From gamedaily.com:
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Over the last couple weeks, the PS3 rumormill has been raging, seemingly indicating that Sony is about to get rid of its 80GB PS3 SKU. Many suspect that Sony is getting ready to replace the 80GB with a 120GB model.

GameDaily BIZ has learned, however, from a very reliable source close to Sony that the company has yet to actually decide on what the next SKU configuration will be. Apparently the executive teams and product strategists have been meeting this week in Japan. "There are a lot of different strategies under consideration, but nothing is final yet. They are considering ways to put some relevant distance between the two PS3 SKUs, but it's unclear how that will roll out," our source indicated.
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Full Story: gamedaily.com
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From kotaku.com:
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In today's EA investor conference call, CEO John Riccitiello was asked by analysts whether the company's PlayStation 3 development process had caught up with its Xbox 360 development process, an issue that had led to delays at a number of publishers. "Not quite," Riccitiello said, adding "There's no doubt that Electronic Arts, along with many other publishers, had some challenges essentially meeting the technical specifications effectively on the PlayStation 3." Yes, we do remember The Orange Box, John.

The EA head called the PlayStation 3 "a little bit more challenging development environment for us." Those challenges, according to Riccitiello were becoming less and less of problem over time, ending with "but there still remains some catching up to do on the engineering side for the PS3."
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Full Story: kotaku.com
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From gamesindustry.biz:
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Profit for the PlayStation business was JPY 12.9 billion (USD 121 million), compared to loss of JPY 54.2 billion (USD 509 million) for the same period in 2006, with improvement attributed to hardware reduction costs and strong sales of the PSP handheld.

Sales for the game division were JPY 581.2 billion (USD 5.46 billion), a 31.2 per cent increase over 2006's JPY 442.8 billion (USD 4.16 billion)

However, the company has lowered its full year sales targets for the PlayStation 3, from 11 million units to 9.5 million, while revealing it sold 4.9 million PS3's during the October to December period.
Software sales for the PlayStation 3 reached 26 million units during the three month period.
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz
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From kombo.com:
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A GameStop conference call was held today, which supposedly explained that the system was no longer being produced, in favor of a 120 GB or more model bundled with the Dual Shock 3 controller. There's no official date for when this enhanced model will be ready for purchase, or the price, for that matter, but it should be relatively soon. GDC is just a few short weeks away, so at the latest, it should turn up by then.
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Full Story: kombo.com
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From gamesindustry.biz:
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Sony's forthcoming PlayStation Home platform has undergone key changes in the last few months as a result of feedback from users currently engaged in its beta test.

What had been an enclosed room with a large window showing a lush view has now been transformed into a serene outside space, with plenty of room for people to interact, and tables with fully functional chess and draughts games included.

Additionally the entrance points to key content areas - the Theatre and the Bowling Alley - have been redesigned so that they're much more recognisable.

The Theatre itself, while retaining the same functionality, has had all of the screening areas moved down to the ground floor, after feedback from users that the 12 second walk to go upstairs took too long.

Venables and Festejo also revealed that it was now possible to take your avatar out onto a balcony from your own apartment, and that there would be "around eight or nine" different apartments available at launch, although no new details on potential pricing options for the premium apartments were available.
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz
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From kotaku.com:
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In-game advertising seems like an easy way to turn a buck, right? Wrong. While advertising is established in magazines and television, games are a great unknown. Activision Blizzard honcho Bobby Kotick says he wouldn't go in that direction himself. "It's early days," according to Kotick. Sony bossman Howard Stringer also remains unconvinced.

Says Stringer:
"The [supposed] solution to everything at the moment in the digital space is ad-supported. While advertisers are happy to talk that up, there is a limit to the amount of money available... Young people don't like advertising very much..."
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Full Story: kotaku.com | ft.com
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From engadget.com:
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We know that there's plenty of folks out there eager to get their hands on Sony's rumbling DualShock3 controller, but we're hoping there's not many desperate enough to consider something like this contraption in the interim. Apparently known only as the "Wireless Vibrating Grip," the device rather obstructively attaches to your controller and presumably makes it vibrate with no rhyme or reason whatsoever at your command.
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Full Story: engadget.com
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From engadgethd.com:
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Many were quick to claim that HD DVD was dead when the NPD group's numbers showed Blu-ray players had a 93 percent share the week after Warner's announcement. While those numbers were staggering, those with a level head wanted to wait to see if the blue camp could keep it up, and now according to the same firm, it did not. In fact the very next week sales were back to where we'd grown to expect them, about 65 percent Blu.
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Full Story: engadgethd.com
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From tomshardware.co.uk:
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Sony is apparently working on a 65 nm to 45 nm migration of its Cell Broadband Engine. Sony claims that the chip area size will be reduced by 34% and the 45 nm Cell will consume 40% less power than the 65 nm generation. The company also works on improving the design for manufacturability (DFM) for Cell to simplify the CPU production process.
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Full Story: tomshardware.co.uk
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From gamesindustry.biz:
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Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has told GamesIndustry.biz that there are currently no plans to introduce a 120GB PlayStation 3 in the region.

Gaming blog Ars Technica has reported that a 120GB sku is due shortly - complete with DualShock 3 controller and retailing for the same price as the 80GB Spider-Man 3 bundle - although Sony has made no comment to confirm this.

However, if any 120GB unit is to be launched in North America, there's no such roll-out on the cards for Europe.
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Full Story: gamesindustry.biz
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From gamercenteronline.net:
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According to a source in Spain Sony Computer Entertainment's vice president for Spain and Portugal, James Armstrong has confirmed that a new Starter Pack is due to go on sale on 31 January.

The Starter pack comes with 40GB console, two Sixaxis controllers and copies of:Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The Console comes at the estimated price of 499.99 euros which is alot more for your buck.
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News-Source: gamercenteronline.net
Discuss on our forums: forums.ps3scene.com

From psu.com:
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We have contacted Gamestop and found that it is official...Gamestop and EB Games will no longer receive shipments of 80GB PlayStation 3s.
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Full Story: psu.com
Discuss on our forums: forums.ps3scene.com

From n4g.com:
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his comes straight from Insomniac's brochure released on 1ts January,2008.

SPUs
All our systems started off as RAW mode. The only long term (not finished this frame) asynchronous processing is the collision on the raw SPUs. We use [Job Manager] but not all systems use it in the typical way of fire and forget. Most of our system require the SPU to be running a particular system at the same time as the PPU. To ensure the SPU is doing what we want at the correct time we send [Job Manager] the job and use our own thin synchronization and job buffering schemes using the locked-line for communication
10-20% total SPU utilization
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Full Story: n4g.com | insomniacgames.com (pdf)
Discuss on our forums: forums.ps3scene.com

From arstechnica.com:
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Our inside source of all things video gaming has been right almost every time it comes out of the shadows to give us information, so I'm going to dispense with the back story. Wherever his or her information is coming from, it's usually solid. After I spoke to Sony about the possible discontinuation of the 80GB PS3 model, I lit the mole-signal.

"Sony is, in fact, phasing out the 80GB PS3. Sony is going to stay with the two-SKU approach though, and the prices look to stay the same," the mole told me. I heard sirens in the background, and the mole seemed nervous. "The Spiderman 3 pack-in will disappear as well once the 80GB unit is gone. In order to maintain a similar value proposition to the 80GB/Spiderman 3 bundle, I expect to see a storage increase to 120 or 160GB at the same price point, plus the new Dual-Shock 3 controller"
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Full Story: arstechnica.com
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