GTA IV Banned? Ministry Of Information moves against Videogames

Around an hour ago, at 2 PM today, two inspectors from the Ministry of Information raided a "Euphoria" shop in Seef Mall and confiscated all Grand Theft Auto IV titles, Both PS3 & Xbox 360.
Two men, wearing traditional dress, came in, identified themselves to the man behind the counter, took his CPR and started writing down his details in an official inspection form. They also wrote down what they took (Around 4 or 5 titles of GTA IV for PS3 and the same for X360). They gave the receipt to the man and walked out with the titles in a plastic bag.
Now this does not necessary mean that GTA IV is banned in Bahrain, but it means at least that someone (individual or the ministry it self) complained about the title and the ministry is looking into it.
Given the nature of the title and the notion that games are (still) for kids, I expect the title to be banned very soon.
The title was banned for some time in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Saudi gamers have always came here to get their GTA fix. it seems that will continue no more.
I am appalled at this movement especially since other types of media (Video, Audio) are not dealt in this manner. I do agree there are some questionable materials in the game, however, I would suggest that age ratings are enforced as they should be rather than simply banning the thing altogether.
This blog will keep an eye out on the matter.

MGS4 PS3 bundle is on Amazon

Amazon have listed the Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bundle. If you do not have a PS3, this is the bundle to get. Why? It has an 80 GB hard disk, the new Dual Shock 3 controller (not the Sixaxis) and comes with the amazing MGS4. Sign up to get an email once it is open for pre-order.

PS3 redesign: loses 2KG

As you can see from the poor picture I took; T3 magazine (middle east version) reports that Sony will release a slim version of the 80G PS3 console in 2008 4th quarter. They hint at it being released in December, probably for Christmas.
The magazine says it will retain all of the bluray goodness and be 2 kilograms lighter.
This sounds odd as the console is still young in its product life cycle. But it'd be rather interesting to see if it did prove true.

Tekken 6: Heading to a PS3 near you

Bandai / Namco have allowed a few images to slip showing their flagship fighter game's digital prowess. Seems like the game is ready and will be in Arcades (if there are any left that is) by the end of this month. A shout out goes to all GCC gamers, please report any sightings of a Tekken 6 machine here.
It is set to be released for the PS3 in 2008. No idea if it will be exclusive or if Xbox360 will get a taste of it. If it is exclusive, then the PS3, after the price cuts and the stellar games, is beginning to sound like a sweet deal. You get a BLURAY player, Tekken, Metal Gear Solid, Winning Eleven, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy. Not bad.
The PS3 sales have been modest but picking up pace recently. I expect it to accelerate even more in 2008, should they stay their course.

Winning Eleven 11 is near!

The Winning Eleven series is extremely popular the world over and in the GCC more specifically. Heck, in Saudi they even rent out Playstations in coffee shops so you can play the thing with your mates.

the 10th incarnation was released on the PS2 last year. The 11th release (which sounds confusing yet cool) is coming out on BOTH the X360 and PS3.
This will be amazing, no reviews needed. It's just updated and improved more of the same. You can see some of the new additions in the pictures below
If something is gonna increase PS3's sales in the Middle East, this will be it.

PS3 prices drop in Bahrain

Sony fought back with a global plan, it seems, to cut the prices. Today we saw ads for new reduced prices for PS3s in Bahrain.

Just a couple of months ago, it debuted to the tune of BD 270 ($715) for a bare bones system. Games were priced BD 30 ($80) at least.

We now see three bundles on display.

The first two has one game attached: Eithr "Resistance: Fall of man" or "Moto storm" and a controller.

System + one game now costs BD 229 ($606).

Another third bundle includes both mentioned games for BD 260 ($687) but for 2 controllers rather than one. Compared to the initial offering price, this is a pretty sweet deal. This deal could have set you back BD 360 ($952) at least had you got it at launch.

