In a post on the AVForums, a System 3 developer has assured Ferrari Challenge owners that problems many are experiencing with the game’s online side are being ironed out, and that the first DLC will be released shortly.

“We are aware of the problem and its being fixed right now,” said the dev, using his Alanok alias.

“Its not going to be an overnight thing and it will need to be tested again so we don’t get the same situation, it will then be sent to Sony for approval. Please bear with us it is being looked into.

“As for DLC the first pack will shortly be released, I think its one track and five new cars, some of which are beauties.”

Much more through the link.

Will the third time be the charm for Sony Corp.?

The entertainment and electronics giant is preparing to launch an online video service through its game console PlayStation 3 as early as this summer, studio executives familiar with the plan say.

The company has been in licensing talks with studios in recent weeks, according to these executives, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of continuing negotiations.

The initial version of the service would include movies and television shows flowing from the Internet to the PlayStation 3.

It would follow two other disappointing online ventures backed by Sony in recent years: Movielink, which attempted to become the online equivalent of the video store for mainstream Hollywood movies before being sold last year to Blockbuster Inc.; and Sony Connect, the company's response to Apple Inc.'s iTunes download service. It shut down in March.

The latest service, provided through the online PlayStation Network, is Sony's attempt to stage a comeback in digital entertainment distribution. The maker of the once-dominant Walkman portable music player is still smarting from its defeat by Apple in the online music revolution.

When we first heard about this new Metal Gear Bluetooth v2.0 headset, much to our disappointment, it was starting to look like another evil internet rumor (hello, I'm still waiting for my million dollar check, Bill Gates). Well, turns out that it's very real and Metal Gear Solid fans all over the interweb are positively creaming their pants over it. With features like a 30-foot range, auto shut off, auto sync and a rechargeable Li-Polymer battery that has eight hours of talk time and 160 hours of standby, they have good reason to be.

This headset by video game peripheral manufacturer Performance Designed Products is modeled after Snake's new "Solid Eye" reconnaissance bot. It's got a silicone loop and over-ear foam speaker cover for extended comfort during long smack talking sessions. It's licensed for MGS4 but it will work with all PS3 games as well as your Bluetooth cell phone so you can look like a badass mercenary special op anywhere you go. It can be yours on June 12th, coinciding with the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, for $59.99.

One of the reasons movie studios are hoping consumers adopt Blu-ray is in order to offset continually declining DVD sales. Since they plateaued three years ago, DVD sales have slowly decreased. The first quarter of this year was no different, showing an overall drop in DVD sales of 1.2% from Q1 2007. However, Blu-ray sales saved the day - just as studios have hoped they would - and when combined with DVD sales resulted in an overall increase in sales of 1% over last year.

Steve Beeks, president and co-COO of Lionsgate commented, "Blu-ray had its second-best week ever in the seven days ending March 23, and we anticipate Blu-ray sales of $800 million to $1billion-plus for all of 2008, up dramatically from approximately $300 million last year."

With the format war now over, studios are looking forward to the rest of the year as more and more consumers adopt the high definition format.

Well, kind of free, eh?
Gamestops in the US and Canada have been sending out flyers to inform those interested in Haze that they can basically get the game free upon release. There is a catch, though, as they'll have to bring the game back after a week, and will receive in-store credit instead of their actual money back.

The flyer (which you can see below) states that those who put down their money for the game early will be given the offer to return the game after a week's play for a full refund in store credit to spend on another arguably better title in the future. Gamestop will, of course, hope that many forget to bring the game back on time thus meaning gamers will be out of pocket, and they instead will be rolling in extra cash thanks to the high amount of pre-orders they should garner from this offer.

We have yet to hear what Free Radical or Ubisoft think of this, and we still don't even know if Haze will be any good. We will remind you that Haze remains a bit brown-looking, though.

Another batch of new Gran Turismo 5. Prologue screenshots was released. Enjoy.

