Sony originally said that Home would go through a large public beta before release. But now rumours suggest that this will not happen and that Home will be released very soon. So what do you think? When is Home coming out? Vote in the sidebar as always.

Previous Poll Results:

Here are the results for the totally misplaced poll trying to predict when PS3 sales would outpace the 360’s in North America. As it turned out, this already happened in January of 2008, which I didn’t even list as an option.

What month in 2008 will the PS3 surpass the 360 in North American monthly sales?

* February: 5% (21)
* March: 6% (25)
* April: 9% (37)
* May: 7% (30)
* June: 13% (51)
* July: 7% (28)
* August: 4% (15)
* September: 6% (26)
* October: 5% (22)
* November: 8% (31)
* December: 10% (42)
* You’ve got to be kidding: 19% (79)

Total Votes : 407

Thanks to Jose and Sporty for this. Toshiba has officially ended its support for HD DVD. Production of almost all HD DVD hardware (except possibly HD DVD drives for laptops) will cease by March 2008.

TOKYO–Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

Read the rest of this entry »

Trailer for the next PixelJunk game, Eden:

Q Games also mentions the next PixelJunk game, called Dungeon, which is still early in development.

Feature Article on Gamasutra
Interview on Level Up

This week offers a few music Blu-rays, and a couple thrillers. But overall a slow week for Blu-ray. Maybe it will start to pick up considering what happened last week.

Deep Purple: Live at Montreux 2006 (Eagle Rock Entertainment)
In the Valley of Elah (Warner Bros.)
Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.)
Run Lola Run (Sony Pictures)
Santana: Hymns for Peace, Live at Montreux 2004 (Eagle Rock Entertainment)
Yes: Live at Montreux 2003 (Eagle Rock Entertainment)

Blu-ray.com

UPDATE: Toshiba is reportedly abandoning HD-DVD. Source
EDIT: Toshiba hasn’t made an official announcement yet.

This week has been nothing short of a massacre:

• NetFlix announced a phase out of HD-DVD
• Best Buy, one of the largest retailers in the U.S, announced that it will strongly push Blu-Ray over HD-DVD
• Many smaller publishers, (including even pornography publishers such as Digital Playgrounds) have announced plans to support Blu-Ray and drop HD-DVD
• As if that wasn’t enough, Wal-Mart, the largest retailer of movies in the U.S, announced that it will also drop HD-DVD in June.
• Finally, Toshiba is officially admitting defeat and abandoning the format

Taps for HD DVD as Wal-Mart Backs Blu-ray
Best Buy to Back Blu-ray, Too
Netflix high-def DVDs to be only in Blu-ray
Is the tug of war over high-def DVD format over?

(thanks to Sporty, Alex, Tosh, and others for the links)
(EDIT: Switched to a more tasteful picture. Good spot Segitz)

Gary told me earlier today that the scuttlebutt going around was that the PS3 outsold the 360 in North America in January. To be frank, I didn’t believe him. I guess I’m a skeptic at heart. But he was right! All of us that voted in the poll to the right were wrong, because I neglected to put January in there!

For the first time in the United States, the PS3 outsold the Xbox 360 with 269,000 units and 230,000 units respectively.

And the PlayStation brand, when you combine the PS3, PS2, and PSP, outsold all other brands. 764K units versus 530K Nintendo and 230K Microsoft units, according to The Bitbag.

