Sony blackballs Kotaku

Sony have severed all ties with Kotaku after Kotaku posted a " rumour" that Sony didn' t want to get out.

Now obviously there' s more to this than that and this " rumour" is true, or at least hold some element of truth.

The rumour is that Sony are going to unveil Playstation HOME, a virtual room where you can store collected achievements and trophies won in games. Like Microsoft' s achievements and Gamerpoints they would be a pre-requite for all PS3 titles in development.

We just received a very interesting tip that, while juicy and quite believable, we' re labeling as rumor for now. As you are probably well aware, GDC executive director Jamil Moledina set Sony' s Phil Harrison up for the spike yesterday, claiming that PLAYSTATION 3 owners will be " very happy" when Phil' s keynote takes place next week.

Could the PlayStation Home, Sony' s blending of achievements and Miis be that big surprise?

While the rumor seems to make sense, keep in mind while reading through it that it came from an anonymous source and that the half-dozen development studios we spoke with hadn' t heard a thing about it.

Sony, when contacted earlier today, said they do not comment on rumors or speculation.

Playstation Home sounds like it could be an interesting, lo-fi, killer app, as described by our source.

" Basically, you get to make an avatar for your console (like a Mii) and this avatar has a room. As you play games and accomplish certain tasks, you will receive items with which to adorn the room that are specific to the game (achievements). The kicker is that this is going to be a new requirement for every PS3 game..."

This also sounds kind of like it could fulfill the promise Sony made at last year' s GDC keynote to bring social networking to the PS3.

" So we move from product based to service based, starting with packaged product augmented by downloadble content. We' ll enhance this with social networks, the MySpace experience, this will be a key part of the PlayStation3 going forward. What brings it to life is the voice chat, the text chat, the video, the social features we' re building in for the future."

Rooting around some recent (and not so recent) comments from Sony spokespeople, we find some things that might just validate this.

From Phil' s recently published DICE interview with Newsweek editor N' Gai Croal comes this tidbit, following a discussion on the " lo-fi" approach Nintendo took with their Mii avatars:

" If you are going to have an avatar which is your representative in a virtual world, it has to stand for more of your personality than some 2-D cartoons. So while I think that millions of people would be happy with cartoony looks, the planet at large probably isn' t. And it' s an experiment that will be played out very soon, actually."

From Dutch gaming site Next Generation Gamer comes this choice quote from an unidentified Sony rep:

" We have something big coming up for the PlayStation Network, but I can' t say anything about that yet. It has something to do with the Home Button on the SIXAXIS controller, and with the community."

Again, this is rumor. Our source continues to remain anonymous. Sony could be announcing the robust set of social features it has been touting for a long time, ones that go beyond voice and video chat, and tap into the collective and competitive feature sets that helped make both Xbox Live and Animal Crossing a hit with gamers. Michael McWhertor

Brian Crecente contributed to this story.

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Interesting no?

It makes perfect sense and i' m curious as to how it will play out. Sony appear to be pulling everything together. GDC *could* be interesting.

If and that is a big IF, this all comes to fruitition then XBL might have a form of competition, but if this is the case and they really have got this in the pipeline, I am surprised they haven' t mentioned this before.

The one thing you really have to hand to MS the past two gen' s is XBL, even if Sony add achievement esque homes to their service, the sheer way the infrastructure is dealt with on MS' s part will always give online titles for them a distinct advantage.

I' m behind a firewall at work at the mo and cant check kotaku at present, but has the article actually been withdrawn?

...i thought kotaku was an independent mega-blog... .....were they on Sony' s payroll or something?

Currently accepting Article & Review requests

At this point Playstation Online should be renamed Playstation Live and the PS3 should be produced in white with a green ring as a power button and and a make their controller look more like a Wiimote. Sony just sits there and copies everything everyone else is doing trying to catch up. Almost nothing behind Sony' s console was designed by Sony anymore.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

ORIGINAL: Rampage99

At this point Playstation Online should be renamed Playstation Live and the PS3 should be produced in white with a green ring as a power button and and a make their controller look more like a Wiimote. Sony just sits there and copies everything everyone else is doing trying to catch up. Almost nothing behind Sony' s console was designed by Sony anymore.

If I worked in the industry, then i would care about what you just said.
But as a consumer I don' t care at all, I' m just happy to get as much as possible .
Besides, MS has copied some stuff too. Everyone copies everyone so I don' t care.
The end justifies the means.

i made a nice flow chart for control interface evolution a while ago, you can see everyones design ideas from all sorts of differnt competitors. I think good design is a cross pollination anyways! It is just that sometimes it is good to be first to market with something every couple of years or so....

