Sony Computer Entertainment has sent word that they've selected Shuhei Yoshida as their new World Wide Studios president. Yoshida will be replacement Phil Harrison, who left the company last February. Details regarding this announcement are in the full article.

Always looking at the bigger picture, Sony Computer Entertainment's president Kaz Hirai believes competing platform holders aren't the real threats to the business. "Our competition is not Microsoft or Nintendo," he said during the PlayStation Day. Head over to the full article to learn more.

A sad day is set to befall SCEI as one of its leading men steps down. Phil Harrison will be leaving the company on February 29, 2008 and will be replaced by Kazuo Hirai as the President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS).

Read up on the details, and to where Harrison may be headed next over at the full article.

Izumi Kawanishi, Sony Computer Entertainment's Chief Technical Officer, has moved out of the division and has settled into the mothership Sony Corporation. This is according to one of Kotaku's sources who explains that he and Kazuo Hirai had an internal dispute.

The source continues that the fight was Hirai wanting to push the PlayStation 3 only as a game console. Perhaps Kawanishi still wanted to push the console as an all-in-one media hub?

Bloomberg reports that Sony has joined forces with Infineon Technologies AG in order to reduce development costs for its consumer electronics division.

Both companies will own equal stakes in Qreatic Design, a new Tokyo-based venture that will design DRAM chips for use in Sony's consumer electronics including cameras and mobile phones as well as the Bravia and PlayStation brands.

"This deal allows us to combine Sony's chip-designing ability with Qimonda's chip-making ability," Sony President Ryoji Chubachi said in an interview today. "That way, we can share a roadmap to cut costs."

According to a joint statement from Sony and Infineon, the venture will probably begin operations by the end of the year. If all goes well, SCE president Kazuo Hirai will hopefully have decided to turn his thoughts into action by that time.

 

Though many great things emerged from Sony Computer Entertainment International's (SCEI) press conference at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, CEO Kazuo Hirai's main keynote focused on what Sony has planned for the PlayStation world. The keynote highlighted an extension of the PlayStation 2 life, the broadening of the PlayStation Portable's entertainment capabilities, and the PlayStation 3's power extending its future.

DualShock 3, PlayStation Store, PlayStation Home, and closer developer bonds aside, Hirai revealed to investors at the conference that they were serious about delivering quality games to the PS3. Sony has announced the acquisition of Evolution Studios (MotorStorm) together with its subsidiary Bigbig Studios (Pursuit Force). They will join Sony Computer Entertainment's (SCE) World Wide Studios (WWS) development force.

As for new business opportunities, Sony will continue dipping into online-offered PS3 games, which already includes the likes of Incognito's Warhawk. Gran Turismo 5 will soon follow suit as well, plus the fact that the online PC portal for the PlayStation Store is already up in Japan.

Hirai also underlined their focus on entertainment and utility possibilities for Sony PSPs, stating that the 1Seg TV Tuner, camera, and GPS add-ons were developed for this purpose. And with the advent of the PlayStation Store PC portal, SCEI hopes to expand online content for PSPs worldwide.

PlayStation 2 gamers can hope for a longer life of their current generation console, for Sony is not planning on leaving it just yet. Seven years into its life, 120 million units of the PS2 has already shipped worldwide - and the numbers are still increasing - proving to Sony that a great expanse of the world is satisfied with its entertainment value. Games will continue to come out for it, says Sony, and the platform will be supported longer than the first PlayStation.

 

Sony Computer Entertainment President Kazuo Hirai has declared in his keynote speech at the Tokyo Game Show 2007 that his company will further increase cooperation between Sony and its development community to allow better games to be generated on their platforms. He also assured the public that first-party titles will continue to sport high quality.

Developers and the media have created the notion that developing for the Sony PlayStation 3 game console is not an easy job with its advanced hardware. Hirai seeks to dispel that impression by having Sony share its development tools with game makers.