Impressive. Most impressive.

the simExchange - January 2008 NPD Data

Finally Europe gets Everyday Shooter, I know a lot of people have been waiting for that. I haven’t tried it, is it any good? I recommend everyone that has a PSP to try Patapon, once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty fun

Games:
Twisted Metal: Head On (UMD Legacy Game)

Demos:
MLB 08: The Show demo
Patapon (PSP) demo

Add-ons:
Rock Band tracks - $1.99 each or $5.49 for all three:
Clash - “Complete Control” (master)
Police - “Truth Hits Everybody” (master)
The Ramones - “Teenage Lobotomy” (master)

Trailers:
Little Big Planet Create-A-Level Trailer
MLB 08 RTTS Tutorial Video
Conflict: Denied Ops Diaries 2 and 3
Turok Creatures Trailer
Turok Weapons Trailer
Burnout Accolade Trailer
THPG-Launch Trailer
The Ruins Trailer

Themes:
Super Stardust HD Theme

PS3 Store

Games:
Riff Everyday Shooter: £4.99
Feel Ski: Updated game file

Demos:
Everybody’s Golf World Tour PS3: Free

Add-ons:
Guitar Hero 3 - Classic Rock Track Pack: £3.99

Game Videos:
Conflict: Denied Ops Teaser Trailer: Free
C:DO Dev Diary#1: Destructibility: Free
C:DO Dev Diary#2: Environmental Breadth: Free

Movie Trailers:
Spiderwick: Free
The Waterhouse: Free
Vantage Point: Free

Wallpapers:
Resident Evil 5 Wallpaper: Free

Themes:
Super Stardust HD Theme: Free

PC Store

Demos:
SOCOM Fireteam Bravo 2: Free
Patapon: Free

Add-ons:
Wipeout Pulse - Icaras Pack: £2.99

Game Videos:
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy vii: Free

Movie Trailers:
Spiderwick: Paramount Pictures: Free

Games:
Motor Toon GP USA EDITION (PS1) - ¥600
Money Idol Exchanger (PS1) - ¥600
Magical Dice Kids (PS1) - ¥600
Wai Wai Kart (Major Wave) (PS1) - ¥600
Mêrupurâna (PS1) - ¥600
Nobunaga memoirs (PS1) - ¥600
Blast Factor: Advanced Research - ¥500

Add-ons:
Record of Agarest War (Valentine’s custom theme) - free

Game videos:
Echochrome
Minna no Golf 5
My Stylist
Uncharted

IGN has a new interview up with Criterion Games, the makers of Burnout Paradise. In case you didn’t know, the PS3 was the lead platform for Criterion as they developed the game, and IGN has some related questions. For example:

IGN: What aspect about PlayStation3 development and hardware is the most promising going into the future?

Sullivan: We like the whole package the system offers. We really like the DualShock3, which we use in Burnout to get the player closer to the feel of driving and the PSEye, which we use for capturing Mugshots and Smugshots online and sending them to your friends. The PlayStation 3 is a very powerful machine that we have just begun to unlock and we were super excited when we got the game to run at 60 frames per second on it.

The really interesting thing to us is that we’ve only seen a few games that are using all of these elements together. There is still a lot of space for many new ideas and exciting experiences in the future as it’s still a relatively new machine and we’ve only just begun pushing it.

Check out the whole interview below.

Criterion Games Interview

The Sony brand is still very strong in European and Pal territories and there’s some good news for people that take an interest in sales figures:

Officials from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) have confirmed to Gamasutra that press reports that the PlayStation 3 has now sold over one million units in the UK are accurate.

Apart from confirming that the figure refers to units sold, rather than shipped to retail, the company was reluctant to offer any other details or statements – although a major local press event was mentioned as being scheduled for later in the month.

This means that the PlayStation 3 has reached the one million unit mark a month or more sooner than the PlayStation 2, which took 50 weeks to reach the same figure. This compares to 60 weeks for the Xbox 360 and 38 weeks for the Wii – the latter of which is the current record for the UK.

Pretty good going when you take into account that the PS3 is more expensive than the 360 and Wii, which were both released before the PS3 in the UK.

PS3 Hits 1m “Sold” Mark in the UK

The latest issue of the excellent D+Pad Magazine is now available to download in either PDF or ZIP form. Awesome cover.

I haven’t had a chance to read through it yet (too busy with DMC4 and studying) but the previous issues have all been superb. Please check it out!

D+Pad Magazine Issue 5