From an EA investor meeting (link at bottom):

[Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello] admitted that EA was on the “wrong horse” by concentrating mainly on the PS3 and Xbox 360 while throwing less resources towards the Wii during the console transition.

If they’ve been heavily investing in the PS3, it doesn’t show…

Some quick stats:

Out of those 10 PS3 games:

0 are PS3 exclusive
5 are sports titles
8 are from long running franchises
Highest rated game: Fight Night Round 3 which was an old port that had already been released on most other systems eight months earlier.

Is EA’s problem their choice of platforms? Do people want more of the same stale EA franchises ported to the Wii? No, the problem is that EA has had some really dull releases in the past two years. They need to develop more new hits.

Clearly, they know this. With their investors, it may be the more diplomatic excuse to blame the gaming platform, but they also say that they are focusing more on new original IP rather than existing stable and recurring franchises. The fruits of their efforts may be starting to show. They have several exciting games under development such as Spore, Burnout Paradise, Rock Band, and Army of Two.

next-gen.biz article

I waffle about Sony’s new PS3 app, Home. Mind you, I am not part of the beta, so my impressions are of an outsider looking through the shop window. Sometimes I stare fascinated, while others times I’m inclined to keep walking. Nothing special to see.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t think that I’ll be spending a lot of time in my Home apartment. I just don’t see that there’s anything to do there. Sure, I can drop in some furniture, play some video on the walls, and subject visitors to my special brand of symphonic metal music. But what is there to do there, really? There doesn’t seem to be much. So when I think of this, I start to wonder if Home is really just a too-hyped service that’ll find some use and provide a little bit of entertainment, but that isn’t such a big deal.

Other times, though, I wonder about some other possibilities. About what can happen outside of your own little space in Home. This is where the potential lies, if you ask me.

Pretend that Sony wants to show off a new villain that they’ve created for the upcoming game Killzone. Imagine walking into the Sony Killzone room to discover him standing before you, menacing you with his face-melter sub-uber-machine degelinizer. You jump over to a display nearby which gives all the relevant facts. This dude has hated you personally ever since you beat him to the watering fountain in grade one. This made him into the Helghast sympathizer you see standing before you. Then you walk over to a wall where you watch a video of him in action. Yikes! A terrible foe, of course, but beatable. Then you step into the next room which is actually a part of Killzone level 3 which they showed at the recent E3 show. You walk through the game level like Captain Picard on a holodeck. Exit through the another door, and you’re back in the Killzone lobby where you can clink on a link to pre-order the game. Or step into another room where you meet up with some friends and go play the game online.

What Home really needs is for developers to really get behind the concept and offer spaces for you to visit that draw you into the games they want to sell. I don’t think it would be too hard, and the payoff would be great. It’s like another version of the the world wide web, but in the 3D and gaming only. Which is handy, because 3D and games are like peanut butter and jelly.

Other Soapbox Rants

I’m a product of the 80’s. Much of my teen years was spent in the 80’s, so I have a soft spot for 80’s music. That’s why I ripped open Activision’s Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s for the PS2 with more than just a little enthusiasm. And while I enjoyed many of the songs that were there, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was totally ripped off! Keeping in mind that this game goes for full retail price, here are some things to note.

1. There are only about twenty thirty songs. That’s right. Thirty. But you can’t buy any more in the store, so that’s it. You can work out the price per song, but that makes this game the most expensive Guitar Hero game, per song, ever. I bet you that this is why Activision didn’t release this game for the 360. Those 360 owners are already so pissed that Activision is charging so much for those extra song packs, that Activision didn’t want to antagonize them all over again. Besides, Activision can just release these songs in more map packs!
2. My memory may be failing me on this one, but I think I’m right. There are no new venues to play at in this game.
3. There are no unlockable costumes. It would have been fun to see more 80’s style fashion, but no.
4. There’s only one unlockable character.
5. There are fewer characters to play. I didn’t count, but I think the game starts you off with 5 or 6 characters, plus the one unlockable.
6. Did I mentioned there are no unlockable songs?
7. Some of the songs were just badly done. The song by Asia had an especially bad cover version. Even my wife remarked how terrible it sounded.
8. Radar Love - As Made Famous by White Lion. What the heck? Who’s White Lion? This song wasn’t made famous by White Lion! This is a Golden Earing song! And the Golden Earing version is a heck of a lot better than this trashy version. Crap!
9. Lack of big name groups. There’s nothing by big 80’s bands like Tears for Fears, Glass Tiger, or Gowen etc etc etc. Ah well.

While this game does have some good songs that are fun to play, I played through almost all the songs in one sitting, and felt just a little bit really ripped off that there wasn’t more to this game. My recommendation? Wait for it to hit the bargain bin. And while you’re there, pick up Frequency, it’s a much better game.

Tosh has already mentioned that the UK will get the much anticipated Heavenly Sword demo on Thursday but that’s not all that we will be added to the store. Check this lot out:

PSone games:
- Crash 2
- Spyro 2
- Medievil
- Wipeout 2097

PS3 Demos:
- Heavenly Sword

PS3 Trailers:
- Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction
- GT5 Prologue

A cracking week for PS3 owners then. New firmware, Heavenly Sword demo and some classic PSone games to download.

As usual Japan always gets the good stuff first, lol. Here is what the update includes:

• Games on the XMB can now be sorted
• Customization options for the wallpaper in the cross media bar (XMB) and fonts
• Inclusion of “eject disk” on the option menu
• BD/DVD setting now provides an option for 24Hz output over HDMI
• CD music output also has new options for output frequency: 44.1, 88.2, and 176.4 kHz
• Output settings will be available for PSOne and PS2 games.
• Bookmarks can now be added
• Browser Security will be added to the tools of the PS3 internet browser
• Video settings can be changed in-game
• Music settings now include “Bit Mapping”
• Emoticons and avatars are included in the chat, avatars move in reaction to audio in AV chat
• AVCHD type animated pictures can be saved from Memory Sticks
• Attach a USB keyboard and chat with friends

Wow, that’s quite a update! Wallpaper at last, I’ve been waiting for that option. Wonder how many different fonts you can choose from. I like that you can organize the games in the XMB, but what about the music, videos and photos? I want to be able to make folders to put them in. There are a lot of videos on my PS3. The PSP can do it, why not the PS3? But I’m sure that will come with time. I’m curious to see how the Avatar moves during audio visual chat.

Firmware Update: PS3 FW 1.90 goes live in Japan, lots of changes made

[Update]

The update for North America will be out later this week according to the PlayStation Blog.

MCV got a chance to interview the SCEE boss David Reeves. He said the “E3 was a phoney war”. The real war will begin at Leipzig next month, August 23 - 26. A few things that stood out for me in the interview are:

“Massively enhancing the appeal of both the PlayStation 3 and PSP.”

“We will be doing things no-one has seen yet for both PS3 and PSP.”

Wonder what it could be, here are a few of my thoughts:

What do you guys think?

Sony draws up Leipzig battle lines

Here’s a new poll for you: do you have your PS3 oriented sideways, or upright?

Vote in the sidebar as always!

Last poll results:

Who had the best press conference at E3 2007?

* Sony: 93% (187)
* Microsoft: 4% (9)
* Nintendo: 2% (5)

Total Votes : 201