Late Night Consoling

Sony CEO Howard Stringer, who is finishing up his first year as Sony's first non-Japanese CEO, made his first address to shareholders yesterday in Japan. Over 7,500 shareholders were present, and the overall tone of questioning during the event was apparently less than positive as those assembled inquired as to how Stringer plans to facilitate the company's financial recovery. Stringer warned that due to the costs of launching PlayStation 3, there will not be an immediate upswing, but he was confident that the company is "on track" to a long term turnaround. "Now in its 60th year, Sony has entered a period of re-emergence," he stated.

Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi was also present at the meeting, and stated that he expects Sony to sell 100 million PlayStation 3 units in the next several years, a milestone achieved by both PlayStation and PlayStation 2.

Yesterday, TheStreet.com interviewed Sony Computer Entertainment America co-COO Jack Tretton, who has similar goals for the system. "We're looking to sell 100 million-plus worldwide," he said, adding, "We're looking to sell 50 million plus in North America." Tretton was unconcerned by Microsoft's first to market strategy, stating, "If a competitor gets to 6 to 10 million worldwide [first], I would not consider that to be a significant advantage or a significant disadvantage as far as we're concerned."

Asked about the recent news of a simultaneous PS3/Xbox 360 release of Grand Theft Auto IV, Tretton was again confident. "There's no question that having the Grand Theft Auto franchise helped us a lot and helped us sell some units," he responded, "but I don't think the battle would be any different with or without Grand Theft Auto."

Tretton then spoke on the importance of first party offerings, saying, "The days of locking up exclusive content from a third party and having that be key to your strategy is really a dangerous road to go down because I think with the cost of development, not many developers can afford to do exclusivity. So, really what defines the uniqueness of a platform from a software standpoint are the offerings that you have from first party." In terms of first party software, TheStreet.com asked if Sony has an answer to Halo 3. "I guess I'd have to look at the numbers on Grand Turismo vs. the numbers on Halo," said Tretton. "But I can guarantee you that Sony Computer Entertainment's first-party software far and away outsold Microsoft's first-party software."

Microsoft today announced the date and location of this year's annual X0 press event. X06 will be taking place in Barcelona, Spain on September 27-28 and will focus on upcoming Xbox 360 games and accessories as well as the Games For Windows lineup. The announcement also noted that South Africa, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland will be seeing the release of Xbox 360 by the end of 2006, and will have press covering the event.

"We are really looking forward to X06 in Barcelona and believe this will prove to be an amazing experience for gaming enthusiasts across Europe," said Xbox Europe, Middle East and Africa regional VP Chris Lewis. "We have some exciting announcements to make and even more to show people. X06 will firmly place Xbox 360 as the console of the next generation.

Though the next installment of EA's Need for Speed franchise, entitled Carbon, has been mentioned at various events including Sony's pre-E3 conference this year, it hadn't been officially announced by EA until today. Need for Speed Carbon focuses on street racing, starting in urban environments and ending up in the mountainous tracks of Carbon Canyon. "We pride ourselves on our ability to reinvent the franchise and continually uncover new and exciting trends in car culture," said executive producer Larry LaPierre. "Canyon Racing is a real test of a driver's skill and we think it provides a fantastic game play opportunity to lean into."

Need for Speed Carbon will ship for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, PSP, Game Boy Advance, and PC. A release date has not yet been announced. - Screenshots.

Last year, when Acclaim went belly up, its in-progress mob epic Interview With a Made Man was picked up by Silverback Studios, a newly formed developer made up of members of the game's Acclaim dev team. Now, the game has found a publisher as well, as Mastertronic today announced that it will be releasing the game for PlayStation 2 and PC. The game's title has also lost its "Interview With a" prefix and is now dubbed simply Made Man.

The game is being made with the assistance and supervision of The Good Guys author David Fisher and former high ranking mobster Bill Bonnano. "This is about as close to really being in the mob as a game can be. You turn your back on the wrong person, that's it, game over," said Bonnano. "Every level, every scene, every detail, actually represents the inner workings of organised crime. No question about it this is as real as it gets."

Made Man is set to ship in Europe this September. A North American release has not yet been announced. - Screenshots.

Kikizo has an extensive interview with Super Monkey Ball creator and current Sega development head Toshihiro Nagoshi, producer on the upcoming Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz (Wii) and Yakuza (PS2).

Game Informer has a chat with Konami producer Koji "Iga" Igarashi, mainly talking about his upcoming Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (NDS), but also touching on possible future plans for the Castlevania franchise.