RATE THIS GIRL GUYS

Electronic Arts doesn’t have a very decent reputation in the gaming industry. People often think of the big corporation as something that wants to squeeze every last penny out of a franchise and release yearly games in most of its series that rarely bring something too innovative. Such is the case with its EA Sports label, which releases games on a yearly basis, with nothing but improved team rosters.

But now EA is stating, through the voice of its president, Frank Gibeau, that the company is focusing on new Intellectual Properties, which will attract more customers and gamers. Quality is something it also mentioned some time ago, John Riccietiello citing it as the main target for the company’s studios. And if you think about it, the new IPs that have been launched by EA are quite numerous; we have seen Boom Blox, Army of Two, Spore or the recently released Dead Space.

“We found a few years ago that we had a set of problems where EA’s reputation became one of just doing sports games, sequels, and licenses and the market was reacting to newer properties like Grand Theft Auto and Halo,” said Gibeau. “At the same time, movie and sports licensors started jacking up their rates and it was becoming less profitable to chase licenses.”

He then went on to say that the latest horror survival game, Dead Space was an “IP cubed,” meaning a game that was planned from the beginning to have comics or animated movies based on it. For those of you who don’t know, Dead Space already has a comic book and a direct to DVD animated movie, released before the title went on sale, which act as prequels to the action of the actual game. The company’s aim from now on is to create more games like Dead Space, which have the expansion plans laid out from the beginning of development.

It’s definitely nice to hear that companies have started to focus more and more on developing fresh games and not choose the much easier way of releasing sequels to already successful titles, which are guaranteed to sell. Let’s hope that EA will continue this trend and that other publishers and developers will take notice of it.

The PS3 is rapidly becoming the bread-winner for many of the third party publishers. We wrote a story a few months ago where according to EA’s financial report the PS3 was the clear bread-winner over the Xbox 360 and the Wii. Now it seems that Konami, Namco Bandi and Ubisoft have joined the ranks of EA where the PS3 console is bringing in more money than the Xbox 360.

EA

In our previous story, we talked about how the PS3 is EA’s new bread-winner in terms of bringing home the bacon. According to EA’s previous financial statement, the PS3 accounted for about 17% of total revenue in comparison to the Xbox 360’s 10%. That is quite significant when considering that EA is the largest third party video game publisher in the world.

Namco Bandi

Namco Bandi is the largest third party publisher in Japan. According to the publisher’s recent financial statement, the PS3 currently moved approximately 57% more software than it’s direct competitor, the Xbox 360. Namco Bandi is sort of the EA of Japan, considering the amount of revenue it generates from software.

Konami

Konami is one of the top three publishers in Japan in terms of revenue. With the recent release of Metal Gear Solid 4, it is not all that surprising that the PS3 would have a larger piece of the pie. However, according to Konami’s recent financial statements, the PS3 accounted for a whopping 57.3% of the sales this past quarter, while the Xbox 360 accounted for only 2.6%. This changed from last year, when the Xbox 360 brought in more sales compared to the PS3.

UbiSoft

UbiSoft is considered to be one of the top three publishers in all of Europe. According to UbiSoft’s half year financial report (6 months 2008/09), the PS3 accounted for about 20% of the software sales compared to the Xbox 360’s 14%. Considering UbiSoft’s presence in Europe, this is quite a significant turn of event.

Wrap-up

It’s mind blowing that not only is the PS3 competing toe-to-toe with the Xbox 360, it is out performing the later in many of the instances. Considering that the Xbox 360 has a larger install base by 5 million, it looks like the PS3 is performing more efficiently in terms of sales for third party publishers.

Since 2005, when the Xbox 360 first launched with no competition, it seems that the PS3 has been steadily climbing in terms of the software sales. This pretty much means that the PS3 has been taking more and more potential Xbox 360 sales as time goes by. The future for the PS3 looks bright and healthy, however if the current trend continues the Xbox 360 might find itself struggling to compete in the market.