Similarly, I just heard this morning that PS3 prices in Malysia reached about BD 180 ($476). This is of course great news. Sony is doing exactly the suggestions I previously wrote in my March next gen forcast. They seems to be on the brink of a reform which can very much be very successful. If these moves could get retail customers intrested again, this will pull back the cautious 3rd party developers to the Sony side again.

In the mean time, Nintendo has NO Middle east representation nor official releases. And the choice of games are leaving hard cores hungry. Can't belive it, but This round Sony 1 / Nintendo 0.

The X360 is enjoying the Middle East presence of Microsoft and got price cuts and more distribution as well. Although it is still not the house hold name the Playstation is here.

Any way, It will be intresting to watch the public's reaction to the price cut.

PS3 Price drops! I knew it!

I saw it coming a mile away. Ken gets fired, then a crisis management plan is underway.
The number 1 gripe amongst consumers is the PS3 price. Well, CHEAP ASS GAMER reports that:

the PS3 will be $100 cheaper at Circuit City from 7/15 to 7/21 (according to their Sunday Ad), but this is a pretty good indication that there will be a price drop (announced at E3) at retailers across the USA.

Fair enough. Sound logic. So, the PS3 takes a lower price making it much more appealing instantly. BD sales will go up, and Sony gets to gauge interest until the holidays when it will bombard you all with top tier games and bundles and maybe rebates. That's my prediction anyway.

Sony is getting on their feet again. Good!

Defend your PS3 with a Samurai Sword

Damian Fernandez, a Karate brown belt, used a samurai sword to scare off a burglar who was after his PlayStation 3 video game console.
Seriously!
2 Burglers broke in and started looting. They say an empty PS3 box and began looking for it. One of them got into the room where Damian was and went out, then: "Once I saw him take off running back, I jumped off my (bunk) bed and I grabbed my sword … and I just waited for him," he said.
One of the men were arrested. Anyhow, that is the most fitting way to defend a PS3 in my opinion. Wouldn't you say?

Nextgen Sales: A closer look

Total sales figures will not give me the clear picture I need to forecast this war. Sadly the nexgenwars.com tracker does not give you that detail. Fortunately, videogame charts do! Lets see..

XBOX360
Sold 9.66 mil according to vg and 10.84 according to ngw. Lets see the figures; The bulk of the sales is in the US (almost 6 mil). Hmm.., expected as much. 3.4 mil is in the other region which includes Europe, Middle East and Australia. However Japan sold 380K ONLY?
That's not even close to half a million! From 10 million systems, The Japanese bought less than half a million?
No wonder it lacks Japanese 3rd party developers. Microsoft still finds this place tough huh? They are trying though, so this could change. But I really think the Japanese sales figures must rise in order to gain momentum.

Wii
Sold 6 mil according to vg, 5.21 mil according to ngw.
The Wii sales are more or less even in all regions. Almost 2 mil in Japan, 2.3 in USA & 1.68 elsewhere. Its close to a 2 million average across markets. That tells me that unlike the X360 above, All markets are embracing the Wii. Also, the close sales numbers suggest that supply is constant through out the markets (ie: no shortage in one place and surplus in another). The Wii sales growth is the fastest of the three. This even distribution should attract developers from all regions, I expect good diversity in games should this trend continues.

PS3
Sold 2.67 according to vg, 1.77 according to ngw. ...
....
Wait a minute! That's one heck of an error margin! The difference in figures cannot be almost one million units! I know the X360 figures are off by as many but percentage wise, the error margin is huge for the PS3 figures.
Moving on, we will use the vg figures here of course for now. PS3's biggest market is the USA. 1.32 mil. Japan has only 0.83 mil and everyone else bough about 0.52 mil.
That makes sense. The PS3 enjoyed immense demand at launch in the US. Other parts of the world are slow, exactly as the reports from UK, Europe & Australia say (It is still not available in the Middle East despite Sony treating it a part of Europe). The 830k units in Japan is way too little. I understand the Japanese developer's concern now.

