So the PS3's backwards compatibility may be getting a nerf of sorts, but does it mean a price cut for Sony's cash cow is under way? Well, according to one Microsoft blogger, that may very well be the case.

Ozymandias, otherwise known as Andre Vrignaud, made some predictions early in January about the state of the console wars. According to his new statements, the gimping of backwards compatibility may very well be the first step towards lowering PS3 costs overall:

This is likely a step on that path. I believe the PS3 enabled backward compatibility by basically including PS2 silicon in the box. That hardware has likely been removed to reduce costs, and the PS3 is now moving toward software-emulated backward compatibility. Notice the new focus on firmware upgrades for enabling backcompat?... All of which means the backcompat story is likely to be very similar between the PS3 and the 360 going forward.

Whether or not this is true, we still wish they wouldn't gimp backwards compatibility. That's one of the fun draws of the console. Hopefully, the price cut will actually make it worth the trouble.

 

When the writer/director of the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures film, 300, Zack Snyder was asked by Yahoo Video Games, about his intentions of churning out a game based on his adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel, he had this to say:

At first I wanted to do a larger platform game, but it takes a while for the Hollywood machine to pull a trigger on something like that. ...We wanted to do Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but everyone has in mind what they want to do with marketing and everything. By the time they get around to pulling the trigger and they want a day and date with the movie, we ended up with the PSP. I'm completely happy with the game we made. I think it's cool.

So there you have it folks, the reason for why 300: March to Glory ended up on the PSP.

What's nice about the PSP game, is that Snyder was very involved with the development of the game. It seems that Snyder actually played through the game, and worked closely with Collision Studios to ensure that the game retains the organic low-tech feel that the movie has.

A specific example of Snyder's influence on the game would be the waving capes on the characters in the game. Despite the fact that Collision could've used the memory (used for the waving capes) on other things, they tried their best to ensure that Snyder's vision for 300 is still there.

 

Before we go, if you're curious about what other graphic novel Snyder chosen to bring to the world of the cinema and video games. Here's a little teaser:

The next movie I'm working on is Watchmen. ...Because of my experience with 300, we've been talking about doing a big game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that's consistent with the movie's satire. It can't be just a straight-forward game. It has to be more sophisticated, like the movie is. That's the kind of challenge we face when you make a game from a movie.

Alan Moore's Ozymandias in an Xbox 360 game? Sign me up.

Andre Vrignaud, otherwise known to the net as Ozymandias, pulled a Nostradamus of his own recently with his predictions for 2007. Being a Microsoft spokesperson though, you'll have to admit that some of his predictions are somewhat pointed, even if they do happen to be very logical.

We'll tread lightly here with one of the somewhat obvious Microsoft-favored predictions as an example:

By the end of 2007, total lifetime unit sell-through of home consoles will be led by the Xbox 360, followed by Nintendo’s Wii, with the Playstation 3 third. This order will also be true of units sold-through solely in 2007 (ie, not lifetime sales).

There's enough evidence to make that prediction viable, though we'd have to say the Wii is catching up far quicker than anyone expected. Since the total number of PS3 units created does happen to be far less than the total number of Xbox 360 or Wii units sold, Sony is the obvious dark horse for a 2007 sell-through victory.

Here are the rest of his predictions. Take a good note of his PSP-related predictions, as our own Chris L. made a fearless forecast similar to Ozy's. As for everything else, just remember that this is all speculation rather than fact, though you're quite free to put in your own two cents on the predictions he's given.

The original PSP (with memory stick) will be discontinued, and replaced by a new model with an integrated hard drive. The new model will enable connectivity to the Playstation store via internet connection, and allow you to purchase and download both emulated PS1 and native PSP games directly. Over time (meaning not in 2007), it will also allow you to purchase music and movies from the Sony store.

The future will have... ROBOTS! More of Ozymandias' insights and predictions after the jump.

N'gai Croal notes in his blog that Sony should address the problem of them not having an active presence in the realm of blogging. He cites Ozymandias (Andre Virgnaud) and other Microsoft bloggers like Major Nelson, Gamerscore, and Game Tycoon as a nice example Microsoft reaching out and making a connection with the citizens of the internet.

Although Ozymandias' motives are, as N'gai Croal puts it, "hilariously transparent" Ozymandias' blog does well to bash anything and everything Sony. Furthermore it provides that consumer to company link that Microsoft needs.

