Some Star Wars Galaxies Servers Shutting Down

via 1UP RSS feed by Steve Watts on 9/15/09

Next month several servers will be shut down in Star Wars Galaxies, part of an overall move to slim down servers after allowing characters to transfer. Kotakupasses along the word from the Star Wars Galaxies forums, which state that the free character transfers have essentially made some servers underused. As of 5 p.m. (PST) October 15, the following servers will be shut down:

• Corbantis
  
• Europe-Infinity
  
• Intrepid
  
• Kauri
  
• Kettemoor
  
• Lowca
  
• Naritus
  
• Scylla
  
• Tarquinas
  
• Tempest
  
• Valcyn
  
• Wanderhome
  

Of course, with The Old Republic looming on the horizon, this may be the first sign of things to come. Servers are regularly cleared when they become unused, and Star Wars loyalists are likely to at least give BioWare’s effort a try.

Top tip for female Home users bothered by creepy stalkers :: PlayStation Universe (PSU)

So this is what is fun in Sony’s ‘flagship’ title Home?

more about “Top tip for female Home users bothere…“, posted with vodpod

We knew it was going to happen…

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/AgmFGnrGBOw/

After January 2009 arrives, games on the PS3 will be required by Sony to offer trophies, according to VideoGamer.com.

   .. Hmm.. not much else to say 

What happened to gaming in general?

Has anyone noticed how games are getting boring?  It’s the same damn game play with a new coat of paint and some tweaks.  ALL MMO’s want to be WoW, all FSP’s can trace there game play back to Half-life or Doom.  Puzzle games? Hell 1/2 of them are clones of some other puzzle game.    You pay hundreds of dollars to play a remake of pac-man!?

It’s kind of the same thing as the movie industry, the MPAA bitches that they aren’t making any money from movies. Then you get movies like the new Batman.
It comes down to, if you make a GOOD movie people will go see it.   The RIAA complains they aren’t making any money, yet there are a number of artists that have platinum records.
at least with the Internet we don’t have only a few songs shoved down our throat.

Is this was is beginning to happen in the gaming industry?  A bunch of clones and whiners with a couple gems released every couple of years? A few games released to LIVE and PSN because that’s what Microsoft/Sony want us to make popular?   is there anything new an interesting coming down the pipe?  

Are the major players in the field just getting too big so the whole ‘Corporate’ mentality is starting to take hold?  Will they force us into another time where all gamers just said screw this, gaming is stupid and cause another gaming crash?      Can indy developers games save the face of gaming?

 

What’s your thoughts/ideas on the subject?

GTA IV backlash already…

*sigh*  what’s a gamer to do when ‘news’ channels start knifing gamers in the back by preying on the fear (and stupidity) of the the non-gamer human?

So here’s a story (it’s FOX.. what do you expect?) with the nice bold headline of: [Cop Killing Video Game Makes Big Debut], by Sharita Hutton posted just this morning for the Kansas City News.

Where as nothing was said about the record sales, nor about the spammers trying to steal your pre-order copy, or anything about store (like EB) funking up your pre-order and store sale-outs… Nope this is all got to be about the violence of the GTA series.

The whole news story starts off with such a negative overtone that you wouldn’t like the game before you even knew anything about it.  However, even WAL-MART the king of ‘you will like what we give you’ is selling the game.  I guess money does talk. 

Though a couple of things about this article struck me as funny: “An online preview of the game describes the game, saying its as violent as the past three versions and more realistic, with 1080p resolution.”   

So this tells me Sharita got all her information by looking at the web site.  Didn’t FOX already get into trouble for pulling this kind of BS?   And if 1080p makes pixels look more realistic, then watch out Microsoft paperclip!  you’re heading into the real world!!!  (you know since, Computers can produce higher resolutions then the Xbox 360, or the PS3)

She also states: “the game is only for X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3 games. “

Well we know they are games.. perhaps you mean CONSOLES?    So what’s this also tells me is that Ms. Sharita doesn’t know her ass from a C Prompt.   My advice? report on what you know. You obviously don’t understand Gaming.

And reporting on a 3 year old bill, where as there have been multiple attempts on the same type of bill across America ALL of which have failed, is moot, a waste of space, and just prays on the peoples un-founded fear of technology.  

PlayStation Network set for monthly-fee?

Sony Asia hints at future subscription charges

James Rivington – 03 Jan 2008 17:35 GMT

Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) could be about to charge gamers a subscription fee to use the PlayStation Network. The proposal offering could see gamers charged a monthly fee in order to receive unlimited PlayStation Portable (PSP) and PSone game downloads, according to our sister site CVG.

The story originated from a Sony questionnaire in Asia which asked PlayStation gamers whether they’d be prepared to pay a monthly fee.

PSN vs Xbox Live

The PlayStation Network is currently a rather feeble service in comparison to the Microsoft’s mighty Xbox Live. SCE will have to significantly improve things if it wants gamers to pay for the privilege of using the PSN.    Luckily, paying for good service is something most gamers are prepared to do.

[Via Tech.co.UK]

————————————————————————————

*sigh*  I told you so.

 

Fresh from the Rumor bin…

This morning one of my gamers stated:  “So, i was listening to the cranky gamers UK podcast this morning, and they reported that gamespot UK had found out that when Sony said they would give that 52″ bravia hdtv away to the first people in line, actually turned out to all be Sony PR people.. “

 

Now I’ve not been able to confirm this news.. but, if proved true, what in the heck was Sony thinking!?

