IBM Claims Cell Production Is Now Going Well.

The CELL PROCESSOR is steadily being shoved out the door of IBM plants, despite reports of poor yields.

Sources have informed the Inq that IBM executives have told employees within the firm, that yields are "on or above" targets.
Yields for a large, complex part like the Cell are expected to be low at the start of production and improve steadily thereafter - if IBM had allowed for a very low yield to start with, its plausible that the rumours of bad yields were entirely accurate and this is what IBM was expecting all along.

The exec also said IBM had shipped the first full allotment to Sony under a 'take or pay' arrangement (whereby Sony has the obligation of either taking delivery of the goods or paying a specified amount), and that Sony must have "quite a stockpile of the processors in a warehouse somewhere".

Presumably the warehouse has close links to Asustek, where recently other sources released details of Asustek plans to deliver 4 million units of the PS3 console to Sony this month.

PS3 And Wii Main Priority For UK Retailers.

As we all are aware this holiday season see's the introduction of the Sony'sPS3 and Nintendo's wii, into the gaming market.Nintendo has already held a conference for the retail industry outlining launch preperations etc.

(MCV magazine broke the news a few weeks back).

As we speak Sony are currently in meetings with retail bigwigs outlining stage 2 for official pre order preperations.During the event GAME, GAMESTATION and VIRGIN megastore have informed Nintendo and Microsoft that the section 1 floor space instores are for Sony's PS3.

(MCV to publish story this week or next).

What this means is when you walk into a store the first format you will see is the PLAYSTATION brand.

In a further blow to Microsoft, GAME (the biggest games outlet in europe) have stated that Nintendo will have first option to purchase section 2, which means 360 sections will be moving to the back of there retail stores.

If that wasnt bad enough, Game will announce that Xbox 1 software will be slowly phased out by summer next year, due to abysmal sales since the launch of 360 and the increase of handheld sales.

In one final blow to Microsoft, The retailer have cut there ordering shipments of 360 down by a third due to increase of traded in 360 units. What this means is instead of ordering 1 million units, they will order 660,000 roughly.

(All details will published by MCV magazine in the next few weeks).

PS3 Exhibit In China July 28-30.

Sony will be exhibiting the PlayStation 3 console and its PS3 lineup at the 4th annual Chinajoy Expo in Shanghai, China between July 28 - 30.

Besides Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft will also showing Wii and Xbox 360 at the Expo.

Here is the list of PS3 titles at the show:

• Genji 2
• Formula 1 2006
• The Getaway
• Minna no Golf 5 [HotShot Golf 5]
• Heavenly Sword
• The Eye of Judgment
• Afrika
• LAIR
• Monster Kingdom
• Warhawk
• Singstar
• Assassin's Creed
• Mobile Suit Gundam
• Codearms Assault
• Ridge Racer 7
• Brothers in Arms
• Tekken 6
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Virtua Tennis 3
• Virtua Fighter 5
• Stranglehold
• Fatal Inertia
• Blade Storm: The Hundred Yeas War
• Armored Core 4
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Sony Back In The black As Electronics Division Turns A Profit.

Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony has announced a 32.3 billion Yen (219 million Euro) profit for the quarter ended June 30th, thanks to a resurgence in profitability at its consumer electronics division.

The firm, in the same period last year recorded a 7.3 billion Yen (50 million Euro) loss, also saw revenues in the quarter leap by 11 per cent year on year to 1.74 trillion Yen (11.8 billion Euro) as sales surged in both the electronics and the Sony Pictures movie divisions.

However, the videogames division of the firm recorded an operating loss for the quarter as revenues plummeted by some 30 per cent and the costs of developing the PlayStation 3 continued to mount. Sales of the PS2 hardware and software were down for the quarter - as, disappointingly, were sales of the PSP.

The results have spurred speculation that Sony may be about to turn its fortunes around after several years of weak financial results and painful restructuring efforts. The firm's British chief executive Howard Stringer - who became the firm's first non-Japanese CEO when he was appointed a year ago - has continued the firm's restructuring efforts, and now appears to be reaping the rewards.

