Did EA skip Sony’s PlayStation 4 show because it struck a deal for the Xbox 720?

Sony brought out the metaphorical big guns for its PlayStation 4 unveiling last week. The biggest of these was not one, but two major appearances on stage for Activision Blizzard products. With console editions of Blizzard’s Diablo 3, the first in-house developed Blizzard console game since the mid-‘90s, and exclusive content for Bungie and Activision’s Destiny on PS4, it seems that the days of Sony coming second to Microsoft—Call of Duty has routinely gotten timed-exclusive content on Xbox 360—are over. Where, however, was Activision’s biggest competitor, Electronic Arts? EA has bolstered Sony with the same sort of exclusive content for years, with platform-first content for Battlefield 3 and PS3-only content for games like Dead Space 2.

According to CVG, EA didn’t put in an appearance at Sony’s press conference because it struck a major content deal with Microsoft that will bring exclusive content of some type to the Xbox 720.

Two separate sources told the website that Electronic Arts and Microsoft have struck a deal very similar to the deal that Microsoft has enjoyed with Activision on the Call of Duty series. This would mean some content, like multiplayer maps and other downloadable content, would be available on Microsoft’s new console first. Whether that’s for Battlefield 4, Dragon Age 3: Inquisition, Mass Effect 4, or any of EA’s other announced next-gen projects is up in the air.

EA is, unsurprisingly, playing coy in regards to its plans for the PS4 and Xbox 720. The publisher gave a presentation at Morgan Stanley’s Tech, Media, & Telecom Conference on Tuesday and expressed a lot of enthusiasm for Sony’s new machine.

“At the end of the day, we’re very excited about Sony’s platform,” said CFO Blake Jorgensen, “We feel there’s a huge opportunity there. The technical power on the platform is going to allow us to do a substantial amount of things that have never been done before. I have seen the new Battlefield, and it is just stunning.”

Why not show this stunning game at Sony’s show, though?

“It was more about timing of our own slate as well as trying to maintain a good balance of power with all the parties out there and choosing when to unveil certain pieces of software.”

Translation from executive speak: Sony brought on Activision, our chief competitor, to discuss two separate exclusive products. We’re going to do something similar for Microsoft.

Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. His work has appeared in The AV Club, Salon, Edge, and many others. He is patiently waiting for Namco to finish Klonoa 3.

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God of War: Ascension multiplayer beta hits PlayStation Plus on January 8

Sony has revealed that subscribers to the PlayStation Plus premium service will receive early access to the God of War Ascension multiplayer beta test.

In a newly published blog post found on Sony’s official PlayStation.blog, the company reveals a surprising wealth of information on the upcoming multiplayer beta test for God of War: Ascension. We first brought you word of this test in November when Sony opened sign ups for the beta to the public, but at the time we had yet to hear when this test might occur. While Sony still hasn’t revealed when the average PlayStation 3 owner might be able to join the test, we now know that PlayStation Plus subscribers will be granted early access and could be playing the unreleased game as early as January 8.

Ah, but that’s not all. Instead of merely offering up this special release date, Sony’s associate product manager Derek Osgood also uses the opportunity to go into candid detail on what the company plans to include in the beta test. “We are kicking off the Beta with our signature Team Favor of the Gods mode and the yet-to-be-seen Favor of the Gods mode, which plays like Team Favor of the Gods, but without the teams. In both modes, you’ll fight to reach the requisite number of favor points from the Gods, earning points via kills, bonus brutal kills, opening chests, capturing domination points, and, if you’re skillful enough, performing executions using the Spear of Olympus,” Osgood writes.

Further, Osgood also offers up information on which multiplayer maps PlayStation Plus subscribers will find in Ascension’s multiplayer beta. To wit:

You’ve seen the Desert of Lost Souls, featuring our massive Titan, Polyphemus. If you were not fortunate enough to experience this map at one of our various events earlier this year, you will get your chance to go head-to-head in this epic map in the Beta.

Only a fool would believe we are stopping there — this is God of War! God of War: Ascension multiplayer levels are broken out into two categories: larger maps, which feature big open environments (like the Desert of Lost Souls), and more compact arenas, which bring the action in tight to test your reflexes as you fight for survival in close-quarters combat. Fans of God of War III will remember the Hercules Arena, one of the Top 5 most epic moments in the God of War franchise, and we’re really excited to introduce our “Forum of Hercules” Multiplayer Arena level!

