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TOKYO — Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, which went on sale in Japan over the weekend leading off a global launch, can't play some of the older games for the original PlayStation and the upgrade PlayStation 2, a company official said today. Sony Corp. had billed PlayStation 3 as compatible with the previous PlayStation machines. But Sony Computer Entertainment spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka said some of the 8,000 older games weren't working properly on PS3, making the wrong sounds or images, and some couldn't be played at all. He declined to give a number for the games that weren't functioning, but...

The new white PSP is coming to Europe soon, and Sony’s marketing department has put together an ad that will certainly be “controversial” (read: racist). The billboard shows a white woman, white hair and white clothes “abusing” a black individual. I bet she’s thinking “white PSP power”. Clearly this doesn’t appeal to anyone else than Starbucks Moccachino-drinking buzzword-throwing Manhattan marketers. I feel like getting rid of my (black) PSP in protest.

THOSE WHO IGNORE HISTORY are doomed to repeat it. One of life's more satisfying ironies, however, is that the same fate often befalls those who fixate on history. Consider the coming train wreck of Sony's PlayStation 3.At this year's annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, Sony announced that its next-generation video-game console will begin retailing in November for $599 (or $499 for a stripped-down version). The news rippled through the gaming industry, the consensus being that Sony had doomed its new system with such a high price tag. Traditionally, home video-game consoles have sold for $199 to $299.This news...

Sony's next gen console gets delayed six months The Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun has reported that Sony will delay the launch of PlayStation 3 until November of 2006. The North American launch date is still up in the air. According to the report, issues surrounding copy protection for Blu-ray discs is the reason for the delay. If the reports are true (given the source, they probably are), Sony could miss the key holiday rush in the United States. Official word from Sony is expected tomorrow. Rumors have been circulating about Asustek Computer securing orders for the Sony PlayStation 3...

TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Sony Corp.'s launch of its next-generation PlayStation 3 video game console could be delayed if industry specifications for some of its technology are not finalized soon, although it is still aiming for a spring rollout, it said on Monday. The launch of PlayStation 3 (PS3) has been the subject of heavy speculation in the industry as expectations are high for the powerful machine, which will feature cutting-edge technology in its DVD player, processors and graphics. PS3 will be competing with Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, which went on sale last November, and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Revolution, which...

Sony's apparent underground graffiti-ad campaign is rankling some citizens. While Sony has not officially endorsed the campaign, the series of identical PSP-toting graffiti characters appeared in the last few weeks in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago. "Is anyone else concerned that Sony Playstation paid someone to vandalize our neighborhood to sell their latest toy," writes a Los Angeles resident. "It's quite obviously an advertisement, but when I called Playstation Consumer Services this morning, they claim to know nothing about the campaign. I guess there's just some clever youngster out here in LH that just really LOVES...

Parents and retailers are failing miserably to keep violent and sexually explicit video games out of the hands of children, according to a report that estimates seven in 10 youngsters are playing M-rated games meant for people over the age of 17. The 10th annual MediaWise Video Game Report, released today by the National Institute on Media and the Family, targets 12 video games parents should keep out of the hands of children and teenagers. The 12 Worst Far CryF.E.A.R.The WarriorsStubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a PulseTrue Crime: New York CityBlitz: The LeagueGrand Theft Auto: Liberty City StoriesGod of...

PALMDALE - In a giant hangar at Air Force Plant 42 where strategic nuclear bombers were built to win the Cold War, computer giant Microsoft has staked its future in the gaming industry, an $8 billion global market. An Internet underground marketing campaign brought 3,000 dedicated players from around the world to the Antelope Valley for Microsoft's North American launch of its newest game system. "It's basically a 30-hour party. There's never been anything like this," said Ricardo Torres, a senior editor at GameSpot.com, an online entertainment forum. In the virtual reality world of computer gaming, the giant from Seattle...

Sony's third-person shooter "SOCOM 3: US Navy SEALs" was the best-selling video game in the United States in October, market research firm The NPD Group said on Tuesday. Electronic Arts had the second and third most popular games with sports titles "NBA Live 06" and "Madden NFL 06." The top three sellers were all for play on Sony's PlayStation 2 console, according to NPD, which tracks sales of software and other retail products. The No. 4 title was Take-Two Interactive Software's urban action game "Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories" for Sony's PlayStation Portable. Rounding out the top five was...

SONY Computer Entertainment is likely to abandon its practice of region coding games for its PlayStation 3 console, the head of its South Pacific operation said. Sony's current crop of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles contains technology that blocks the use of illegal copied games. It also prevents the use of game and DVD discs that have been region coded for other markets. However, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia managing director, Michael Ephraim, said the company was unlikely to continue the policy as international television standards emerge.