N'gai notes that Sony fails at giving consumers information that they really need, straight from the company they purchased or acquired the products from. For example he says that when PS3 firmware updates are released, nothing in the download process really explains what the updates to. Yes, the updates page on the official Sony site gets updated from time to time, but it's nothing as powerful, reassuring, and as effective as say, a Major Nelson blog update. Often times people will have to go to sites like like QJ, or at NeoGAF for immediate word on the matter.

Remember PS3 Firmware Update v1.3?

The gap is there. A Sony "fan-boy" would sooner trust an obscure post by 0okm or a quick how-to from Pranav, than wait for the Sony site to update. A Microsoft "xbot" will go to Major Nelson's blog. Big gap right there.

Click on Full Article to read the rest of this post.

It was just a while ago when we all agreed that Microsoft will definitely issue statements regarding its rival companies. And now here goes the mighty corporation again. This time, it's Xbox Live Director of Technical Strategy Andre Vrignaud's turn to comment on the apparent problems the PS3 is having with certain HDTV units.

"It appears there's no internal hardware scaler in the PS3. As reported, it appears the PS3 is unable to output a consistent signal to your TV based upon your desired selection," wrote Vrignaud in his Ozymandias blog. The official even claimed that he wanted to play Resistance in 1080i (He has a PS3?).

Unfortunately, the console drops down to a lower-common denominator of 480p, in case the game doesn't support it. Vrignaud continued that he was prompted to quit, go to the dashboard, change the PS3's resolution to 720p and then relaunch the game.

Also, according to Vrignaud, older HDTV doesn't support 720p, just 480i/480p and 1080i. So owners of the said units are forced to play in 480i/p because they are unable to scale the output to 1080i. "This smells of the console being rushed to market, and I'm not holding out any hopes for any significant fix. It's bad, and feels like something Sony would have fixed if possible," said Vrignaud.

It is expected that Microsoft employee's wouldn't think much of Sony's PS3 or Sony's Online service. It's normal. They are working for a company that's in direct competition. But just for the sake of clarity, let's take some time to look at the actual points raised by Microsoft employee Andre Vrignaud (better known as Ozymandias on his blog) regarding the lack of efficiency of Sony's online service.

This starts with the lawsuit that Xfire has brought against Gamespy. You see, Xfire believes that GameSpy Comrade's "Buddy Sync" feature is infringing on its copyrights. How does this connect to the PlayStation Network? Vrignaud says this: "This suit highlights how busted Sony's PS3 online network is, and how companies are fighting to position themselves to take advantage of this financially."

He means that online middleware companies are trying to position themselves to become the eventual de facto solution that publishers will use when online on the PS3. It's the same with the web: These companies are trying to get momentum and a large enough user base that will cause them to be the "PS3 online" solution of choice.

How is the PlayStation Network busted? Why does the PlayStation Network need "solutions" from middleware companies? Well, Vrignaud gives several reasons. In his blog he wrotes:

Even though I already have a "Sony ID", I may have to create a new "Resistance ID" (because Insomniac's Resistance has it's own list) to play. And then start thinking about just how broken the experience is when you try to invite someone to a game. Do you send it via the Resistance UI? What screenname do I send it to? If I want to add you to my "Sony ID" friends list, do I need to send you an in-game message to ask you what your real "Sony ID" name is? What about game invites? How does that work across even just these two IDs?

You think that's bad? Now let's open up a few more games from different publishers. Each of these publishers had to make a choice of what online interface to use - again, because Sony's online network just isn't ready.

Yep, his problem is with Sony's PlayStation Network, is that it is just isn't ready. Publishers will have to either write their own communications interface or license Xfire, or GameSpy, or Quazal, or Demonware. That means many potential networks with different namespaces, and an inherent lack of ability to communicate (chatting, voice, invites, finding friends, etc.) between them.

He further inquires as to what could happen if each publisher doesn't stick with the same online solution for all of their games? This is very likely as most publishers use different developers - so even across a single publisher, you may find fragmented communities.

So what's the point of the Sony ID according to him? The Sony ID gives you a lifeline to be see friends when they are online... but only in the crossbar UI.

Resistance: Fall of Man developers recently admitted the game won't be hitting the 1080 target. Despite Insomniac Games' statement that such is the case because they're saving runtime dynamic memory for characters and environment, some still won't let up and throw stones at our beloved Sony.

To be quite honest about it, we don't know anymore the REAL score between the 720p, the 1080p or even the1080i. It was a good thing though that we came across one article over at Ozymandias. One of the company's senior software design engineers, Bruce Dawson, discussed and game a few clarifications regarding the matter.

