Creat Studios is rumored to be working on a wakeboarding game for the PlayStation Network simply titled Wakeboarding HD. It appears the very first footage of this PS3 game has found its way online via a rather unusual source: a random posting on the Gamespot forums. A look at the thirty seconds of gameplay seems to suggest that this is indeed Creat's next PS3 game, with gameplay and graphics that resemble its last PSN game, Smash Cars.
Embedding has been disabled for this video, so check it out on YouTube. After watching the video, is this something you'd like to play? Let us know in the comments.
You may have assumed this from the climbing PS3 sales Sony reported last week, but a report from Research and Markets provides further confirmation that the system is increasing in popularity around the world.
"The PS3 is dominant in Japan and Korea," the report notes, "and as of June 2008, has begun to outsell the Xbox 360 in Europe. It is also steadily increasing its market share in all other regions across the globe, including in the North American market." The Xbox 360 is still ahead of the PS3 in North America. It's worth noting that the increase in sales in Europe predates the price drop and introduction of the PS3 Slim.
Research and Markets also provided a bit more information about the distribution of console sales. Though North America remains the largest market for consoles, "The high population density and rapid uptake of technology in countries such as Japan and Korea, and to a lesser extent in Singapore and Hong Kong, see a disproportionately high level of console sales compared to the rest of the world," the report reads." Console sales are also fairly high in Western Europe and are growing considerably in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, Latin America, and other areas in Asia."
Were you aware that Folding@home (now called Life With PlayStation) isn't just an altruistic distributed computing network, but also a brutal team sport? It's true -- reader Chilly_Willy recently pointed our attention to Joystiq's ranking on the F@h leaderboard and reported the delightful news that Team 'Stiq is set to overtake fellow games media outlet G4TV within the next 24 hours. We received the news with dignity, knowing that rankings don't matter -- all we care about is contributing to the scientific community's fight against disease.
We're kidding, of course -- we're purely in this thing for the thrill of victory. In fact, it would be great if you guys could go turn on your PS3s and lend a hand in destroying G4. We want Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb to feel absolutely crushed with defeat at some point during the day, but not know why. We want to run into Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira at PAX East, and have them be too afraid to make eye contact with us. Please, please, dear readers -- won't you help make our dream a reality?
Halfbrick Studios, the Minis-producing development factory in Brisbane, has announced a new title: Age of Zombies. Not to be confused with the Age of Aquarius or the beloved children's film Ice Age, Halfbrick's game is decidedly more macabre -- with a pinch of cute tossed in. (We never thought we'd call zombies both those things, but there it is.)
Age of Zombies follows time-traveling protagonist (and delicious side dish) Barry Steakfries, doing his best to eradicate the hungry undead looking to get a mouthful of his tasty vittles. The debut trailer nestled above gives us a vibe akin to a cross between Robotron and Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which kinda sounds like a good time. There's also the promise of zombified T-Rex dinosaurs, which hardly seems possible in the real world, but, hey, we'll take it.
Age of Zombies will be available to download from the PlayStation Store on Thursday, February 25 for $4.99. In the meantime, fight your way through a horde of new screens in our gallery below.
Adding up Sony's quarterly sales numbers for the PS3, including the 6.5 million Q3 sales it announced yesterday, Shacknews arrived at a new estimate for the console's life-to-date sales total: 33.71 million units. That's just about half of the Wii's most recent total of 67.45 million, and about 86% of the Xbox 360's recently-announced 39 million. The gap is narrowing!
The year-over-year sales of the PS3 are increasing (or, at least, they increased), with 13 million sold worldwide in fiscal 2009 versus 10.1 million in fiscal 2008. That's only going to increase in 2010, as everyone is forced to buy a second PS3 so the console will appear in stereoscopic 3D even while no 3D games are being played.