The latest issue of UK magazine, PSW, features an article stating that "it's no secret Crysis is coming to PS3". They explain the upcoming PlayStation 3 version will have aspects of the sequel, and is not a direct port. Let's take a look at the article.

"First up, we have Crysis. Now it's no secret that Crysis is coming to PS3 this year. The excitable, hard-worked coders over at Crytek have said as much in many interviews - they've even produced a new, multi-platform engine in readiness - but the real juice here is that it won't be a straight conversion of the PC game. We understand PS3 Crysis will be an almost 50% new game, with many of the original games staff taken off PC Crysis months before release to begin to work on Crysis 2 and a port to PS3 that will include aspects of the sequel - but a new structure, environments, weapons and enemies will feature on PS3. This should be one of the year's biggest console shooters."

All six major Hollywood studios are now in the Blu-ray Disc camp, a day after Toshiba has pulled the plug on HD DVD and Blu-ray became effectively the only next-gen game in town.

Paramount Home Entertainment quietly came onboard via a statement sent exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday: "We are pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer," the statement reads. "As we look to (begin) releasing our titles on Blu-ray, we will monitor consumer adoption and determine our release plans accordingly."

No further details were given.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment, in contrast, cast its lot with Blu-ray within hours of Toshiba's announcement Tuesday morning that it was ending the format war by ceasing the development, manufacture and marketing of HD DVD players by the end of March. Universal made a big splash with its announcement, sending media outlets a statement from division president Craig Kornblau in which he said, "While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray."

Janet Murray, director of Georgia Tech's masters and Ph.D. program in digital media, said a single format supported by all six major studios has a much better chance of success than two rival ones that each take only a chunk of Hollywood.

"It's a big victory for the consumer," she said.

Now that the studios are no longer battling each other over which format is best, Murray said, they can focus on generating awareness among consumers of the many benefits of high-definition media. Murray predicts "a standardization of extras" now that everyone's releasing films on a single format rather than two, each with its own set of capabilities. "This will lead to a much richer experience for viewers," she added.

Murray also foresees "much more content and much more breadth of content" now that Blu-ray is the only way to go. "When people have these higher-end screens at home, they take great pleasure in them, and this will push ahead the delivery (of movies) in high-definition," she said.

Ironically, Universal had been exclusive with HD DVD since the format's launch in April 2006, while Paramount had initially supported both HD DVD and Blu-ray. Paramount and DreamWorks switched to HD DVD-only in August, reportedly after receiving a $150 million payment from the format's supporters for "promotional consideration."

Neither studio has announced specific titles earmarked for early Blu-ray release, though both are expected to start with new theatricals coming the same day as the standard DVD, beginning in late spring or early summer.

The four other majors committed to Blu-ray are Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (along with its distributed MGM Home Entertainment label), Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video (including distributed labels New Line Home Entertainment, BBC Video and HBO Video). Mini-major Lionsgate also has been an exclusive Blu-ray backer since the start.

Sony has responded to news of its victory over Toshiba in the next-generation DVD battle by pointing to Blu-ray as "one more reason" for people to buy a PlayStation 3.

The comment, made by Sony Computer Entertainment America president and CEO Jack Tretton, also pointed to 2008 as being key to the platform's evolution.

"The emergence of Blu-ray as the de facto high-def standard is one more reason why PS3 is a great value to consumers. The combination of strong sales, Blu-ray dominance and widely-anticipated games all point to 2008 as a breakthrough year for PS3."

Both analysts and publishers have now gone on record stating their belief that the PlayStation 3 will outsell its Microsoft rival, the Xbox 360, throughout 2008 and the demise of HD DVD is expected to give Sony a monthly boost in sales of around 10 per cent.

But Microsoft isn't admitting defeat, and Studios' corporate VP Shane Kim hinted recently that there was more to come from his company's machine that hadn't yet been announced.

Hindsight's a beautiful thing. We all said CES was terrible for gaming this year, and we were right in part. Microsoft decided to stay away, not even showing Xbox 360 on its stand, and PS3 was virtually non-existent. One of the big stories of the show, however is likely to have a huge impact on how this console generation plays out, even if most of us didn't realise it at the time: just before the Las Vegas expo, Warner Bros. dropped HD-DVD.