"They think that 1080p is somehow more challenging for game developers than 1080i, and they forget that 1080 (i or p) requires significant tradeoffs compared to 720p," Dawson explained. He further shared that it doesn't actually matter what your preferred console is, rendering 1920x1080 compared to 1280x720 will still result to a 55.5% less time per pixel.

The engineer then revealed that when you really think about it, any game could be made to run at 1920x1080...for a price. It may allow you to show more details but running complex pixel shaders will definitely suffer. When it comes to TV's frame buffers, it is true that 1080p is a higher bandwidth connection than 1080i. But one has to remember that the buffer itself is identical. "It’s just different settings on the display chip," he quipped.

A couple of other clarifications that Dawson made are as follows:

• 2.25x: That's how many more pixels there are in 1920x1080 compared to 1280x720
• 1.0x: That's how much harder it is for a game engine to render a game in 1080p as compared to 1080i—the number of pixels is identical so the cost is identical.
• There is no such thing as a 1080p frame buffer. The frame buffer is 1080 pixels tall (and presumably 1920 wide) regardless of whether it is ultimately sent to the TV as an interlaced or as a progressive signal
• 1280x720 with 4x AA will generally look better than 1920x1080 with no anti-aliasing (there are more total samples)

Bruce Dawson believes that such discussions would inevitably end up about field rendering. He doubts this is possible as it requires to maintain a solid 60fps. Since interlaced formats display the even lines on one refresh pass and then the odd lines on the next refresh pass, missing just one frame would certainly create a disaster.

There. After knowing all that jazz, we can't help but still remember fans reactions at certain PS3 demo kiosks. They all seem happy and satisfied with what Sony's next-gen baby has to offer. At the end of the day, one has to remember that the industry exists and thrives because and for the fans. So if they are liking it, by all means, let us not talk about resolutions anymore and just bring it on!

Ozymandias, aka Andre Vrignaud of Microsoft's XBox team, recently played down the PS3's 1080p capability in his blog. "There's been a lot of interest in the PS3 due to its stated 1080p output for both games and movies (via Blu-ray)." he wrote. "What's interesting is that a lot of folks don't realize how meaningless 1080p actually is in this generation."

Many of his doubts and criticisms of Sony's next-gen high definition platform will most likely attract the ire of Playstation afficionados. Ozymandias argues that "the PS3 has roughly the same pixel-pushing capabilities as the Xbox 360. Don't need to take my word for it, it'll be obvious soon enough over the next year." Even if that weren't the case, he points out that "we live in a multiplatform world," and game developers wishing to develop multiplatform (360/PS3) games will settle for a common native resolution: "the current sweet spot developers are targeting is 720p due to the extremely similar system specifications... In fact, I'll stick my neck out and predict that that you won't see any 1080'x' games for the PS3 this year..." And later in his blog: "As to games, 99% of PS3 titles will natively render at 720p; the few that come out with 1080'x' support are either going to be simple classic arcade ports that don't need to render complex scenes (think the original Battlezone), or will give up a lot of in-game visual effects and simply won't look very good (hence the poor showing of Gran Turismo "HD" at this past E3)."

He's not the only Microsoft employee to play down the PS3's 1080p's capability. Microsoft's game technology group director Scott Henson, in a video interview with Kiziko earlier this year, also expressed his doubts about 1080p: "I think 1080p, just to address that directly, will be basically impossible. I think if you talk to any developer they will tell you that they will not have a performing game at 1080p."

We can bet that Sony will not take this challenge lightly. One of their pre-E3 announcements revealed that the next Gran Turismo will definitely be 1080p output, taking advantage of the hard disk to speed up loading times (and the game will still run on the 1080i format). Worries that the PS3's lack of HDMI output ports will hamper 1080p capability may be dispelled with the possibility that, at least until the Image Constraint Token (ICT) digital flag kicks in around the next decade, the PS3 can transmit a 1080p signal through a traditional cable. One reply to Ozymandias pointedly declares that a few PS3 launch titles will be 1080p: Eye of Judgement, Untold Legends, and Genji 2 (and you can click on the backlinks to check QJ's screenshots and video coverage of these releases).

If we may make a public service announcement, we're definitely expecting this news report to inflame a number of readers out there, particularly PlayStation afficionados. We definitely love to hear everyone's comments and opinions regarding the state of these so-called "next-gen console wars," and what they feel about Ozymandias' latest post in his blog, but given the sensitive nature of this topic we ask that comments be kept informative and respectful of everyone concerned. So please, above the belt, and no flaming. We are ultimately one and the same community of gamers - and besides, there are 360 owners who are also interested in seeing what the PS3 can do.

Speak up, everyone.