While addressing a bunch of gaming geeks at this years Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, PlayStation researcher Anton Mikahilov made some pretty big claims about Sony's upcoming PlayStation Move motion controller.

Much of the demonstration revolved around the controller's level of precision. According to Mikahilov, the PlayStation Eye can track the Move's movements down to about one millimeter in the X and Y planes. To prove he wasn't blowing smoke up everyone's tailpipes, he zoomed down to the pixel level.

On the Z plane, the Move's level of precision is about one centimeter, and as Mikahilov twisted the controller, he noted that the PlayStation Eye could detect rotation to the degree level.

So what does it all mean? Translated in manner we can better identify with, Mikahilov says they've been able to use the motion controller to control the PC version of StarCraft.

Image Credit: Sony

While addressing a bunch of gaming geeks at this years Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, PlayStation researcher Anton Mikahilov made some pretty big claims about Sony's upcoming PlayStation Move motion controller.

Much of the demonstration revolved around the controller's level of precision. According to Mikahilov, the PlayStation Eye can track the Move's movements down to about one millimeter in the X and Y planes. To prove he wasn't blowing smoke up everyone's tailpipes, he zoomed down to the pixel level.

On the Z plane, the Move's level of precision is about one centimeter, and as Mikahilov twisted the controller, he noted that the PlayStation Eye could detect rotation to the degree level.

So what does it all mean? Translated in manner we can better identify with, Mikahilov says they've been able to use the motion controller to control the PC version of StarCraft.

Image Credit: Sony

Holy moly, talk about a kick ass giveaway. 2K Sports this week announced it would give away an unprecedented cash prize to the tune of $1 million to whoever is the first person to pitch a verified perfect game in Major League Baseball 2K10.

"To compete, gamers must play in MLB Today mode, select from any of the available matchups, and then choose the option to participate in the ‘Major League Baseball 2K10 contest’ that will automatically default to the proper gameplay settings according to the official gameplay rules," 2K Sports states. "Entries must be recorded via camera or digital video recorder in compliance with guidelines provided by 2K in the Official Rules, and all eligible entrants must submit a copy of their recording in its entirety for verification. Submissions will only be accepted on DVD."

There are a handful of other rules you must follow, such as not being allowed to make any pitching substitutions, pause the game, or wait 60 seconds or more in between pitches. But should you be the first to get through nine innings with no walks, no hits, and no runs, you could end up a millionaire, at least until the tax man takes his cut.

Note that this contest only applies to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.

Rules and Other Info

Image Credit: 2K Sports

What’s up is not yet clear, but there’s something nasty afoot that PlayStation 3 (PS3) owners definitely want to be attentive to. It’s being reported that a “bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system” is causing problems in older PS3s (PS3 Phats--slims aren’t affected). Being dumped from the PlayStation Network looks to be the least of owner worries.

Griffin McElroy, of Joystiq, is reporting that the problems being experienced trace back to a 8001050F error code. Besides being unable to join PSN, users are having their trophy information corrupted, most likely due to the system clock resetting to “1/1/2000”. Phat owners are reporting even with their system offline the problem is occurring, leading McElroy to surmise the problem may be firmware related.

Latest word from Sony, reports McElroy, is to keep your PS3 off until the issue can be fixed. Sony hopes to have things sorted out in the next 24-hours.

 

Image Credit: Sony

An OS memory hog is a thing to fear, especially in a system where memory is fixed, like the PlayStation 3 (PS3). Sony initially gobbled up 120MB of the available memory, spread across both the XDR and DDR ram, which was later reduced to 96MB. But that still looked pretty chunky in comparison to the Xbox’s OS svelte 32MB. Oink, oink.

Sony’s put the PS3 OS on an even stricter diet, and has reduced the memory footprint to 50MB, at the same time Sony has upgraded the OS’s capability. Now game developers have 70MB of memory more to play about with than when the PS3 was first introduced, and the PS3 is a more capable console--a win-win.

Mark Wilson at Gizmodo likes seeing the OS trimmed down, and handing over to developers what’s best left under their control. But, he doesn’t see this as remaking the PS3 into something it already isn’t. Wilson says about the best that will come from this are “slightly nicer lighting effect[s]”. Still, it's a start.

