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!

While Microsoft posted "record" revenues of $19.02 billion for the second quarter ending December 31, 2009 – driven by "exceptional demand" for the new OS on the block, Windows 7 – the Entertainment and Devices Division, home to the Xbox 360 and PC gaming businesses, wasn't as successful. That's an inversion of last quarter, for those of you keeping track. "EDD revenue decreased reflecting a $295 million or 12% decline in Xbox 360 platform and PC game revenue," the company's 10-Q form reports. "This decrease was due mainly to decreased revenue from Xbox 360 video games, decreased Xbox 360 consoles sold, and decreased revenue per console, offset in part by increased Xbox Live revenue."

Microsoft blames the dip in game revenue to a shortage of major releases; the same period last year saw the release of "two significant games," most likely Fable 2 and Gears of War 2. It reports sales of 5.2 million Xbox 360s for the quarter, a drop from the 6 million sold during the same period last year. And lastly, that pesky price drop is messing up this year's numbers. There are some silver linings: Xbox Live revenue is up, the unit's operating income is up nearly 300% "due to reduced operating expenses." You can thank "lower Xbox 360 console costs" and "decreased marketing for the Xbox 360 platform" for that savings. It looks like all eyes are on you, Mr. Wake and Mr. Supercop, to pick things up in the next fiscal half.

[Via IndustryGamers]

We told you about our experience with the just-announced Apple iPad yesterday; this morning, we'll show you, by way of the above video. You'll note that both Need for Speed Shift and NOVA are the same non-iPad versions available on the App Store today – the enhanced versions shown during the keynote are works-in-progress and weren't available to demo. On the down side, the versions we played included the "2X" upscale button; on the up side, they benefited from the larger screen and increased tilt sensitivity.

While the above video isn't representative of what the iPad is capable of, it is representative of how we think many iPhone owners will use the device, since iPhone and iPad games won't be cross-compatible.

Hey, so you know all about the iPhone, right? In the brief time we spent with Apple's new iPad, from a gaming perspective, there's not much more to add. It's a big iPod Touch -- both are missing the iPhone's camera -- but iPad's got a flexible data plan option; no contract required. While Apple showed off some iPad-optimized games during today's keynote, neither Gameloft's new version of N.O.V.A. nor Electronic Arts' new version of Need for Speed: Shift were available for demo. Instead, we took some plain ol' apps for a spin, including Scrabble and Need for Speed: Shift (the current iPhone version; not the upcoming iPad one).

The "2X" button indeed fills the screen with a simple tap, turning your low-res iPhone apps into full-screen experiences; however, the increase comes with a graphical cost. The games are scaled up and look like it. That doesn't mean they're not entirely playable -- Need for Speed actually controlled better with the larger screen; tilting the iPad had less of an effect on the screen than doing the same on the iPhone's comparatively tiny display, meaning we were able to focus on the action while moving the screen around (something many iPhone games simply don't do as well). Similarly, the larger surface means your big fat thumbs won't obscure as much of the screen as they do on the iPhone -- that means more room for on-screen pads, as shown in the iPad-optimized port of N.O.V.A.

The Apple representative guarding the preview device told us that the iPad-optimized games will be featured in their own part of the App Store. These aren't "combo" apps that work one way on iPhone or iPod Touch and another way on iPad -- they are separate apps. While the higher-resolution graphics and iPad-specific optimizations will surely result in better gaming experiences on the iPad, we're not sure if existing owners of iPhone games will be interested in the perceived "iPad tax" for an optimized version -- your regular iPhone games will work on both devices, after all.

Perhaps enhanced iPad games will have "downscaled" versions for iPhone, or perhaps some developers will discover a way to bundle both together? It's not clear, but we're reaching out to Apple to clarify some of the App Store functionality and will talk with developers to get their take on the new device. The new SDK is available today, so many iPhone developers will be busy exploring what's new for iPad.

Update: Reader Kevin K shared this link from Eurogamer's resident egghead, Richard Leadbetter of DigitalFoundry, who notes that "it remains unclear what the ramifications of the hack actually are" and that "right now there has been no "hello world" homebrew code executed that typically demonstrates that the hacker actually has full control over the system." Read the entire piece for a fascinating look into the challenge of hacking the PS3 and the safeguards put in place on Sony's black box.

