Currently there are about 60 software titles and 50 download-only titles available for the PS3. Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) President Kazuo Hirai has promised that there will be 380 games by March 2008. There will be 200 retail titles and 180 PlayStation Network games.

I think this fall will be big for the PLAYSTATION 3, lots of great new games, Home, big upgrades to the XMB, etc. If this many games do come out by March 2008, then the PS3 will have to problem selling worldwide.

380 PS3 Games by March 2008

[Update]

It looks like the 380 games is a international figure. Games released in the North America market will be at least 145 during the fiscal year, it doesn’t count games released since last March. So 105+ retail games, and 40 PSN games. No word on the numbers for Europe, but I would think it would be similiar.

The number of first-party titles announced for fiscal 2007 stands at 15, including Heavenly Sword, Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, LAIR, Little Big Planet, Eye of Judgment, and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.

Third-party titles currently scheduled for fiscal 2007 include Coded Arms: Assault, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

Sony confirms 145 PS3 games for US before March

I have a certain game that my friend Steve and I like to play together. It’s actually a PS2 game, because the PS3 version doesn’t have any splitscreen support. (RANT! RANT! RANT! Friggin’ buggers. RANT!) I’m talking about my F1 racing game, of course. F1 2001 by EA Sports “It’s in the game!”.

Way back when, this game used to run just fine on my PS3. Somewhere along the way, though, it stopped working on my PS3, so then I had to pull out the good old PS2 in order to play. (I can’t wait for those days to be over.) After every firmware update I’d try this game again, to no avail.

Until firmware 1.81, that is. Now the game works again! Yay! This is great news for me, of course. Has anybody else noticed any games that work again or anew with the 1.81 update?

The Neowin Forums has a fascinating interview with some PS3 software developers. One of the most interesting things for me was the following exchange:

Q. PS3 is a very powerful hardware, but as more processing power is used, electricity consumption and fan noise increases. For AV equipment, noise is a big factor.

K2 So far, we are not worried too much since we have plenty of processing power left even at peak usage. On the other hand, from a software programming point of view, we have arrived to a stage where things work as they should. But there are plenty of optimization left to do. We have to balance function with load and noise.

K1 Nothing yet comes close to the load that Folding@Home applies. And I can see the possiblity of a fanless PS3 in the future, just like there was for the PS2.

While he’s not promising anything, or even saying that it’s being worked on, it’s comforting to know that a fanless PS3 is possible. I don’t like all the noise my PS3 puts out, and a fanless one would be awesome!

Interview with PS3 system software engineers - Neowin Forums

Thanks Liar and Sporty!

freedesign pointed out this article in the sidebar, but I liked it enough I thought I’d give it a special mention. Kotaku talks about Sony’s online play, and how it’s different that Microsoft’s Xbox Live implementation, with regards to the content available for download.

Kotaku mentions that people think of short, arcadey games when they think of content from Xbox Live Arcade. Sony is trying to push things further into next-gen saying that “products you have seen on arcade are ‘been there, done that’, some feel like PC shareware practically”.

While you can definitely say the same about games on the PSN like Calling All Cars, Blast Factor, and Cash Guns Chaos, upcoming games like Warhawk, PAIN, SOCOM: Confrontation, and LittleBigPlanet don’t easily fit that mold. These new games are real next-gen experiences, and they’ll be available for download.

Read the full article for more. Interesting stuff.

Feature: Sony’s Online Gambit

Here’s the video from GameTrailers.com that I was talking about yesterday. Someone said that you really have to take what Eric Lempel says in context, and I have to say that after actually watching the video, I understand better where Eric was coming from.

As well, he mentions that Sony’s current model is for online to be free. He didn’t say that they’ll be charging for it sometime in the future - he just didn’t want to rule anything out because you never know what the future holds.

He does mention LittleBigPlanet a couple times, holding it up as a shining example of what Sony wants to do with online, user community, and user generated content. I hope that we’ll see more games like this.

All in all, it’s an interesting interview, even though nothing new was really announced. I’m glad I watched.

Bonus Round: Episode 6, Part 2

Do Sony executives really believe this stuff, or do they have to say this because it’s their corporate duty? (Much like Ferrari’s insistence after each of the last three races that McLaren’s perfmance in each was a fluke.) What am I talking about? I’m talking about this:

[Eric Lempel, director of PlayStation Network operations] said that there was little to differentiate Xbox Live and PSN offerings to consumers bar the price

And this quote:

“Microsoft had a year jump on us for the launch and essentially we’re offering a lot of the same stuff. I don’t think there’s a big difference in exactly what we’re offering when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of what’s actually there for the consumer… We’re not charging money for our service. That’s a key differentiating factor.”

While I agree that the key differentiating factor may be the cost of each service, I can’t really agree on the rest.

But!

I think that PSN really needs some better chat support, XMB in-game access, and globally-used friends lists before it starts to stack up to Xbox Live. (Many of the other defencies are because of the lack of developer support, not because the PS3 is incapable.) However, I’ll take what I have because it’s free! Both Gary and I were very skeptical of online until we tried it and liked it. Every online game we buy, we can try out online for free. Some games won’t require online while some will. I’ll go through dry spells where I don’t play much for a while, then I go through spells where I play a lot. All of this makes the fact that PSN is free so much more attractive to me. For some people who use their console differently than I do, Xbox Live could very well be the solution that suites them best. But for me, the free factor trounces the lack of features. Of course, I’m not saying I don’t want those features - not at all. It’s just that I can live without them for now because the service is free.

Sony Sizes Up Xbox Live

The reviews I see so far: 9, 8, 8, 7.9

That’s really high for a twitch shooter. I can’t wait to get this one.

Combine this with The Darkness and Rainbow Six, and the last week of June looks pretty darn good for PS3 owners.

Eurogamer Review

BusinessWeek URL at the bottom. Short quotes for the lazy:

Blockbuster Inc. will rent high-definition DVDs only in the Blu-ray format in 1,450 stores when it expands its high-def offerings next month, dealing a major blow to the rival HD DVD format.

Blockbuster has been renting both Blu-ray and HD DVD titles in 250 stores since late last year and found that consumers were choosing Blu-ray titles more than 70 percent of the time.

“The consumers are sending us a message. I can’t ignore what I’m seeing,” Matthew Smith, senior vice president of merchandising at Blockbuster, told The Associated Press.

Also, I’ve noticed that Fox/MGM hasn’t been releasing much Blu-Ray content and Disney/Buena Vista is releasing some great new releases but almost nothing from their catalog. Supposedly, they are holding back titles until BD+ encryption is ready.

BusinessWeek: Blockbuster to favor Blu-ray over HD DVD

(BTW, I normally try to limit posts to PS3 info, but this was interesting enough to warrant a post)

UPDATE: Fixed studio names. Thanks Sporty.

Ah. Le Mans. For those of you racing enthusiasts wanting something to do between coverage of the F1 at Indy, you could do worse then watch the world’s première endurance race.

Whilst the sun sets at the real life Le Mans; I feel there is no better time to show off Polyphony Digital’s take on a lap of the famous race, shown of this week at Le Mans of course . Oh and I should add that this is the Gran Turismo HD version of the track with an Audi TT and Audi R8.

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