Second Story Gamer

For the past few months, people around the blogosphere have been talking about the PSP-3000, the rumored “next version” of the Playstation Portable.  And ever since this FCC filing popped up, people have been wondering how much better games will play and look on this new PSP-3000.  The answer: almost exactly the same as the PSP available right now.

First of all, let me say that this PSP-3000 thing is true.  If the FCC filing didn’t confirm it enough, I even contacted one of my sources who said this was true.  However, the PSP-3000 is not the successor to the PSP in the sense that it isn’t the PSP 2.  Why?  Well, for two reasons.  First of all, that’s what my source claims.  And secondly, Sony has told me that same thing  Indirectly, of course.

Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, former Sony president Chris Deering said that he expects the Playstation Portable to have sold 70 million units by 2011.  Currently, the number of PSP’s on sold is about 37 million.  So Deering not only expects the PSP to have sold 70 million units, but he obviously expects it to be selling through the year 2011.  And since this PSP-3000 is expected to be released within the next year or so, there’s no way it’s the PSP 2.

So what is this PSP-3000?  My source says that it is just the successor to the PSP-2000, which was a lighter, brighter version of the original PSP, so those two things are to be expected.  He also said that the new handheld may have a flash based storage drive in the PSP-3000, but that is unconfirmed, so don’t hold your breath on that one.

But, sadly, there’s no dual analog sticks on the PSP-3000 because apparently, that would drastically change the way PSP games are played (hint: expect it in the PSP 2) and Sony doesn’t want that big of a jump.

As always, though, take this with a grain of salt.  Even if it is a tiny, tiny grain.

The rumor mill is churning once again, as “highly placed sources” have told VG247 the real reason that Phil Harrison jumped from Sony’s ship in February: Déjà vu.  Apparently, the development of the PS4 was just about to kick off and Harrison couldn’t bring himself to do the whole cycle again.  The sources said:

“He could see he was about to get involved in another PlayStation cycle, and obviously wanted something new.  The same thing was happening again and he’d been through it enough times to want to move on.”

Harrison chose Infogrames because he was excited about the company’s casual gaming focus and increased influence on internet business models.

Another interesting topic suggested by this rumor is the fact that PS4 development only started a few months ago.  That is very unusual as most companies start development for their next console as soon as they finish making the last one.  But waiting a couple of years in no big deal for Sony.  They still got eight left.

[via VG247]

At a Microsoft game exhibition in Taipei, where it was announced that Final Fantasy XIII would also be available for the Xbox 360 in Taiwan, there was also a very interesting Xbox 360 spotted.  This 360, found inside a kiosk, is decked out in a Dark Knight theme.  Freaking awesome.

On Microsoft’s Download Center there seems to be glaring confirmation that Halo 3 will be ported to the PC.  On the Game section of the Download Center, there is a banner advertising free trials for three games.  One of those games is Halo 3.  Halo 3 hasn’t been announced for the PC yet.  See the problem here?  Here’s the banner:

The link in the banner just leads to a list of games that are available for Games for Windows at this time.  Obviously, Halo 3 is absent from that list.

So was it a disgruntled employee or just an honest mistake that caused this big slip-up?  Whatever it was, I bet this banner doesn’t stay up on the site long, so I pulled a screenshot of the page.  Check it out, after the break.

Ars Technica seems to have gotten an(other) insider scoop on an upcoming Xbox 360 price cut.  This mole, the same one who leaked the price cut on the 20 GB SKU and revealed the 60 GB model, gave them information that all of the 360 SKU’s will be receiving heavy price cuts early September.  They are as follows: Arcade model (no hard drive) for $199, Pro model (60 GB) for $299, Elite model (120 GB) for $399.

While this news is a couple days old, this story got a fresh boost today as a VGChartz member “found” a picture that confirms a September price cut for the Arcade SKU.  This picture shows an SKU inquiry done by the member and the September 7 price cut date is scheduled one week after Infinite Undiscovery’s release and two weeks before the Xbox 360 timed-exclusive release of Rock Band 2.

Many people are wondering if Microsoft is taking a huge hit profit wise by selling their consoles at such a low price.  Well the VGChartz writer guesstimates that the Xbox 360 production costs have fallen to $140.15 to $182.19, so even at that extremely low price point, Microsoft would still be making money for each console sold.

If this rumor is true, and at this time it is looking like it will come to fruition, this could be a very heavy blow by Microsoft to the competition.  With an Xbox 360 available that is $50 less than the Wii, Microsoft could potentially steal away many of Nintendo’s customers, who will look all the extra features and better graphics they will receive with an Xbox 360 over the Wii.  Also, the $299 60 GB SKU will square against the comparable 80 GB PS3, which retails at $399 (at the moment).

