07.31.06

ESA Confirms The Death of E3

Posted in Xbox 360 News, E306, PS3 Related at 2:23 pm by UNSCleric

As predicted in the blogcast earlier this morning, E3 is being “downsized” and will never be the way it has been ever again. As I also said in the blogcast, before any of this was known, is that Sony and EA were top players in the pushing for this destruction of E3. Wow, what a shock there, all you had to do is look at how these companies operate, and it was very easy to connect the dots. Anyways, I’m “happy” to see that the blogcast was right on target this morning, and it’s good to at least have a confirmation that E3 has been murdered. Thanks a lot Sony & EA, when you drive gaming into the ground, maybe some of these people will wake up. At least E3’s last show will always be remembered as the one Sony made a complete joke of themselves, and Microsoft and Nintendo began to take their rightful spots as industry leaders. Sadly though, I would have rather seen Sony do better at E3, than see them pull this powertrip and effectively kill E3 with EA.

RIP Electronic Entertainment Expo: 1994-2006

Thanks to Ciros 360 for the news tip on the confirmation.

I also want to add something Matt posted in the comments section of the Blogcast post.

It is an undeniable fact that thousands, if not millions of gamers, look forward to E3 every year. This year was one of the biggest yet and generated more hype than any in the past (arguably). The bad part of this is that those companies that didn’t do too well (IE: Sony, EA, etc) provide so much backing to E3 moneywise that they have a controlling say in its existence and how things are run. Almost every company other than Sony got massive amounts of great positive publicity from the event. It is basically a bold-faced lie that there was not enough media exposure and that is the point. Media outlets not connected to Sony have hinted that this move is because Sony wants to have their own trade show with only those developers they approve of and control the media exposure to such an extent that bloggers and other independents are likely not to even be in attendance, eliminating the chance of such bad PR as we all saw this year. You cannot seriously say that it is purely economics. It is purely deception…….as usual.

UPDATE: It has been confirmed once again that E3 is now going to be a “Media Festival” in a LA Hotel, and will be held in July.  It’ll have a capacity of 5,000 or less compared to E3’s 60,000.  Taxi drivers, hotels, & restaurants in the LA area also have no idea how they’re going to make up for the lost money due to the expo’s death.  For example, an individual taxi driver will lose $700-$1000 and has no way of making that lost revenue up.

Permalink 11 Comments

More ‘Dead Rising’ Videos on Marketplace

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 12:23 pm by UNSCleric

“Webisode 3″ is now up along with an extended TV spot. The end of the TV spot also says, “Dead Rising Playable Demo Coming Soon to Xbox Live Marketplace.”

Permalink Comments

UNSCleric.com Special: Debut Blogcast

Posted in Xbox 360 News, E306, PS3 Related, Wii Related, Site News at 9:54 am by UNSCleric

This morning, after reading and thinking about the E3 news, and everything it means to the industry, I have recorded a 27+ minute blogcast (or Gamecast as Microsoft calls them) and it’s basically just me, going through what is going on with E3, why it’s happening, and who is profiting off it.

I had very little preparation for this. It’s all off the top of my head, so be kind:). Like I said in February, blogcasts are in the plans for this site, but I wasn’t quite ready for it yet, I was going to start them this fall, but now that E3 has supposedly been killed, I felt that today I needed to do a special “blogcast special” for lack of a better term.

I hope you enjoy the blogcast, and UNSCleric.com will continue to do them from time to time, and maybe even have a regular one sometime down the line. There will also be future articles about this and related subjects. I’ll have more news on this situation during the day, as we expect an official announcement about E3 and its future sometime today

Click the link below (or right-click and Save As) to download the blogcast.

UNSCleric.com Blogcast #1 - July 31st, 2006

Related:

My Launch Article

My Fallout of E3 Article

Permalink 17 Comments

07.30.06

E3 2006 Was The Final E3, EVER.

Posted in Xbox 360 News, E306, PS3 Related, Wii Related at 2:49 pm by UNSCleric

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) shindig has been a staple of game industry life since the mid-1990s. However, we understand the larger exhibitors have jointly decided that the costs of the event do not justify the returns, generally measured in media exposure.