The scene in the Convention Center was embarrassing. The HD-DVD stand stood right next to the Blu-ray booth on the showfloor, and to say the Blu-ray exhibition staff were "milking" the news was a bit of an understatement. Demonstrations on the packed Blu-ray stand proclaimed "the format war" as "over", with all amps turned up to 11. The HD-DVD booth, a red and black necropolis, was quiet like the grave. The guys dressed in their Toshiba t-shirts looked as though they wanted the earth to swallow them up. Business can be ugly, and Blu-ray's showboating was as grim as it gets.

Shut the door on your way out

The Warner Bros. decision was a hefty nail in HD-DVD's already splintering coffin, and it signaled the beginning of a chain of events that culminated on Saturday in Toshiba's decision to pull out of the next gen media disc race altogether. The Japanese firm is expected to formally announce the format's cancellation in the coming days.

The final kick in the teeth also came last week, as US retail giant Wal-Mart dropped the format. Toshiba was left with no choice but to throw in the towel. The Wal-Mart move followed a similar announcements from Netflix and BestBuy.

The impact Toshiba's failure will have on gaming's console arms race between Microsoft and Sony will be profound. Blu-ray, the PS3 addition that seemed like an insane gamble back in 2006 is now a real USP and is likely to give a heavy push to helping the console achieve astronomical sales at the end of this year across all territories.

J Allard - a man before his time

HDTV take-up in the US is now at 28 percent and accelerating, with those already in J Allard's HD Era spending an average of $1,300 on a set. When Sony first announced that Blu-ray would be installed in PS3, it was met with screams of "Who cares?" The answer now is, "Millions of Americans and Europeans". People want HD movies now, and if they don't already they certainly will when then eventually take the plunge and invest in HDTV, as many will this Christmas. And the chances are they're going to at least consider buying a PS3 as a Blu-ray player when they do.

Why? Two reasons: price and Blu-ray exclusivity.

Sony will almost certainly make a heavy price cut to the machine later this year. If it doesn't hit the magic £199 in the UK, it's likely to come close at €299 (£225) across Europe. The Blu-ray lasers that made PS3 so expensive in the first place have now dropped in price due to an increase in supply, and a drastic cut in the cost of manufacturing Cell means the price of creating a PS3 is down to £200. Sony can afford to make the drop.

In addition, PS3 is now not only the only out-of-the-box HD movie player, but the only games console on the market that plays Blu-ray discs at all. Microsoft's HD-DVD add-on for Xbox 360 isn't worth its weight in salt any more (although a standalone Xbox 360 Blu-ray player is already being rumoured).

That, coupled with a realistic price point later this year, will cause an surge in PS3 sales in the third and fourth quarters as the southern European markets of Spain and Italy - to whom "Xbox" is something to be spat at until the next PlayStation arrives - are "switched on" to the machine, and the millions who haven't bought into Xbox 360 in the US and northern European territories accept an offer they can't refuse.

Obviously, this argument doesn't even take software into account. PS3's heavy hitters are being queued up for the end of this year. FFXIII, GT5 and Killzone 2 are all likely to hit in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009, territorial discrepancies allowing. That's an awful lot of game you can't get on an Xbox 360, price cut and Blu-ray inclusion aside.

The beginning of the end?

Toshiba's decision to cancel the HD-DVD project was forced, and is a drop in the ocean of consumer electronics, but to Sony it could be one of the most important announcements this year. For many, the first experience of owning a DVD player was with PS2, and the machine's DVD drive was a serious incentive to buyers at the time. Sony's gamble has paid off. The step up in movie media is Blu-ray. The question of whether or not people actually want those contentious drives is now, "If they don't now, they will at the end of 2008." Sony will be smiling this morning.

Watch those hardware figures in the final quarter, stats fans. Can't say we'd like to be in Microsoft's shoes right now.