Via the power of an online translator, Naoya Matsui, Koujiro Umemura, Masaki Takase, and Shinji Noda, all high ranking Sony Computer Entertainment employees directly responsible for firmware and network issues regarding the PS3 and PSP, gave their views and plans on the future direction for both the handheld and home consoles through the latest Random Tracking column .

The main points revolved around the addition of Flash 9 support for the PS3, a heavily requested feature to help view regular internet channels such as our YouTube or the Asian homegrown version, Nico Nico (catchy). The support has been in development for over a year according to Sony, but will at last make an appearance.

And it sounds as though performace will be excellent, as “flash-based playback for H.264 videos makes use of an SPU. This allows for loading up of web pages to be separate from video playback, improving framerate.”
Just don’t expect the same for the PSP… There are no plans for Flash 9 to appear in your hands any time soon.

More details qouted from the article are:

Sony’s engineers do still have things in the works for the PSP. While PSP already has screen capture support built into its development tools and accessible to game developers who chose to use it, plans call for a future firmware update to add video capture support as well.

CHICAGO – A top FBI official said Monday that a body found in an SUV is believed to be that of Jennifer Hudson’s missing 7-year-old nephew, the focus of a desperate search since the Oscar winner’s mother and brother were found shot to death in their home three days earlier.

While the body has not been positively identified, FBI Deputy Director John S. Pistole said authorities believe it to be that of Julian King, who also lived in the home.

Chicago police said the body of a black male child was found shortly after 7 a.m. in the rear seat of an SUV. An autopsy was planned for Tuesday.

The SUV was found parked on the street in a neighborhood of brownstone homes and apartment buildings, and matched the one sought in an Amber Alert issued after Hudson’s mother and brother were found slain Friday, police Cmdr. Wayne Gulliford said.

In Washington, Pistole said at a news conference on child exploitation that authorities found a body “who we believe to be the missing victim in Chicago, the nephew of Jennifer Hudson. We are working with Chicago police to get a positive identification of the victim.”

Hudson had offered $100,000 Sunday for information leading to Julian’s safe return. He is the son of Jennifer Hudson’s sister, Julia Hudson. Telephone and e-mail messages left Monday for Hudson’s publicist, who had been releasing statements on behalf of the family, were not answered.

Chicago police have characterized the killings as “domestic related” and have been questioning William Balfour, who is the estranged husband of Julia Hudson and is being held in state custody on a parole violation. Balfour is not the boy’s father and has not been charged in the slayings.

Balfour, 27, was taken into custody Friday by Chicago police for questioning in the killings. On Sunday, he was transferred to the Illinois Department of Corrections “based on his active parole violation unrelated to this investigation.”

Records from the Corrections Department show Balfour is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle.

Balfour’s mother, Michele Balfour, has said Hudson’s mother kicked Balfour out of the family home last winter. She denied her son had anything to do with the killings.

Corrections spokeswoman Januari Smith said Balfour would probably remain in state custody until the Illinois Prisoner Review Board looked at his case. She would not say where Balfour was being held, and it was unclear whether Balfour had an attorney.

Hudson, who won an Academy Award in 2007 for her role in “Dreamgirls,” was in Chicago during the weekend. The medical examiner’s office confirmed Hudson, 27, identified the bodies of her mother, Darnell Donerson, 57, and 29-year-old brother, Jason Hudson. The deaths were ruled homicides.

Neighbors and well-wishers brought stuffed animals and other items to a makeshift memorial outside Donerson’s two-story white clapboard home as news of Monday’s discovery spread.

“Everybody knows Jennifer Hudson, but I would be here even if it was little Suzy on the corner,” said Tacara Juarez, 26, who doesn’t know the family but lives in the neighborhood.

On Sunday, Hudson appealed to the public for help, offering the reward and asking any information be given to Chicago police.

“Jennifer and her family appreciate the enormous amount of love, support and prayers they have received while she and her family try to cope with this tragedy and continue the search for Julian,” said a statement from her publicist.

One of the levels from Sonic Unleashed, Adabat, is the game’s tropical island level. This trailer features just over a minute of gameplay footage. Sonic Unleashed is coming to the PS2, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 from Sega.