You may also want to read this BBC interview with Mr. Hotz, in which he says, "I can now do whatever I want with the system. It's like I've got an awesome new power - I'm just not sure how to wield it." He also tells the BBC that he "would publish details of the console's 'root key'"; however, DigitalFoundry writes, "Once the root key is available, it's essentially game over for the system's security for all-time, but it's here that some of the claims being made for the hack don't really add up. PSP has been compromised on many levels again and again, but its root key apparently remains unknown."

Original post: It has begun. With iPhone hacker George Hotz (the kids call him GeoHot) releasing his PlayStation 3 exploit to the world today, he's kicked off what's sure to be a non-stop game of cat-and-mouse between the global hacking community and the Japanese consumer electronics giant. "This is the coveted PS3 exploit," Hotz writes on his blog, linking to the exploit while noting that it "gives full memory access and therefore ring 0 access from OtherOS." Okay, we really only understood that first part but we're sure "full memory access" is synonymous with "bad news" for Sony's engineers. When first revealing his progress last Friday, Hotz wrote, "I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3."

Of course, we've seen this very same game played out on the PSP front with a constant stream of firmware updates designed to patch up the portable's porous security and, yes, even add some new features now and again. With the PS3 already the victim of an onerous amount of updates, we worry the hack may result in a glut of mandatory security patches. But who knows what wonders (no, we don't count the inevitable piracy amongst those wonders) this hack holds for PS3 owners – since the hack "is known to work with version 2.4.2 only" we suspect most people reading this won't even be able to tinker. Caveat emptor!

[Via Engadget]

Having pulled some of its heaviest hitters out of the busy Q1 release calendar, Capcom is ready to reassign those titles to an entirely new part of the calendar, one that hasn't been getting nearly as much attention as its numeric predecessor: Q2. Monster Hunter Tri was already announced for April, but now Super Street Fighter IV will join it on April 27th in North America and April 30th in Europe. New characters, new combos, and the return of the smash-a-car bonus stage (see pic!) are highlights of the not-yet-priced though sure-to-be affordable followup.

Lost Planet 2 is more "sequel" than Super Street Fighter IV-style expansion. The co-op focused third-person shooter offers "larger-than-life bosses" and four player co-op over Xbox Live or PlayStation Network, and you'll be able to take it up on that offer on May 18th in both North America and Europe. That leaves us some room in the June video game budget, if any publishers are looking to take advantage of the rest of Q2.

With a rapidly approaching "Spring" release date and only one game with confirmed support for the device, Sony has made the presumably wise decision to delay the release of the as-yet-unnamed PlayStation Motion Controller until "Fall 2010" in order to "offer an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users." The single game with confirmed support: Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition, shown off at last year's Tokyo Game Show with Motion Controller support on PS3 (here it is on video). RE5: Alternative Edition is coming to North America as "Gold Edition" in both retail and DLC formats, beginning in February.

We asked Capcom US how the delay of the Motion Controller would affect the release of Alternative/Gold Edition and here's what the publisher told us:

Capcom has not announced any compatibility between Sony's motion controller and Resident Evil 5 in North America. The release of this product will be unaffected by the delay in our territory and is still on track for a March 9 release with the individual pieces of downloadable content released prior.

Of course, that doesn't answer if the already demoed Motion Controller support will still be a component of the Japanese "Alternative Edition" release, whether that support will be patched into any or all of the retail and DLC releases upon the arrival of the Motion Controller in the Fall, or whether Capcom's just giving up on the idea entirely. We're following up and will let you know if Capcom's sharing anything beyond the above statement.

Just one month after purchasing GamerDNA, the promising stat-driven video game community site, Crispy Gamer has laid off its entire editorial staff, on the authority of the company's board of directors. We're told Chris Heldman, the CEO, former head of media entertainment at Google and co-founder of Crispy Gamer, has resigned in protest. Last September, Crispy's other co-founder, John Keefer, left to join the editorial staff of the influential GamePolitics blog.

The staff was told that they'll be paid for the month, but their termination is effective immediately, leading us to believe the site is going on a similarly immediate hiatus. Editorial staff affected include former Joystiq writer Kyle Orland, along with Scott Jones, John Teti, Evan Narcisse, James Fudge, Ryan Kuo, Managing Editor Elise Vogel, and Chief Marketing Officer Anne Mischler.