When Paramount Home Entertainment decided to support HD DVD exclusively, Michael Bay was vocally opposed. Since the decision came just as his Transformers would debut on high-definition home video, Bay threatened to back out of the sequel.

He took back his drastic comments and is hard at work developing Transformers 2, but now that Blu-ray is the format that is gaining momentum, Bay cannot help but remind us he told us so.

"Blu-ray's better, and I told everyone," Bay said at the Visual Effects Society's sixth annual award show, where he presented the award for animated character in a motion picture. "I was very vocal about it. I knew HD [DVD] was not going to make it."

Import/Export is an outdoor environment set largely in streets flush with vacant cars that can act as effective cover. Players can also venture inside some of the buildings to look out on unsuspecting foes. Some might remember it from Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield and while the map has a few new nooks and crannies in Vegas 2, those who played it before should feel relatively at home.

The backers of the Blu-ray high definition DVD system have received a twin boost in their ongoing format war with HD DVD.

Best Buy - the US's largest consumer electronics chain - has announced it is to recommend that its customers choose Sony's Blu-ray format.

Its shops will carry HD DVD but Blu-ray will be displayed more prominently.

And online video rental company Netflix said it would phase out its HD DVD stock and exclusively offer Blu-ray.

Studio backing

Netflix has become the US's largest company in a fast-growing field - DVD rental by mail - and announced a year ago that it had made its billionth DVD delivery after just eight years in business.

It has stocked both Blu-ray and HD DVD since the formats came on the market in early 2006 but said it had been prompted to reconsider this after a majority of the major Hollywood studios came out in favour of Blu-ray.

Walt Disney, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Brothers and MGM are the studios that have endorsed Blu-ray. Paramount and Universal Studios publish their high-definition DVDs in Toshiba's HD DVD format.

The company also said the reality was that not many customers were ordering HD DVDs. "From the Netflix perspective, focusing on one format will enable us to create the best experience for subscribers," it said in a statement.

Netflix's rival Blockbuster said last June that it planned to stock only Blu-ray titles in its 1,450 US stores.

Best Buy's decision was explained by its president and chief operating officer Brian Dunn, who said: "Best Buy has always believed that the customer will benefit from a widely accepted single format that would offer advantages such as product compatibility and expanded content choices.

"Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray products."

The battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray has echoes of the rivalry between Betamax and VHS in the 1980s over which was the better video format for customers.

Although both competed side-by-side for several years, the cheaper VHS format eventually won total dominance of the market.

Netflix, a by-mail DVD rental service, has announced that it will follow the lead of Hollywood studios and will exclusively stock Blu-ray DVDs. Netflix noted that the majority of its high-def disc rentals were for Blu-ray rather than HD-DVD. "As of now (NetFlix) will purchase only Blu-ray discs and will phase out by roughly year's end the alternative high-def format, HD DVD, developed by Toshiba," the company said in a release.

Quote:
"The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. "We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means."

In the latest advertisement from German retailer Saturn, Sony is offering 150 Euros off the purchase of a Sony BDP-S300 when current HD DVD owners turn in their used players. This is an outstanding deal for those high definition fans in Germany who would otherwise have been left with a very expensive paperweight. Currently this offer is only available in Germany.


Admittedly, the Sony BDP-S300 is more expensive in Germany at 499 Euros ($737), so this offer brings the player down to a more familiar price of around $500. Even so, I'm sure there are plenty of people in US who would love to take advantage of a similar deal. Unfortunately for them, HD DVD adoption is much higher in the US, meaning a similar plan here would cost Sony hundreds of millions of dollars to execute. In other words, don't hold your breath.

National Geographic has confirmed that they will only be releasing high definition titles on the Blu-ray format. The decision to go format exclusive comes after Warner Brothers, the company which distributes their content, decided to go Blu-ray exclusive earlier this month. While no official press release will be issued on the subject by National Geographic, all future releases will fall under this new policy.

