Nobuyuki Oneda, the CEO of Sony, stated recently during the company’s investor call concerning the first quarter said that the PS3 now costs a full 70% less than what it originally cost to make. This leads me to do a little maths. If you take the original MSRP of a PS3 ($600) and add in the expected loss they were selling it for (about $300) that means that they’ve managed to shave off almost $630 dollars worth of manufacturing costs.

“The cost reduction since we introduced the PS3 is very substantial and this is on schedule. We don’t disclose how much of the PS3, specifically the cost deduction was achieved during the past two years. But that is on schedule.”

This certainly is good news for Sony as a company, now if they could manage to make back the mountain of money that they’ve lost since it’s launch. The only way I can see that happening is if they were indeed telling the truth about the PS3 being a 10 year console. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Pete Hines, our good buddy at Bethesda just shared with us the new trailer for Fallout 3’s newest expansion coming out this August 3rd, Mothership Zeta. This is likely the last of the DLC that we’ll get for this game and I can’t wait to play it. I’m guessing Nikmonroe won’t be able to contain himself either.

If you were holding out on picking up Dawn of War II for some reason, now’s your chance. All THQ games on Steam are now 50% off (for the time being). This means that you can pick up DoWII for $25! That’s a hell of a deal. There’s no telling when the sale ends, so just like an asian ran 7-11 “YOU HURRY UP AND BUY!”

Here’s your link

Well it seems that Kazunori Yamauchi has let the proverbial cat out of the bag when it comes to the much-anticipated Gran Turismo PSP. This is the cover art for the box that you’re checking out right now. It’ll be out (hopefully) on October 1st this year and looks fucking hot.

In case you don’t know the cars too well, you’re looking at the Corvette C6 ZR1 which has a supercharged-LS9 V8 that pumps out 638hp of raw kick-ass. Yamauchi-san has really develeoped a taste for American Detroit metal since the last couple of games, if you remember he had the Ford GT (another supercharged V8 supercar) on the cover for the NA version of GT4.

I’m a gearhead so this will be the reason that I fnally get off my ass and get a PSP.

The Blu-ray Disc Association, which sounds like a fancy name for some sort of media disc mafia, recently conducted an online survey of what anime titles Japanese consumers would purchase on Blu-Ray. The results are mostly unremarkable, with most modern popular anime making an appearance. However, the question itself got me thinking about what American releases I’d purchase on Blu-ray. A huge benefit of the format is its massive storage size, and one excellent use of Blu-ray would be to put entire series on just one or two discs. A standard dual-layer Blu-ray can hold 50GB of data, compared to a DVD-9’s 8.54GB. One of my pet peeves of purchasing anime on DVD is the massive amount of DVDs you need to hold all the episodes. For example, a 12 episode series like The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya takes 4 DVDs, and that’s a lot of space on my bookshelf. That’s reason enough for me to want anime on Blu-ray, not to mention full HD releases as well. Even if switching to Blu-ray would raise prices slightly, I’d be all for it. However, I don’t see a complete conversion happening anytime in the near future, as DVDs are still the media format of choice for most people.

Many thanks to Joystiq for providing a new video for Halo: ODST that introduces the characters and the weapons that you’ll be using throughout the game. The gameplay looks simply amazing. Yes, it’s another Halo, but that really isn’t such a bad thing for me. I mean, what else could one ask for?

I decided today that I’m going to embrace my PS3 a lot more in this upcoming game season. Part of this is because of how distasteful the Xbox 360 fans have been treating PS3 users on many of the forums and sites I check regularly for news.

Take for instance, the most recent flame war about id Software’s RAGE coming out for both systems. It seems that at the current build level (notice fanboys that I said ‘current’ build level), the Xbox 360 is running higher FPS than the PS3 version. After all of the fighting and speculation reached a fevered pitch, Mr. id Software himself John Carmack came out and said that they were planning on having both systems running at a ‘locked’ 60 FPS…the PS3 was just behind in development.

It was amazing how the discussion and fighting just seemed to immediately stop at that point. Then, as expected, the Sony fanboys lauched their counter-assault…and started hating on the 360’s inability to have a medium that can handle the entirety of the game without being split up. These assholes will just never learn that nothing is solved from fanboyism, will they?

Today, Kenji Kamiyama, director of such anime as Blood: The Last Vampire, Ghost In The Shell: SAC, and Eden of the East, announced that Eden of the East will have a compilation film released a month before the movie sequel. For those who don’t know, Eden of the East was a total sleeper hit from the spring that came out of nowhere. There was some hype, but Eden of the East went above and beyond, making it one of the best shows so far this year (containing one of the best anime openings I’ve seen in years, check it out above). However, Eden of the East only ran for a short 11 episodes and left everyone wanting more, allowing for the creation of a double film sequel. If you haven’t seen Eden of the East, you can wait for Funimation’s US release later this year or get your grubby hands on the fandub through less “legitimate” means…

Anyway, the important thing to note is the news from today about a compilation film. The trend of comp films has been around for a long time in anime, and fans have mixed feelings on both sides of the issue. There are some examples of comp movies done right, like Gundam 0079’s infinitely better 3 movie version and Macross: Do You Believe In Love, but both of these films are based on series with 35+ episodes. In the case of Eden of the East, I don’t believe that we need a compilation movie since there is only eleven episodes. The creation of a comp movie for such a short series looks like nothing more than a cheap, greedy way to cash in on Eden of the East’s popularity. Here’s the sad thing: I’ll probably still watch it.

