Joystiq

Sony: 3G PlayStation Vita not canceled in North America

Ben Gilbert — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:45:00 EST

Despite Amazon's claims to the contrary, Sony reps tell Joystiq that, no, the 3G model of the PlayStation Vita is not canceled in the US. Try and feign surprise! An IGN report from earlier today noted that the Amazon product details for the 3G model of the Vita listed it as "discontinued by manufacturer," but when contacted, Sony's senior director of corporate communication and social media Patrick Seybold immediately refuted the claims.

He told Joystiq flat out, "This is not true," and said that Sony will be connecting with its Amazon contacts to figure out what's up. Both the 3G and non-3G versions of the PlayStation Vita launch in North America on February 22, with a 3G "First Edition" bundle preceding them both by a week.

Sony: 3G PlayStation Vita not canceled in North America originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony still investigating scope of PSN attack as maintenance outage enters Day 6

James Ransom-Wiley — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:45:00 EST

As Sony's forced PlayStation Network and Qriocity outages continue, stretching into what is officially Day 6, the company issued a very un-update to would-be users this morning: "Unfortunately, I don't have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time," said corp. comm. director Patrick Seybold on the PlayStation Blog. "As we previously noted, this is a time intensive process and we're working to get them back online quickly."

Speaking to PCWorld, SCEJ spokesperson Satoshi Fukuoka clarified that a "thorough investigation" was ongoing into what the company has characterized as an "external intrusion" into its system, which prompted the service suspensions. More troubling than any frustration caused by downtime over this past weekend, however, is the continued uncertainty about the extent of the attack. According to Fukuoka, Sony had yet to determine if users' personal information or credit card numbers had been accessed by the apparent hackers. If that's found to be the case, he assured, Sony would promptly inform those potentially affected.

On Saturday, Seybold noted that "additional security" would be put in place before the services relaunch, calling this "re-building" effort both "time-consuming" and "necessary."

Sony still investigating scope of PSN attack as maintenance outage enters Day 6 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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70MB of additional RAM unlocked for PS3 developers

Andrew Yoon — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:30:00 EST

It's rare for a console to get a spec upgrade in the middle of its life. However, Sony has stealthily upgraded the PS3 over the past few months to unlock additional usable RAM for developers. Much like the PSP received a boost in clock speed, the latest firmware updates provide developers an additional 70MB of RAM to work with. The change was initially discovered by PlayStation University, noting the reduction in the system OS's memory footprint, from 120MB to 50MB. As the OS continues to slim down, developers are allowed access to even more usable system memory.

SCEA's Patrick Seybold recently confirmed the change to Joystiq. "Since the launch of the PS3, we have been continuously making efforts to reinforce our support system to game developers, allowing them to express their creativity freely on the PS3. As part of this support for game development, the size of the PS3 OS memory footprint has been reduced through network update for the game developers."

While 70MB of additional memory is not insignificant, don't expect drastic changes to future PS3 games. A PS3 developer told us that "any bit of RAM helps. Generally it probably won't change design, but might allow extra effects resolution or dynamic lights or something. Probably more beneficial from the systems and art side then from design/gameplay." In tandem with increasingly efficient code, the added RAM will undoubtedly make for even better looking games. Certainly, that's not something we'd complain about.

70MB of additional RAM unlocked for PS3 developers originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony: PS3 supply to be 'tight' over coming months

Ben Gilbert — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:45:00 EST

Sony's senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold issued a statement after last night's NPD numbers for January, explaining that the company's flagship console may be a bit difficult to find at retail over the next few months. "We're working very hard with our retail partners to meet consumer interest, but the demand is tremendously high for the PS3 and we expect tight inventory in the coming months," Seybold notes in the statement.

As this is the first we've heard about any sort of PlayStation 3 hardware shortages, we followed up with Seybold to make sure he wasn't only warning about future supply issues, but also explaining January's sales of the console. He told us: "Yes. The strong demand carrying through the holidays was evident and early in the month we [knew] there was going to be limited supply of the PS3 at retail in January. We're working closely with the retail channel to meet this demand, but expect tight supply for the coming months."

The upcoming supply issues may also be a result of Sony's "upcoming line up of the industry's most anticipated games" -- games like Heavy Rain, God of War 3, and ModNation Racers. Seybold additionally points out that "this momentum is fueled by a stellar holiday" and the recent releases of games like MAG and BioShock 2. We here at Joystiq have yet to see the shortages at our local brick-and-mortars, but feel free to let us know if you do!