Publishers believe the multi-million dollar budgets would be better spent on more company-focused events that bring attention to their own product lines rather than the industry as a whole.

Well placed sources say the news that larger exhibitors were pulling out had prompted urgent meetings among publishing executives. They decided that, without the support of the larger software publishers and hardware manufacturers, there would be no point in continuing.

ESA president Doug Lowenstein will likely announce the news some time within the next 48 hours, possibly on Monday. It’s possible that the ESA will seek to limit the damage by organizing some form of lesser event in May, but it’s clear that the days of an industry event attended by all the major publishers, spending big money, are gone.

Calls to ESA staff are not being returned at present.

Source

Extremely depressing news here. The only thing that makes this not so bad, is that at least E3 2006 was the best one of them all. E3 will always be remembered as a great time, for me anyway. I believe E306 was the exact moment the next-gen war between Microsoft and Sony shifted tides.

Does anyone else get the feeling that companies like Sony, who aren’t competent enough to compete on the live show floor are the reason for the permenant cancellation of E3? A lot of companies like EA and Sony succeed only due to marketing hype and smoke & mirrors tactics and well…that doesn’t work at E3, which Sony found out at this year’s. It really is a shame that greed and big corporations wanting more and more money for less work once again slap gamers in the face with the termination of the greatest week for gamers worldwide.
Thanks to UNSCleric.com contributor Mike (Twisted) for the heads up on this breaking story.

UPDATE: Joystiq.com is reporting on this story steadily and has a lot more information on this.

Permalink 9 Comments

Sony to award “Entitlements”

Posted in Xbox 360 News, PS3 Related at 11:53 am by UNSCleric

Once again, Sony cannot innovate, so they imitate, the only thing they know how to do these days.

According to EGM’s Dan Hsu the Sony Playstation 3 will be awarding their own version of Xbox 360 Achievements but will be calling them “entitlements.”

During this week’s EGM Live podcast, Hsu, the editor of EGM, said he had heard that Sony was going to call their achievements by this horrible name that could only come from the brilliant minds at Sony.

Let’s start with the fact that this sounds absolutely retarded as a name. Is your screen going to flash “entitlement awarded” or something? That just sounds so robotic and stupid. Also, isn’t that grammatically incorrect? Don’t you have to be entitled to something?

It’s also another example of a blatant ripoff of a very original idea from someone else that Sony is going to steal and try and pass off as another breakthrough for themselves.

It’s really sad that a company that was great company has sunken to such depths. Maybe I’m crazy but who knows? I just know that this is a horrible name which better be changed if Sony doesn’t want to have even more shit talked about them then they already are.

Original Article

It’s sad to look at this and then look at my past couple “Quote of the Weeks” and see the blatant lying Sony continues to do to this day. Microsoft is copying all of Sony’s ideas huh? Only to the blind they are.

Permalink 7 Comments

07.29.06

Sony Sued Again + More $$$ Woes

Posted in Xbox 360 News, PS3 Related at 12:47 pm by UNSCleric

Sony is now being sued for technology in the PSP, PS2, PS3, and many other of their products.

Sony has been having some trouble with patent disputes of late. In March 2005, Immersion Corporation won its lawsuit claiming that Sony’s DualShock PlayStation and PlayStation 2 controllers infringed on its force-feedback patents. A judge ordered Sony to pay more than $90 million in damages, and earlier this year denied an attempt from the electronics giant to have the decision overturned.

Now Sony’s in the middle of another patent fight, this one brought against the company by Pennsylvania-based Agere Systems. According to court documents, Agere (which has a pair of offices in Texas) has filed suit against Sony and a number of its divisions for willful infringement of eight patents in a number of its products, including the PSP, PlayStation 2, and based on announced specifications, the PlayStation 3. Sony VAIO computers, Handycams, Walkman players, Memory Stick Duos, and Location Free TV are also named as infringing offerings on some of the patents. The patents in question run from a “wireless local area network apparatus” to “barrier layer treatments for tungsten plug.”

Agere is asking that each branch of Sony be made to provide an accounting of all gains made through their alleged infringements, and that the company be awarded damages to adequately compensate it based on those figures. Agere also claims that Sony knew about the patents and willfully infringed on them, so it is asking the courts to boost the damages awarded as much as three times what it would have been otherwise.

