it looks quite replayable. Currently I have a starting pitcher named Jonathan Papelbon, a random(?) name received by leaving the name entry blank, who is trying to survive his three years of college ball. Back to the game.

College Hoops is a pretty weak game. NBA 2K7 is a very good game. I'm not sure that 2K8 is the major improvement you make it out to be.

The rest of your comments are just flames with no basis in fact and don't deserve a response. You're better than that.

Obviously, the comment referred specificially to sports games, so Bioshock isn't in the discussion. MLB 2K7 is an average game at best. APF 2K7 is a good idea, but the feature options on it leave a lot to be desired. It should have been much better. The NHL games appear to be the best of the sport groups. The 2K8 game plays a better game of hockey, the EA version is a bit prettier. All in preference there. But none of those games have a great level of quality that surpasses the 'yearly update' status.

I'll go ahead and disagree on the NHL 08 quality being merely a 'yearly update'. The AI is fantastic, the skill stick works to perfection, and the skating is glorious. I had no real use for NHL 07, but 08 is the best hockey game I've played since the mid-90's.

And I'm not the only one that thinks so. I have a small group of friends, maybe about 8 of us in total. Within a week of playing the NHL 08 demo on one buddy's 360 no less than 3 of us bought 360's just to play this game. There are now 6 of us that have 360's, and every single one of us has NHL 08.

There are a LOT of people on here and elsewhere who will disagree with you on college hoops. Many people consider it the best console sports game of last year. As far as my other comments, I think you've earned them.

My opinion is that NHL 2K8 is the better game of the 2 NHL games. Just plays a better game of hockey.

Since I already bought my family's Wii for Christmas, I'll have to add this one to the list...

I post all kinds of articles, both positive and negative, on all consoles. There's not many posters in this thread that can state that. I posted positive articles on Halo 3 and Microsoft and attacked the PS execs for everything from pricing to forcing unfinished games and no one uttered a peep of disapproval. But when I post negative press about MS or a positive article about the PS3, here come the bias claims. I guess it's easier to take that tactic rather than address the actual discussion on a topic-by-topic basis.

The problem is your attack articles on Sony are generally mild, short, and followed up with some sort of "here's why it won't matter much" comment, while anything positive you say about MS or the Xbox has some sort of "but" attached. You are also famous for turning Sony negatives into positives, and Microsoft wins into doom. That's been pretty clear to everyone but yourself.

I agree with the doc about college hoops. It was a fantastic game and one of the best sports console games I've ever played. Of course everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I'm a PS3 owner and i dissagree with you Mizzou, imho both NBA2k7 and College Hoops 2k7 are the best PS3 games in 2007, specially the second along with MLB the show.

Halo 3 is going to be devastating for the 360. It's not even Hi Def!

I'm not going to get into a finger-pointing war with you. I want to discuss the consoles, not perceived poster bias. If you want to start another thread discussing the bias that everyone else has that you don't have, feel free to do so.

You'll have to ask Pumpy Tutors about that as soon as Microsoft returns his 'new' 360 in 6-8 weeks.

Here's the weekly numbers from the US for that period.

Wii 98,173
DS 143,137
PS3 29,618
PSP 88,586
Xbox 360 122,834

Well that's nice, but has nothing to do with my post. My point was that NHL 08 represents a massive upgrade in terms of overall enjoyment factor over NHL 07, and therefore is more than a 'yearly update' in the eyes of many people.

PS3 should have plenty of consoles available for the holiday season. PS3 FTW!!!1!~

Here's the total next gen console sales through last week in the US:

XBOX360 7,373,159 (about 51% of the market)
Wii 5,001,005 (a little under 35% of the market)
PS3 2,072,542 (a little over 14% of the market)

I will admit that the game console junkie in me will have a hard time resisting a $400 PS3.

I'm assuming you're pulling those from VGChartz? Just curious.

One thing you can be sure of is that the PS3 numbers are going to go down over the next few weeks. Now that the info on the $399 PS3 was leaked, no one's going to pony up $499 or $599 for a console that they can get in a couple of weeks for $399.

Wii sales are nice and steady with the supply now finally surpassing demand.

360 got a nice bump. It will be interesting to see how long this bump lasts. They were hoping to push through 400-500K units in the month period following the Halo 3 release.

