QuickJump QuickPeek Issue # 05: Of firmware updates, consoles sales, and a cat so cute you’ll die

On to fifth issue of QuickJump QuickPeek! Positive feedback has been strong and if there’s one thing we love to do outside playing videogames, that’s got to be making sure you guys are liking your stay here. So amidst the fanboyish shouts of “Avada Kevadra” and “Erecto Wand” (opps, wrong spell) from potter maniacs here at the office, we bring you the round-up of the things that shook the halls of the gaming industry this week.

PlayStation Portable
Welcome to our fifth issue! For this run, we have more news that prove how strong the PSP homebrew scene is. For starters, we have Sony CEO Jack Tretton signifying support for PSP homebrew. For those who missed this report, try pulling those raised eyebrows a little lower first.

OK, this “little” revelation was made on an IGN interview with Sony bigwigs Tretton, senior manager Patrick Seybold, and senior director Dave Karraker. When asked whether they have any plans of giving PSP homebrew some long-deserved love, here’s what Mr. Tretton has to say: “We certainly see some of the stuff that has been done via homebrew, and it’s incredibly creative. And I think we’d like to try and tap into that a little bit more”.

Now ain’t that a stunner? Not really. Sony’s a company that thrives on creativity, so it’s highly likely that they still know how to appreciate creative strokes of genius when they see it. However certain boundaries are part of entrepreneurial realities, so it’s only natural for them to be protective of their own product. We’ll keep an eye on how this will develop. Meanwhile…

The full issue awaits after the jump!

On to fifth issue of QuickJump QuickPeek! Positive feedback has been strong and if there’s one thing we love to do outside playing videogames, that’s got to be making sure you guys are liking your stay here. So amidst the fanboyish shouts of “Avada Kevadra” and “Erecto Wand” (opps, wrong spell) from Potter maniacs here at the office, we bring you the round-up of the things that shook the halls of the gaming industry this week.

PlayStation Portable
Welcome to our fifth issue! For this run, we have more news that prove how strong the PSP homebrew scene is. For starters, we have Sony CEO Jack Tretton signifying support for PSP homebrew. For those who missed this report, try pulling those raised eyebrows a little lower first.

OK, this “little” revelation was made on an IGN interview with Sony bigwigs Tretton, senior manager Patrick Seybold, and senior director Dave Karraker. When asked whether they have any plans of giving PSP homebrew some long-deserved love, here’s what Mr. Tretton has to say: “We certainly see some of the stuff that has been done via homebrew, and it’s incredibly creative. And I think we’d like to try and tap into that a little bit more”.

Now ain’t that a stunner? Not really. Sony’s a company that thrives on creativity, so it’s highly likely that they still know how to appreciate creative strokes of genius when they see it. However certain boundaries are part of entrepreneurial realities, so it’s only natural for them to be protective of their own product. We’ll keep an eye on how this will develop.

We have a piece of irony here, though. A few hours after the said interview, Sony released another official firmware update (the 25th of its kind) for our handhelds. Now up to 3.52, the latest firmware boasts of strengthened PlayStation Network title performance and increased number of playable PSN titles. You can read about the full details of this release here.

A full day after the said firmware update’s release though, Team M33 rolled out their own version of custom firmware – CFW 3.52. If the comments from our report and forum release thread are to be believed, it appears Team M33‘s project is blossoming to be a really reliable custom firmware. New blood taking over the pack? We’ll have to wait and see…

One hella rollercoaster ride for us this week ‘ey? With the way things are going, we can all expect a return trip this week.

– QJ.Net PSP team

PlayStation 3
Whoa! I can’t believe we’re on our fifth issue now! And for some weird reason, the cosmic powers that guide the fortunes of console wars have lined up the stars in favor of PS3, at roughly the same time we rolled out our first issue. Call it coincidence, or pure nonsense – I say it’s destiny. Analysts have predicted it, history stands by it – the PS3 will gain steam as the war goes on. This week can’t be any closer to that truth.

Speaking of history, we had a piece of PlayStation-related milestone that happened this week. The latest Nielsen Media Research revealed that the PlayStation 2 is STILL the most played console today. Why is this important to PS3 you ask? This is a testament to the kind of stock the PS3 has. Its tried and tested brand name will be a big factor when we move into the crucial stages of the console war – the period where last-gen console owners decide to choose what next-gen machine they’ll purchase. With PS2 still leading the pack, you can bet a lot of its followers will still prefer something that carries the PlayStation title.

