| PS Vita a 'little behind the numbers' says Sony Feb 20th 2013, 17:34 SCE Japan president acknowledges new portable has "a ways to go" before it is more widely adopted. 
Sony has acknowledged PlayStation Vita sales are not performing up to expectation thus far. Sony Computer Entertainment Japan president Hiroshi Kawano told Famitsu magazine (via Polygon) that the company's latest portable gaming device has "a ways to go." "Certainly, at the present time, maybe we're a little behind the numbers we originally pictured," Kawano said. "I feel we have a ways to go in terms of getting across the good traits of the PS Vita, along with everything the software has to offer." Kawano said Sony's plan for the PS Vita--and its other platforms--is for it to have a ten-year lifecycle. He said Sony must "do everything we can" to support and add to the portable in the years ahead. Earlier this week, Sony announced plans to cut the price of the 3G and Wi-Fi versions of the PS Vita in Japan to 19,980 yen ($213) effective February 28. No mention has been made of a similar price reduction for Western markets. Explaining the Japanese price drop, Kawano said it was done simply to get more gamers playing the device. "The biggest reason [for the price drop] is that we simply want to have more people playing the PS Vita," Kawano said. "Based on our research, there are two broad reasons why people who may want to try the Vita aren't purchasing it. One, they want to wait until there's a game they want to play on it. Two, the price is a little out of reach for them. What we also learned in this research is that people who do own a Vita have tremendous satisfaction with it; it's the kind of platform where you get a feel for how good it is once you touch it. But we found that the price was too big an initial hurdle for this, and this sparked a long internal debate within SCE." All eyes will be on Sony this evening, when the company's 2013 PlayStation Meeting takes place in New York City at 3 p.m. PDT/6 p.m. EDT. GameSpot and its sister sites will be on-hand for the event, which will be live-streamed. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
|  | Nintendo returns to Gamescom 2013 after skipping 2012 Feb 20th 2013, 16:27 Nintendo will return to European trade show in 2013, after skipping the event in 2012. 
Nintendo will be returning to German gaming trade show Gamescom in 2013, the event organisers have announced. The first-party publisher opted to skip the show in 2012, despite being close to launching the Wii U at the time. Microsoft also elected to steer clear of the European event last year. Sony, on the other hand, was a founding member of Gamescom. "The participation of Nintendo clearly demonstrates that the industry remains wholly behind gamescom," said Dr. Maximilian Schenk, managing director of German trade association BIU. Nintendo will be joined by Bethesda Softworks, Electronic Arts, Konami, NCSoft, Riot Games, Ubisoft and Warner Bros, among others. Gamescom 2013 will take place in Cologne's Koelnmesse from August 21-25. Last year the event saw 275,000 visitors and over 600 exhibitors. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Xbox 720's Kinect specs leak online Feb 20th 2013, 16:21 The new Kinect is reported to have an infrared sensor and will work in more living rooms. 
A leaked document has reported to know the specs and capabilities of Microsoft's upcoming Kinect 2.0, the motor sensor device reported to be arriving with each and every Xbox 720 when the currently unannounced machine launches, presumably in 2013. VGLeaks, which previously leaked a spec sheet for the next Xbox--codenamed Durango--has posted the information, showing a new sensor allowing for infrared detection alongside a big boost in the Kinect 2.0's ability to sense depth, colour, and a decreased latency period. The site claims this will be 60ms as opposed to 90ms, due to a switch to USB 3.0. The Kinect 2.0 is reported to feature far superior skeletal tracking and the ability to detect up to six players, thanks to a far wider viewing angle over the original that allows the device to function without the need for a tilt monitor. Even the quality of the camera is reported to be significantly superior, allowing for 30fps capture at 1080p as opposed to 15fps at a 640x480 resolution. Like the original, the VGLeaks report says Kinect 2.0 will be a wired unit which sits separately from the main console, but will be able to work in a far greater number of rooms in varying lighting conditions. The machine will also be able to better function alongside furniture, hopefully making hasty living room reorganisations a thing of the past. "As part of the process of producing the depth stream," says the VGLeaks report, "the sensor uses an active [infrared] stream. This stream is 512x424 at 30 frames per second. The active IR stream is stable across variable lighting conditions. For example, shadows, pixel intensities and noise characteristics are the same for a well-lit room the same as for no light in the room. As a result, this stream could be used for feature detection in situations where a color stream would be useless." It is also alleged that the new Xbox will keep some of its resources set aside so that Kinect can be run across multiple applications. "Core Kinect functionality that is frequently used by titles and the system itself are part of the allocation system, including color, depth, active IR, ST, identity, and speech. Using these features or not costs a game title the same memory, CPU time, and GPU time," says VGLeaks. For the latest on Microsoft's next Xbox, check out GameSpot's previous coverage. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
| | Square Enix's Murdered: Soul Suspect out early 2014 Feb 20th 2013, 14:42 Square Enix's mysterious new title coming out on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Murdered: Soul Suspect, Square Enix's mystery-shrouded new title, will be out in early 2014, the publisher has announced. The game will be coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. In Murdered: Soul Suspect, players are tasked with tracking down their own killer. Earlier reports have suggested the game might be set in Salem, Massachusetts--the location of the Salem witch trials in 1692, which saw public executions of those convicted of witchcraft. Square Enix also revealed the first teaser trailer for the game, showing a 30-second CGI movie where a character falls out of a window accompanied by a murky aesthetic and voiceover. The game has its own cryptic ARG going on over at www.murdered.com, facebook.com/murdered and twitter.com/murdered. Even the game's press release hid an encrypted message: in the dusk beware. For more information on Murdered: Soul Suspect, check out GameSpot's previous coverage. Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot
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