Writing about his sale of the company to Crispy Gamer just last month, GamerDNA CEO Jon Radoff said that the site "has very ambitious plans to build a media company around the gaming market." Today's news would seem to indicate that however ambitious those plans are, they no longer include an editorial component. We've reached out to both Radoff and Heldman and will update this post when we learn more.

Update: Jon Radoff told us, "I just heard it for the first time from you. And just got another call from another journalist a minute ago. I'm afraid I don't know anything about the situation -- if true, it's surprising and unfortunate." Indeed.

Update 2: Mr. Keefer wrote in to clarify some of the editorial positions and to let us know that Mr. James Fudge was also laid off. He also had this personal response to add: "It's hard to see a dream die, especially one you put your heart and soul into. The site was created for the readers and to give them an alternative voice, to dig deeper than many of the sites out there and to make readers think about what they play and why they play. Personally, I had a lot of fun in the process. Thanks to all the people that read the site and became part of the growing community."

When a handful of video game outlets (including Joystiq) got invites to Apple's much-hyped January 27th media event to unveil its 'latest creation' – rumored to be a tablet of some sort – it became rather obvious that whatever this creation is, it would have something to do with gaming. If a Wall Street Journal report this morning – detailing everything from book, magazine and newspaper partnerships to a TV subscription service – is to be believed, "Apple is also working with videogame publisher Electronic Arts Inc. to show off the tablet's game capabilities, according to one person familiar with the matter."

Insomuch as this rumored tablet is a big-sized iPod Touch, and insomuch as the iPod Touch is totally the 'best portable device for gaming,' games are an obvious component of this mystery device, and the iPhone-friendly devs at EA are an obvious partner for Apple. Whether this has anything to do with EA Mobile's announced support for suspected Apple Tablet-competitor, the Amazon Kindle, remains to be seen, but we've reached out to EA for comment. Knowing Apple's "loose lips" policy, we don't expect much.

[Update: "EA refuses any comment on this topic," we've been told. We'll just need to wait until next Wednesday then!]

The non-existent Ergos Magazine says it has "1000s of free online games." The not-a-real-site Arknet Gaming writes, curiously in the past tense, that it "... Unleashed the real power of your PC videogames." The not-in-Google Hardzone Online Reviews confusingly calls it "... the broken link between PC and TV." Lastly, the generic (and unknown to this writer) Gamers Magazine says truthfully, that it has "Better graphics than Xbox and PlayStation 3."

Of course, all of these prestigious (and not real) outlets are talking about the same groundbreaking product: the iGUGU Gamecore or, as you may better know it, "the most powerful TV videogame console." After being blown away by the announcement video (mostly from the hot air) we simply had to stop by iGUGU's booth at CES and experience this revolutionary technology for ourselves. You can imagine our delight hearing the same hyperbole mumbled by the booth's announcer (who, conspicuously, had his back to the crowd the entire time) and seeing it in the form of the above quotes on the product's box.

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With the news that Project Natal would offload the image processing to the Xbox console – as opposed to handling those duties in hardware on the device itself – and consume as much as 10 to 15 percent of the console's overall "computing resources," we became concerned that the potential for "supplemental" input in core games would be blunted. When asked what percentage of the Project Natal-enabled games in development would be Natal-exclusive as opposed to Natal-enhanced titles, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg told Joystiq, "Our focus is on most if not all them will fall into that category of completely unique, brand-new experiences for Natal."

"We're going to manage the portfolio very carefully and our focus is going to be on bringing completely brand new original experiences to the market when we launch Natal," Greenberg said. "We're not looking at just adding little Natal components to games, we're looking at how do we actually bring an entirely new category of controller-free games and entertainment to the market so I think that's where we will continue to focus."

But that doesn't mean that other developers aren't able to supplement their game's input with Natal controls. After the release this holiday, "developers will have that out there at their fingertips if they want to enable those features," Greenberg told us. "But I can't speak to what that means from a game development standpoint. As far as I'm aware, there's no real sacrifice." But Greenberg wasn't just talking up "new games" and "new ways to navigate" the console, but Microsoft is mysteriously promising "new entertainment-like experiences that will be enabled" because of the new interface.

