QuickJump QuickPeek Issue #06: Of surging console sales, format wars, and the wonders of Marijuana

August 4, 2007

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(Editor’s Note: We bring you Issue # 06 of our weekly online magazine, QuickJump QuickPeek! As usual this beefy issue contains the week’s events in the videogaming industry, as well as some hair-raising discoveries in the field of science and technology (no small thanks to the geeks of QJ). Of course we’ve got another comment featured in this week’s issue, and it’s been tough picking one with all the raving discussions going in our boards. It’s also come to our attention that some of you are having a hard time going over the links we put up to our previous issues, so we’ve designated a “Link” area right below each preview’s text. Here’s your quick peek, happy reading!)

It’s our sixth issue and the big updates just keep piling up. We’ve got everything covered, from homebrew developers making a comeback, surging console sales, and the arms race of our favorite consoles. Our writing teams are ever hard at labor to bring you the best news as they happen, and we owe you no small thanks in keeping our work fruitful. To show you our gratitude, we bring you another top-notch collection of the hot stories inside and outside the world of gaming. Once again, we bring you this week’s movers and shakers:

PlayStation Portable
For the sixth straight week, we bring you great news from the PSP front! For this issue, we have huge updates on both homebrew and commercial gaming. If you’ve been living under a rock the past seven days worry not, we’ll be giving you the highlights of the past week.

For starters, Ahman – father of arguably the best organizational application for the PSP – has surprised the community with another release of iR Shell. Along with numerous new features, iR Shell v3.6 now incorporates support for Team M33‘s custom firmware. This news was welcomed warmly by everyone familiar with Ahman’s work because 1) any update on iR Shell is highly anticipated and 2) this could only mean one of the pioneers in PSP homebrew coding is once again actively developing for our handhelds.

Link: [iRShell v3.6 released]

The full QuickJump QuickPeek issue awaits after the jump!

QuickKump QuickPeek logo - Image 1

Link: [iRShell v3.6 released]

We also received cool updates from Team M33 and StrmnNrmn on their own respective projects – Custom Firmware and Daedalus. Team M33 provided as with an actual release (mostly minor changes and some fixes) while emulator whiz StrmnNrmn blogged about his plans for the 13th release of his Nintendo 64 emulator for PSP.

Link: [Team M33 custom firmware update]
Link: [StrmnNrmn Daedalus R13 update]

Great updates huh? We’re just warming up guys, so brace yourself for more. On the commercial gaming side, what really caught our attention this week is the one about Sony applying for a “controller docking on PSP” patent. The idea behind this patent is that a controller, such as the PlayStation 2 (PS2) controller, would be made dockable onto a PlayStation Portable handheld by way of a “control docking apparatus.” So if a PS2 controller was made attachable to a PSP, PSP games can be made playable with Rumble and with the classic control feel of the dual-analog stick gamepad. For an image of the said “docker” and for more details, you can check the link leading towards our report below.

Link: [“Controller docking on PSP” patent]

We also have three new stories on games that should further strengthen the belief that 2007 is the year for PSP. How big are these stories? We’ll let their titles do the talking – “New Final Fantasy Tactics trailer video – in English!”; “The Monster Hunter Portable 2nd English translation patch”; and “Kratos’ triple combo: Chains of Olympus gameplay videos”. Links toward these stories are below, feel free to click on them to find out more.

Link: [Final Fantasy Tactics video]
Link: [Monster Hunter Portable English translation patch]
Link: [God of War: Chains of Olympus gameplay videos]

You can breathe now, the great PSP-related updates stops here. Oh wait, these news are for last week! We bet there are more good things to be reported. So better keep your eyes peeled here!

– QJ.Net’s PSP team

PlayStation 3
We’ve got a good mix of PlayStation 3-related updates this week. True, some of them aren’t that good, but healthy competition is good every now and then. As powerful as the PS3 hardware is, we can only truly appreciate success after learning how to bear the bumps we had to endure along the way.

To get the ball rolling, it appears Sony has another legal debacle to hurdle, this time over the PS3 cells processors. Parallel Processing Corporation (PPC), a California-based company, sued Sony and accused the creators of the PlayStation for infringing on its patent of Synchronized Parallel Processing with Shared Memory (Patent no. 5,056,000), and using the said patent on its Cell processors. The patent was signed and approved on October 8, 1991, and was awarded to International Parallel Machines. Parallel Processing Corporation claims to be the exclusive licensee of the patent, and is seeking damages and attorney’s fees. But the scarier part? Impounding and destruction of all Sony products that infringe on the same patent. Yikes!

