Monday, February 20, 2006

Sony shares plummet amidst PS3 delay talk


Sony Computer Entertainment is openly discussing a delay for their upcoming PlayStation3 console, the BBC has learned:
Sony said if industry specifications on some of the PS3 were not decided soon "the launch could be pushed back".

"We're aiming for spring, but we haven't announced specific regions," a spokesman for Sony Computer Entertainment said.

They said Sony was waiting for final specifications - which are decided by industry consortiums - on some of the technology in the PS3, including that connected to the Blu-ray drive and to input and output video and sound.

"We're waiting for them until the last possible minute, but the launch could be pushed back if they're not decided soon," the spokesman said.

Sony Corporation shares fell by more than 3,5% in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Nintendo shares continue to rise and have hit a three-year high today.

Source: BBC
Thanks to: Consolewars, de.Internet.com

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry,just one more time as it's hard to keep up with the flow..


It's related to game design,and what's needed to meet up to the requiremnts of it.It's good read, primarily for people interested in game design..



I Want to be a Game Designer!
What does it take to be the idea man?
by Ralph Edwards




February 15, 2006 - You've been playing games all your life and have come to the conclusion that you want to make them for a living. And not just work on the games, program the games, test the games, or do art or music for the games, but you actually want to design them. You want to be the person who creates the blueprint of the game and defines its play mechanics, structure, rules of play and goals. You want to be a game designer.



So what is it that you need to know to do this? Well, first, you will need to know exactly what a game designer does and this is unfortunately one of the most blurred fields in the entire gaming industry and what a company asks of its game designers vary wildly. In some cases, you will have a lead designer who oversees the entire project and is responsible for coming up with the overall design goals of the title while managing designers under him who are responsible for designing specific aspects, features or levels of the game. In other cases you may have just a single designer, or multiple designers without an official lead or just members of the production or engineering teams handling the designs themselves.

Nevertheless, there are some fundamental skills that one must possess if he wants to get into this field. The most important skill - and also the hardest to judge or learn - would be the need to be a creative genius. If you're going to want to get a job as a game designer, or better yet, become a major player in this field you best have a creative mind and be very imaginative.

Even though some may suggest that this is a skill that you either have or you have not, there are some things that you can do in order to help harness any creativity that may lay dormant inside you. For one, just open yourself up to as many different things in life as possible. Play and experience as many games as you can, both good and bad and both in genres you like or dislike. Watch movies, read books, and listen to all different kinds of music.

The truth is that there's a very fine line between being creative and being a thief. While many people today complain about the lack of creativity in art or music and like to say that everything's already been done, that's not necessarily a fair assessment. Many of the great musicians and artists of the past got inspiration and learned technique from people before them, as well. Vincent Van Gough used to copy Japanese prints and other art the inspired him in order to improve his technique. The bottom line is that the more games, movies or just life that you experience, the better equipped you will be when it comes to creating a new and original game.

For instance, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, who is one of the industry's most esteemed game designers, used to talk about how whenever he would go to a new place, such as New York City, he would do things like hop on a bike and go for a ride without a map and not knowing where he was going or how to get around and just explore the city. It allowed him to explore the world around him, see things for the first time, and experience things from a fresh perspective. Of course, it also could've led him to a quick mugging, a beat-down or even worse if his explorations took him to the wrong parts of town, but I think you get the picture.

In addition to just opening yourself up to knew things and expanding your knowledge, there are also some game design tests that can help you practice your creativity and hopefully shock the creative part of your brain into actually working - something that a lot of people begin to neglect more and more as they progress from a wide-eyed child to a mature adult.

One such game design test, which is also known as scenario-based rapid prototyping and is commonly used as part of the interview process at companies such as Electronic Arts, has just you take a few random words - such as "Microwave" and "Adventure" - and then just a straight up design a game based around that. You come up with a title, what the first five minutes of the game will play like, what the last five minutes of the game will entail, the goals, its genre, the controls, a basic rundown of the levels, the marketing angle, and just exactly what the game will look like.

Have a friend pick the two words, give yourself an hour to come up with everything that you need to know about the game, and then after you're done pitch it to your friend in a 15 minute presentation and then open yourself up to a Q&A session with him afterwards where he can ask you anything about the game and you have to come up with an answer quickly whether you've actually thought about it or not. It might seem silly, but doing these kinds of tests are commonly used in interview processes and also can help nurture what creativity you may have inside you.

Whilst creativity is the most important skill of a game designer, it's definitely not the only thing you need to be good at and all the creativity in the world is worthless if you can't get your idea heard or communicated clearly to the artists, engineers, producers and marketing staff of your team. It's a must to be able to communicate clearly both verbally and through written word or your creativity might be mistaken for the insane mumblings of a crazy man. Hone your writings skills, or at least make use of the spell and grammar check functions on your word processor, and do whatever's needed to help better your communication skills - doing the game design test above with a friend would obviously help greatly with this.

In addition to the creative and communicative skills that you must nurture, there are also a lot of more tangible ones that you're going to have to know or learn. You won't like need to draw a masterpiece or build a game-quality model or menu-screen, but when doing a design document a game designer does need to be able to visually display or mock-up certain aspects of the game.

To do this, you will need to be able to draw simple things with a pencil or use a 2D graphics package such as Adobe Photoshop to create these menu screens or flow charts or layouts that will be a part of the design document. You won't need to know how to create a brilliantly detailed texture or be able to Photoshop your one of your friend's head onto a body of a naked woman, but learning the basics of the software is a must and you'll want to know how to create geometric objects, add text, and spice it up as much as needed.