Moving on to hard facts – PS3 firmware 1.90 went live this week too. This one sports a number of new features like customization options for the wallpaper in the cross media bar (XMB) and fonts. Another interesting feature comes in the form of Home Chat – users can attach a USB keyboard and chat with friends. Playback quality of music CDs also get a level up with a output frequency options. Check out the full release notes here.

And as a tribute to QuickJump QuickPeek’s fifth issue and the five weeks of mostly positive news, we’re dishing out five great updates from five console-moving PS3 games. First, we have the actual gameplay video of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, with none other than Hideo Kojima providing a blow-by-blow account as the next-gen glory plays out on the small screen.

Also, the demo for Heavenly Sword is now out on the PlayStation Network. It’s a whopping 996 MB to download, and can already be found on the featured page. Our very own Gino D. already put up a great quick impressions article for the demo, which you can read over right here. If his positive take on the game in that review is not enough to convince you of at least trying this game out, perhaps this little comment from PSN ID “Dasher2020” will – “tears of joy it is everything i thought it was going to be and more. i wish i could lick it…. too much i know but it is cool. oh yeah and ‘first’!”

We also have Gran Turismo 5‘s and Prologue’s online details, a heart-gripping video of Resident Evil 5, and the announcement that the dragons of Lair are all ready to ship and prepared to soar the skies. Make sure you check them out! See y’all next week!

– by QJ.Net PS3 team

Xbox 360
June and July weren’t very good months for Microsoft’s Xbox 360. News about hardware issues and slipping sales have plagued our green boards. Fortunately for us who recognize good technology when we see it, we stood by our chosen console confident that things are bound to get better. In this fifth QuickJump QuickPeek issue, it appears things are starting to pick up for our green and mean machine.

First on this feel-good list is the news about Microsoft’s decision to cut HD-DVD player by roughly around US$ 20. Not only that, purchasers of the said drive will also get five free copies of movies they want from a set of 15 titles. In addition, its press release from Comic-Con also revealed that Xbox Live users will be able to enjoy “300” and “Heroes” on their console. That’s some pretty hot content to try on our HD-fied sets. Read the full report here.

This cool bit of info also raises speculations of an Xbox 360 price cut. It should be remembered that various sources (analysts, gaming figures) have been predicting Microsoft to implement a price cut of its own to rival Sony’s recent slashing of PS3’s SRP. The decision to cut the price of HD-DVD players fueled further rumors of Microsoft making a move towards a cheaper Xbox 360. The latest rumor revealed the said cut will be announced on August 8.

On the software department, we have some pretty hot updates on Devil May Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. For Oblivion, it’s been reported that copies of it are now being shipped to Japan. It should be noted that Microsoft is looking into swaying the elusive Japanese market towards them, and this title is promising to deliver the goods Japanese gamers like. Let’s wait and see how this will shape up.

Now these next two games really carry some extra juice. What kind of juice? Well, it really depends on how you look at it. To avoid making ourselves look biased, we’ll just paste the important comments from Capcom’s Head of R&D, Keiji Inafune (Devil May Cry 4) and Rockstar Games’ Hosi Simon regarding the Xbox 360.

They’re identical games. We’re not hardware makers, and we’re not like a pawn between these companies, we try not to be as much as we can. We make great games for people to enjoy on whichever system they want. But I guess if you want the complete experience with the episodes, then yeah, you should buy the 360, I suppose.

– Hosi Simon on the advantage of having exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content.

Now we can get the game out into the hands of more gamers – because 360 has such a huge installed base already, especially in the US, and as game makers we want as many people to have the chance to play our games as possible. It’s extremely easy to develop for [360], it just works really well.

– Keiji Inafune on the decision to make Devil May Cry 4 multiplatform.

We rest our case.

– by QJ.Net’s Xbox 360 team

Wii
Wii had another great week and this time they’ve not only conquered the current competition, they managed to beat consoles from the past as well. Yes, based from VGCharts’ records, Wii is now the fastest selling video games console in history! Yeah, it bested NES, SNES, and even the PlayStation 2 for the title as none of them has sold as much number of units in eight months as the Wii. A pretty heavy appetizer, huh? We’ve got more, loads more.

It appears the alleged limited library of games for Wii shouldn’t be a concern after all. With Wii demand not waning, publishers and developers are bound to make games for it. It’s only natural for commercial gaming companies to venture out on partnerships with a platform that has the highest probability of selling games. This report is a testament to that belief. After E3, the Wii has been found to have the most exclusives, having 150 titles to their name. The Xbox 360 has 101 titles and the PS3 has 50. Not only that, Wii fanboys can start looking forward to more game-related announcements in the coming days, after the dust completely settles from E3.

