EL33TONLINE: News tag archive: ps2
Ten years ago today, on March 4th 2000, the PlayStation 2 was released in Japan, kick-starting what most would agree to be a golden age in videogames, bringing with it a host of classic titles too numerous to mention (but you can insert your favourites here).
The PlayStation 2 then released officially in North America on October 26th and in Europe on November 24th of the same year, and as of the end of last year, has gone on to sell an incredible 140 million units, with sales spurred on by new hardware revisions, different colour offerings and hundreds of different bundles.
Congratulations to the console that keeps on trucking, and will probably continue to chug along into the foreseeable future thanks to Sony’s continued support.
Polyphony Digital, subsidiaries of Sony Computer Entertainment, recently announced that as of December 2009, it has sold 55.45 million units across its entire series of realistic driving simulation games, Gran Turismo.
For its third fiscal quarter ending December 31st 2009, Sony reported a 3.9% overall sales increase, up to ¥2.24 trillion ($24.33 billion) compared to the same period last year, mainly as a result of increased revenues in the company’s Financial Services and Pictures divisions.
Net income was up to ¥79.2 billion ($861 million), from ¥10.4 billion ($114.88 million) last year, attributed to aggressive cost-cutting initiatives across the company.
Via an official forum post, SEGA recently announced that online servers hosting PC and PS2 Phantasy Star Universe players will be shut down as of the end of March this year, with a final update and event scheduled for the end of January.
The Xbox 360 version of the game, however, will still continue to be supported by SEGA in full, with regular updates and “currently unreleased and anticipated content.”
The schedule for Phantasy Star Universe for the next few months looks like this:
Activision Blizzard recently announced that last year’s DJ Hero was the highest grossing new intellectual property in the US and Europe for calendar year 2009, according to data released by sales tracker The NPD Group.
CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick enthused:
All things considered, Sony had quite a good December last year, according to NPD’s report, managing to sell the second most home consoles in the month with 1.36 million PlayStation 3s (representing an 87% year-over-over year rise), trotting out a few hundred thousand PSP and PS2s, and gaining more hardcore shooter credibility with a further 1.12 million copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold.
This February at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, videogame industry legend Mark Cerny will be formally inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, joining the likes of luminaries such as Shigeru Miyamoto, John Carmack, Will Wright and Sid Meier.
Mark Cerny has made major contributions to videogame technologies and numerous titles throughout the years, some of which you may not even realise he had a hand in, including Marble Madness way back in 1984, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 1992, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, Heart of Darkness, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance, Uncharted, MotorStorm, Heavenly Sword, inFamous and Killzone 2, with many more to come in the future through his consultation company, Cerny Games.
With the runaway success of Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise, and murmurs over the years of the ‘Hero’ franchise spreading out to other instruments (above and beyond the ‘standard’ guitar, drum and microphone combination), enthusiast press bloggers and industry commentators soon took up the call to guess where the mega-publisher could next turn its eye, with regular jokes cropping up about ‘Timpani Hero,’ ‘Xylophone Hero’ and, my favourite, ‘Bagpipe Hero.’
When it was announced that the next ‘instrument’ to be inducted into the ‘Hero’ franchise would be none other than a DJ mix deck, complete with working scratch turntable and crossfader, with a game entitled ‘DJ Hero,’ the aforementioned bloggers and naysayers must certainly have thought that reality had surpassed their wildest fantastical imaginings.
Continue reading El33tonline’s review of DJ Hero.
I am a big fan of the PS2. It’s like an old pet that you really love, that dog that is always by your side. I have spent many hours in front of mine saving the planet and breaking records. The PS2 must be one of the world’s most successful consoles, having sold nearly 140 million units worldwide and only recently being introduced into countries like Brazil. But as much as I love the old dog, you can’t teach it new tricks. Games like MotorStorm: Arctic Edge is the proof that it’s finally time to put the old friend down. It’s not that the game is not good, it is! It is just not good enough.
Continue reading El33tonline’s review of MotorStorm: Arctic Edge.
Konami surprised many a fan by their announcement that the original Silent Hill for the original PlayStation was being revamped and remade for the Wii, PSP and PS2 in the form of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
The upcoming survival horror follows Harry Mason as he searches the snowy streets of Silent Hill looking for clues to the disappearance of his daughter Cheryl.
In the year 2000, Sony’s PlayStation 2 was launched worldwide, and over its lifetime it’s accrued quite a library of classic titles, from your Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid games, to Gran Turismo and Resident Evil, as well as Devil May Cry, God of War, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, amongst many, many more.
Here at the tail-end of 2009, the PlayStation 2 is officially being released in Brazil, with a selection of over 14 titles to choose from, as Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) expands its business to Latin America. From the press release:
“Starting this November, Brazil’s gaming and entertainment enthusiasts can snap up the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, the best selling system in the world, and dozens of PlayStation 2 software titles for purchase at over a thousand retail stores across the country.”
“Brazil is home to a large community of gaming enthusiasts, making the country an ideal opportunity for SCEA to introduce the PlayStation experience to a new legion of fans.”
Ken Kutaragi, widely regarded as the ‘father of the PlayStation’ and former chairman and chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, has started a new company that focuses on online networking operations.
Entitled Cyber AI Entertainment, the company is reported to be working in the realm of cloud computing and considering the development of “an advanced platform for entertainment,” says Nikkei.
Kutaragi, who owns a 90% stake in Cyber AI Entertainment and will serve as the company’s president, is joined by a former Sony engineer, Takashi Usuki, who will serve as a member of the board, and owns the remaining 10% of the company.
OK, don’t get me wrong. The new, remastered versions of the original God of War and God of War II look amazing, especially in comparison to their first appearances on the PlayStation 2, but even with a new coat of high definition paint, they still pale in comparison to next year’s God of War III.
Take this video from the upcoming God of War Collection for example:
Looks great, right? How about this next one?
A new trailer for the upcoming LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues has been released by LucasArts and Traveller’s Tales Games.
Players will be able to experience the four cinematic adventures of the famous Indy, including for the first time Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues hits shelves on the 17th of November in the US and a few days later on the 20th across Europe. The game will be available for the Wii, NDS, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360 and PC.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 (PES) releases today on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC (and mobile), but the soccer/football fans amongst us didn’t really need reminding of this fact.
What is a little extraordinary is that Konami, the developer and publisher of the classic series, has decided to ship over three million copies of the game to retail in anticipation of what they expect to be a blockbuster release.
Konami predicts PES 2010 will be a million-selling title at launch, contributing to the 55.5 million units the franchise has already sold, according to European Marketing, PR Director, Konami Digital Entertainment, Martin Schneider:
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