Talk about opportunism. According to authorities, a tow truck driver has been charged with stealing a PS3 unit from the scene of a fatal car accident. Worst of all, said truck driver was hired to tow the wreckage away.

Thomas J. Brunell III., 33, admitted to entering the minivan that got into an accident that killed an 11-month old girl, taking away a PS3 console, controller, and one PS2 game from the wreckage:

According to authorities, Philipe Dastine, 21, of Spring Valley was driving the minivan eastbound at milepost 16.1 and lost control of the vehicle for an unknown reason. The vehicle left the right side of the road near Exit 15 and overturned, police said.

State police at the Perryville barracks towed the vehicle to headquarters and noticed that the video game equipment reported to belong to its owners was not inside, Detective James Kiernan said.

Brunell has been suspended from his job, pending an investigation.

As for the accident i...

In a move that just might boost the sales of both PS3s and HDTVs in Australia, entertainment retail chain JB Hi-Fi has thrown its support behind Sony's new format.

JB Hi-Fi is only one of more than twenty Australian companies who have voiced support for Sony's Blu-ray format at its official launch in Sydney.

According to IT Wire, JB Hi-Fi has declared that it will only stock Blu-ray products and not those of the rival HD-DVD format.

"Blu-ray is the only format that has the ability to tell the whole story, with the most comprehensive offering on the market," said JB Hi-Fi marketing director Scott Browning. "With seven of Hollywood s leading studios accounting for the vast majority of 2006 s home video sales, among the 170 plus companies globally that support Blu-ray Disc, it makes sense that content will be king when it comes to Blu-ray."

"It doesn't depend on Nintendo or Microsoft - it depends on them." That's what Ready At Dawn Studios president Didier Malenfant told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview. Although for the most part he had been pointing out that the PSP was a great platform to work on, he also stressed the fact that the console giant's success will be determined by it's own actions.

He explained the many difficulties in entering the next-generation console market, the huge amount of money needed and how the transition of technology and equipment will be trying and slow at best. He said, "Next-gen involves a lot of money, it's a big investment, and it's going to be a difficult time of transition whether you're Microsoft or Sony."

Malenfant did admit that Sony's image dropped some notches recently, but he elaborates that most number one companies also suffer image degradation. "You can see that with Microsoft with operating systems - after a while, you become the favourite target, " h...

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

That's it folks, let's pack it up and go home: the format war is over. Or at least so says Sony, which is bragging about some solid numbers from the month January. Reportedly two Blu-ray Discs were sold for every one HD DVD last month, and while HD DVD standalone players still edge out Blu-ray by a slight margin, PS3 sales have given the Blu-ray camp a solid win for the month. Numbers are still hard to read, due to disparate launch titles and quantities for Blu-ray and HD DVD, but the 25 Blu-ray movies and 11 HD DVD movies give a good impression of the current trend. Reportedly HD DVD sales are growing, just not as fast and Blu-ray, and Sony seems to think they have it in the bag: "We have a critical mass of content, we have the biggest mass of consumer electronics companies in the world supporting this format. That has moved Blu-ray into the forefront." And despite the fact that Universal Studios is still holding out on putting its mov...

The critically-acclaimed Formula One racing sim, Formula One Championship Edition for the PS3, exhibited a glaring example of the huge power the Playstation 3 houses inside. The racing sim dares to push the envelope past virtual visuals and sits right next to realism.

N'Gai Croal of Newsweek had a few questions for SCE Studio Liverpool's Game Director Graeme Ankers about the game and just how sexy it looks on the PS3.

From the interview, Ankers pointed out that the game was specifically built to put the title into a worthy next-generation level. So everything from damage modeling, high-definition rendering and life-like AI to the captivating simulation gameplay and every bit of detail was under scrutiny. If anything just didn't look real enough, they put it back to the drawing board until it comes out exceeding expectations or just right.

"One of the key challenges you face when developing a game for Playstation 3 is making sure everything in the game co...

Attention Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, DS Lite, and PSP. There's a new game console in town. The Gamespower 50. That's right, it comes with FIFTY GAMES. We'd like to see your high definition console come with half that many. What does Dr. Ashen of green lasers and piece of shite MP4 player fame have to say about this? Watch and find out. – Jason Chen

Does PNY Technologies ring a bell? If you happen to know their stock of graphics cards (GeoForce) or flash memory cards, then it shouldn't be too surprising that they are announcing the release of a new SD card, dubbed the "Gaming Card."

What makes this particular set of SD cards interesting (at least according to their ad) is that it's fully compatible with the Wii and with the PS3 (the PS3 will be hitting Europe this March 23rd).

The card comes in either 1GB or 2GB capacity, priced at  19.90 (US $39) and  34.90 (US $68) respectively. Expect their product to hit this March 7 on their online store and your local retailers. Or, if you prefer something more in the way of uber-slim file carriers...

Sony loses one vital employee five weeks prior to the launch of PS3 in Europe. And to add insult to injury, the lost is marred with controversy. Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) UK Head of Sales Kevin Jowett just resigned his post, and a replacement hasn't been named yet.

To give you an idea how important Jowett to Sony was, he started manning the sales director post almost a decade ago. He worked closely with retailers over stock allocations of the PS2, PSP, and PS3. He was also involved with handling retail issues such as pricing and second-hand games market.

According to MCV, it seems that Jowett resigned to work outside of the gaming industry, and his sudden departure is "due to confidentiality issues." Furthermore, one leading games buyer stated that this is a big blow to the company:

The timing is absolutely incredible. Kevin is going just as Sony is talking to everyone about terms and arranging pre-orders and in-store marketing campaigns. Obviously,...

At DICE 2007 Harrison demoed SingStar on PS3. One of the cool features is that you can upload videos for other people to view and rate, similar to YouTube. Here is part of a interview with Phil Harrison that was interesting. Though SingStar is not expected for some time, Sony is going to begin its community initiative [...]

JeuxVideo reported that the Gran Turismo HD demo will be available for free download from the moment Europeans get their PlayStation 3s. Well, take a tip from this side of the Atlantic: once you get your PS3 to the nearest broadband outlet, get that download ticket reserved as early as possible. Last time this happened on this side of the Atlantic, rumor was the traffic from LA backed up to San Diego. Maybe even Tijuana.

JeuxVideo also mentioned the other Gran Turismo that Polyphony Digital is serving up: Gran Turismo 5. Expected release is Spring 2008, JeuxVideo said. But the icing on the cake is that Polyphony "will launch as of the autumn 2007" Gran Turismo 5 Prologue via "remote loading" (probably means download).

But there are no exact details about what it will entail, other than "new vehicles and circuits" and online play (or were they referring to the Blu-Ray disc instead of the Prologue?).

The article also mentions the "startup" of Gran Turismo Netwo...