PS3 Theme Extractor Tutorial

Have you ever downloaded a ps3 theme, .p3t file, that you would like to customize? Some have icons you love but would like to use them with a different background. Well Anoop has saved the day. He has released P3T Unpacker v0.3

This program unpacks Playstation 3 Theme files (.p3t). By default, it will extract the contents of the theme file to the directory ‘extracted’ in the current directory.

IMPORTANT: You need to have the binary ‘p3tcompiler.exe’ in the same directory as this program, even when it is being run from Linux. This requirement will probably be removed soon.

This program is still in alpha stage and probably has dozens of bugs. If you find any, please let me know!

Here’s a quick tutorial:

• Download p3textractor.zip from codelogic.googlepages.com/PS3ThemeExtractor.
• Extract the folder \p3textractor
• Copy p3tcompiler.exe from PS3_Custom_Theme_v101-E.zip into the \p3textractor folder, which you may have already if you create your own themes.
• As an example lets use the official Pixels theme – place Pixels.p3t into \p3textractor
  
• Start a DOS window. Start – Run – CMD.
• Find your \p3textractor folder and type in >p3textractor Pixels.p3t

  • C:\p3textractor>p3textractor Pixels.p3t

    Writing file: ‘extracted/preview.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_user_1124.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_setting_1200.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_photo_1276.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_music_1352.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_video_1428.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_game_1504.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_network_1580.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_friend_1656.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_tv_1732.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_newuser_1808.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_update_1884.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_game_setting_1960.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_bdvd_setting_2036.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_music_setting_2112.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_chat_setting_2188.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_system_setting_2264.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_theme_setting_2340.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_datetime_setting_2416.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_accessory_2492.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_printer_setting_2568.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_display_setting_2644.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_sound_setting_2720.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_security_setting_2796.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_remoteplay_setting_2872.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_network_setting_2948.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_setting_item_3024.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_mediaserver_search_3100.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_ms_3176.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_sd_3252.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_cf_3328.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_usb_3404.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_pspms_3480.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_usbcamera_3556.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_usbaad_3632.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_gamedata_3708.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_savedata_3784.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_vmc_3860.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_newvmc_3936.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_onlinemanual_4012.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_remoteplay_4088.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_browser_4164.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_download_4240.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_accountmanage_4316.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_blocklist_4392.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_addfriend_4468.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_playermet_4544.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_chat_4620.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_chatroom_4696.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_mbox_4772.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_mbox_received_4848.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_mbox_sent_4924.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/icon_mbox_create_5000.gim’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/hd.jpg’
    Writing file: ‘extracted/sd.jpg’

    magic: “P3TF”
    version: 272
    tree_offset: 64
    tree_size: 5252
    idtable_offset: 5328
    idtable_size: 1090
    stringtable_offset: 6432
    stringtable_size: 292
    intarray_offset: 6736
    intarray_size: 0
    floatarray_offset: 6736
    floatarray_size: 0
    filetable_offset: 6736
    filetable_size: 658208

• There should now be a folder \p3textractor\extracted which is Pixels.p3t extracted
• Now you can use the icons or backgrounds in Pixels.p3t for any theme that you create.
• Here’s a quick tutorial on creating ps3 themes using the images you just extracted.

Posted by ken_vs_ryu at 8:21 AM    

PlayStation 3’s worst week in Japan

The age of TV consoles over in Japan? Handhelds dominate software sales in Japan as TV console sales fall.

The latest figures from Media Create Co don’t make for happy reading for Sony investors. According to the numbers for the week ending January 14th as reported by Yahoo, Sony sold just 25,531 consoles.

It’s been a poor week for TV console sales in Japan, with the lowest sales recorded since the launch of Wii on December 2nd 2006. Total sales of PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii sold just 128,274.

The clear winner was Nintendo with sales of 93,708 for Wii, but again the worst week for the console since its launch in the country.

As you probably expect by now in a country that doesn’t really care about Microsoft’s console, Xbox 360 managed just 9,035 units sold during the same period.

What must be worrying for Sony though is that Wii is selling nearly four times the number of PlayStation 3 and Microsoft, despite having a console no-one in the area cares much about, is almost selling half the number of PlayStation 3.

[tags]Playstation 3, Sony[/tags]

Wii topped software sales, with 61,399 for Wii Sports and third place with Wii Play at 54,578. All the rest of the top ten places were taken by handheld games, all for DS except Metal Fear Portable Ops at number eight. There were no Xbox 360 games in the top 50 and the highest PlayStation 3 game was Resistance: Fall of Man at a lowly number 40.

Is Japan’s significance over in terms of TV consoles? It seems that the market there is mad keen in handhelds while the bigger consoles don’t seem to be garnering the same interest they used to?

(Note: Media Create’s figures are based on sales to customers in around 3000 stores across Japan, extrapolated to create an estimated total figure.)

Five reasons to own a PSP

 

Sure — the Nintendo DS is leagues better than the PSP. But what about us poor schmucks who bought one at launch? Turns out there’s lots of reasons why we should be happy we sold our kidneys to buy a PSP, and the best might actually be yet to come.

Source: Five reasons to own a PSP
Originally published on Mon, 01 Jan 2007 07:30:02 GMT