What to make of this?
The Xbox 360 is a solid contender. Proven everywhere, except in Japan where no foreign system was successful before. Still, that simply says that their system works but needs Japanese 3rd party support. The Japanese 3rd parties are not endorsing the Xbox360 fully yet as they expect a Japanese system to reign, and are looking at PS3, which continues to disappoint most, leading to slower Japan sales, making the 3rd parties wait until the fog clears (or MGS or FF get released).
The Wii seems comfortable. I expect it to receive proper support in the near future. Its comfortable for the fact that it can coexist with either PS3 or X360. Either it will be the system of choice (for the big budget games), or, if the title goes to Sony or MS, Wii can easily transform into the casual gamer / family game machine which will compliment any gamer.
So:

• Microsoft must focus on the Japanese market now. RPGs. RPGs. And they should steal more exclusives from Sony, like DMC & Ace Combat, and try to make exclusive PS3 games not exclusive which will tip the market to their favour. Oh, and release cute special edition consoles like they did with Blue Dragon. The Japanese will eat it up!
  
• Sony needs to prove to 3rd parties that it still owns the market. They should lower and unify the prices worldwide (or make them closer) and release bundled systems with a big name game. They cannot lower the price now without risking watering down the brand as it will be like admitting it's not gaining sales because it's too expensive. Still, I'd rather they do this + the big budget exclusive + a strong Internet support that at least match or come close to XBLive.
  
• Wii is under alot of demand, shortages will occur. Nintendo needs to address this asap. Once they do, they must immediately release a big budget name (like Mario Galaxy) and offer bundled packages (imagine Wii + Mario + wii sports or wii play). The market will be theirs if they do this. Especially if it happens before MS or Sony do what I suggested above.

Conclusion: War ain't over folks. Some are leading the race, some trailing, but it ain't over yet.

Sony: Americans are cheap. The British cost more.

Ray Maguire (Sony UK managing director) says in a response to the question: "Why is the PlayStation 3 more expensive in the UK than it is in the rest of Europe?":

"If you take what's considered to be the most expensive and the least expensive – consider the US with its massive land and cheap people. Then you look at the UK – a little island where rent and rates are at an absolute
premium, and the cost of people is a lot more."

OK.. lets assume for a moment that I have no PR experience, and that I'm a total Nintendo fanboy with an IQ that's slightly higher than my shoe size. I know nothing about anything, OK? YOU tell me. Does that statement seem right to you?

I know what he's trying to say, but for goodness sake, people will eat you up for that. You don't need any more negative publicity.

Despite the public annoyance with the 425GBP price (around $850 retail), I originally thought that they intended to offer a lower price similar to the American price but couldn't. I may have been sympathetic there. I was way wrong:

-But GBP 425 seems like an odd number. Did you think about pricing the PS3 at
GBP 399 which would have a different feel to it, psychologically?
-No. We
did consider GBP 429, but we wanted to get the best for the consumer.

oh.. I see. you planned on getting MORE money, but you gave people a 4 pound discount. Gee, we don't know how to thank you.

Since launch the only good things I wrote about Sony was "HOME" and the other was the free HD TVs for London. I really need more positive news!

PS3 also plays games!

Ironically, that's true!

Australian PS3 Launch Embarrassment

At midnight, about 40 PS3 buyers had arrived to collect their consoles, causing distress for the army of camera crews who turned up expecting to capture launch mayhem, while a team from 2Day FM let out bogus cheers to convince their radio listeners that a launch extravaganza was underway.



read more | digg story

Sony gives 46" HDTV to everyone in PlayStation 3 line in London!

PlayStation 3 launched in Europe just a short while ago but some got a bigger surprise than others. At the console's official launch event in Virgin Megastores, Oxford Street, London, every console buyer netted a FREE 46" Sony Bravia LCD HDTV. Some might say Sony are finally showing Europe some love...



read more | digg story

No one wants a PS3 anymore!

fozi999 took this picture saying

"With a day until the PS3 launches in Europe the Newcastle Virgin Megastore
still has 72 left to pre-order. Is there any point?And I still can't get a
Wii. "

With a Pal system around $800, less HDTVs than the US, No games to desire or BD movies to own, seriously, why would you buy one?

