Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has cut the price of the PlayStation Portable today ahead of the release of a successor later this year.
The PSP will carry a new recommended retail price of ?129.99 (£114), down from ?179.99 and bringing it into line with a US price cut in February of $ 129.99. The console currently retails in the UK for around £129.99.
According to SCEE, the move is for mainland Europe only – Sony is unable to offer a price reduction for UK consumers.
Sony’s PlayStation Portable will gain the ability to play WiFi-streamed music from Sony’s Qriocity-powered Music Unlimited service starting April 14, following the service’s American and Australian launch in February. The cloud-based service, first announced last September, already lets subscribers stream a personalized selection of over 7 million songs through a PlayStation 3 as well as certain Bravia TVs, Vaio PCs and Sony Blu-ray players, with support for further Sony devices and Android-powered portables to be …
Anonymous, the group of hackers that declared war on Sony earlier this week by taking down several of the company’s sites including PlayStation.com and then began leaking personal details of several Sony employees onto public webpages, have released a video onto YouTube telling Sony what they want from them.
The video, which can be viewed below, starts off with “A Statement of Purpose” which explains to those watching why Anonymous are doing what they’re doing. Later on in the video, Anonymous list their three demands which are that Sony allows user end modification; that Sony does not pursue legal action against anyof the IP addresses that Sony have obtained and that Sony do not try to take anyone else who wishes “to alter a product they own” to court.
The amorphous hacking collective “Anonymous” is now fighting a war on two fronts — while one battle continues to rage over WikiLeaks, a new battle has begun with Sony. As of yesterday, Anonymous is focusing efforts on both PlayStation Network and PlayStation’s official website, bringing both down at various points. Sony’s PlayStation blog noted the issue yesterday, stating that some folks were “experiencing intermittent service” and saying Sony was “working on finding a solution.”
“We are currently investigating, including the possibility of targeted behavior of an outside party, “Sony senior director of corporate communications and social media Patrick Seybold told us this morning. “If this is indeed caused by such act, we want to once again thank our customers who have borne the brunt of the attack through interrupted service. Our engineers are working to restore and maintain the services, and we appreciate our customers’ continued support.”
A manifesto declaring the group’s intentions was also posted, which not only declares loyalty to George “Geohot” Hotz and Alexander “Graf_Chokolo” Egorenkov, but also states intentions to “attack your [Sony's] private property because we disagree with your actions.” While the group acknowledges this is “wrong,” the idea is to mimic what it believes Sony to have done — restricted the actions of folks trying to use an object they own.
Ars Technica reports that the group is also encouraging people to show up at Sony stores on April 16 and complain. Nothing quite says “stick it to the man” like complaining to retail employees.
[Thanks, Aaron]
Hacker group ‘Anonymous’ attacks Sony and PSN originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If events proceed in Sony’s favor, we may see a price drop on the PlayStation 3 to go with the one for the PlayStation Portable not too long ago.
Statements made by Ray Maguire, the head of Sony Computer Entertainment operations in the UK, suggested the possibility of tacking on new discounts to the PS3 were hopeful for sometime in the near future.
“PS3 has taken longer than PS2 to establish itself simply because of the cost of the product,” says Maguire, in a chat with OPM UK picked up by CVG. “It’s been a challenge for us to get the costs down over the years. The retail price has been more than we would have liked… Hopefully the price might still come down.”
Maguire goes on to add: “It gets adopted, then it gets redeveloped, so you keep on upgrading everything as you go along. I think that’s part of its success and the longevity of it. I did think we were taking a big risk in PS3 by making it so heavy featured. As it turned out, I now think it was a stroke of genius, because it’s given PS3 the ability to go on year after year.”
The current round dollar US prices for the PS3 hold at $ 300 for 160GB and $ 350 for 320GB, while UK prices are £250 and £285, respectively.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. announced the release of PhyreEngine 3.0, a new version of its game development framework supporting projects for both PS3 and its upcoming Next Generation Portable (NGP). Powering almost 50 downloadable and retail titles (e.g. Demon’s Souls, Flower), PhyreEngine is a cross-platform game engine toolset provided as source code under a license, which can be used by any PS3/NGP developers or publishers, as well as tools and middleware licensees. Sony says this …
The latest GDC lecture to be announced deals with Sony’s sucessor to the PSP, the NGP. David Coombes, platform research manager at SCEA, will speak about the new, still-unnamed handheld’s “broad range of input and connectivity options and how these create exciting new opportunities for game designers.”
This will be the first time Sony is openly talking about the device since its unveiling back in January. GDC takes place February 28 through March 4 in San Francisco. Keep your eyes on this tag for our coverage.
Sony to deliver NGP lecture at GDC originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
During a presentation to around 20 UK developers at its headquarters in London yesterday, Sony shared a wide range of information about its new handheld platform, revealing significant new details on launch plans, hardware specifications, networking features and more.
One attendee, speaking to our sister site Eurogamer.net this morning under condition of anonymity, said: “NGP is a developer’s dream ? Sony is finally doing the things developers have been crying out for for years”.
Studios had been expecting to collect development kits at the event, but were told “late shipments from Japan” meant SCEE would now be “prioritising”. According to the source, for a kit to be delivered before April a studio must supply a “20-page concept document on a game they want to release at launch”.
Sony’s PlayStation Portable will gain the ability to play WiFi-streamed music from Sony’s Qriocity-powered Music Unlimited service starting April 14, following the service’s American and Australian launch in February. The cloud-based service, first announced last September, already lets subscribers stream a personalized selection of over 7 million songs through a PlayStation 3 as well as certain Bravia TVs, Vaio PCs and Sony Blu-ray players, with support for further Sony devices and Android-powered portables to be …
Hacker group ‘Anonymous’ attacks Sony and PSN originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. announced the release of PhyreEngine 3.0, a new version of its game development framework supporting projects for both PS3 and its upcoming Next Generation Portable (NGP). Powering almost 50 downloadable and retail titles (e.g. Demon’s Souls, Flower), PhyreEngine is a cross-platform game engine toolset provided as source code under a license, which can be used by any PS3/NGP developers or publishers, as well as tools and middleware licensees. Sony says this …