As well as announcing its first quarter results, Sony also took the opportunity to update its forecasts for the full year - maintaining its profit target of 130 billion Yen (881 million Euro), but raising its revenue target marginally from 8.20 trillion Yen (55.6 billion Euro) to 8.23 trillion Yen (55.8 billion Euro).

Metal Gear Solid 4 Playable At E3 2007.

Great news for all you MGS fans out there.According to 'The Master Hideo Kojima' himself,MGS4 for the PS3 should be in a playable form by E3 2007.

MGS4 will be on Blu-Ray because of its size, it is impossible for it to be fitted on a standard DVD.

Sony are also wanting the game to run in 1080p.

Also Hideo Kojima has'nt decided whether to include fuctions that make use of the new PS3 controller.One possible use for it could be to 'break the neck of an enemy'.

SCEA Exec Takes On New Role At Ubisoft.

With just months to go until the launch of the PlayStation 3, Sony Computer Entertainment America's developer relations manager, Mark DeLoura, has left the company to take on a new role at Ubisoft.

DeLoura was previously editor of Game Developer magazine and worked as a technical director for Nintendo of America before joining SCEA five years ago. He will now take on the role of technical director at Ubisoft's San Francisco office.

In a post on his blog, DeLoura stated that he had "a lot of mixed feelings" about his departure from Sony, adding: "So many things done, but so many things yet to do... I'll take my victories at Sony, the largest of which is our greatly expanded GDC presence.

"It will take a few weeks or months or years to get Sony out of my bones," DeLoura continued.

"In the meantime I will continue to wince each time I see a stupid quote, or bad press, or an analyst bad-mouthing my former employer".

According to SCEA, J. Patton will manage developer relations in DeLoura's absence. The company was keen to emphasise that relations will remain strong, observing that more than 10,000 dev kits have now been shipped to more than 200 studios around the globe.

Nvidia CEO Confident In PS3.

Jen-Hsun Huang said that his company, which is supplying the RSX GPU for the PlayStation 3, is in a good position to ride the success of what he imagines will be a highly-regarded platform.

Takahashi asked if Nvidia “chose the right horse in the videogame war” this time around (Nvidia supplied the GPU for the original Xbox, while rival ATI supplies the GPU for the Xbox 360 and the upcoming Nintendo Wii).

Huang responded, “…I don't think that working with Sony is wrong. There is no way that is going to be wrong. There are many wonderful things that Sony did. I'm excited that they made Blu-ray high-definition storage as a standard part of the PlayStation 3 platform. The first PlayStation had a CD-ROM drive. The PlayStation 2 had DVD. It makes no sense for the PlayStation 3 to use DVDs. ..."

He continued, “To postpone it by a few months so they could include Blu-Ray was a master stroke. When that comes out, it's going to look so much more advanced than last-generation game consoles. I think that was a wonderful call on their part".

In relation to the PlayStation 3’s competitors, Huang said that the PS3 will have greater lasting power than the Xbox 360 thanks to Blu-ray, making the high (and highly-criticized) cost worth it to consumers.“PlayStation 2 was launched seven years ago in Japan at about $399. If you use inflation, it's the same price, approximately,” he said. “The important thing is you cannot announce a game console for the next ten years and not have Blu-Ray. It's an impossible scenario. I think they got that perspective right. The moment we put those consoles together it's going to be very clear. If I'm going to buy a next-generation game console, I'm going to buy a console with next-generation media. It's going to last 10 years.

“…I'm not sure how Microsoft is going to do in this transition. They are clever and they will figure out a way. I'll make a prediction that Xbox 360 can't possibly be a DVD-only device by Christmas of next year".

Takahashi then asked if Huang could see Microsoft relasing an Xbox 360 modification to compensate for its more constrained DVD format.

"I don't know how they will do it," Huang responded. "But I just can't imagine going to a store and saying that this console has a Blu-ray and this one has DVD. Remember Dreamcast?"

£150 PS3 Deposit Shock.

Consumers will have to pay a hefty £150 deposit to pre-order PS3 hardware, if a revolutionary new allocation scheme by Sony is introduced.

In an exclusive report published in tomorrow’s issue of MCV, it is revealed that the format holder is currently discussing the radical new plan with senior retail buyers as it looks to manage a limited initial hardware supply this Christmas.