With the "focus" on "controller-free games" and not just adding "little Natal components to games" we're left wondering how Peter Molyneux's Fable 3 – which he confirmed will have Natal support – will implement that support. With a 2010 launch for both Fable 3 and Project Natal, we expect it will be one of the device's bellwether games.

Discussing specifics of the company's forthcoming Project Natal, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg told Joystiq, "We think that there will be millions of Natals in consumer's homes this holiday." To put that number into context, Microsoft sold 2.3m Xbox 360 consoles and Nintendo sold 1.7m copies of Wii Fit with bundled Balance Board in the US during the months of November and December, 2008.

"Millions" of Natal units in a single holiday season is certainly an ambitious goal and one usually out of reach of most video game peripherals; however, Project Natal will be released with more than a year of hype behind it, not unlike the highly anticipated Wii Fit. With more than 39 million Xboxes worldwide, there's certainly a large enough platform footprint, and Greenberg (re)assures us that Project Natal will work on every Xbox 360 released to date, whether a hard drive is present or not. "As far as I'm aware, there is no requirement for a hard drive," Greenberg said.

There is a 50mb software package that powers some of Natal's magic, which raises concerns that original Xbox 360 Arcade units wouldn't have the storage availability to use Natal. Greenberg assuaged our concerns, reminding us of Microsoft's NXE outreach, offering a free 512mb Memory Unit or a discounted hard drive. "It's kind of like the digital TV conversion you know, [subsidizing] the box," Greenberg said. "We did that with the New Xbox Experience because it did require some space and so we feel like now we're in an environment where we feel like we're fine."

Capcom's aggressive digital distribution strategy has led to major releases on everything from WiiWare to Xbox Live Arcade to PlayStation Network to Windows to iPhone, but there's been one notable absence: DSiware. Nintendo's underpromoted service hasn't had the support of a major release, so its easy to understand why Capcom targeted the platform with Dark Void Zero, the "8-bit" tie-in game due for release later this month. But while Capcom has found great success on the console platforms – including its 8-bit Mega Man 9 – they don't have any plans to release Zero there.

However, they do have plans for some other platforms. "We are actually going to be releasing on iPhone and PC, can't say exactly when but I'll say 'soon,'" a Capcom producer told Joystiq. "Xbox Live, PSN, I don't know yet. I would love to do it on those consoles." And there you have it: If you want to try and play a "very hard" game (her words) on your iPhone, with no physical buttons, you're welcome to do that "soon." We'll stick to the DSiware and PC releases, we think.

Three years after being unveiled at CES, Microsoft's Mediaroom software is finally coming to Xbox 360 (in the form of Mediaroom 2.0) "later this year" thanks to AT&T's U-verse service. But, that's all the details we had. Until today, when we spoke with Xbox's Aaron Greenberg as well as a Mediacenter spokesperson on the show floor who, between the two of them, managed to answer most of our questions.

First, we asked Greenberg to explain the three-year delay between the technology's 2007 debut and this announcement. "Well, the technology that we showed [in 2007] was brand new and showing that it worked," Greenberg said. "What we then did was we went out to the IPTV content providers and said, 'Hey, now this is an option for you.'" And that option was, of course, to use the Xbox 360 to deliver IPTV content. Greenberg said, "So the technology works ... the Xbox 360 can serve as a set-top box, be a DVR, and run Mediaroom." But not so fast! We got a tour of the service and found a few disappointing shortcomings to that nominally appealing feature-set.

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Just three short years after the CES 2007 announcement that Microsoft's Mediaroom software would turn your Xbox 360 into an IPTV set-top box, Microsoft is finally ready to deliver on that promise (and no, the 2008 BT rollout doesn't count). "I'm happy to announce that later this year AT&T will also enable subscribers to U-verse to enjoy [the new Mediaroom 2.0] service on their Xbox 360 consoles," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told his keynote audience. This was in addition to U-verse support for Windows 7 and Windows Mobile, though the details on all three platforms end there.

We'll be digging for more details at CES this week, but this is certainly promising news for the country's 2 million U-verse subscribers (and the "more than 20 million living units" that the service is purportedly available in).