The first title to fall under this new policy will be the April release of 'Sharkwater' which should get officially announced soon. National Geographic is the latest studio to switch to Blu-ray exclusivity, and the third to do so under the Warner umbrella (joining ranks with New Line and HBO). The only Warner holdout left is BBC, who remains format neutral and will continue to release on both formats.

The only National Geographic high definition release thus far has been 'Relentless Enemies', which was released almost a year ago. Hopefully, with the format war finally ending, we'll see more content from the legendary company.

The latest Home Media Magazine has been released with the latest Nielson VideoScan data, and for the week ending January 20th, Blu-ray disc sales accounted for 83% of the high definition market. During this time, there were no Buy-One-Get-One-Free sales, showing the complete dominance that Blu-ray holds in the high definition market even without purchasing incentives.

While some analysts concluded that Blu-ray's hold on the high definition market was only a temporary spike due to the Warner announcement, it appears that the trend will continue as more and more consumers discover the benefits of Blu-ray.

NetFlix CEO Reed Hastings says it appears that Blu-ray has the advantage in the high-def disc format war against HD DVD.

In an investors call yesterday following release of NetFlix's fourth quarter report, Hastings added that consumer adoption of Blu-ray will "accelerate" if the format can maintain that advantage.

"The milestones to watch for are Blu-ray player prices falling below $200, and Universal and Paramount also announcing their support for Blu-ray," he said. "If these two milestones are reached, the consumer adoption of Blu-ray will take off. This would be a positive for the studios and a positive for Netflix, as it would fuel another decade of robust disc based entertainment. "

The by-mail DVD rental service now offers both Blu-ray and HD DVDs, but Hastings clearly would prefer a single format solution. Following Warner Bros.' endorsement of Blu-ray earlier this month, analysts have speculated that Blu-ray will ultimately win the battle.

(Five major studios now exclusively release their films on Blu-ray while only two -- Universal and Paramount -- release their movies on HD DVD.)

But Hastings cautioned that the format war is not over yet. He also gave no indication that NetFlix will support one format over the other.

"Definitely the winds are shifting to Blu-ray but nothing done yet," he said.

The executive added that Blu-ray rentals at NetFlix have seen "sharp growth" since the Warner endorsement.

Still, high-def disc rentals are a small portion of NetFlix's overall business, he said.

"Maybe a percent of subs yes, but meaningful percentage of shipments, not particularly because there is not that much content released on it yet. But in terms of subs it's definitely growing. I would say we have a big crew of Internet connected early adopter, savvy subscribers. So they are going to be all relatively early," Hastings told the investors group.

First 12 scans of the upcoming LEGO Indiana Jones: The Videogame by Traveller's Tales, developers of Lego Star Wars.

I want to let you to let you know that when these screens and videos were taken when the game was only at 50% complete. The developer said that the Ambient Filter has been turned off, so thats why some of these screenshots may look flat. He said that there will be tons of graphical improvements before the game releases....this is just an early look

"A Sony commissioned report released today claims the Blu-ray disc format had a 95.2% market share for home entertainment hardware and software in October 2007 while the HD-DVD format held just the remaining 4.8% share."

Claimed findings from the study include:
• Blu-ray hardware including the PS3 outsells HD-DVD hardware by 26 to 1
• In October 2007, more than 18,000 Blu-ray Disc titles and around 2,000 HD-DVDs were sold.

The full report includes statements from managing director of Sony Australia Carl Rose, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia and New Zealand Michael Ephraim, and managing director of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Michele Garra.

The Blu-ray Disc Assn. is touting a new milestone passed over the Black Friday shopping period, noting that player sales since launch reached 2.7 million units through Nov. 24.

Like the HD DVD camp's recent claims, the figure encompasses both Blu-ray-capable gaming devices and Blu-ray set-top players.

Through October, there had been 2 million units sold of the Blu-ray-enhanced PlayStation 3. That arguably gives Blu-ray set-tops a 700,000 piece of overall format unit sales. But the picture is muddied somewhat by the likely gangbuster PlayStation 3 sales in November due to the introduction of the relatively cheap $399 PlayStation 3. November console sales will not be available from the NPD Group until mid-December.