 

Image Credit: Sony

In retrospect, 2009 was really the year of the PS3. Sales of the oft maligned console finally began picking up after price drops and the introduction of the PS3 Slim. The continued ascendancy of Blu-Ray certainly didn’t hurt either. Even with all the focus on Sony’s console, they thought they could sneak some new versions through the FCC without anyone knowing. Not so much.

The two new versions are identified by their model numbers: CECH-2101A and CECH-2101B. The current PS3 Slims have model numbers CECH-2001A and B, denoting the 120GB and 250GB versions. So we can be fairly certain that these new models are differentiated by their hard drive size, but what’s changed from the current gen?

The wireless components tested by the FCC seem to be the same. It is possible, though depressing, that Sony may have just tweaked the manufacturing process to save money and slapped a new model number on them. But maybe… just maybe there’s some secret Sony magic under the hood of these new models. We can only hope. What do you think?

Sony's pretty excited about its upcoming Torne DVR and TV tuner for the PlayStation 3 console, so much so that they've went ahead and confirmed plans to launch the unit next month. The initial launch will take place in Japan only, in large part because it supports the country's terrestrial digital broadcasts, and so far, there's no word on when the Torne will fly stateside.

Quite the flexible device, the Torne hooks up via USB and comes capable of recording TV onto the PS3's hard drive or up to four external hard drives, all at the same time.

Users will actually be able to connect up to eight USB drives and register each one with the recorder. Programs can also be watched on a PSP, as well as schedule recordings with the handheld console.

The Torne DVR and tuner will sell for about $110 when it launches on March 18th. There will also be a special edition 250GB PS3 bundled containing the Torne device that will sell for around $470.

Image Credit: Sony

Hey, did you hear? Netflix plans to bring 1080p streaming and 5.1 surround sound to its streaming HD video service to later this year. Pretty rad, right?

It would be, except Netflix is taking a mulligan on the recent announcement, and now says that it incorrectly acknowledged 1080p streaming in the company's 2010 roadmap. Boo, hiss! Netflix didn't say why it pulled the about-face, though it probably has to do with bandwidth. While not official, Netflix says the requirement to stream 720p HD content on an HD-compatible box is "typically" 5Mbps. It's a safe bet that 1080p would require more, and maybe Netflix feels there aren't enough streaming subscribers with fast enough broadband speeds.

That means for the foreseeable future, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 owners are stuck with "underwhelming" 720p. That's right, in somewhat related news, Steve Swasey, VP of Corporate Communications for Netflix, downplayed the streaming service when discussing what Wii owners are missing.

"PS3 and Xbox users have 1 in 17 titles available in HD, and it's streamed in 720... it's not in 1080, and it's not in 5.1 surround sound or anything," Swasey said during an interview with The Wire. "So the HD experience at Netflix Instant Watching isn't that overwhelming. It's a little bit underwhelming. So the Wii folks aren't going to miss that much."

What a sales pitch!

Hackers set their sights on cracking a new video game console just as soon as it arrives. Their tenacity can usually bear fruits within months of the console's release unless the machine happens to be the PlayStation 3, which has remained unconquered for more than 3 years.

But finally, a hacker claims to have sneaked past the PS3's supposedly inviolable defenses. The PS3's ramparts may have successfully fended against hackers and the prospect of unsigned code for “3 years, 2 months, 11 days” but it took an eminent hacker just 5 weeks to come up with a hack. The man behind the crack, George Hotz, aka Geohot, has a penchant for hacking impregnable gadgets. A couple of years ago, a 17-year-old Geohot became the first person to jailbreak the iPhone.

Hotz revealed on his blog that he cracked the PS3 using a combination of hardware and software hacks. Although he claims to have gained full read/write access and the power to “make the system do whatever I want,” Geohot is in no hurry to release his hack, which is avowedly quite unstable and  needs some fine-tuning.  "If I posted what I have now, people would get fed up with it," he told El Reg in an interview.

Image Credit: GeoHot

PC gamers love to obsess over whether PC gaming is dying, but we think it's time to look at the other side and examine if console gaming is really as secure as publishers would have us believe. With casual gaming and the credit crunch changing the face of the market, what does the future really hold for consoles?