Sony: PS3 supply to be 'tight' over coming months originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony thanks 440,000 customers for giving it money during Black Friday week

Andrew Yoon — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:01:00 EST

Just a few hours after Nintendo, Sony has prepared a Black Friday sales statement of its own. SCEA's Patrick Seybold wrote in a press release: "PlayStation 3 demand was at an all time high with the system selling more than 440,000 units for the week ending 11/29/09." While shy of Wii's numbers, the figure is quite impressive, considering that's more than the number of systems sold in the entire month of October -- the same month that the PS3-exclusive Uncharted 2 came out.

Retailers offered a number of PS3 bundles during the holiday weekend, adding a number of free games and movies to the system's standard $299 price tag. That, coupled with an ad campaign that totally doesn't creep us out, certainly helped Sony's fortunes this year.

Sony thanks 440,000 customers for giving it money during Black Friday week originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SCEA's Seybold promises one of Sony's 'most aggressive marketing plans' for PS3

Andrew Yoon — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:00:00 EST

Did you see the NPD charts? The good news? PS2 sales went up 87% thanks to its new $99 price point. YAY! The not-so-good news? Well, PS2 beat PS3. If anything, the surprising turn in sales proves how truly powerful a price cut can be.

While PS3 sales are still lagging behind the competition, at least Sony is admitting to not getting the message across to the average Joe. "We often hear from our customers that they're surprised by everything the PS3 does in addition to what they purchased the device for -- including features like DLNA, free access to Wi Fi and Internet browser," Patrick Seybold, SCEA's Senior Director of Corporate Communications, told us in a statement. "In some ways, this serves as a reminder that there's more we can do to relay the full breadth and power of the PS3."

Hopefully, things will turn around in what Sony calls one of its "most aggressive marketing plans" yet. "We're revving up the new fiscal year with a broad tent of content and services across our platforms with envelope-pushing PS3 games like inFAMOUS, MAG, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves ... We know our consumers have varying entertainment lifestyles from the Blu-ray movie fanatic to photo enthusiast, so we've outlined our most aggressive marketing plans to help showcase this tremendous value proposition to all our consumers. We've got a proven history in delivering the best entertainment experience and there is no doubt the PlayStation brand is staged for another big year."

SCEA's Seybold promises one of Sony's 'most aggressive marketing plans' for PS3 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 14 May 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MLB 09 The Show performs 45% better than 08 edition

Andrew Yoon — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:45:00 EST

Hardware numbers were down in March 2009's NPD figures. Yet, Sony has something to smile about. PS3 was able to secure three of the top 10 software sales in March with Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2 and MLB 09 The Show.

MLB 09 The Show is Sony's exclusive first-party baseball title and it sold an impressive 305,000 units on PS3 alone, making it the best-selling sports game of the month. As the #6 selling game of the month, The Show franchise has grown significantly. Patrick Seybold of SCEA told us that "MLB'09 The Show saw an increase of more than 45% growth from its 2008 version in North America."

With Killzone 2 selling over a million copies worldwide, Sony can at least tout their growing software sales. See Seybold's full statement after the break.

Continue reading MLB 09 The Show performs 45% better than 08 edition

MLB 09 The Show performs 45% better than 08 edition originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony questions OnLive's promises

Majed Athab — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:20:00 EST

SCEA director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold isn't optimistic about the upcoming OnLive service. When he spoke to Edge Online recently, he criticized the overall setup of the game-streaming service, questioning the difficulty of its implementation and the final cost to consumers. Seybold wonders if Rearden Studios can actually maintain the amount of resources that will be needed to support OnLive, such as a vast network of powerful (and most likely expensive) servers, and actually have them functional in a "real world environment."

How much of the initial risk is going to come over as final cost to consumers? Rearden has yet to announce a subscription fee. Adding on to that, cost doesn't necessarily just mean money; there are questions over bandwidth caps and hardware specs that still need attention. Of course, there are always these sorts of doubts with fresh ideas like OnLive. Its founder, Steve Perlman, told us in an interview that he expected this sort of skepticism with the product. With Rearden beta testing OnLive this summer, putting its five nationwide servers to the test, we'll soon get a taste of what OnLive is actually capable of.

Sony questions OnLive's promises originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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