Cross platforms releases will be essential for developer survival this generation and beyond, I woul dhave to have to develop and encorporate separate achievments, mii' s and PS3' schemese on top of the difficulat task of porting to an allready complicated system to dev for.

At this point Playstation Online should be renamed Playstation Live and the PS3 should be produced in white with a green ring as a power button and and a make their controller look more like a Wiimote. Sony just sits there and copies everything everyone else is doing trying to catch up. Almost nothing behind Sony' s console was designed by Sony anymore

I' d rather have PS3BOX Live than their current system, and I don' t care how badly they' ve ripped off Microsoft, I' m just happy they' re getting their S*** in order.

From that perspective Microsoft stole their online system from years of PC gaming infrastructure, but nobody in this room would rather have a terrible original system over XBL. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I' m not saying they' re trying to flatter MS. Sony is trying to make money like everybody else, but in my opinion it' s a smart move on their part.

Eddie how can you say MS ripped off XBL from PC gaming? MS is PC gaming, if anything they migrated things from the PC world to the 360, but they can' t rip themselves off. Besides, PC gaming has nothing like XBL. Universal achievenments, friends list, message (voice and text) system, marketplace, no single app can do all these things.

Actually MS will soon be bringing Live to PC. It will be cross platform, we' ll get to use the same gamer tag for PC and 360.

At this point Playstation Online should be renamed Playstation Live and the PS3 should be produced in white with a green ring as a power button and and a make their controller look more like a Wiimote. Sony just sits there and copies everything everyone else is doing trying to catch up. Almost nothing behind Sony' s console was designed by Sony anymore.

So designing an online service was brand new when MS did it eh? People hadn' t been doing less extensive versions for the PC before that?

You wanna know why the Xbox was so well received by fans? Because they listened to what we wanted. Which means, they used idea' s that were already out there. How can you sit there and act like everything MS has done has been idea' s all their own? It' s a good thing they took idea' s that were already out there but had yet to be done well, and then tied them into a console and online service of their own. I love what MS has done with the Xbox franchise, but to think it was all original idea' s is just shortsighted.

Also, motion control was around waaaaaaaay before the Wii, so to say Sony must have copied them is ridiculous. Not to mention they both released at the same time(I know Sony was late in announcing sixaxis compared with when Nintendo showed off the Wii-mote).

Please stop brand bashing. It' s just stupid. Every company has its own strengths. To demand that everything be original and use idea' s never seen before is stupid, and to criticize people for using or improving past idea' s is also ridiculous. I guess everyone that made cars after the Model-T were just lamewads copying Ford and should have just made all their cars look like his. Same with telephones. I mean, using a speaker and reciever like the original one? Thats lame, they should have made something new, how dare they use a great idea!

Imitating and improving and modifying idea' s is great. It creates competition and forces people to improve on designs, add features, and just take things to a new level. Just look at how far the automotive industry has come. Look at competitive racing. Competitors constantly strive to develop new, and improved parts and designs. Thats why people like Ferrari and Prodrive keep setting the bar, and others only catch up after the imitate the successful design, meanwhile Ferrari steps it up again.

If MS is really as good as you believe them to be, this will be a good thing for them. Just like my above post says, Sony will be playing catch up. So if MS really pushes and steps it up, Sony will still be behind, and you will have a better XBL service.

It all makes sense when you look at things from an open minded perspective.

Eddie how can you say MS ripped off XBL from PC gaming?

I think that its more a Dream Cast rip off than PC rip off.
I remember that MS got Sega' s US branch presedent or something at the time.Too bad that I dont remember the details though. (Isnt he peter moore himself?or do i need some sleep?)

I think Peter Moore is cool.
Wikipedia

Moore also conceived the term " Wii60"

Cooler than J. Allard anyway even though Allard has done some cool things.
Wikipedia

On Xbox Live, Allard' s Gamertag is " HiroProtagonist" .

Really?

ORIGINAL: Avarice


It all makes sense when you look at things from an open minded perspective.

Dude... stop talking.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

Also, motion control was around waaaaaaaay before the Wii, so to say Sony must have copied them is ridiculous. Not to mention they both released at the same time(I know Sony was late in announcing sixaxis compared with when Nintendo showed off the Wii-mote).

Actually MS had a controller with the same capabilities as the Sixaxis years ago for the PC, it failed, Peter Moore commented on it when Sixaxis was released, so MS was before Nintendo and before Sony in that department!