However, this leak will probably slow the already stagnant 360 sales even farther, as people will wait till September to buy their consoles.  So if this mole works for Microsoft, he probably did the company quite a bit of harm by releasing this information.  He did give us bloggers some good information to talk about, though.

It seems as though EA isn’t the only company trying to buy out Take-Two these days.  According to Seeking Alpha’s Stephen Frankola (and rumors that have been thrown around for ages now), Microsoft may be moving in to snatch up Take-Two.

Frankola says that Microsoft is a likely suitor for many reasons.  He compares this potential acquisition to that of Bungie Studios, which brought them three of the best selling games of all-time in the Halo series.  For example, Halo 3 made $170 million in just one week, which is higher than many huge blockbuster movies (The Dark Knight is out of this comparison).  However, obtaining Take-Two would give them an even bigger hit with the Grand Theft Auto series.  To compare, GTA IV sold over $500 million in a week (although, to be fair, GTA IV was out on two consoles, whereas Halo 3 was released on only one).  This franchise alone would more than make up for the cost of the acquisition in a few years time.

On top of the ridiculously popular GTA franchise, Microsoft would also get the upcoming Bioshock franchise, which has tons of potential to become huge, as well as Take-Two’s huge sports library.

But, how much will Take-Two cost?  Frankola expects a $2.5 billion bid, which is roughly $32 a share.  This is over 25% higher than EA’s last bid, which was close to $25.  This may seem like a lot of money, but to Microsoft, it’s just pocket change (unlike the Yahoo bid).  It would only use about 10% of Microsoft’s available cash, in a transaction that’s only 1% of their market cap.

So what’s holding Microsoft back?  There seems to be no downside to this agreement for Microsoft, right?  And while I am strongly against consolidation of companies in the gaming world, I agree that this seems like an extremely smart business move for Microsoft.  With Take-Two’s developing power, Microsoft’s first party could finally compete with the much stronger offerings from Nintendo and Sony’s first party.  Also, if the next Grand Theft Auto was exclusive to the Xbox platform, Sony could be in deep trouble.

The Xbox Forums are alight because user “TFD655321″ has made the claim that you can now play Shadowrun online multiplayer with a Silver Account.  This news comes at a very inconvenient time because there is a Live Weekend going on at the moment, which means that Xbox Live is free for Silver users anyway.

However, the unusually named user claims that he has been playing Shadowrun since Wednesday night, long before the start of the Live Weekend, midnight on Friday.  Many other gamers in the same thread have made the same claim and have been playing Shadowrun for free since Thursday.  Users in the thread also claim that two other games work with this “glitch”: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition and Universe at War: Earth Assault.

I personally have not tried this to confirm if it is true or not, as I don’t have any of those three games.  However, many, many users are going to the thread and insisting that with their Silver Accounts, they can now play these three games.  Of course, much of it is probably confusion, due to the fact that it is a Live Weekend.  There seems to be a grain of truth in the claim, though.  That many people can’t be oblvious to the Live Weekend.

So now the question is whether this was a glitch in the system, or a move towards freeing Xbox Live.  With Shadowrun, it may have been a glitch, since Games for Windows Live is free now and Shadowrun has cross-platform multiplayer.  However, that reasoning doesn’t work with the other two games, as they don’t have cross-platform multiplayer.  So could this have been a sneaky step from Microsoft towards making Xbox Live free?  I doubt it; Microsoft usually likes to parade about what they are doing to help gamers.

I guess we’ll figure out if this is legit or not later today, as the weekend is over.  And the answer to whether or not this change will be permanent, if it is real, will be answered in due time.

[via Kotaku]

Playstation Lifestyle, who was the original source of the PS3 waggle controller rumors (which, at this point, appear untrue) seems to have another very big scoop in their stables.  This time, they are prophesising that a major PS3 exclusive game will be announced on August 3.  For the sake of discussion, I’m going to assume that this rumor is real for the time being.

Unfortunately, other than the date provided, much solid information about the game was not given.  However, there were plenty of clues in the post.  For example, the tags of the post are: 100, 18+, 1st party, 2003, Action, Bullets, clan, customize, Explosions, military, online, PlayStation 3, rockets, Scale, skill, Violence. So I’m pretty sure we can safely assume that this game will be a first-party game and it will be an action game, most likely a shooter.  And with the word scale in the list, it looks like this game will be big.

But, this game cannot be a FPS, because that is marked off a list in the post.  Also marked off the list are RPG’s and a next-gen Twisted Metal.  So could it be a Third-person shooter?  Or will it be a pinball simulator with sound effects to replicate bullets, explosions, the military, rockets, and violence?

Also, this game could either be a brand new IP, or Sony could make a sequel to a 2003 game that was originally released on the Xbox, hence one of the tags.  The latter option would be a huge slap in the face to Microsoft.