It's tough to calculate specific gains for Blu-ray set-tops, as many of the manufacturers have not released sales information on their players to this point.

Still, the 2.7 million sold is a clear achievement over the HD DVD side, which pushed its installment base to 750,000 units following widespread holiday retail sales, notably including $99-priced players at Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

"Losing a job you've held for over 11 years in an abrupt manner is shocking, yes."

While the above quote should perhaps win Jeff Gerstmann the 'understatement of the year' award, the former Gamespot editorial director is still staying silent about the specifics surrounding his recent firing (citing the previously mentioned "legal reasons," among others). He has, however, told Joystiq that he still stands behind his controversial review of Kane & Lynch.

Read Full Story Here

"Playboy is searching for a hot "Cyber Girl", oh and be sure to check out Kane & Lynch", is the message that IGN's Kane & Lynch mini-site is sending. It's almost as if this site is meant to be a giant Ad for Playboy with a facade of a game information page. The links in the flash ad even go directly to Playboy.com.

This looks to be another odd move by Eidos considering the recent fallout over "Gamespot Editor Fired Over Kane & Lynch Review?"

Let's be honest - Blu-ray is a bit rubbish. Sure, it does look better than DVD, but not by much - and let's face it, there'd be absolutely no point in it if it didn't. What we're saying is, while the inclusion of a DVD player in PS2 was a masterstroke, the inclusion of Blu-ray in PS3 is a giant foible, and a crude attempt at 'history repeating'.

Fact: before DVD, there was VHS. And - nostalgia aside - it was totally duff. You placed a giant cassette in a giant machine and had to physically wind, or rewind, spools of tape to watch, say, The Two Ronnies Christmas Special, complete with a giant white crackling bar of interference where your TV aerial was playing up. DVD changed the rules. A single disc containing digitally perfect - at least, relative to VHS - images, where (and this is the killer) you could skip half hour chunks precisely with the tap of a single button. Chapter skips = win. Plus, you didn't have to 'rewind' a DVD for ten minutes, like you did with VHS, before giving Police Academy 3 back to Bob's Video Cabin.

Result? DVD was a genuine technological leap with benefits everyone - even your squiffy-eyed Nan - could appreciate. Sony sold a shedload of PS2s on the strength of the DVD player alone - it was the UK's cheapest DVD player, after all, plus included a more-than-decent games machine.

And that was the theory with Blu-ray and PS3, except that Blu-ray is basically a DVD player with a new hat. Functionally, it's almost identical, with the same chapter skip features as DVD. And while it's loads bigger, the HD footage it contains is bigger too, so you don't even get the advantage of, say, putting every episode of The Simpsons ever on one disc - which would've rocked. And, er, cost £599, but that's a different story.

And the real poke in the plums is that it barely looks any better. Sure, you'll see a tangible difference watching, say, a CGI-heavy film like Transformers on a 60" 1080p plasma, but for most folk, even those with 'normal' 32" HDTVs, DVD quality is just fine. And Blu-rays cost a lot more, too - about £24 compared to DVD's at about £10-15.

Upshot? We don't know anyone who bought a PS3 for the Blu-ray player. Sure, it's nice - and you'll feel vaguely good about getting something expensive for 'free' with your high-spec games console - but only as useful as, say, receiving a gold plated surfboard attachment for your new bike when you live in Coventry. Sort of. It's a good idea, but basically chuffing useless.

We're being obtuse of course, but the point is, if Sony wanted to sell PS3 on an alternative technical angle - to attract mums and dads - then they should have embraced, say, the digital Freeview tuner from day one. If PS3 was a games machine, and a Freeview box (with Sky+ style recording ability), it makes it a lot easier for people to understand the benefit. Because having a machine that records TV for you when you leave the house is a benefit - as opposed to watching, say, Mel Gib