Consolation Prize

After two successful outings on the PS2, it’s time for the Ghost of Sparta to step into the mobile market for God of War: Chains of Olympus on the Sony PSP. The development reigns (or should that be chains) have been handed over to Ready At Dawn Studios using an enhanced version of their proprietary engine that was developed for Daxter (PSP).

Set as a prequel to the events that took place in God of War, this entry in the franchise nicely fits into the story arc that has already been told thus far and fleshes out more of our angry Spartans background.

At start of the game Kratos, already in servitude to the Olympian gods, is sent to the city of Attica to repel the Persian invasion. It’s an adrenalin inducing start and introduces the player to the controls gradually throughout the level and finally climaxes with a showdown with a Basilisk that has been terrorising the city. The level however is merely a taster of things to come and it’s not until vanquishing the beast that the true story line becomes apparent as Kratos witnessing the sun falling from the sky begins a quest to restore the god Helios.

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Wow, this certainly makes a change from the norm. The PSP has outsold the DS in Japan for once as it appears it’s got a huge boost from the release of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Figures for the week ending 16th of September has seen the PSP gain a six fold increase!

I’m so used to seeing the Nintendo Wii and DS dominating the hardware sales for Japan (and the world) that something like this comes as a little bit of a pleasant shock.

The hardware rundown looks like:

1. PSP: 95,487
2. DS: 79,974
3. Wii: 26,181
4. PS2: 13,128
5. PS3: 13,101
6. X360: 1243
7. GBA: 836
8. Cube: 97

Source:
GamesIndustry.biz

In some additional news from Leipzig the European release date for the Sony PSP slim has been announced as part of the Sony conference. You’ll be able to get hold of the new sleeker PSP as of September 5th 2007 for 169 EUR.

The new design will also be available in either a “Spiderman” bundle pack, featuring a black and red PSP and including a copy of the Spiderman 2 game the movie Spiderman 3. Alternatively the “Simpsons” pack features a yellow PSP and a copy of the game. Both bundle packs will be 199.99 EUR.

The prices announced thus far have only been in Euros, but I would expect a slightly higher GBP value for the UK market.

Sony’s E3 conference was held yesterday at 19:30 BST. As with the Microsoft conference I’ve extracted some interesting titbit’s of information.

Unfortunately a European price cut for the PS3 was not mentioned but apparently there will be some sort of announcement tomorrow.

PS2 Snippets
Now has an installed base of over 118 million, thus according to Jack Tretton (CEO and President of Sony America) makes it the most popular console of all time.

160 new games for the PS2 are scheduled for the US this fiscal year.

PSP Snippets
Weekly sales of the PSP have gone up by 90% since the introduction of a price cut.

A New version of PSP was unveiled and it will be available worldwide in September. Although the revision looks very similar to the existing model it’s apparently 33% lighter and 19% slimmer. It also makes use of a more efficient battery and loading times will be a lot faster too. It also incorporates a new bit of functionality in that it can now be hooked up to a TV (Sony Bravia) and output any of it’s content (videos, photos, games) directly to the screen.

The new slimmer PSP will be available in the regular black and the new “ice silver” colours in an entertainment pack which includes a 1GB memory stick. There will also be a “Star Wars Battlefront” entertainment pack which features a white PSP emblazoned with Darth Vader on the back. Both packs will retail for 199.99 USD and will be available in the US from September. Sony Europe and Sony Japan have yet to announce pricing and packs that will be available.

140 new games are scheduled for the PSP in the US this fiscal year.

PSP UMD sales are up by 35% since 2006.

PS3 Snippets
80 first party games are in development worldwide.

The PlayStation Network now has 2 million registered users, 950 thousand of which are from North America and the service has seen 20 million downloads.

PlayStation “Home” can now have client software running on mobile phones. The example given will allow you to take pictures with your mobile and have them sent directly to your “Home” lobby.

Sales of 60GB PS3 have doubled in North America at Sony’s top five retailers since the cut was announced on Monday and Sony are going to ship 11 million units by the end of the year. There’s no news as yet of a price cut for Europe.

Unreal Tournament 3 was announced as exclusive for the PS3 until the end of the year.

Metal Gear solid 4 was reconfirmed as being exclusive to PS3. Hideo Kojima has also stated that MGS4 would be the last in the series. The game is due for release in spring 2008.

The PS3 has helped the sales of Blu-ray and it is now approximately outselling HD-DVD by a ratio of 2:1.

Sony has announced that they will reduce the cost of the Playstation Portable to GBP 129 from GBP 149.99 (EUR 169.99) effective from May 4th.

No doubt this will have a positive effect on sales as soon as the new price point hits. Unfortunately my PSP has not been powered up for many months and I can’t recall what game was last played! I think it may have been
Virtua Tennis: World Tour. It’s been so long now that the memory is fading…