Here's some data from Sony's fiscal Q3 earnings and, as predicted, the electronics giant had some positives things to report out of its gaming division. However, like always, with the good comes the bad (and sometimes the ugly). The good: "Due to the launch of a new model, approximately 6.5 million units of PlayStation 3 ... hardware were sold in the current quarter, compared to approximately 4.5 million units in the prior year's third quarter," reports Sony's Q3 earnings report. The PS3 Slim continues to drive hardware sales, with its slim new form factor and, more importantly, slim new price tag. Now the bad: "Approximately 4.2 million PSP units were sold in the current quarter, compared to approximately 5.1 million units in the prior year's third quarter." And the ugly: "Approximately 2.1 million PS2 units were sold in the current quarter, compared to approximately 2.5 million units in the prior year's third quarter."
It's when you get to the PS2 software sales that things really get ugly. Sony sold 11.2 million PS2 software units, a 62% drop from the same period last year. The bad: The PSP sold 15 million units, a tiny 3% drop from the same period last year. Just like the hardware numbers, the PS3 software numbers are the good: Sony sold over 47.6 million pieces of PS3 software, a lovely 17% jump from the same period last year.
But things aren't so bad for the beleaguered division. "Despite a decrease in PS2 hardware and software unit sales, as well as PSP hardware unit sales, profitability was relatively unchanged mainly due to an improvement in the cost of PS3 hardware," Sony reported. Sony's Q4 forecast predicts more of the same: a "decrease in PS2 hardware and software sales" and "an improvement in PS3 hardware and software profitability." And that's how console generations work, boys and girls!
PSP owners can expect a lot of new sports games this year, including Steve Davis Pool, Ronnie O'Sullivan Snooker and Phil Taylor Darts. Developer GameShastra announced a partnership with PI Sports to adapt their mobile games -- including titles based around pool, cricket, rugby, snooker, golf, tennis, darts, fishing and poker -- for the Minis platform on PlayStation Network. All in all, "over 10" games will appear on the PlayStation Store this year. In addition, GameShastra is promising visual improvements and enhanced controls over the original smartphone versions.
"With some of the biggest names in sport attached to the biggest names in mobile gaming, this agreement is brilliant news for all PSP owners," GameShastra's CEO said in a press release. Considering how few new releases are announced for Sony's handheld, the addition of more than ten titles to the service certainly does sound appealing.
In an extensive interview with IGN, Sony senior VP of Marketing Peter Dille notes that it's been the company's philosophy not to charge for PSN, but calls the possibility "something that [Sony's] actively thinking about." The company has no announcement to offer while it tries to figure out "the best way to approach" any potential changes.
Dille also mentions that the company will stick with ad agency Deutch and keep using Kevin Butler as pitchman for its new PS3 ad campaign, which is slowly (very slowly) erasing our memories of the crying demon baby. Less likely to make repeat appearances are full, downloadable version of PS3 Blu-ray games (think: Burnout Paradise). Dille notes, quite politically, "We're also working very hard to make sure we do [full downloads] thoughtfully so that retail has a part to participate in the ecosystem with us. But, the notion of getting all your games digitally, I just don't see it happening."
Kevin Butler, you need not worry: Your job as Sony's VP of First Person Shooter Relations is in no threat of ending. Neither is your job as Chief Weaponologist, VP of Epic Footage, VP of Big Action Moments and -- our favorite -- Family Activities Director. In an interview with IGN, SCEA senior vice president Peter Dille talked about the company's new "It Only Does Everything" slogan and marketing campaign. "It's been tremendously successful. Consumers love it. It's great to hear people like you guys love it. And the results are really in the sales because it's really been flying since this coincided in September with the launch of the new PS3."
The tremendous success of the ad campaign has guaranteed its continuation through 2010. "You can expect to see Kevin Butler inject a lot of life into the PlayStation brand between now and the rest of the year," Dille commented, and promised we'd see the tagline quite a bit "when motion control comes onto the scene." We personally cannot wait to see the ad Butler will star in for the PlayStation Motion Controller.
