Sony has moved to dispel Microsoft claims that Xbox is outselling the PS3 in Europe, revealing internal figures that say its console has sold 300,000 more units than Xbox 360 in PAL territories.
And the company doesn't feel it has to follow Microsoft and further ignite consumer interest with a price cut of its own anytime soon.
SCEE president David Reeves told MCV that Sony will remain focused on the value offered by the PS3 and its extra functions and services – at its current £299 SRP.
"No we are not going to go down in price; neither are we going to go down in price on PS3 in spring time either. Absolutely not, whatever you might have heard to the contrary,"
Today it was announced that the gaming and anime industry has lost another beloved artist and creator. Mutsumi Inomata has passed away.
The Tales Of series are some of the best RPGs I've ever played, and the characters are a big reason for that. I don't think I played a single game in the series that I didn't enjoy. Rest in peace.
Wow she was the character designer for Tales of Destiny one of my favorites of all time =(
I love the Tales games. Phantasia will always be my favorite. Ironically I felt like as the series progressed the character design became too “anime cliche.”
Is the future of artificial intelligence in video games playing out in a cyberpunk ramen bar? Tech companies would like you to think so, but game writers aren't so sure.
From witnessing countless ai generated articles and content it's clear ai is not very creative and often produces nothing but word soup so I'd like to keep ai away from storyline or side quests as much as possible
Where does ai have a place I think ai can be used effectively in upscaling technology or the remastering process for older games touching up assert etc however it must be done with human supervision ala GTA trilogy where it was used but clearly not vetted before being included in the game
I mean the core issue with AI is exactly what it's substituting. Generating visual art is a perfect example of this. Currently, if you want to use AI to generate anything short of a background, you are going to deal with numerous drawbacks. From anatomy issues in humans and animals to completely broken fonts for logos and visibly recycled styles.
But when it comes to writing, things are a bit messy. There are indeed extremely talented writers out there working on video games. But there are also a lot of them who really aren't, and we all know it. Take games like the recent Suicide Squad or Starfield; those game scripts could very well have been done by AI.
Another issue with AI writers that is often pointed out is the ludonarrative issue. Basically, AI, by its very nature, wouldn't be able to write within the context of the game mechanics and scenarios, which would lead to a lot of ludonarrative problems and break immersion. However, against that argument, one need not look further than The Last of Us Part II. That game is a embodiment of ludonarrative issues and is still considered by many as one of the best games and game stories out there, so it's clear that for the majority of the market, that would not be an issue.
So AI, with all its limitations right now, probably wouldn't hurt game stories as much as the writers would like gamers to believe. I doubt that it would improve what we have now, but given what we have now, I also doubt that it would be measurably worse.
As it stands right now, AI is really good at taking existing concepts that a human imagines and then organizing them into a coherent story. You still need creativity, but I think having a "room of writers" is probably no longer necessary. So in that regard AI is taking jobs. For instance, let's say I provide AI with a number of characters and what their personalities are. I might say, (if making a murder mystery) the Butler who seems like the protagonist is actually the killer. If you try this, AI will do a pretty fantastic job of writing dialogue between characters that would lead you, as the reader, not to suspect who the killer is. Normally a writer works with other writers and breaks a story down into parts where the characters motives start as unclear and then progressively become revealed. AI does a really nice job with foreshadowing also. You can also tell AI to incorporates symbolism, and misdirection. TLDR; I'll never not use AI when writing a story. It's just a tool that when used properly will make good writing great.
“I love a good old puzzle game and Zuma is one that I used to play all the time and now you can, too, thanks to EA Play and Game Pass.” - A.J. Maciejewski from Video Chums.
Alright Microsoft,Sony have shown their numbers;Now it's your turn.
300,000 is a pretty large gap to lie about. Perhaps Sony is ahead in Europe? Meh, I don't really care either way.
Everything is pointing to Sony making 2009 a year to remember! Going from this article, they are still losing money on the PS3 but i would guess not a great deal if they expect to hit the break even point next year. KZ2 is obviously the start point, and boy WHAT a starting point!
But I would like to hear less about sales figures today and more about Killzone 2 please.
Btw, I saw PP and POG at Gamestop buying PS3s and they were pre ordering Killzone 2.
That explains why we don't see POG anymore...
A 300,000 sales gap may not be that much to brag about, but when the PS3 is like double the price of the Xbox 360 in Europe and when the 360 has already seen 2 Price cuts in the territory in this year alone, the PS3 is doing pretty well over there and whenever Sony does drop the price in 2009, that gap will only get bigger in Europe.
It seems like a price cut may not be coming in March 09' after reading this...but it's not like Sony would announce a price cut this early anyways.... But since Reeves said that the PS3 business model was much different, it's making me think more and more that a PS3 price cut won't be coming in March after all.... Oh well, as long as I get my 2009 exclusives I'm happy.