The £150 deposit scheme is being considered to ensure that allocation can be more fairly managed. In particular, it is believed that Sony is looking to avoid the ‘eBay phenomenon’ that occurred with the launch of Xbox 360 whereby some consumers who managed to acquire more than one unit – on deposits as low as £5 – sold on their extra machines for well above the RRP.

Sony has confirmed that it is in talks with retail about the scheme.

How To Avoid Patent Lawsuit 101:Sony Signs Agreement With CPI.

Collaboration Properties, Inc. (CPI) - a subsidiary of Avistar - and Sony signed an agreement allowing Sony to use CPI's extensive patent portfolio for Sony products including audio, video, and communication and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets.

The agreement covers Sony's video conference apparatus as well as other products including video-enabled personal computer products and PlayStation products. CPI currently holds 60 issued patents covering the AvistarVOS video operating system as well as primary areas of video technology, including video signal transport, desktop video service integration, directory services, call control and handling, stored multimedia synchronization and presence-based calling.

Thanks to this contract, Sony won't wake up one day to find another lawsuit on its hands.

PS3 Manufacturer Warns Media.

PlayStation 3 manufacturer Asustek has fired a warning shot over the bows of the media, following yesterday's leaked reports that the company has already begun shipping PS3 units to Sony.

Via Taiwan's financial hub, the company yesterday issued a sternly worded warning to the media about the reports, stating that it would sue any outlets that had damaged relationships with its clients.

Asustek refused to comment directly on the issue of the manufactured units. The Taiwanese press also reports that Aasustek has toughened up its policy on employee leaks.

Gears Of War & Too Human For X360 Could Slip To 2007.

Two of Microsoft's most important titles planned for 2006 are still without public release dates. Last Friday, Xbox.com temporarily posted an October 2 release date for Gears of War -- the same date used by several online retailers.

This date was later revoked, replaced with "TBD." Similarly, Too Human's release date had been listed as "TBD 2006," but has since been revised to just "TBD".

While 'Emergence Day' -- that's slang for 'Gears of War release date' -- will most certainly hit in 2006, chances are, Too Human will slip into 2007. Too Human's E3 build was incredibly rough, and there's no sense in rushing a final version before the year's out, especially since you run the risk of releasing in Gears' shadow.

As for Gears of War, October sounds about right. Judging from the E3 build, the game is certainly on track for that date. Plus, it would be wise to release Gears in advance of PlayStation 3 -- and Wii too. No game is going to stand up to the wave of hype that will flood our senses when those consoles drop. But, release Gears a month before the PS3 launch, get us hooked -- get us a bit distracted -- and you might capture some brand loyalty.

Taiwan's Asustek Computer To Deliver PS3 Consoles To Sony starting This Month.

Asustek Computer Inc. will produce and deliver PlayStation 3 game consoles to Sony Corp this month as the Japanese firm moves to step up output to meet demand for the November Launch and the Christmas shopping season.

The first consignment is for 4 million units, noting that monthly shipments will start at 200,000 units and rising to 2 million units starting in October.

Meanwhile Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd , will soon begin production on the PS3 consoles for Sony as well.

Given this, we can hypothesis that the production of the PS3's will begin as quickly as next week, or no later than the end of the first week of August.

THQ To 'Incinerate' Next-Gen Gaming .

Video game publisher THQ Inc. today announced the formation of a new development team called Incinerator Games. The studio will be based in Carlsbad, California and joins THQ's growing internal development talent, which includes Volition, Relic Entertainment, Rainbow Studios, Kaos Studios, Paradigm (a recent purchase from Atari) and others.

Incinerator itself is comprised of veterans that worked on such popular titles as Twisted Metal, NFL GameDay and MLB 2006: The Show (from Sony's 989 studios), as well as games in the Midnight Club franchise (Rockstar). A team size for Incinerator was not specified, however. According to THQ, the studio was established primarily to work on next-generation consoles.

"The addition of Incinerator Games is another example of our dedication to enhance and expand our internal development capabilities," commented Jack Sorensen, executive vice president of worldwide studios, THQ. "We're really excited to see the Incinerator team begin to bring its own ideas for next generation development to THQ".