Tell me people if I'm missing something here.

Sony Fights Back: Home

Sony introduced its new offering: Home.
Just watch the trailer and you'll get a good idea of what it is. Its like "the Sims" only each person you meet is an actual PS3 user. In a nut shell, meet and chat to others and start online games with them.
It has been compared to Nintendo's "Mii" system and to "Second life". The service is free and looks quite good really. This is however is NOT a life saver in my opinion. While a step in the right direction, it is still just a large chat and meet programme. The PS3 needs to pick up the pace a little bit.

PS3 Mistakes: Update

Well, some Sony supporters were quite upset with my post here, and called me a Nintendo fanboy. I do try to be fair, and they have to realize its a post about PS3's weaknesses. I'm not flaming Sony but this is what the topic is about!

In the intrest of fairness, there were some points that needs to be clarified:



1: Shortages: the shortages I meant were at launch. That problem has since been resolved.





2: Price: Compare console to console not HD player to another. Currently the price is like so: PS3>X360>Wii





4: Joypad motor: The motor I'm talking about is the "vibration" motor





6 & 7: Backwards compatible means people will sell or exchange their PS2 consoles to get the PS3, then they will be stuck or unsatisfied. as I said; Problem 7 has been rectified.





8: Corruption of saves. There is little ground for this, and is yet to be confirmed en masse. you may elect to drop it off the list.





9: "Stupid PR" is a matter of opinion. At one point in my life, PR was my livelihood, and from what I see, I can't say they're doing a good job. You are free to think otherwise, this point is not fact.





10: The difference between the 20GB & the 60GB models are slight and will not affect the market greatly as both units will run the same disks. Its Sony's Kutaragi's comments here that make me take notice. Read it if you didn't. He says that the PS3 is a computer and not a console and wants to upgrade it.

Hope you feel better now. Tea anyone? :)

The playstation3's biggest mistakes

Last November I predicted that Nintendo's Wii is what I think will win the next war.

I however gave allot of credit to Sony. I did not expect them to suck so badly.

When PSM (an American Playstation only independent magazine) starts to show screen shots of Nintendo games in articles and running features about the "worst launch in history", and when EGM comes up with a cover with a PS3 thrown with tomatoes, and when "wired" pick Wii clearly over the PS3, then my friend I can tell you Sony is going down.

Sony is going so down its not even funny. This will be a case study in future college textbooks.

Nintendo, was as foxy as I anticipated, it is to be expected of a company that lived so long and endured so many videogame generation, more than anybody. However, despite Nintendo's intelligence, That's not the reason why Sony is losing. Sony is losing because of their own sheer stupidity!

Sony DID become arrogant, like Nintendo was just as I predicted. That led to some horrific blunders. like:

1- Unit Shortages:

The PS2 was released in 2000 and had a huge success and instant shortages. So, why on Earth did Sony, after 7 years, with all that experience and market GROWTH, how can they expect to release the next gen PS3 with FEWER quantity than last time? That caused riots, stupidly high ebay prices and several shootings and robberies. Yeah, buy a system, fear for your life. Great selling point.

2- High Price:

I'm sorry, I've been gaming since before primary school. On an old Toshiba home PC with two colours on it (white & light blue only). The concept was always to "sell a cheap console". Why? because everyone will buy it and there you go: instant user base. Why do you think magazines are so cheap to subscribe to? yes, building user base (good for advertising revenue you see). Selling a console at a high price (a price never achieved in the history of consoles I might add) will certainly mean a smaller user base, which won't be to attractive to third party developers.

