Yet Another PSP Re-Design?

It seems as if this is the third time, but SCEE has announced a new PSP design with eight different bundles being offered. This fall we should see the PSP-3000, which sounds much like a fake Acme cartoon toy, but it’s for reals.

This version will have a built-in microphone, a redesigned (brighter) LCD screen with out-of-the-box Skype abilities. The Swiss Army knife of hand-helds will keep the current outward design with inner tweaks and each bundle will cause 199 Euro.

Is the market really looking for a re-design with these features or is this Sony’s way of competing with “color DS lite” designs. Nintendo re-releases the same product with brighter colors a few years after its release while Sony seems to push a few new hardware features or enhancements.

The end result, DS still beats all expectations in unit sales month after month.

(Thanks, Kotaku)

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Episode 427: Pre-E3 2016Episode 427: Pre-E3 2016

It’s that time of year again, as E3 2016 will be next week, and a whole lotta exciting stuff will be shown off from Microsoft, Sony, Bethesda and everyone else.

In fact, four of the news items are about announcements of games that’ll be highlighted at E3:

  • Xbox One is about to become even more Windows-like
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 looks set to be revealed by Rockstar at E3 2016
  • Dead Rising 4 leaks ahead of E3
  • Nintendo is showing more than just Zelda at E3 after all, but still no NX

Next week will be reports live from E3 – stay tuned!

End of 100 Million Dollar Games?End of 100 Million Dollar Games?

Gigaom had a great writeup about how Grand Theft Auto IV marks the end of “next generation” as we know it, stating, in more words or less, the game is a failure. GTA: San Andreas sold 21.5 million copies during its time on the shelf while GTA IV has sold roughly 9 million copies as of June 7th.

Granted, the game is still on the shelves and will still get sales, but the mass of “hardcore gamers” have had their fill and either purchased it or will not. The end result? A huge tapering of sales numbers for the graphically impressive game. Take-Two spent USD $100 million to develop the game which had great opening sales records but has gone down drastically since.

Imagine the title gains them USD $30.00 per sale in profit (considering distributors get the game for roughly USD $45 to $48.00 USD), taking into account shipping of the product, marketing and all the materials that go into producing a copy, they’d have to sell a large quanity of game titles to break even, which I think they have done.

Nobody is in this industry to break even. A block buster title should make block buster profits, right? Else, why bother to spend the 100-million when a Wii title can double or triple the profits with six months of development?

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Episode 398: Only Two MoreEpisode 398: Only Two More

Two more episodes, and Paul is no longer a regular podcast host. On a side note, there will be no podcast next week due to scheduling conflicts.

This week’s news:

  • The Pokémon Company shuts down PAX party with lawsuit
  • 881 E.T. cartridges buried in New Mexico desert sell for over $100K
  • The smaller new 3DS is coming to the US on September 25
  • How GOG rescued 13 Forgotten Realms games from licensing hell

All this and Listener Feedback.