Friday, June 15, 2007 - Posts

Sony apologises to Church

The Dean of Manchester Cathedral, the Very Rev. Rogers Govender, has received a letter from Sony apologising to the Church of England for any offence caused by Resistance: Fall of Man.

As reported by Fox News, the letter stated, "It was not our intention to cause offence by using a representation of Manchester Cathedral in chapter eight of the work. If we have done so, we sincerely apologise."

However in the letter, Sony does not accept "that there is any connection between contemporary issues in 21st century Manchester and the work of science fiction in which a fictitious 1950s Britain is under attack by aliens.

"We believe a comprehensive viewing of the work will make its content and context clear."

According to Fox a Sony spokesman confirmed the letter as genuine, and said it included an offer to meet with church officials. Govender said the Cathedral would accept Sony's offer. The Church wants to continue discussions over its requests that Resistance be withdrawn and Sony makes a donation to its initiative against gun violence.

As reported earlier this week, the Church demanded an apology from Sony over the depiction of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance.

"For a global manufacturer to recreate the interior of any religious building such as a mosque, synagogue, or in this case, a cathedral, with photorealistic quality and then encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and in our view highly irresponsible," Govender said.

Mark Androvich
June 15, 2007

Source: GamesIndustry.biz
posted by Auri with 0 Comments

PSOne games on PlayStation Network next week (UK)

Semi official Sony blog Threespeech has announced that the first PlayStation One titles to appear on the PlayStation Network will be Crash Bandicoot, Wipeout, Medievil, Jumping Flash and Syphon Filter.

The titles are set to appear next week on the PlayStation Store for the UK and it's highly likely Australians will get them on the same day. PlayStation One titles can be downloaded only from the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3 and are playable on both the PlayStation 3 and the PSP. These titles were available months ago in America, so it's pleasing that PAL gamers will finally get a chance to play some of the very first PlayStation One games.

Luke Van Leuveren
June 16, 2007

Source: PALGN

posted by Auri with 0 Comments

NPD: Video Game Industry Up Almost 50% in May

Following an April in which software sales were slightly down, in May the video game industry in the U.S. bounced back nicely. Console software was up 31 percent to more than $274 million, and total video game industry sales soared 49 percent to $815.5 million. Year-to-date, video game sales have reached $5 billion, a 47 percent increase over last year's $3.4 billion. A record breaking year would almost seem guaranteed for 2007.

Console hardware was a real driver of growth in May as sales climbed 79 percent to $221.4 million. Overall in hardware, the Nintendo DS (at this point, not surprisingly) took top honors... again. Nintendo sold through 423K units during the month. This was followed by Wii, PSP, PS2, Xbox 360, and then PS3. Unfortunately, NPD could not provide a complete hardware sales breakdown as of press time, but directionally it is interesting to see the PSP outselling the PS2, 360 and PS3.

On the software side, Nintendo's Pokemon Diamond for the DS once again led all titles. The game sold an additional 331.2K units, bringing total sales of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl in the U.S. to well over 2 million thus far. Diamond and Pearl have already sold over 5 million copies in Japan, and the entire Pokemon franchise has sold over 155 million.

Here's the complete top ten list (ranked by units), as provided by NPD.
  1. Pokemon Diamond—DS—Nintendo
  2. Mario Party 8—Wii—Nintendo
  3. Spider-Man 3—PS2—Activision
  4. Pokemon Pearl—DS—Nintendo
  5. Wii Play w/remote—Wii—Nintendo
  6. Forza Motorsport 2—Xbox 360—Microsoft
  7. Guitar Hero II w/guitar—Xbox 360—Activision
  8. Spider-Man 3—Xbox 360—Activision
  9. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars—Xbox 360—Electronic Arts
  10. Guitar Hero II w/guitar—PS2—Activision
Note: NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier was not available for comment on this month's data.

James Brightman
June 14, 2007

Source: GameDaily.biz
posted by Auri with 0 Comments