"Some of these collaborative endeavours are going on behind the scenes already largely in terms of development assistance courtesy of Sony Worldwide Studios," said Hirai. He gave the example of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII as a successful cooperative effort between Sony and third-party developer Square Enix. He added, "Sony is also listening to the opinions of developers whose games are already out."

Marquee games will be shown off in this year's Tokyo Game Show for the PlayStation . Earlier, a new Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer was displayed, revealing new plot elements. Still to come are Devil May Cry 4 from Capcom, Final Fantasy Versus XIII from Square Enix, and other anticipated 2008 releases.

  

We've got an update fresh off Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kazuo Hirai's keynote speech. A new feature will be added to the Sony PlayStation Portable and the Sony PlayStation 3's Remote Play system which enables users to turn the PS3's power on and off via the PSP. This new feature will be brought in by future firmware updates.

This was revealed by Hirai during his opener at the world's largest public game expo a few minutes ago. Sony also revealed that it won't take long before PSPs will have the ability to form hubs as shown in the image reproduced below.

Other Remote Play functions will be added in due time (firmware updates) and Sony says this is only the beginning of a project slated for the long term. Keep it right here because more amazing TGS 2007 revelations are incoming.

The Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) has recently released an official announcement ticking off the need-to-know facts of this year's Tokyo Game Show (TGS). The freshly wired press release claimed that an anticipated 168 exhibitors will strut their stuff on 1,708 booths over eight spacious halls in Makuhari Messe, Mihama-ku, Chiba City starting September 20, 2007.

 

From 2007 onwards, the TGS will serve as a essential part in Japan's International Contents Festival (CoFesta). And while it will serve as a bid for major publishers towards the end-of-year season of software releases, it will also bring mobile telephony forward to the tech-savvy masses, courtesy of special sponsor NTT DoCoMo.

TGS2007, extending its show to four days for the first time, will also be introducing new exhibitors from around the world, including companies from The Netherlands, Sweden and Thailand, adding to the 51 international participating exhibitors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

The business leg of the event is also stretched to two full days, a conclusion of which is succeeded with open exhibition to a targeted gathering of 180,000 attendees on September 22-23. The first two days of the Nikkei co-organized event will be open only to attendees with business in mind, touting a TGS Forum 2007 program keynoted by none other than Kazuo Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment's (SCE) president and group CEO.

Need to know more? Then head on over to the full article, right after the jump!

Sony's press conference. Game Head talked to Jack Tretton about some of the highlights of Sony's press conference at E3 2007. This video is basically just chatting and playful banter about the PlayStation 3 and Killzone 2 (with a playful jab at Peter Moore) and the new PSP (the PSP Slim, PSP Lite, PSP Slim & Lite, or whatever "official" name the tech blogs have come up with this week).

There's a short segment showing Kazuo Hirai introducing the new PSP. And the video moves to Tretton quickly mentioning the new PSP's weight, video out (!), and bigger cache memory (making life easier for developers and giving us faster loading times!).

Then there's Killzone 2, the highly anticipated game developed by Guerilla Games with Sony Computer Entertainment as publisher. Sorry, it won't be out for a while. Tretton managed to elude all attempts to pin down a concrete release date. But Tretton added that the PS3 has so many great exclusives and so many great games right now that fans should be able to wait until next year.

Submission wrestling and more in UFC. Then Quinton "Rampage" Jackson shows up at about 3:50 to talk about the awesome UFC game: Ultimate Fighting Championship 2009. At around 4:48 he starts screaming about how he wants to be in Halo (don't we all?). But if you're Quinton Jackson, you can make all the noise you want - nobody's going to stop you (except maybe Wanderlei Silva).

Booze and babes? About 5 minutes into the video they look at the different booths. We thought they said "we got all different booze for different companies" - which would probably have made for a wilder video, but booths are fine - although there are no booth babes in sight.

Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Fit at around 5:45. Call of Duty 4 at around 5:54. And that's about it. We agree with Geoff Heighley (the host). This E3 looks so empty.