In addition to these online offerings, Osgood also claims that the beta will grant users access to the game’s tutorial level, saying that players will “be able to test [their] might with both Zeus and Ares allegiances, and experience a taste of the player customization options and upgrades that will be in the final game.”

While we’re still waiting to hear when Sony plans to open the beta test to the general public, those of you who just can’t wait to slay online foes could sign up for a PlayStation Plus membership purely for early access. Of course, the service also offers users a handful of free, big-name games (LittleBigPlanet 2 and inFamous 2 are two examples) that alone could serve as ample impetus to shell out for a PlayStation Plus membership (which Amazon currently has listed at $50 for a year of service). Alternately, if you have no interest in the beta or would rather save your cash for God of War: Ascension, the game is slated to hit store shelves on March 12.

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Sony is already hiring for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale 2

Sony's PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale hasn't even been out for a month yet and it appears that a sequel to the game is in development. Creator SuperBot Entertainment is hiring up to work on the next entry in the new fighter series.

Sony is fresh to the fighting game world. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale isn’t quite a month old and while the game hasn’t lit sales charts on fire, reviews for the mascot brawler have been largely favorable. The fighting game market is a brutal one populated almost exclusively by entrenched franchises like Street Fighter with decades of history so it was bold of Sony to even attempt to enter the fray. It appears that Sony is already learning the fighting game ropes too: The secret to success is sequels.

SuperBot Entertainment, the studio that worked alongside Sony Santa Monica to make PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, is bucking the trend of studio staffing. The way the industry typically works today is to liquidate staff after a game ships. Not only is SuperBot not laying people off, it’s hiring new people to work on what appears to be PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale 2.

SuperBot is hiring both a game designer and an art director at the moment. The game designer is required to have some very specific skills. In particular, they need “knowledge of fighting games, their systems and mechanics a serious plus” as well as a “near encyclopedic knowledge of modern gamers, with emphasis on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.”

Those skills aren’t listed on the ad for the art director position, but it does openly suggest that the artist will work on a new entry in the series. “A project such as PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, which by definition brings together elements ranging from an incredibly wide range of artistic styles, requires a strong and unifying vision to present a cohesive and polished product,” reads the ad.

SuperBot may not be preparing a straight sequel to PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. It’s also common to release iterations of fighting games. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 for example was followed by Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Sony’s game could certainly use a sales boost. Microsoft brought Halo 4 to the holiday 2012 fight and Nintendo rolled out not one but two games in its best-selling platformer series, New Super Mario Bros. 2 and New Super Mario Bros. U. That’s some major franchise power on the consoles. Sony, on the other hand, mostly sat out the season. It’s only major release was PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, a fighting game starring characters from the company’s own diverse pantheon of properties as well as a number of characters from other publishers that got their start with Sony like Metal Gear Solid’s Raiden and Devil May Cry’s Dante. According to sales tracker VGChartz, whose data is compiled based on retailer contacts, Sony has sold just 170,000 copies of the game so far.

Source: NeoGAF

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Is this Dualshock and PS Move hybrid the PlayStation 4′s controller?

People love motion controllers like Kinect but video game enthusiasts still want the precision of a controller. A newly published Sony patent suggests Sony is trying to make a device that manages to be both.

There’s been no shortage of rumors and hearsay regarding the future of Sony’s console gaming business. The fourth generation PlayStation will be a more developer-friendly machine than the PlayStation 3 according to sources within the industry, describing the machine as more of a “modified PC.” There has been little discussion of what the next PlayStation’s controller will look like, though. Is Sony planning on sticking with the Dualshock gaming controller that’s stayed relatively unchanged for fifteen years or will it opt for a next-generation version of the PlayStation Move motion-sensing wand? Patents suggest the PlayStation 4’s controller may be a mix of both.

A patent filed by Sony in 2011 describing a gaming controller called a “Hybrid Separable Motion Controller” was made public on Thursday. The device seen in the above image and in other figures on the patent shows what is an explicit cross between Sony’s existing controllers. It features the same bulbous heads as the PlayStation Move and the swim twin analog stick design used in all Sony controllers since the original Dualshock came out in the late ’90s for the original PlayStation.

On bulb is fixed on each side of the controller and it can be split in two with each half containing the accelerometer and gyro technology in an individual Move wand. This device would do away with the need for the analog stick companion for the move and would also ease audiences into games that use two Move controllers, like the original Sports Champions. According to the patent, this new controller will still need a PlayStation Eye camera to work.