Prediction: Crimson Skies Sequel

Personally, I believe the new exclusive PS3 game will be a sequel to Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, because the game offered plenty of action, bullets, explosions, etc.  The original game even released for the original Xbox in 2003, so it fits that category perfectly as well.  Also, founder Jordan Weisman bought the rights to the game from Microsoft in 2007, which also gives it more credence.

However, the rumored game is said to be first-party, which means a new Crimson Skies wouldn’t fit the bill because Smith & Tinker, not Sony, owns the rights to the franchise.  However, there is very little stopping Sony from just buying the company.  Just saying…

Another problem with a Crimson Skies sequel being the game rumored is the fact that the game rumored is supposed to be exponentially more exciting than Killzone 2, MAG, or inFAMOUS.  While some people would say Crimson Skies is much more interesting than all three of those games, it is very debatable.

I guess we’ll figure out if I’m right on August 3.  Check the article again on Saturday because the author is set to drop two more hints then.

[via Playstation Lifestyle]

Microsoft Creative Director Ken Lobb has just appeared in a new walkthrough of Banjo Kazooie, in which he shows the game’s pretty graphics, tests the new vehicles, and, oh yeah, potentially drops the bomb on the Xbox 360 motion controller.

In the video, he says, “The primary function that Kazooie has in the game is she carries this wrench and the wrench is used for many different things.  One of the things that the wrench is used for is to turn these devices.  So you basically grab with the wrench and then you twist the controller around and it’ll move different things in the game.”

Did you hear that: “Twist the controller around”?  I’m pretty sure you can’t do that using the current Xbox 360 controller without looking like an idiot, and I’m sure Microsoft doesn’t want to make you look like an idiot while playing your 360 (minus Totemball).  Did Ken Lobb just reveal the oft rumored, expected to be announced at E3 “Xmote“?  Me thinks he did.

Check out the video yourself (I would embed it, but I’m having technical difficulties at the moment).  He says it right around the four minute mark.

[And to the regulars: I told you I would inform you if I ever had a situation in which I wouldn't be able to post for a while.  Well, the time has come.  I'm on vacation at the moment and I'll try to keep posting every day, but if I can't keep up to that schedule, expect a post every other day for the next couple of weeks.]

It’s crazy rumor time.  This rumor is so far out there that I probably wouldn’t even be posting it if it wasn’t such a slow news day.  Well let’s get straight into it.

A poster on NeoGAF named Xabora has dropped some information about future Xbox related releases.  He says he has this information because he “lives in an area with a good deal of employees/contractors from a rather large corporation and has worked with some of them in [his] past”.  I told you this rumor was out there.

In his thread he states that a smaller, almost Wii-sized version of the Xbox 360 will be released this Winter.  To get the console to be that small, Microsoft will make the Xbox 360 Slim with a GPU and CPU combo dye with the E-DRAM off to the side.  Personally, I advise Microsoft to not cram everything into a smaller body.  That may not work out so well for them.

Secondly, the poster said that the next iteration of the Xbox will have some crazy features.  These include a Blu-ray drive (obviously), a Quad-Core CPU (not shocking, but impressive), and a 1 TB hard drive (WTF?).  The speculative release date for this console is around 2010, which is another reason to doubt this rumor, as most analysts expect the next Xbox to release around 2011 or 2012.

Xabora also mentioned the Xbox handheld but would just say that the concept is “pie-in-the-sky” at the moment.  So don’t throw out your DS or PSP just yet.

On top of the plethora of obvious reasons to doubt this rumor (a Slim version of the Xbox 360 this winter, really?), there is also Xabora’s plea to take caution.  He says, “I would like to mention, please take this with a grain of salt.”

The latest Bungie podcast was released today, filled with 91 minutes of independent developer goodness.  But co-hosts Brian Jarrard and Luke Smith decided to end the show with a nasty tease.  According to them, something big, most likely Bungie related, will be announced on July 14.

The teasing conversation goes as follows:

Brian: Isn’t there something going on on July 14th or something like that?
Luke: Yeah, around then.
Brian: Somehow that’s sticking in my head for some reason. Guess we’ll have to see.
Luke: Yeah, we’ll just have to be patient. Who could say?

Now that may not seem like very much in text, but from Jarrard and Smith’s conversation, you could tell that Bungie has something ready to show off on July 14.  Is it the rumored new Halo game expected to be announced at E3?

EA and Microsoft both have press conferences on July 14, but I think we can all expect a Bungie announcement to take place at Microsoft’s press release.  After all, Bungie did say that although they are officially independent from Microsoft, all of their games being released in the near future will be published by Microsoft.

[Bungie Podcast]

After Rock Band 2 was announced, it was almost inevitable that some clever trickster out there would find some, or all, of the songs in the game and quickly post them onto the internet.  And thanks to a G4 screen grab and a poster on ScoreHero who decided to violate an NDA agreement, we now have 21 rumored songs of the 80-plus songs coming to Rock Band 2.