Microsoft Corp. is likely to win the next round of the game console fight against Sony Corp. based on a potentially huge cost difference that could see the Xbox 360 selling for half the price of a PlayStation 3 (PS3) by the end of next year, investment firm Merrill Lynch said in a Wednesday analysis. Based on a breakdown of the parts being used inside the two game machines, Merrill Lynch said the “PS3 will not only be significantly more costly than Xbox 360 at launch, but will continue to operate at a cost disadvantage for several years.” The investment...

SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia's High Court ruled unanimously Thursday that modifying Sony PlayStation consoles so that they can play cheaper overseas versions of the company's games does not violate Australian copyright laws. The decision ends a four-year legal battle between entertainment and Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. and Sydney-based business owner Eddy Stevens, who supplied and installed "mod chips" in PlayStation devices. Sony divides the global gaming market into regions and programs its PlayStation consoles so that games sold in the United States or Asia cannot be played on consoles sold in Australia. The so-called mod chips bypass Sony's regional...

Church steps into PlayStation row Bobbie Johnson Monday October 3, 2005 Ten years after it launched the groundbreaking PlayStation videogames console, consumer electronics giant Sony has been handed a bitter birthday present - condemnation from the Vatican. An Italian advertising campaign intended to celebrate a decade since the machine's launch in Europe drew angry responses from Vatican officials, who said the "irreverent" images trivialised religion and insulted Italy's 56m Catholics. The advert, which is captioned "10 years of passion", shows a man wearing a crown of thorns constructed from the familiar square, triangle, circle and cross shapes of the PlayStation...

Well, it’s officially August 22nd in every time zone now, which means that Sony didn’t make good on its earlier promise to release version 2.0 of the PSP’s firmware here in North America during the week of August 15th. We still don’t know when they’ll get around to it, but check out this incredibly non-committal response reader Mike S. got from Sony when he emailed them asking about the delay: Hello Mike, Thank you for writing us. We do not know the exact date of the 2.0 system update for the PSP(TM) portable entertainment system at this time. We recommend...

Sony has delayed its firmware upgrade for North American PlayStation Portables (PSPs) to sometime this week, according to a posting on their Web site message board. “The PSP Firmware 2.0 Upgrade for the North American market will be available during the week of August 15th, instead of on August 12, as previously reported,” said the posting. Sony originally announced the North American PSP firmware upgrade as coming on Friday, August 12, 2005, but has delayed its release for as-yet unspecified reasons. Sony’s PSP is a portable gaming system that can also play videos, digital music and photographs, storing data on...

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 games console will launch later this year in two versions, one priced at US$299 and the other at $399, according to a report on the Web site of the Los Angeles Times that quotes the company. The more expensive version will include a 20GB hard-disk drive, wireless controller, headset, Ethernet cable and wireless remote control, the report said. Previously Microsoft, which couldn’t be reached for comment on the report, had said the Xbox 360 would be available in North America, Europe and Japan before the end of this year. The company has already disclosed many key...

ony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) will release a system software update for its PlayStation Portable (PSP) next week that will add several new functions to the handheld gaming device, including the ability to browse the Internet and download TV programs, the company said Thursday. Chief among the additions to version 2.0 of the software will be a Web browser. Accessible from the PSP’s main menu, the browser supports HTML 4.01 and will allow access to most Web sites. The PSP already has a wireless LAN for online gaming and for downloading software from the Internet, but SCEI hasn’t officially allowed...

Confirmed: Sex minigame in PS2 San Andreas Cheat unlocks preexisting code in controversy-rocked Grand Theft Auto game, undermining Rockstar Games' claims of hacker mischief. This week saw a Grand Theft Auto game once again at the center of a nationwide controversy. The point of contention this time was the so-called "Hot Coffee" mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which had everyone from anti-game crusader Jack Thompson to US Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) percolating with outrage and/or calls for federal game regulation. The Hot Coffee mod first surfaced last month, when the PC version of San Andreas was released. The...

An 11-year-old boy stabbed his baby nephew in the stomach after the infant's crying disrupted his PlayStation game. The boy told police that in the minutes before the incident he had kept "dying" as he played the game, based on the cartoon characters The Incredibles, in his bedroom. The crying made him feel like "an erupting volcano''. He paused the game and went to get a kitchen knife to repair a toy. Then he went into the baby's bedroom and stabbed him in his carry cot. The blade broke and he hid the knife under a television cabinet. Yesterday the...

"It is utterly undesirable, but we cannot stop software makers from selling such videos," a public relations official at Sony Computer Entertainment said. The hand-held PlayStation uses the universal media disc, or UMD, format, enabling the console to play games or videos recorded on optical discs 2.3 inches in diameter. Pornography producers will soon release sexually explicit discs for Sony's PlayStation Portable game console, most of whose users are minors. Two makers of adult movies plan to sell their products for the console as early as July, and several other pornographers are apparently ready to follow, Japanese newspaper the Asahi...