Currently the Incinerator team is working on Disney/Pixar's Cars for next-generation consoles. The game is expected to ship later this fall. Cars has already performed quite well on current-gen consoles, with the PS2, GBA and GCN versions placing fourth, sixth and tenth (respectively) on the June NPD top 20. Given the popularity of the movie and the success the title's already seen on current consoles, it certainly makes sense for THQ to leverage the license on next-gen systems as well.

In addition to Cars, THQ said that Incinerator is also working on other yet to be announced projects for next-gen systems.

Resistance: Fall Of Man To Feature 40 Players Online.

Never before in the history of gaming (or as long as we can remember, anyhow) has there been a FPS game that allowed 40 players to go crazy on a virtual battlefield. Until the PS3 came along, that is.

A report from PSM says that Resistance: Fall Of Man will feature 40-player online capability, which is even more than the previously announced number of 32.

Here's the juicy quote from PlayStation Magazine:

We put in some serious time playing various maps and modes in multiplayer, and despite our constant deaths at the hands of Insomniac's seasoned testers we had a blast. Resistance should offer PS3's Flagship online multiplayer experience at launch. Of course, you can also play with friends offline via split-screen deathmatch,or partner up and play, co-op through the entire single player game(this can only be done offline).

Online matches are where the real action is, though where as many as 40 players can pack the battlefield(a recent eight-player improvement over the 32-player support announced at E3) .We tried standard deathmatch in a small, hilly ice area, and massive 40-player "MELTDOWN" campaigns in a huge jungle-type enviroment with wooden bridges and platforms in the trees, "Ewok Village"- style.

Meltdown is an extension of another mode called "Node," in which two teams race to take over as many nodes as possible. Nodes are large chambers that contain several cylinders, you can re-configure the nodes for your team. Once you control a node, you can choose to re-spawn there after you die, adding strategy to the order in which your team goes after them. Meltdowns adds the twist that these nodes are actually coolants for each team's base, so by taking them over, you're overheating the enemy's headquaters. At certain heat levels a base's defenses will temporarily go down, allowing the opposing team to get inside and deal major damage.

This is the kind of feature that if done right, could be huge for PS3 sales.

Sony Branded Number One...Again.

While Sony might fight with Nintendo and Microsoft for brand recognition and approval when it comes to the world of gaming, the electronics giant's brand name has a significant leg up on the competition when it comes to the general American public.

Market research firm Harris Interactive has released the results of its annual "Best Brands" survey, and Sony has topped the list for the seventh consecutive year and the ninth time in 12 years. Microsoft slipped from the top 10 in this year's poll, while Nintendo was shut out of the upper echelon.

Harris surveyed 2,351 US adults online and asked them "to think about brands or names of products and services" and to name the three they considered the best. Respondents were free to pick whichever brands they preferred and were not given a list of options or possible answers.

The top 10 companies in this year's poll are listed below.

1. Sony
2. Dell
3. Coca-Cola
4. Toyota
5. Ford
6. Honda
7. Hewlett Packard
8. General Electric
9. Kraft
10. Apple

UK Award Success For Sony.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe was the big winner in this year's Develop Industry Excellence Awards, which took place last night at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton on the UK's south coast. It took home three awards, whilst other notable winners included Bizarre Creations and Criterion.

The event was attended by around 400 members of the UK and European development community, and more than 60 companies were nominated in four main categories for a total of 18 awards.

SCEE won the Publishing Hero award for its achievements throughout the past year, as well as two awards for Buzz! The Music Quiz--the first for New Console IP (intellectual property), and the second for Innovation in the Buzz! controllers.

Liverpool-based Bizarre Creations won two awards for their work on the Xbox 360--the Best Use of Online, which related to Geometry Wars 2 on Xbox Live Arcade, and the night's biggest accolade, the Grand Prix award for Project Gotham Racing 3.

Another UK studio, Criterion, also scooped two gongs in the ceremony. Best Art/Sound was awarded jointly for arcade racer Burnout Revenge and sumptuous shooter Black, and it took the Best In-House Development Team accolade as well.

In the Studio Category, BigBig won Best New UK/European Studio, Rebellion was named Most Improved Studio, and Gameloft won the Mobile Studio award. Rockstar Leeds took the Best Handheld Studio title, thanks in large part to the success of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories on the PlayStation Portable.