These ten songs were leaked through the G4 screen grab:

• “Panic Attack” - Dream Theater (or Finger Eleven)
• “Chop Suey” - System of a Down
• “Give It Away” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
• “Everlong” - Foo Fighters
• “Kids in America” - Kim Wilde
• “Ace of Spades” - Motorhead
• “Hello There” - Cheap Trick
• “Any Way You Want It” - Journey
• “Pinball Wizard” - The Who
• “All the Small Things” - Blink 182

And these eleven songs were revealed by the rebellious (or just plain dumb) forum poster:

• “Man in the Box” - Alice in Chains
• “We Got The Beat” - The Go Go
• “American Woman” - The Guess Who? (or Lenny Kravitz)
• “White Wedding” - Billy Idol
• “Aqua Lung” - Jethro Tull
• “Bad Reputation” - Joan Jett
• “One Step Closer” - Linkin Park
• “Peace Sells” - Megadeth
• “You Oughta Know” - Alanis Morissette
• “Testify” - Rage Against The Machine
• “Spoonman” - Soundgarden

So far, it looks like a very good setlist.  And expect a Guitar Hero IV setlist “leak” very soon as Activision may want to take some attention away from Rock Band 2 and back to GH4.

[via Kombo]

Happy Fourth of July to you American readers.  Before you get to the fireworks, check out this doozie of a rumor.

According to CVG and Sarcastic Gamer sources, Microsoft will be making an announcement of the next Halo game come E3.   Halo 4 is supposedly already full steam into development by Bungie, but the sources say that the game announced could be either Peter Jackson’s Halo project or another unknown game.

But, Halo fans, there’s a catch. World-famous, Master Chief will be gone fishing for this title. I know, it’s going to be hard to imagine a Halo without a Master Chief.

I really don’t know what to expect of this rumor right now.  It comes from two sources, so it could have some truth in it. But why would Microsoft release another Halo game just a year after Halo 3.  I thought the earliest we would see a Halo 4 is 2009. But, then again, it could be Peter Jackson’s project or some other new Halo game releasing this year.   Or, Microsoft could just be teasing a 2009 title this E3.  But Aaron Greenburg did say that the 2008 release list for the 360 isn’t filled just yet.

We shall see in a couple of weeks.

After the Spring Dashboard update was cancelled, talk has come up of a total revamp of the Xbox 360 dashboard possibly this Fall.  First of all, we have great, totally speculative article on the Fanboys about the state of the current dashboard: cluttered and advertisement filled.  They also have a great image of a possible dashboard, as you can see above.  Remember this is fully photoshopped, so don’t take it as real.

Well, Microsoft may be listening in, because just today Kotaku has gotten information from an insider source who says that the Xbox 360 is definitely headed towards a brand new GUI (graphical user interface).  Expect there’s a huge discrepancy between the two articles.  Like, for one, the Kotaku information seems to state the this new GUI will be 3D.  Also, this magical interface will be navigated using the so far unannounced motion controller.

The makers of this new GUI will be design agency Schematic, who have worked on gaming interfaces before, including EA Sports titles.  Interestingly, the CEO of Schematic is Dale Herigstad who designed the very cool motion-controlled interfaces used throughout the Minority Report.

Maybe we’ll get an announcement at E3.  I highly doubt it though.

When the leaked Kmart flyer showed a $50 price drop on the Xbox 360, everyone assumed Microsoft was cutting the price just to boost sales.  Well, rumor has it that Microsoft has an ulterior motive in this price drop.

According to a mole, Microsoft is planning to release a 60 GB hard drive-equipped model of the Xbox 360, which is supposed to replace the current 20 GB SKU.  To get rid of old 20 GB model stock, Microsoft is introducing this price drop.  The mole said that this new 60 GB version will be released throughout July and the 20 GB model will be discontinued at the same time.

Of course, this is still a rumor so don’t go shouting around that it is definitely happening (unless you want to potentially look like an idiot), but it seems very likely.  It isn’t unusual for console makers to change up hard drive sizes for current-generation consoles (example: the PS3).  And it would make sense for Microsoft to release a hard drive between the too small (and expensive) 20 GB and the slightly too big (and way too expensive) 120 GB hard drives.  I’m guessing it will be big enough, but still way too expensive.

I would expect an announcement at Microsoft’s pre-E3 press conference on July 14.

But this brings up an interesting point.  If Microsoft is dropping the 20 GB hard drive from the Pro SKU, will the throw them onto the Arcade units?  Gamers and developers have been begging for hard drives across every 360 SKU and I’m sure Microsoft still has a whole warehouse full of 20 GB hard drives.  So, why not Microsoft?  Give me a good reason.

[via Ars Technica]