In its defense, Sony has denied all claims of infringement. It is arguing that it actually has the rights to use seven of the eight patents through a 1989 cross-licensing deal with AT&T and Lucent (whose microelectronics group eventually became Agere Systems). Sony also contends that some of the patents (including the one it doesn’t claim a right to use) were not properly obtained because Agere omitted important information when it filed for them. Finally, Sony believes the patents in question are invalid anyway, and has asked the judge to declare them as such.

Agere denied Sony’s counterclaims last month and has issued a demand for a jury trial.

GameSpot

In other good news, Sony is announcing that it will be in the red as far as PS3 goes for five years at the least.

Sony’s game sales were down 29%, and Sony’s senior VP predicts that will get even worse  Now with the PS3, they’re betting basically their entire company on software sales being high for the PS3, which I just don’t see happening.  Not only does the PS3 have next to nothing as far as games go, but are people even going to have money for any games after retailers are done raping people with console/accessory launch bundles?

Either way, it’ll be fun to watch it all play out this fall, UNSCleric.com will be here reporting away.

Also, there’s some NCAA Football 07 Gamer Pictures and Themes on the Marketplace now, the Picture Packs are 60 points and the Themes are 150 points.

Also, UNSCleric.com contributor Lord_Gradient has posted an interesting article over on his GameSpot blog entitled Preserving Nostalgia.  He talks about how 8-bit & 16-bit gaming may die all by itself, because of the batteries used for data storage dying within the catridge.

Also, no quote/picture of the week this week, that feature will return from a 3-week hiatus next weekend and continue weekly from there.

Permalink 3 Comments

07.28.06

Ninety-Nine Nights Demo Now Available

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 5:02 am by UNSCleric

Xbox Live users can now download a demo for ‘Nintety-Nine Night’ from the Xbox Live Marketplace. This free demo is available in all Xbox Live regions.

Permalink 6 Comments

Saints Row Achievements Revealed

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 2:53 am by UNSCleric

A few entries ago I posted a Q&A with the Saints Row developer where he said there would be 43 achievements, but he wouldn’t say what they are, well now we know, except for the several “secret” achievements.

Click here for the list. 

Permalink 1 Comment

Dead Rising “Webisodes” On Marketplace + Splinter Cell Pushed Back

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 1:17 am by UNSCleric

There is now two sneak peek videos up for Dead Rising.  The two current ones don’t show any gameplay, just cutscenes, but the game looks amazing, and it’s sure to be a system seller.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent has been pushed back until late October now as well.  Ubisoft announced that yesterday in a release about their financial earnings (which were good).

Also, I saw this yesterday, but didn’t grasp just how many people are excited for it.  Fuzion Frenzy 2 has been announced for the Xbox 360 and will be coming out this fall.  You can also build your own online tournaments and the game will have a variety of 40 mini-games to play.

Permalink 2 Comments

07.26.06

Demo: Rockstar’s Table Tennis

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 8:54 am by UNSCleric

As promised last week, you can now download a demo of Rockstar’s ‘Table Tennis’ from the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Permalink 8 Comments

Galaga - Now On Xbox Live Arcade!

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 8:46 am by UNSCleric

Galaga was released in the arcades in 1981 and became an instant classic. This exciting title soon became know for its innovative fighter combination system and the varied enemy attack patterns. Take control of a fighter space craft and shoot down the invading aliens. Watch out for the swooping motherships, which will try to steal your fighter! Rescue captured fighters to double your firepower!. Earn Perfect Bonuses as you battle your way through wave after wave in different challenging stages.

Pay respect to your arcade gaming roots by checking out Galaga on Xbox Live Arcade!

With high-definition graphics, Xbox Live Achievements and Leaderboards, the Xbox Live Arcade version of this all-time classic shooting game provides hours of fun.

‘Galaga’ boasts:

• Classic Galaga shooter action is back!
• Over 250 levels
• 12 unique Achievements
• Earn Perfect Bonuses and increase your fighter status
• Full worldwide Leaderboards
• Unique Dual Fighter combination attack mode
• Original music and sound effects

Permalink 1 Comment