Also, it is becoming more and more common for companies to ask their designers to do things in 3D graphics programs such as Maya to help come up with and design levels for a game. You don't need to be able to intricately detailed and textured 3D models or levels - that's what the artists are for - but you should be able to use these programs and build simple things.

Most of these technical skills honestly don't require schooling and simply searching the web for tutorials or reading tech magazines and just jumping in and practicing will give you enough to get good enough to become a game designer if you work hard enough at it. Nevertheless, it won't hurt to actually have a degree in any applicable fields and for more information on game design opportunities at the post-High School level you should check out one of our previous articles on Majoring in Videogames where we list out all the institutions we currently know of that offer degrees in game related fields.

So, what are you waiting for? Get those creative juices flowing and be the one that creates the next revolutionary videogame. Then maybe 10 years from now when someone writes an article about wanting to be a game designer they can make a reference to you instead of someone such as Miyamoto.

-IALS

Falafelkid said...

IALS. For the last time, stop double-posting. Your original comments are interesting. But when you double-post it, it becomes spam. Please stop. Now.

Anonymous said...

Ok,ok, no need for alarm Fal, relax..
I double-posted because it wasn't recognized at all..
Didn't mean to bother you..

Falafelkid said...

Lots of people have told you not to. You should have been aware of that. But I appreciate you refraining from that in future.

Anonymous said...

well, geeze. everyone comment on my post. now!!

everyone comment. i dont want this to go unrecognized! lol(dumbass)

Anonymous said...

To the last anonym lol you should hear yourself lol I didn't post to get feedback or so..its rediculous the first time I posted was 3-4 news-posts ago..
So please stfu or get your act together before you insult me..
You are shouting at the wrong guy.
I just shared..

RGB said...

All I can say in relation to Sony shares falling is, good. Hopefully this will create more bad perceptions on the successor to the PS1/PS2 and allow for larger development support for the Revolution.

It is still early to tell but I think Sony have their head in the wrong place for the PS3. Totally heading in the wrong direction and trying to cover too many areas. Ie. create a new processor competing against Intel/AMD etc (in a sense), being involved in a DVD format war which is high priced, new media. They are trying to create new mediums for technology and storage as they are becoming too greedy (or desperate, depending on how you look at it). The system needs more focus, without trying to seem biased, Nintendo seem to have this focus and more than I hate to say it, so does MS.

People use PC's for multi-purpose creativity & functionality. I simply dont see the PS3 replacing a majority of PC's at home creating a new market for them.

Anonymous said...

Ey Fal,
Seems like you've a day off.
If so,enjoy..
and remember,I'm counting on you to drop the big bomb.
Big brother is watching you!
:)

-IALS

Anonymous said...

i.a.l.s... Please stop posting long text.

This is not the place.

Anonymous said...

blabla babble papalapap

Falafelkid said...

Hi IALS. "I'm counting on you to drop the big bomb.
Big brother is watching you!"
Care to expand on that comment? Just so I know what is being expected of me...

Jon Gardner said...

Yes Sony has not announced specific regions. They'll release the system in Spring, but they'll do it without acually having any product available anywhere.

Anonymous said...

I don't know, I just acted on the assumption that you were on to some "Mission Impossible" type of action ,like dressing youself up as a Ninja and sneaking around NCL through a funnel and so forth to satisfy me,the IALS my all means neccessary you know what I'm saying?
:)

Anonymous said...

by all means..

Anonymous said...

hey ials shorten your "spam" as quoted by falafelkid (or even stop for that matter) and i wont need to call you out.

"I double-posted because it wasn't recognized at all.."

then you say...

"I didn't post to get feedback or so..its rediculous the first time I posted was 3-4 news-posts ago.."

its obvious you posted your same long winded article AGAIN to hopefully get some attention.

Anonymous said...

For the last time dear anonymous friend.You know what? I posted it again just for you, cause I knew you would give me feedback and appreciate it!I love you so much privily, so as you can see I was sad because I didn't hear anything from you last time around.Don't pretend to be surprised about this my dear fiend.
Also,don't forget to take your feeding bottle in a timely matter to ensure that you will grow up and get strong one day.
Cheers.

-IALS

Anonymous said...

Hi Falafelkid,

again thank you very much for this usefull blog, the hard facts you are delivering and the love you put into every revolution-news!

Keep up the good work!

Manuel

Anonymous said...

All I can say about Sony is.....

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Anonymous said...

mmmmm.... a little more story around here and this would be like a Mega ManX game Falafelkid as Mega Man ,i.a.l.s as Sigma speading the lethal virus SPAM (apparently Full Sail is paying you right?) and then the Anynomous (maybe even including myself ) the rebellious Mavericks of Mega Man Zero 1-4 keep the story moving guys its fun!!!!! I hope Falafelkid dont turns bad like Mega Man x did....

Anonymous said...

LOL..You are more like the man who wasn't there I'm afraid last anonymous..

Anonymous said...

umm ah okay so by your as far as your logic is concerned if Full Sail is paying me then apparently Falafelkids payed by all news sites on this frickin' planet or what?Tell that to the Marines.
Really anonymous you don't have the slightest clue how much I appreciate your insights and sparkling imagination.
You should be a sci-fi author.

Anonymous said...

uhhhh people got offended quite easily around here....keep doing your stuff mega kid *throws you a sigma plug to your cannon, men this is fun* well at least this is his blog if hes getting money or not I dont care I just do it for fun....people are so high in their own stand if you come to the internet to argue poor you.... go bother someplace else

Blizz419 said...

lol