Yet another game is getting the ‘push’ treatment. This time it’s Dark Void, the “Bermuda Triangle taking people to alternate universes, also jetpacks” game that looks great has been announced yesterday to be pushed to the first quarter of 2010.

The game was set to be direct competition with Halo: ODST, but Capcom decided that they didn’t want to crowd the season…just like a dozen other game companies have. Eh, I’d just be happy to get a new game a week for the next year, as long as they’re good. I can’t help but see The Rocketeer sometimes when I look at this game, I’ll get over it.

Isn’t it ironic that people have been choosing to strap themselves into their computers to play a game where the story is about people struggling to free themselves from machine control?

Anyways, this shitty MMO dies as of today. To let people actually have fun in the game, they’ve been level bumped to the cap and have been given unlimited money. Get ready to see a dozen nerds all with the same gear, doing the same thing.

Good morning whores. I hope you have your coffee in hand, a nice warm breakfast in your stomach and the realization that the weekend is only 8 hours away.

The last Pantera song for the week comes from their Cowboys from Hell masterpiece. Cemetery Gates is one of those songs that I can listen to over and over again. This version has Dream Theater covering the song with several different singers, including Russell Allen (Symphony X singer), Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory singer) and Dave Mustaine who also shreds a guitar solo for you. Enjoy whores and I’ll see you on monday.

I’ll admit it, I might have been a little harsh on the Summer of Arcade yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to all the games except for Trails HD, and I think that all of them are fairly priced regardless. I was going to buy Turtles in Time Re-Shelled when it was 1200 Microsoft Points, even though I have the SNES cart, and I’m sure as shit buying it after this announcement today.

IGN just got word that Turtles in Time Re-Shelled will only be 800 Microsoft Points when it comes out next week. Though it’s only a price reduction of $5, I am still happy about it since it will hopefully convince more of my friends to pick it up.

I would suggest you use that extra $5 to buy something to get you in a TMNT related mood. May I reccomend:

-A blue, purple, orange, or red bandana to wear while playing Turtles in Time.
-TMNT Arcade 1989 on XBLA
- A really small pizza

And remember, if you do plan on getting Turtles in Time Re-Shelled…I have dibs on Leonardo, so fuck off.

The trailer for Wes Anderson’s new film, The Fantastic Mr Fox has split the film community down the middle.  Some people have embraced the quirkiness of the stop motion animation and realise that this is Wes Anderson and he never does ‘normal’ whereas others are calling the film unsophisticated with animation that looks like it’s from a 15 year old Wallace and Gromit short.  Personally I think this looks interesting, it’s got a great cast with George Clooney a perfect fit as Mr Fox and it’s always good to see Anderson regulars Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman in the film as well.  Here’s the official synopsis they’ve released for the film along with trailer:

Mr. and Mrs. Fox live an idyllic home life with their son Ash and visiting young nephew Kristopherson. But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers — Boggis, Bunce and Bean — who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost.

I really like the look of the film, it looks fun and I’ve loved all of Anderson’s films with the exception of The Life Aquatic but I have to give him a chance, he made Bill Murray cool again.

They said it couldn’t be done. They said it would take too much time. But then indie developer Twisted Pixel turned around and, BAM, made a game that was worthy of being placed alongside the likes of the Genesis Sonic games and Sonic CD. The plot twist? Twisted Pixel hadn’t made a Sonic game, but a new IP.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am very aware that I’m not the first person to liken Splosion Man to Sonic, not by a long shot. But every site or comment that has said it has only done so in passing, not really expounding on the similarities. That is what I plan to do in the following paragraphs, as it seems everyone has forgotten what made a Sonic game good.

Keep It Simple, Stupid

In the original Sonic the Hedgehog, your moves were quite limited. The A button made you jump, as did B and C. You could move left and right, and that was what you were given to beat the game. Similarly, in Splosion Man, the learning curve is nonexistant. The A button makes you splode, as does the B, X, and Y buttons. Pretty fuckin simple. Now, if it’s not immediately apparent to you what the benefits of having such a limited moveset is, allow me to educate you. In recent days, a character is given a shitton (more like ten shittons) of abilities, and the game consists of segments where you have to use Ability A or Ability Z, and not much else. When you only have one move, developers are forced to employ solid level design to keep the game fresh, which you can see in both Sonic the Hedgehog and Splosion Man.

Well, we FINALLY get to know all the songs that have been confirmed for Guitar Hero 5 and whats funny is that I can hear Gibbo and BunnyRabbit2 sighing all the way from England as I post this (they’re Rock Band fanboys).

If you’re dying to know if any of your favorites has made it into the game, hit the jump to bring up an alphabetical list of all 85 tracks that will be featured.