3- Stealing & lying too:

Sony came up with a lame ass boomerang controller that just screams "I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT VIDEOGAMES", did they not learn anything from PS1 & PS2? Anything at all? Along came Nintendo and tought the world again some new tricks with their Wiimote. What does Sony do? I think someone yelled:"lets go back to the Dual Shock 2 design. Hell no, we don't have time to R&D a new shape, just use the old shape with bluetooth. I WANT MOTION SENSING AT ALL COSTS YOU HEA.. Sixaxis? OK. Just sign them. HURRY!"

So we get the current PS3 joypad, the "Sixaxis". Not as sophisticated as the Wiimote by far, but at least it does have it.

Then someone removes the vibrating function, "say what?" everyone asks then Sony responds "It will mess up the motionsensing capabilities and we'd rather put in a new input method rather than a feedback method".

A lie that PSM themselves uncovered (imagine, a PS3 magazine doing that to the PS3) where they showed an old PS2 controller with motion sensing AND vibration for the PS2 with absolutely no problems. Great, your thieves and liers too. So, why removing the vibration? it must be:

4- Cheap skate tactics 1 - still joypad:

No motor in the joypad means its cheaper (for them to make, not for people to buy). This greedy concept extends to:

5- Cheap skate tactics 2 -HD Not-Ready:

in the spirit of greed & cockyness, Sony claimed HD capabilities. But... You won't be able to bask in the glory of your new HD TV just yet because: Sony won't give you HD cables. You have to go buy them yourselves. that way it will cost YOU extra, not them. Just like selling a car without tires. It doesn't stop there...

6- Cheap skate tactics 3 - Not Fully Compatible 1:

While the PS3 is being touted as fully PS2 backwards compatible, there is no where on the machine to stick in your memory card. Why? Because in the same said spirit, you have to BUY an adaptor for that. Not only is it ugly, they are charging you $15 for something that could cost $2-3 to manufacture built in.

7- Not fully compatible 2:

The PS3 rendered PS2 games actually WORSE than they are! God, I remember the comparisons between PS1 & PS2 and how 2 made everything just better (world peace must be near now!). In the interest of fairness, this issue has been resolved in system update 1.5

8- Not fully compatible 3 - Destroyer of legends:

It seems that it corrupts data saves for PS2. Careful now.

9- Stupid, Stupid PR:

Who's their PR agency? Seriously? They suck! All these press releases makes me think that they do not believe they are talking to smart people. When the people asked about the lack of vibration they told them it couldn't be done. And we know it WAS done. That is sad. The the president of SCEA comes out and dares anyone to find a PS3 on the shelves promising those who do with $1200.

Ladies and gentlemen, if this person managed to be president, we all have hope to become one, one day.

First of all, when you have a system which had severe, and I mean severe shortages at launch, you cannot "brag" about how successful it is by daring people to find one! Was he on something at the time?

So, penny arcade took him up on that offer successfully proving that the PS3 is freely available (making prez a liar or completely clueless) and holding him up on his dare. (click the image on the right for a bigger picture)

10- You can't rule by division:

A console means an affordable standard to play games on. PCs aren't "standard" because each one is different, that's why pc games look and feel and sometimes play different. That's why there are some games you can't buy because it's not compatible or its too demanding.

A console gets rid of a~ll the headache. except if its a PS3, mind. different versions will eventually mean different spec. Specially if Sony's plans to be able to upgrade playstation 3 to new hardware comes to life. This will cut them off the casual gamer market instantly, as "casuals" will not bother to verify "specs".

So, what do you think? I can't believe that PSM ran an article about the "Worst launch in History" Sony is losing their own preachers.

That's not the only thing their losing, they are slowly losing third party developers. They are looking at castle Mario now, Solid Snake is guest starring in Nintendo's Wii Smash brothers while Square Enix are releasing a Final Fantasy XII spinoff on the Nintendo DS. In the business world, these companies are saying to Nintendo: "Hello. *shake hands* how are you? Were still friends right? cool!". Third parties are paving an emergency exit road so they can easily jump ship if things turn sour.

