Reuters thinks independent games are the next big thing. That’s largely due, the article argues, to increasing game development costs for big publishers, and an explosion of digital distribution channels, where independent developers can find an audience. But does this mean it’s boom time for indies? When we checked, a couple veterans of the industry told GigaGamez a slightly more complicated story.
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IBM announced Monday that it’s shrinking the size of the current PS3 cell processor by 25% to a 65-nanometer version. The company, together with Sony and Toshiba, has spent an estimated $400 million to design and develop the “supercomputer on a chip” that powers the PS3 (among other things) and costs a hefty $90/chip to make. So if declaring sunk costs won’t do the job, maybe a streamlined production process can enable an earlier than expected and a much needed price drop from Sony to stimulate PS3 sales.

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Rumors of an upcoming PSP redesign have existed largely since the DS saw its first hardware upgrade last June. According to sources close to 1UP, some retailers aren’t happy with the soft selling PSP, suggesting they may pull the system unless Sony revitalizes its sales with either new hardware or a price drop. Sony’s PSP hardware shipments were down 72% from the same period last year according to the article.

While Sony has denied rumors of a revamped PSP for some time now, denials have been inconsistent at best. Just this week, Ray Maguire of Sony UK confirmed a PSP redesign saying a “smaller, lighter” version was on its way. A day later, head of UK PR David Wilson told CVG that Maquire’s statement was “blown out of proportion” and that “no immediate changes” were planned.

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Microsoft announced today that its Xbox Live service will expand on May 8 to include Windows Vista users. Coinciding with the rollout is the release of Halo 2 on Vista, more than two years since the game debuted on Xbox. In June, Microsoft will then launch Shadowrun, the first game to support interoperable online play between Xbox 360 and Vista users.

“The benefit of expanding Live to Games for Windows titles is twofold,” said Xbox and Games for Windows president Peter Moore in a statement to the NY Times. “We’re bringing together two communities that share a passion for playing online games, and we’re enhancing the online experience for PC gamers who have long desired seamless game and voice connectivity.”

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Rumors of a soon-to-be released black and enhanced Xbox 360 Premium (code name Zephyr) just won’t go away. According to sources from German gaming site Xbox-Archiv, Microsoft will cancel the $299 Xbox 360 Core model, reduce the price of its current 20 GB Premium model to $299 (Euros), and release the new black Zephyr this May for around $400. The newly rumored machine sports a 120 GB hard drive and HDMI. Keep in mind all of Xbox 1’s price drops occurred in the spring, with two out of three in the middle of May.

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Not to be outdone by Sony’s unveiling of their social network and avatar creation system dubbed Home, Nintendo and Microsoft chime in with their take on the well received and ambitious PlayStation network. In short, they dub the PS3 world a copycat and non-relevant pursuit.

Game Daily writes:

“The reaction from the rest of the industry has been generally positive, and while the fundamental idea of Home can be seen in other web programs like Habbo and Second Life, its scope has never really been explored before in the console space. Nintendo, however, is both unamused and unfazed by Home. ‘This is an example of Sony’s ‘Mii-too’ approach,’ said a Nintendo spokesperson to CVG. ‘But as Mr. Miyamoto states, Nintendo years ago considered and rejected the type of approach Sony is now taking.’”

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Popular gaming analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities expects a 20% increase in software sales when official NPD data is released later this week. Pachter also believes the Wii and PS3 will have sold 350K and 200K units respectively for the month of February. If accurate, this would represent a demand decrease of 20% for Wii and 22% for PS3 over January sales. Xbox 360 forecasts were not given.

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Gamasutra analyzes the importance of exclusive games (first-party or otherwise) to console market share by way of expert opinion. Heavy emphasis on first- and third-party platform exclusivity was common place last generation in which the PS2 dominated. But as the playing field appears to have been leveled thus far (i.e. unlikely Sony will own the 70% market share it enjoyed last time), how important will exclusive titles be this go around for Wii, 360, and PS3?

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While the PS3 is still learning to crawl, it’s older brother is running marathons. Like 115 million unit marathons perhaps close to 130 million when it’s all said and done. Despite avoiding specifics, Sony’s Phil Harrison told CNN/Money yesterday that his company would be rasing its PS2 sales targets above the already projected 13 million for 2007. If a reality, that means the would-be seven year old console would have sold more in its last year than Microsoft’s 360 did in its first.

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There’s no doubt Sony showed up at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco this week to cause a stir. And from early reception, they appear to have done just that. Slashdot was quick to praise the company’s newly unveiled Home community on Wednesday noting the rare applause for a Sony event, “This is the reason to buy PlayStation 3. The demo [got] a huge ovation… It’s crazy.”

Next-Generation duly recognized the seemingly good news with a dose of reality, “Sony is still trying to sell an extremely expensive games machine, with a limited number of blockbuster games, and a legacy of poor performance… Doubtless the PS3 story still has some set-backs and disappointments ahead, but finally, we get the feeling the worst is over.”

So can the PlayStation Home network offset the PS3’s high price?

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