While the number of PlayStation 3 games to support the move controller has been limited, Sony has managed to sell 15 million of the motion controllers in two years. The popularity of the Wii and more recently Microsoft’s Kinect has guaranteed that motion-based video games will remain a popular fixture of the console gaming business. The Move technology is still cumbersome, though, offering precision lacking in Kinect and Nintendo games, but also necessitating a more complex set up process. Part of the reason Kinect has been so successful for Microsoft is its ease of use.

The Hyrbid Separable Controller is a recent piece of technology conceived by Sony, but it’s unlikely that it will be a highlight of the PlayStation 4.

Source: NeoGAF

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Sony opening the PlayStation Mobile store on October 3.

First unveiled back at E3, we now have more information on just when Sony's new PlayStation Mobile store will be coming to market. Sony has given a firm release date of October 3, and the store will be initially available in Japan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia. More countries are set to follow at a later time. 

We're not just going to see re-hashed PSOne content in the PlayStation Mobile store either. Instead we're promised "PlayStation like content" with 30 all new titles available at launch, created by third-party developers and Sony alike. 

Additionally two further OEM's were added to the PlayStation Certfified list -- Fujitsu and Sharp. While neither of these two companies are particularly well known in the western world for their Android devices, both have good presence in Japan. Both join the likes of HTC, ASUS and Wikipad in the ranks of PlayStation Certified devices. 

For developers, the PlayStation Mobile SDK will become available across 11 different countries, starting in November. You can find the full press release after the break. 

SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT TO LAUNCH
PLAYSTATION®STORE FOR PLAYSTATION®MOBILE ON OCTOBER 3
Official Version of PlayStation®Mobile SDK Will Be Available in November
FUJITSU AND SHARP TO JOIN PLAYSTATION™CERTIFIED LICENSE PROGRAM

Tokyo, September 19, 2012 – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) today announced that it will start to deliver dedicated content for PlayStation®Mobile, delivering the world of PlayStation® on open operating system-based devices?1, through PlayStation®Store on October 3. In the dramatically evolving smartphone and tablet market, SCE will offer appealing PlayStation-like content to a variety of popular mobile devices.

The service will start in nine countries including Japan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Australia with more countries to follow. At launch, users will be able to enjoy approximately 30 new titles from a variety of genres including Adventure, Action, Puzzle, Sports, and Simulation, at an affordable price point of between 50 yen and 850 yen (including tax)?2, created by third party developers and publishers as well as SCE Worldwide Studios. Further content will be released frequently for PlayStation®Mobile as new titles become available.

SCE also announced Fujitsu Limited and Sharp Corporation will join the PlayStation Certified license program?3. By collaborating with Fujitsu and Sharp which not only have the significant share in the Japanese smartphone market but also offer a wide range of devices across the globe, SCE will deliver the unmatched PlayStation experience to even more smartphone and tablet users around the world.

“Fujitsu’s ARROWS series smartphones and tablets feature “Usability” realized by human-centric technology, and “High Spec” represented by Japan’s first quad-core CPU adopted model.” said Takahiro Matsumura, Senior Vice President, Ubiquitous Business Strategy Unit, Fujitsu Limited. “We are excited to be partnering with Sony Computer Entertainment, and offer PlayStation-like gaming experiences for ARROWS users.”

“We are very pleased to be able to offer exciting PlayStation-like gaming experiences through our products to the customers all around the world.” said Itsuki Kouchi, Division Deputy General Manager & Marketing Department General Manager, Global Product Development Center, Communication Systems Group, Sharp Corporation. “Sharp will continue shaping its smartphone development philosophy, “Feel Logic”, and one of its elements, ”Feel Creation”.

Furthermore, the PlayStation Mobile Developer Program which includes the official version of PlayStation Mobile SDK will become available to the development community in November. This will be rolled-out in a phased manner in 11 countries and regions including Japan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The PlayStation Mobile Developer Program will allow developers to easily distribute their content through PlayStation Store on a commercial basis and market their games to millions of dedicated gamers with PlayStation™Certified devices and PlayStation Vita. The license agreement for the SDK is US$99 annually?4.

SCE will further accelerate the expansion of PlayStation Certified devices and continue to collaborate with content developers to drive the delivery of compelling entertainment experiences through PlayStation Mobile.

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