I'd argue that NHL '07 was such a bad game, they couldn't do anything but improve. They've likely pulled back even with the 2K series this year. Much of the discussion around NHL '08 has to do with the AI and whether you think it's much better or not. I think EA just masked some of the flaws of the game and it didn't really improve all that much overall. You're likely one who believes that the AI is substantially improved. I know Mizzourah believes that as well.

Same here. I'll have an even harder time next year when it probably drops to 299 and Final Fantasy is out. That is probably when we'll get one.

Yep, I'll buy one when there's a game on it that I want to play that's not available on the Xbox 360. Looks like the first one that's likely to come out that I'm interested in is Final Fantasy. I'll probably still wait for reviews to see if it's worth it though.

If it's $299 next year when the Show comes out, I'll probably get one. I need my MLB fix and thus far nothing on the 360 is cutting it.

What is coming out first, the next Final Fantasy or the new Metal Gear?

Metal Gear comes out in March. FF XIII not until mid-year at the earliest. Probably holiday '08 is a good guess.

Man, MGS is just about my favorite franchise out there and if I haven't picked up a next gen system by then, I may have to be ready to plunk down the cash.

Sony makes price cut official in Europe. Others regions expected to follow. No backward compatibility in 40 GB model. Backward compatibility will still be available in 60 and 80 GB model.

http://www.scee.presscentre.com/Cont...4&NewsAreaID=2

NO backward compatibility? Not even software? Isn't that against what they were saying earlier?

Wow. Not even in software? At this point, can Sony do anything right?

Way to kill any interest I had in the 40 gig model.

I know it's marketing, but this: "New PLAYSTATION®3 Model to Take Holiday Season by Storm

Aggressively priced hardware and a terrific software line-up make for an unbeatable combination " had me almost laughing out loud.

Press release making the split between MS and Bungie official. MS retains some equity at this point.......

All of the press releases are usually pretty brutal in that regard. At some point, you wish they'd just come out and state the reason for the press release.

They had been shying away from increasing BC support in recent months. There hasn't been a BC firmware update in months. The 60 GB machine will likely sell pretty quickly due to the price drop and people wanting to make sure they have full BC.

Now we just sit and watch to see if MS responds or stays put. This move certainly puts pressure on their current price points.

Sony UK about the BC


I don't usually do it, but i agree with him as I dont' care at all about the BC. I have a 60GB BC one and i have only played God of WAR II a few times in it, if i want to play PS2 games, i have an old PS2 that does the job, but anyway i doubt i'll play Ps3 games ever again. Of course this is just me, i know it's huge for others.

:rolleyes:

How good is the Show in comparsion to MLB 2k7? I'm suprised Microsoft hasn't comissioned one of its studio to create a 360-only MLB franchise.

The 40gb PS3 is still more expensive than the Xbox 360 ever was in the UK. They need to bring the price down at least another $100 here.

The Elite 360 and the 40 GB PS3 are the exact same price in the UK. Both are 299 pounds. Each has its advantages (Elite has larger HDD, PS3 has Wifi and HD movie player built-in), but they're certainly at worst competitive at this point.

You are disputing his claim by comparing the high-end 360 to the low-end PS3?

I've loved the Show for the past few years - great game. I got MLB 2k7 and it was generally unfinished in my eyes. Fun factor just wasn't there, either.

Absolutely. His statement was that it's never been cheaper. That seems to be splitting hairs at best since they're the exact same price. If you wanted to even the playing field to make an accurate comparison by adding a HD-DVD player and Wifi to the 360 and a 120 GB HDD to the PS3, you're going to end up spending a more on that 360 setup than you will on the PS3. That's a fact.

Don't forget about the backwards compatability.

Agreed, you could include that, though I'm not sure that you could easily put a value on it. Also, the MS backwards compatibility is pretty weak by its own right. I believe the percentage of Xbox games that can be played on the 360 is lower than even the software-emulated percentage of 70% that the 80 GB PS3 offers.

Then take out the HD-DVD side on the 360. I know for myself, any backwards compatability is desirable over the next gen DVD players. I'd get some use out of BC, and absolutely none out of BR or HD.

Interesting, I thought the software emulation on the PS3 was 100%.

MS used to have an internal sports games studio, but they closed us down after they got EA to commit to being on Xbox Live.

Frankly, it's tough to be profitable in that genre if you are limited to one platform SKU. That's not to say it can't be done, and the odds would be much better for MS in this generation given their much larger share of the market than they had the previous generation, but the odds are still against MS commissioning a 360-only MLB title.

dola

I also think this is much more important for the PS3 considering the number of games and consoles sold for it's last generation.

It's pretty much 100% on the 60 GB model, but the software emulated isn't quite as good. I'd agree with your second thought that the BC is more important on the PS3 than the 360 just because the PS2 lineup was so much stronger than the Xbox lineup. There's a lot of really good PS2 games that you could pick up used for really cheap. I have only played one PS2 game on my PS3 (MLB Power Pros will likely be #2), so I'm not quite as much in need of the BC as others. I've rented quite a few BR movies and got much more use out of that personally. The 60 GB PS3 is going to likely be reduced in price until it sells out. Now is a great time to pick up one of those models if people truly want BC.

Yeah, you'd think they would play to this huge strength.

For myself, I only have a Wii right now. And I'm playing my friend's PS2 quite a bit with games like Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution. I haven't completely decided on what other next-gen system to get (if I even do get one), and the fact that Rock Band will be on he PS2 doesn't push me towards another next-gen system yet.

However, since I don't have a PS2 of my own... I'd definitely want BC in the PS3 if i were to get that. I'd say the 360 is ahead for me right now anyway, but no BC in a more affordable model surely doesn't help out the PS3 in my decision.

Yeah, it's a great time, but it's too expensive.

Even after the patch? I love MLB 2k7.

I also think next year's will be much better. I just find the The Show boring, but lately I've been in the minority on my gaming choices.

Certainly, we could go on and on because the features and value don't exactly match between the two consoles. My point in bringing up that the prices are equal was only to show that it's a much more competitive situation that it was 24 hours ago. The PS3 is in a much better competitive position. They're next step is to get a good showing from their fall exclusives coming up this month and in November to improve their library as they head towards the MGS release.

It'll be interesting to see what this does for the PS3 sales. For some people, $399 was the tipping point. For others, it's $299. I think we'll see a much bigger sales jump across the pond. The price reduction overseas is much greater that what the U.S. will see. They're getting a cut of around 33% off the previous price. That's a very large price cut.

The show is so far the PS3 game of the year imho. Incredible playabillity, 60fps unlike EA sports games etc.

NHL 07 was a GREAT game, probably one of my favorites of all time as far as hockey goes.

After playing MANY more games with NHL 08, I'm actually having fun.. I'm also having fun with 2k8 - although both have flaws.

I think you're just upset at the crappy attention most developers give the ps3 - I have a co-worker that has a ps3 and he's so ticked, he bought a Wii and hasn't touched his ps3 in quite some time - BUT he's the same as you, downplays every game the 360 has and the ps3 doesn't..

I think that in Spain, the price drop + Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 that is released this month, are going to be a huge sales booster.

Once again, totally inaccurate, but I'm not going to bother with the finger-pointing. If your co-worker hasn't touched his PS3 in some time, that's his issue. He shouldn't be downplaying the 360 for that reason because there's plenty of good games on the 360. Bioshock alone is a good enough reason to own the 360.

In case you didn't notice earlier in the thread, they're also planning a PS3 bundled with PES 2008. No mention yet of which PS3 that will include. That should be another help to sales.

Ditto. Incredibly stupid move by Sony.

The truth is splitting hairs?

To me, the argument is worthless when you start forcing options on one console to make it match the other console. Just because the PS3 forces a BR player on the consumer doesn't mean you have to add the Xbox HD player to make a valid comparison.

Interesting - according to VGChartz, worldwide 360 weekly sales surpassed Wii weekly sales the last week of September, the first time that's happened since the middle of December, '06.

Halo effect?

That's a matter of opinion. You say it was forced. There's some people that are buying the PS3 solely because it's the best BR player available and it's at a great price. I agree that it's subjective, but not everyone agrees with the 'forced' assessment.

Didn't someone suggest that Halo wouldn't sell that many consoles since all the Halo fanboys were really MS fanboys who had already jumped on the 360 just because it was a MS product?

I was just looking at Mizzou B-Ball Fan's post count and am amazed to see it is less than 3000. I would have estimated close to 2500 posts from him in these monthly console threads alone.

Definitely has to do with Halo. 360 sales in Japan tripled this week when Halo was released (1.6K to 5K). The apparent supply problems in Japan for the Wii also contributed to that win for MS. Wii sales are down nearly 60,000/week from what they were only a couple of months ago in Japan.