One of those companies that’s shifting focus towards the Wii is video games industry giant, Electronic Arts. EA CEO John Riccitello said in an investor’s meeting that it got “on the wrong horse” when it decided to focus mainly on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 adding that, “one of the biggest challenges, of course, was that not a lot of people anticipated the success of Nintendo that they’ve shown with their wand controller and their Wii. That got ahead of us a little more than our expectations.” You can check the full article over here.

Of course this trend won’t be complete without actual recaps of the week’s updates on some highly anticipated Wii games. We’ve got Super Smash Bros. Brawl news on Knuckle Joe, Footstool Jump, Skyworld, Yoshi, and Rumble Falls. And don’t forget the recently divulged list of Wii games set to be released come Christmastime. Here’s what a Nintendo rep said:

For the holidays we have a huge line-up of Wii games already, including Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Pokemon Battle Revolution. Fans will not be hurting for great games to play. One of the most common complaints is that the video game industry focuses only on the holidays and saves nothing for the first quarter.

Another strong week for our favorite console, and we expect nothing less come issue six. See you then!

– by QJ.Net’s Wii team

  

Honorable Mentions
Games are great in providing us with alternate realities relieving us of the world’s aches and pains, but even the most realistic video game still has no match to, well, “reality”. So it’s been part of QJ.Net’s deans of geekology (laugh at our name all you want, we’re kinda used getting that treatment with the other QJ teams, anyway) mission to provide everyone with that much needed daily dose of reality. We’ve got two very compelling stories for you guys this issue, here they are:

Twisted Fact: Barbies and Rainbow Brites are for girls as Gi Joes and Transformers are for boys. Since we’re all guys here in our department, we all dig Transformers-related stuff. We religiously followed the cartoon series, collected the toys, and giggled like teenaged girls over Prime and BumbleBee in the movie. But never in our entire life did we expect to encounter the real thing. Yes, we’re talking about a walking, transforming Autobot that goes by the name of High Score 100. Wondering what it turns into? A PlayStation 2 controller. Here’s a piece from the article (which you can find here).

It was found at this year’s Comic Con’s Hasbro booth. It kind of resembles Optimus Primal from the Beast Wars series, as the arms and upper body resemble that of a gorilla. It’s a martial arts expert who learned by watching skilled fighters testing their skill. Hmm… Could it be that this controller was watching loads upon loads of fighting games?

From morphing controllers, let’s move on to psychic cats. No, this is no gadget of the future or a mere figment of the creative mind. Apparently, Oscar, a two-year old white feline living in Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, can predict which ones of the patients in the said hospital is about to die. Think it’s all a coincidence? Read this:

Six months have passed before they noticed that he does his rounds, sniffing and observing patients, before curling up beside those that will die in less than four hours. After observing Oscar in 25 cases, the staff came to believe that the cat is very accurate. Since then, family members of patients “chosen” by the furry death bringer are notified on what’s about to happen. Even David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University, believes Oscar’s ability. He stated in an essay on the New England Journal of Medicine:

He doesn’t make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die. Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one.

That’s it from us this week! We’ll be back next issue and like we always says, keep it real!

– QJ.Net’s Deans of Geekology

Comment of the Week (***New Section***)

The section for the most popular figure in the gaming industry, YOU!!! We have another comment that stroke creative thinking, and garnered support from the readers. Here’s QJ.Net regular, Quixand, sharing one of his signature thought provoking ideas:

it’s actually good receiving decent counters from people who has a different opinion cause they present facts that i might have been too narrow minded to see but ofcourse this just fuels your desire to stress the logic of your points and although emotions gets involve it’s all part of being in a discussion… i’ve said it before and i say it again, i may not like some of the people here but i do respect them just cause of the way they present their case…

for those poster who could only say “PS3 SUCKS!!! 360 FTW!!!” those guys are funny as hell but i’m not wasting time replying..

as for the article above an average of 83 minutes for the PS3??? i should sign up with Nielsen to jack that number up!!!! but this is only in America as far as i know… maybe just 83 minutes cause of the pwnage i give to them americans in resistance so they just turn the thing off… hehehe… (in all honesty it’s been awhile since i’ve killed more people than i’ve been shot myself… playing Oblivion totally took away my edge in Resistance)

and by the way.. PS3 and Blu Ray FTW!!!!!

See you again next week!