Sony Slapped With Another Patent Suit.

Sony has been having some trouble with patent disputes of late. In March 2005, Immersion Corporation won it's lawsuit claiming that Sony's DualShock PlayStation and PlayStation 2 controllers infringed on its force-feedback patents. A judge ordered Sony to pay more than $90 million in damages, and earlier this year denied an attempt from the electronics giant to have the decision overturned.

Now Sony's in the middle of another patent fight, this one brought against the company by Pennsylvania-based Agere Systems. According to court documents, Agere (which has a pair of offices in Texas) has filed suit against Sony and a number of its divisions for willful infringement of eight patents in a number of its products, including the PSP, PlayStation 2, and based on announced specifications, the PlayStation 3. Sony Vaio computers, Handycams, Walkman players, Memory Stick Duos, and Location Free TV are also named as infringing offerings on some of the patents. The patents in question run from a "wireless local area network apparatus" to "barrier layer treatments for tungsten plug".

Agere is asking that each branch of Sony be made to provide an accounting of all gains made through their alleged infringements, and that the company be awarded damages to adequately compensate it based on those figures. Agere also claims that Sony knew about the patents and willfully infringed on them, so it is asking the courts to boost the damages awarded as much as three times what it would have been otherwise.

In its defense, Sony has denied all claims of infringement. It is arguing that it actually has the rights to use seven of the eight patents through a 1989 cross-licensing deal with AT&T and Lucent (whose microelectronics group eventually became Agere Systems). Sony also contends that some of the patents (including the one it doesn't claim a right to use) were not properly obtained because Agere omitted important information when it filed for them. Finally, Sony believes the patents in question are invalid anyway, and has asked the judge to declare them as such.

Agere denied Sony's counterclaims last month and has issued a demand for a jury trial.

Wii Price Announced... Sort Of.

Nintendo has (sort of) announced the release date and price of the Wii. In typical Nintendo style, they were a bit vague about their plans, still refusing to nail down the details.

In part, the reason for this has to do with the way this news has gotten out: Nintendo has released a fiscal year 2006 (FY2006) projection for investors (corporate fiscal years tend to begin and end in July), and in that projection report they make statements about how they will handle the Wii launch.

According to Nintendo's figures, the Wii will indeed launch in the Fall of 2006. Gamers have been aware of this for quite some time, and Nintendo still has not nailed down a specific launch date. However, they have stated that the Wii price tag will not exceed $250 in America, or ¥25,000 in Japan.

Regarding the quantity of Wii units that will be available at launch, Nintendo stated they would ship six million units between the launch day and March 31, 2007-- a time period officially described as the "launch window".

The launch will be a worldwide event, so these initial six million units will be distributed around the globe. In total, Nintendo expects to ship 17 million Wii units worldwide in FY2006.

Nintendo added that announcements about the specific launch date and exact price of the console will be made "soon."

Blu-ray Laser Diodes In Tight Supply.

According to the Chinese-language Commercial Times.The yields for Blu-ray laser diodes are still low due to a high technical barrier, with only Sony and Nichia being the only suppliers, stated the paper.

In addition, Sony is setting aside a major proportion of its laser diode capacity for its upcoming PS3, which may also affect the availability of its Blu-ray laser diodes, the paper said.

Sony is currently the major supplier of laser diodes for Royal Philips Electronics, BenQ and Lite-on IT, the paper indicated.

The tight supply will not ease before September since Sony will not start shipping its PS3 before then, the paper said.

New Details On Coded Arms Assault for PS3.

The upcoming Coded Arms Assault FPS game for the Playstation 3 will feature four-player co-op campaigns (with exclusive content, unavailable in the single player game), up to 16 multiplayer games, vehicles and downloadable content.

The hacker FPS game bears only the same name and theme of the original Coded Arms on the Sony PSP.

The producer of the game, Yasuo Daikai, spoke to IGN about the upcoming FPS.
From Daikai: "It is best to think of Coded Arms Assault as a new game with a shared theme of virtual reality.

However the stories are not related at all." Daikai also said the trailer shown at E3 was not pre-rendered, so it represents the actual in-game graphics.

Watch the Coded Arms Assault video shown at E3 below: