Some of you may remember a few months back a rumour started going around that Sony were going to charge users for demos downloaded through the PlayStation Store. Well, as those with a PS3 and Motorstorm demo can attest, demos are free.

Well Kotaku have come across some information that suggests that third party developers will have to pay for their demos to be added to the download list. Sony will be charging them to regain the costs of the free PlayStation Network. Kotaku extrapolate that this will mean there will be fewer game demos available on the PlayStation Store.

There are a few flaws in this rumour however. Firstly, if true then these costs would be paid for by the game’s publisher, not the developer itself. Secondly, this is hardly likely to restrict game demo content. Publishers understand that demos can be a great way in creating hype about an upcoming product- downloadable demos have met with great success on the 360, and if a publisher spends time and money creating a demo for the 360 then it makes sense to get as much value out of it as possible, even if the costs do rise. This is without even getting into how much it costs a company to put a demo online and allow downloading- Sony don’t seem to charge anyone to put PSP demos on their sites, and assuming they take a smart approach with PS3 demos they should not cost much to distribute.

Again, I should add that this is a rumour, but even as a rumour it doesn’t have much credence- “Several industry insiders” (ie. anyone from employees at your local game store to Sony’s Ken Kutaragi) and words such as “apparently thinking”, “considering” and “unconfirmed” add up to a story with little value.

Kotaku

PSOne game downloads will begin in Japan today. You’ll be able to download the games and then transfer them to your PSP for play. (No, you won’t be able to play them on the PS3 just yet.) These games will be available for 525 yet, or about $5 (I think).

Resident Evil Director’s Cut (Capcom)
Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol.1 (Konami)
Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol.2 (Konami)
Bishi Bashi Special (Konami)
Arc the Lad (SCEJ)
Jumping Flash! (SCEJ)
Hot Shots Golf 2 (SCEJ)
Silent Bomber (Bandai Namco Games)
Tekken 2 (Bandai Namco Games)

Personally I don’t care too much about playing PSOne games on my PSP, but for other people that may be a cool way to relive the past. Thoughts?

PlayStation Downloads Start on 11/22

How does the PLAYSTATION 3’s SIXAXIS controller do it’s sensing? Tiny springs, that’s how. Same thing goes for the Nintendo’s motion-sensing controller.

When you wave around the new Nintendo controller, two tiny, flat pieces of silicon inside it, each weighing about a millionth of a gram, flex against silicon springs that hold them in place.

The movements are minute, or to put it another way, they’re on the scale of 10 to 100 hydrogen atoms stacked side by side.

But these tiny movements can be measured with incredible accuracy. A charge is applied between the moving pieces of silicon and two nearby sensors. Faint fluctuations in that charge, as small as that of 10 electrons, are picked up by a chip that translates it into an understanding of how the controller is moving.

Cool stuff, huh? It was funny that I saw this article just two days after my Dad wondered about how this stuff works.

Tiny springs keep Wii, PS3 under control

The internationally renown newspaper, The New York Times, has published its op-ed piece on the PS3. And they dislike it. They really dislike it. We’ve debated these points a million times, so there’s no point in going over them again; that’s just not the point.

Being a PlayStation fan is sometimes like being repeatedly kicked in the groin.

It’s like there’s an all-star lineup of game developer celebrities, industry icons, and now the most highly regarded newspaper on the planet to lend their credibility to denouncing the PS3. What’s next? Will U.S. President Bush declare the PS3 as a national terror? Will the international science community come to the consensus that the PS3 is the source of all pollution and global warming? Will a heavenly deity descend upon the Earth and smite the PS3 from this planet?

Please vent here.

From the PS3 launch: A Weekend Full of Quality Time With PlayStation 3
From the 360 launch in 2005: Microsoft Ups the Console Ante

Nike has created a PS3 Sneaker:

While this sounded ridiculous at first, apparently only 24 pairs of shoes were made as a limited collectors item kind of thing.

Nike PlayStation 3 Air Max 360/90 Hybrid

Last night after work I dropped by a couple stores and finally found a place that had several Motorola headsets. The numbering is a little off, but the three I found in increasing price and quality were:

Motorola H850
Motorola H500
Motorola H700

So I picked up the H700, brought it home, and charged it up. From what I understand, any of the above headsets should work. But I made sure to ask the store about their return policy, just in case. No problems there. I had to go through the usual contortions to remove my new product from its packaging. (One of my biggest pet peaves in life!) The charger is just a wal-wart with a USB mini-plug cable attached, so when one of my PS3 controller’s battery runs down, I’ll try charging it with this. Should work.

I paired it to my cellphone just fine. Then I paired it to my Mac. Last I paired it to my PS3, which worked. The problem is that sometimes when I pick up my headset to use it and turn it on, it doesn’t work. I mean that the headset turns on - the blinking light thing happens, but my PS3 and the headset aren’t synced up. I’m a total BlueTooth newbie, so maybe I’m doing something wrong. Anybody out there know how this stuff works?

So what I did is re-pair it with the PS3 (which shouldn’t be necessary) to “wake up” the PS3 - H700 connection. I tried the headset in a R:FoM game and it worked, but there was just too much noise. People were coughing, some had their TV’s turned up too far, etc. It was just too much to be useful. I was playing a really crowded team deathmatch game, so I didn’t really need the headset, so I turned it off.

Later I tried a voice chat with xBerserker, and that worked fine. Soon the two of us will try a test game of R:FoM with the voice chat to see how that works. Anyone want in? We could set a place and time. Headset required.

Rainbow Six joins FEAR and Oblivion in being delayed from 2006 releases to Q1 2007. Wow, this was the last remaining launch title other than Resistance that I really wanted to play.

The bright side is that despite missing the holiday season, January is actually pretty close. I’d rather see this title delayed than have it released in a buggy or flawed state like several other launch titles.

It seems like a lot of PS3 launch titles have had problems and were either delayed or flawed. Right now it’s disappointing, but launch hiccups like this are hardly surprising. PS3 fans have a lot to look forward to, it’s just going to be a few more months.

SCEA have created an official backwards compatibility list for North America. You can now type in the name of your games and not have to guess/run through Bablefish to find out whether or not they work! It’s worth noting that different versions of the same title can work. Gran Turismo 4 has problems, but the Greatest Hits version is fine. It is also astonishing the amount of depth that the guide goes into for what are apparently minor issues, for example, with Final Fantasy VII the description runs:

On Disc 1, when the first battle begins at the Mako Reactor, a flashing black square appears around the user’s character pointer.

Anyway, Kudos to Sony for actually giving a damn about B/C and making the issues clear. Whilst it is a North American list I couldn’t resist running some of my European titles through the checklist. I discovered that of my catalogue of games, only two bad enough to be completely unplayable, whilst others suffer some minor issues.

How about you guys?

Sony Computer Entertainment America

A few sites have run “things you didn’t know about the PS3″s so I thought it made sense to add one on to our blog.

Gamebrink

What do you think about emulation?

Some years ago I worked on WINE. It stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. (I am a programmer for a living.) I know that it’s tough to write an emulator. Really tough. So I admire it when someone writes a successful emulator that really works.

I like it even more if it’s an emulator I’d like to use. If someone comes up with a MAME emulator that works well and works easily, that would be something cool. It looks like we’re well on the way.

More emulation: MAME on PlayStation 3

Kaz talks in this videocast about upcoming weekly PS3 shipments. (Right near the end, at the 2:07 mark.) He says that Sony plans to have upward of 1 million PS3 in the North American market by the end of 2006.

Word has also recently come out that it costs Sony something like $840 per console to create. That means that Sony is eating about $250 per console. (Okay, so I rounded it slightly to make my next point. Stick with me.)

Nintendo plans to have about twice that number in North America, and they’re selling it for that same $250. (See the connection? I know, stick to my day job.) And they’re making a profit on each Wii they sell!

So my question is: will this be a problem for Sony? And I don’t specifically mean the Wii. I just mean the cost of the PS3, and the number being sold. Sony’s taking a loss on each PS3, and Sony isn’t gaining marketshare at the same rate as its competitors. Will this be a big problem for Sony? Can they overcome?

YouTube - PS3 more to come sony CEO