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Sony PR manage to surpass even themselves…

April 29, 2007 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

I had to post this as soon as I spotted it, as much as I dislike linking to the Daily Mail….

After badly misjudged PR disasters like the PSP blog, and trying to promote Gran Tourismo with Project Gotham screenshots, I really did think they might have learned, and I did have to check this wasn’t a late April Fools joke…

But no. Some PR and marketing genius decided it was a good idea to promote God of War 2 with a party at which visitors were invited to eat food from the inside of a still-warm dead goat.

Admittedly the offal inside had been procured elsewhere, as actually eating a dead goat would obviously be foolish….far better to use it as a kind of food-warmer…

There was a full feature in the official Sony Playstation mag, but now the 80,000 print run has had to be scrapped and the feature on the launch removed. You have to wonder how many PS3 buyers will be reading the Daily Mail as opposed to the official mag…

So that’s three disasters in just a few months… Can’t wait to see the next one…

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: goat, playstation, pr disasters, ps3, sony

Microsoft launches Live gaming convergence

March 15, 2007 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

Microsoft has set a date for the long-awaited connection between the six million console games on Xbox Live, and PC gamers running Windows.

Windows LIVE launches on May 8 with the Vista version of Halo 2, followed by Shadowrun in June and Uno later in 2007.

It’s a long expected move to boost both the online service on consoles, the online service on PC, and the promotion of Microsoft products around the home.

It’s already possible to access your Friends list and Message lists for your console, via your PC and www.xbox.com, but now you can actually play with the same friends whether you’re on a console or PC, as well as the community gaining a large number of gamers.

Hopefully some steps have been taken to balance the advantages of the PC’s keyboard/mouse combination over using a console joypad…but I’m not holding my breath for that one!

But it’s a really good and sensible move overall, and has made me reconsider getting a new PC for gaming. Having a unified system which has worked so well on consoles suggests PC gaming will become a lot easier to set-up and organise. Hopefully it will also lead to a wider range of PC strategy-type titles on the Xbox 360.

It’s also a major shot at the likes of Sony, whose PS3 has been underwhelming, sales wise. Sony have long seemed reluctant to get involved in online gaming in the same way as MS, preferring to let individual games feature individual systems for online matchmaking etc.

And Sony doesn’t have a huge number of PC gamers using their operating systems and ready to jump on board.

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Filed Under: xbox 360 Tagged With: halo 2, microsoft, ps3, sony, windows live, xbox 360

Second Life killer for Sony’s PS3?

March 8, 2007 By Dan Thornton 2 Comments

Could this be the virtual world that really takes off?

Sony has revealed details of ‘Playstation Home’ the virtual world for the PS3. It’s got all the usual virtual world hang-outs, apartments to show off your possessions, private chats, and simple online games such as bowling and pool. And you can invite any resident to join in Playstation Network capable games at any time.

Is this the kind of game which will draw in console owners? Generally they’re seen as addicted for first-person shooters and racing games, and anything more around lifestyles and strategy is seen as the PC domain.

Then again, the success of The Sims, Second Life, and even the likes of Nintendogs means there’s money there somewhere…surely.

I can’t wait for the PR agency to start spinning this one…

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: nintendogs, playstation, playstation home, second life, sony

The problem with official licences…

February 1, 2007 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

After my criticism of Sony in the past, I thought it only fair to mention the following irony.

The forthcoming UEFA Champions League football (soccer) game for the Xbox 360 will have PS3 advertising. And this is despite the fact it’s not even coming out on the PS3. The reason being that Sony is one of the sponsorship partners of the competition. So where ever the UEFA Champions League appears, so will Sony.
Original article here.

I wouldn’t be too worried if I was Microsoft. It’s more a PR victory, considering the low rates of Return on Investment for in-game advertising, and the fact most people seeing the ad will already possess a 360 console.

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