The charts are not in Sony's favour at all. It's not a problem of hardware or games. This is mostly just very bad management, something unfamiliar with a Japanese company. They should seriously do something before too late.

Nextgen war forcasts: Wii Vs. PS3 Vs. X360

So all next gen systems are out in the open. Yes, I know you may still be unable to get one, but anyway.
A hot topic is "who's gonna win?" which is a question I heared numerous of times in my life!

I really think that Nintendo has an upper hand this time. Why?
I'll cut that to phases so you can piece it together later and understand:
PHASE 1:
On the Super Nintendo days, Nintendo OWNED the market. It was just them Vs. Sega, and Nintendo killed them in there.
So what happens is, Nintendo calls Sony and asks them to make a CD add on to their SNES console. But discontinues the project when they see Sega's CD add on failing. leaving Sony with an investment they do not want to lose. Nintendo here were King, and cocky.

PHASE 2:
Nintendo releases the Nintendo 64, Sony release the PlayStation. Nintendo forces the cartridge system down the industry's throat. AND charges an arm and a leg to publish games. On the other hand, Sony gave them freedom & charged next to nothing.
So this is what publishers were thinking: Hmmm. Pay alot, work with a limited memory & limited freedom, or pay little; have alot more memory & have all the creative freedom I want?
Naturally, everyone moved to Sony, even Square! Nintendo failed to understand that the market grew up, and they are not children anymore. In the end of this phase, Nintendo realized it could not go head to head with Sony, so they picked a niche market (smart move, they went with kiddie stuff) and remained dormant.

PHASE 3:
PlayStation 2 & Game cube. here it gets interesting; Nintendo is cautious and Sony Ambitious. We all know Sony won eventually, but what Nintendo gained here is that they re-introduced popular franchises, and showed people that they are not a kiddie system anymore. I am quite convinced that they did this on purpose, I don't think they really were trying to dominate this round, they simply wanted to re-establish trust.

PHASE 4:
Very interesting phase. It is the exact opposite situation of PHASE 2!
Sony is very cocky, system is overpriced, games are overpriced, and they think "We are the PlayStation, people will come".
They maybe right, but look what Nintendo did, they are doing the exact same thing that the first PS1 did: Give great incentives to both publishers & customers.
The Nintendo Wii is :

1. Introducing the consoles to a new market
2. Is more than 50% cheaper than the PS3
3. Has Mature games at launch, to solidify the "non-kiddie" image
4. Has an advanced image sensoring system (a product from a wholly owned subsidiary) which Sony clearly imitated
   
5. is entering the market with 4 Million units as opposed to Sony's 400K

the Wii is cheaper but it's neither a BD player or HD compatible. That's fine. BD has alot to prove, that's one, and as for HD? Nintendo can easily re-release an HD version of the console after a year or so. by then they would have owned the market!

Also the availability of PS3s are really dismal. I mean Sony shipped 500K with the PS2 and still got a shortage, and now they are shipping 400K PS3s? Stupid. real stupid.

So in essence, this is what happened with Nintendo:

Phase 1, Nintendo Cocky

Phase 2, Nintendo gets PWNED!

Phase 3, Nintendo lurks in a corner to study and prepare

Phase 4, all guns ablazing!

Nintendo is the lucky number. Want proof? In the new Smash Brothers game for the Wii, Solid Snake (from Konami's Metal Gear Solid series) is making a guest appearance. Konami is usually an avid supporter of PS3, so whats this?

In the business world that means: Konami senses the danger lurking around Sony, so its strengthening its ties with Nintendo, just in case.

....
I didn't mention the Xbox did I?
Never mind. I hate the thing, and its only saving points are XBOX live service, and the fact that the defected RPG famous producer (Sakaguchi I think) has formed his own studio & will release to Xbox.

Interesting, but I think the major battle is Nintendo Vs. Sony, and I think Nintendo is winning.

What do you think?