Link: [Sony gets sued again – this time over PS3 Cell processors]

From lawsuits, we move on to videogame updates. Grand Theft Auto 4 is earlier expected to see an October release, but now it won’t be out until the fiscal second quarter of 2008 (February to April). Take-two chairman Strauss Zelnick was quoted saying “certain elements of development proved to be more time-intensive than expected.” So rest assured the delay was made to ensure our gang busting and mafia killing experience is top notch. Besides, the ‘ber months are pretty loaded with releases of kickass PS3 games anyway. We actually think this is good news as it frees up our gaming schedule a bit.

Link: [Grand Theft Auto IV delayed ]

More on PS3 games, Metal Gear 4: Guns of Patriots has been given a release window by President Fumiaki Tanaka of Konami Digital Entertainment. According to him, the release would likely be around March next year. Of course nothing’s confirmed yet, but every news regarding the date we finally get our hands on stealthy Snake is definitely worth hearing. Also, Tanaka added that “we are open to taking this franchise across to other platforms”. Take that statement as you will.

Link: [Metal Gear Solid 4 dated]

Now here’s a good piece of news. Target, second-largest retail outlet in the US, will be bringing the Blu-ray under the spotlight this holiday season. They’re going to be pushing up Blu-ray players and discs all the way to the front displays, specifically, the endcaps of the store aisles. Following Blockbuster’s announcement of a Blu-ray exclusivity deal, this new announcement from Target is looking like the format wars’ final nail on the coffin. Just a reminder guys, Blu-ray could give PS3 the same success DVD gave to PS2. We all know how much impact the format battle had on the last-gen console war, so this is one area that’s really worth watching.

Link: [Blu-ray hits Target, gathers more support]

Some of you guys might still be feeling a little down with RockStar’s Grand Theft Auto IV going multiplatform. Fret not, it appears Sony has another deal with the RockStar crew and it has the potential to be bigger than the Grand Theft Auto series. Michael Shorrock, director of third-party relations at Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), noted that they (RockStar) would be making a new franchise meant specifically for the PlayStation 3. He blogged:

As part of our longstanding relationship with Rockstar and the incredible success for both companies with the cultural icon that is Grand Theft Auto, we’ve agreed to the PlayStation exclusive rights of the next great franchise from the Rockstar studios.

See, a clear proof of the closing doors equal opening windows belief.

Link: [RockStar making exclusive new franchise for PS3]

See you again next week!

– QJ.Net’s PS3 team

Xbox 360
After some weeks of being assailed by Red Ring of Death-related reports, we’re happy to say that our mean and green machine seems to be bouncing back this week. And boy is it taking down blockades in the process. In this week’s roundup of Xbox 360 news, we’ve got some pretty good news for the green army. Some of the more juicy ones are still tabbed under rumor, true, but if you’ve been around the gaming industry long enough you’ll know that the really major newsbreakers start this way.

One of the best news to come out of the intarwebs this week is the announcement that all Xbox 360 SKUs will get a price cut on August 12. The Xbox Pro SKU will get the US$ 50 price cut as advertised in the flyers (picture on the link below), and the good bit is that the Core and the Elite SKUs will be treated to a discount as well. US$ 20 will be taken off of the Core’s current price, bringing it down to only US$ 279.99, while the Elite will get $US 30 slashed from its price tag, making its MSRP US$ 449.99. For more details, follow the link to the story below.

Link: [Xbox 360 SKUs’ August 12 price cut]

Also rallying from the Microsoft camp is its Game Studios director Shane Kim claiming that they’re “in leadership position” owing it to them having “the greatest game lineup”. Here’s a collection of his statements:

On Metal Gear Solid 4 possibly coming to Xbox 360: “If you look at it from an economic standpoint, third parties have to support more than one platform. How much do you think that Konami is spending on MGS4? So economically they’ve got to leverage that the best that they can.”

On Sony PS3 and their Xbox 360’s longevity: “The customers will tell us how long the Xbox 360 is viable. We definitely plan on it have a five-year-plus life cycle. We do plan on winning this generation and nothing is going to shake us off of that aspiration,”

On how Xbox 360 will edge Wii and PS3: “We have a ton of confidence of the content portfolio of Xbox 360 and Xbox Live… We have this huge momentum, and we have the greatest game lineup of any system. We’re in the leadership position… It’s really up to the first parties to create the content that’s going to differentiate the platforms and that’s where we think we have the competitive advantage.”

Strong fighting words ‘ey? There’s more on the link below.