Yepp. Nintendo isn' t first with new technology but they' re the ones who usually manage to make something good out of it, and market it enough to make it a success. MS never had the balls to do it

I think the standard controller will always prevail, the Wiimote will probably be most useful in Party games.

About damn time, Kotaku freacking sucks, on the rumor, that would be great but not new, i belive SOE has been doing this for some time now

Actually MS had a controller with the same capabilities as the Sixaxis years ago for the PC, it failed, Peter Moore commented on it when Sixaxis was released, so MS was before Nintendo and before Sony in that department!

Exactly, I remember it clearly. I believe it was called the " Sidewinder" and the demo most places set up for it was a helicopter or plane sim. Logitech had one too not long after. Neither worked very well though, they were far too sensitive, and just couldn' t be used effectively in racing games. Thats why I was very very skeptical about the sixaxis.

Yepp. Nintendo isn' t first with new technology but they' re the ones who usually manage to make something good out of it, and market it enough to make it a success. MS never had the balls to do it

Superscope, Virtual Boy...........I would mention the power glove, but that was pushed more by Mattel than Nintendo.

edit: I forgot to add that the Wii-mote is actually a good idea and works well, and has already proved its not in the same boat as their previous contraptions. Those first two were neat, but ultimately not very good, and the powerglove barely worked. I guess thats what happens when people that make Barbies try and create a motion controller.

Dude, you just put yourself on a pedistol for being so unbiased and it' s rediculous and annoying. You can say you' re unbiased all you want but my saying Sony is taking MS' s achievements idea doesn' t make me biased. You' re not the shiny picture of gaming perfection.

The whole bj thing was just stupid too. Keep that shit to yourself. Aaaaaaaaaaaaand... you' re blocked.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

Actually MS will soon be bringing Live to PC. It will be cross platform, we' ll get to use the same gamer tag for PC and 360.

That will be a great feature. It would be even better if the charge for Live includes both XBL and PC Live for the same price as it currently is.

It will also give us a chance to see something I' ve wanted to see for a long time, PC FPS junkies vs Console FPS junkies. I still think PC gamers would win just because of the mouse keyboard combo. It will be interesting to see.

I owned a microsoft sidewinder freestyle pro joybad - the think was built incredibly strong, and not disimilar in feel to that of a 360 pad. MS were trying something new at that point, and the pads were expensive. But they found these features only suited a few games, and actually the only ones that worked well were motocross maddness and flight sim. But at the time MS were doing it because it was forward thinking.

Gunpei Yokoi in his book (Game House) talks much of his concept of " Withered Technology" which is something nintendo has followed strictly since embarking on his first products. The idea of adopting mature technologies which have become inexpensive and apply them in new ways rather than looking for expensive technologies.

The game boy was a classic example, the screen was a product of bitter rivalry between calculator manufacturers and that is no different to that of accellorometers today - which have been cost reduced to the point where they only cost a couple of pence each. Due to the automotive industry. What is interesting is that the PS3&60 go almost completely contrary to this principle. What may be changing at present is that these ideas and concepts embodied in his work seem to only work well on a small scale - why the ds is doing so well.

Things like his virtual boy strayed away from these princples and tried to push technolgy, and have failed, so I think we have seen very much a renaissance with Nintendo over the past two or three years.

The future is semi-collaborative, and if you think that manufactures will be able to survive this and following genreations on their own you are sadly mistaken. The industry has always looked to its competitors for one-up-manship, and this will always be the case. Being completely unique is just too risqe. It' s also worth saying that MS is just as innovate as the traditional manufacturers, it is not a market leader in its other fields accidently. The work they did with SEGA witht he DC was ahead of its time by 5 years. Sega would have been nowhere with the western developers without their input at that time.

As for software layers, the key is going to be plug-ability again - not a nice word, but basically meaning that for profit margins developers have to get their product out to as many formats as possible, the hardware manufacturers know this so will only stray so far from the mainstream. The Wii pushes this boundary, but still remains mainstream with supporting traditional material.

I owned a microsoft sidewinder freestyle pro joybad - the think was built incredibly strong, and not disimilar in feel to that of a 360 pad. MS were trying something new at that point, and the pads were expensive. But they found these features only suited a few games, and actually the only ones that worked well were motocross maddness and flight sim. But at the time MS were doing it because it was forward thinking.

I thought about mentioning the build on it. It definitely had the texture and weight of the xbox controllers, but did offer a better grip IMO, and I liked the sega saturn style button layout.