Link: [Microsoft’s Shane Kim interview]

We’ve also got some update on the DVD9-PGR4 controversy. When word came out about Bizarre Creations having problems with DVD space, the flames of fanboy wars were almost uncontrollable. However, the folks behind Project Gotham Racing 4 were fast on their feet, quickly addressing the issue through a post on Bizarre’s official website. Here’s what they’ve got to say:

DVD size is absolutely not a factor that we consider when designing our games… and PGR4 is no exception. DVD9 gives us more than we need to create a fabulous experience for you guys. Rather than having two “fixed” times of day, this time around we decided to use our time to create a dynamic weather system, which effectively creates a much more dramatic palette from which to work with. We’ve never had to cut content to fit on the disc, and we probably never will. Each next-gen format has its own merits. It’s not a case of one system having less of this, and the other having more of that… we are given a fixed platform, and that’s what we work with.

So that should douse the flames of fanboy wars. For the full report, make sure you go over the link below.

Link: [PGR4 devs on DVD9 capacity]

A few days ago, we also ran a rumor article about future Xbox 360 games requiring Hard Disk Drives. According to word circulating around various Xbox 360 boards, Microsoft has plans to drop the Core system from their line-up and make HDDs a requirement to play games. This move is apparently being made to improve the performance of games on the Xbox 360. This could obviously help in improving loading times of games, but it could alienate owners without HDDs. Full details, along with some interesting thoughts from our readers, on the link below.

Another juicy rumor floating on our pages is the one about the Xbox 360 Elite being designed to be anti-Red Ring of Death. Microsoft has repeatedly hinted that the more expensive console, the Xbox 360 Elite, is designed not to fall prey to the Red Ring of Death. Pure hype or beefy info? Your call.

Link: [Future Xbox 360 games to require HDD?]
Link: [Xbox 360 Elite anti Red Ring of Death?]

See you again next issue!

– QJ.Net’s Xbox 360 team

Wii
The wii.qj.net blog was home to a lot of interesting news this week. Some great games, both on the Virtual Console and current-generation titles, were announced to head our favorite console. We were also treated to intriguing reports regarding the observations of some analysts and a corporate bigwig from the opposition. Of course, the week won’t be complete with the regular news of just how dominating the Wii sales are.

Just how much is the Wii trumping the competition in terms of sales? To avoid being subjective, we’ll just let the figures do the talking. NPD Group’s March to June numbers, show that the Wii is leading in sales, edging PS3 and Xbox 360. Add to that the good lead it had over the two consoles on the first three months of 2007, and it’s obvious that the Wii won the first half of 2007.

To put it in another perspective, Wii is just behind 620,000 units behind Xbox 360 which was released a full year early. The Nintendo Wii is selling about an average of 200,000 units per week. Taking this number into account, it should be easy to deduce how many months (or weeks?) before it could overtake the 21-month old Xbox 360 (Wii was released 9 months ago).

Link: [NPD Group’s numbers]
Link: [Wii only 620,000 units behind Xbox 360]

As the saying goes, in a race it’s easier to find faults on the one that’s ahead of you compared to the ones behind you. It’s therefore natural for Wii to receive criticisms from the competitors it’s leaving behind and even those who are on the sidelines. An example of this is Sony’s Jack Tretton saying that the Wii is just a fad that could fizzle out in time. Here’s his interesting analogy:

We have seen it time and time again. Tomb Raider was a revolutionary product on the PlayStation. Everyone tried to do a rip off. By the time they got there, it was too late. When Grand Theft Auto came out, everybody gravitated to Grand Theft Auto. Now the Wii is having success. They are touting casual gaming. Supposedly everybody is going to race over to casual games. The unfortunate thing is the fruits of those labors will show up two years down the road, and if the consumer tastes shift, they will find themselves all dressed up with no place to go.

We also came across statements from David Braben, veteran games developer and the mind behind titles such as A Dog’s Life, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 and Thrillville. He believes the Wii is merely a fad, and will fade into obscurity after the public has had enough about it. To stress his point, he compared the Wii with the EyeToy, in the sense that people also thought highly of the PS2 camera, but soon got tired of it.

What’s interesting is that people are talking about the novelty of the Wii as if itÂ’s something completely revolutionary but actually we went through this same process with EyeToy, which allowed for gaming where you can stand up and do active physical things, but the EyeToy as a device lasted maybe eighteen months before people got bored with it, so thatÂ’s something that we should bare in mind with the Wii.

A pair of interesting thoughts from the folks over the fence huh? Take them as you will.

Link: [Jack Tretton on Wiis success]
Link: [David Braben on Wii’s success]

Now we move on to news concerning Wii games. After six whole weeks of being under fire from critics, lawyers and parent watchdog groups, Rockstar has finally made its move and appealed the ruinous ban slapped onto one of its most controversial titles to date, Manhunt 2. There will be a hearing, of course, held by the VAC in a time and place not yet announced. This hearing will take into consideration both the positions of BBFC and Rockstar in the whole debacle surrounding Manhunt 2, as well as view the game in action. John Woods, VAC chairman, will be the one to ultimately decide Manhunt 2‘s fate. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that the decision leans towards us.

A few days ago, Bethesda also confirmed that Star Trek: Conquest will soar towards the Wii. In this title, armchair admirals will be able to command Federation, Romulan, Klingon, Cardassian, Dominion and Breen forces in a campaign to take control of the entire galaxy as we know it – one planet at a time.

Of course, the week wouldn’t be complete without an update from potential console mover Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The game’s shaping up pretty fine and the daily updates show great promise. Check them all out by following the link below.

Link: [Rockstar appeals Manhunt 2 ban]
Link: [Star Trek: Conquest on Wii]
Link: [Super Smash Bros. Brawl updates]

Happy gaming and see you guys next ish!

– QJ.Net’s Wii team

Honorable Mention:
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 three very compelling stories for you guys this issue, here they are:

Smoking pot, although legal in some regions, is still considered taboo by the older and more conservative folks. Cannabis Sative, more commonly known as Marijuana (Mary Jane, weed, or “my precioussss” to some), and its effects to human society, health, and culture has long been debated by medical scientist and conservatives. We’ve heard all the stories before, of cannabis usage frying your brain or reducing you to the all-too-common ‘stoner’ stereotype. Dr. Phillip Leveque – physician, toxicologist and WWII infantryman – believes that marijuana is actually more beneficial than we give it credit for, and that all the bad rap that it’s been getting is merely false propaganda and misinformation. Here’s an excerpt from our report:

A retired professor of Toxicology and Pharmacology, Dr. Leveque didn’t believe that Marijuana actually had any medical benefits, until he started seeing patients that have been given prescriptions of the infamous five-leafed green. They all reported of Marijuana actually doing what their previous prescriptions could never have done – that was, to give them significant relief from their symptoms.

And these weren’t just any patients with migraines or backaches, either. These were hardened Vietnam veterans trying to cope with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) battle stress through use of heavy painkillers, antidepressants and even alcohol, all of which have drastic detrimental effects on the human body. Marijuana, on the other hand, was able to provide relief, without coming back to haunt the user (besides the social stigma of using marijuana, that is).

Link: [Marijuna: an effective alternative drug]

Now here’s something for the mecha fans – a full scale 59-foot Gundam. You read that right, this a model of the same size as the RX-78 we saw from the original Mobile Suit Gundam series. Forget humanoid robots or the ones we’ve played on our consoles before, this is the real deal. Almost US$ 2.5 million went to the development of this gorgeous “robot.” Now all we need to know is where to find our own Lachus Clyne.

Words can never measure how epic this creation is, so check out the images yourself by following the link to our story below:

Link: [Full-scale 59-foot 1/1 RX-78 Gundam sighted]

For those familiar with the PSP homebrew scene, this is something that could catch your attention. Remember the iPhone’s “Hello” ad that was aired during the Oscars? Well, it’s doing more than just a “Hello” now. The #iphone IRC channel just cracked into the system to bring users the first ever non-official iPhone application: a Hello World exploit. As these hacks go, all it does is display the text “Hello World” on your screen and does nothing else. While the serial has been cracked into a few weeks ago, the happy family of #iphone has now released the actual binary of the Hello World app. So, could the iPhone be the new PSP? Read more about it below.

Link: [iPhone exploited with “Hello World” app, binary released]

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

Once again we combed every discussion boards in search for the comment that stirred good conversations, and sometimes, heated but intelligent online arguments. This time we share with you QJ.Net regular Rikamaru’s thoughts on the roots and implications of a game that has gone multiplatform:

IF MSG 4 goes multi platform. I don’t think that this will be the demise of the PS3. It would sure suck for Sony but I don’t think droves of people will be selling their PS3. Devil May Cry 4 and Ace Combat has gone multi platform so this will just be another bad day at the office for the Ps3. If Halo were to go to the PS3 I don’t think 360 owners will not be all that worried.

Going mutil platform seem to be what developers are doing now as theres money to be made doing so. With Rockstar getting 50 Million for exclusive content, I think that it will be more bad than good on all gamers.

Now developers will wait and see which company will be willing to pay a lot of extra cash to make a game exclusive to a console.

See you folks again next week!

QuickJump QuickPeek Issue #06: Of surging console sales, format wars, and the wonders of Marijuana

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