Crispy Gamer News

Sony has denied reports that it was considering additional restructuring actions beyond what it had announced in December. The speculation came from  a report over the weekend that said the company planned a big corporate upheaval. This might include more job cuts, dramatic changes to management and manufacturing processes, according to UK-based paper, the Times of London. If true, the restructuring would probably be announced after the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Naturally Sony flatly denies the report saying that it has no further beyond the job cuts and plant closures it unveiled in December. 

“We announced the restructuring of the electronics business last month,” said Sony spokesman Atsuo Omagari, speaking to Bloomberg. “We are not planning to announce further restructuring at this time.”

Sony may be forced to make further difficult restructuring decisions beyond what it has already announced. This could include cutting more jobs than the 8,000 fulltime and 8, 000 temporary that it already announced last week. According to a Kyodo news service interview with the Sony president Ryoji Chubachi published Thursday, Sony’s top executive said more steps including further lay-offs may be needed to keep the company from sinking further into the abyss.

“With only these measures, we cannot fully survive the current economic situation,” he said.

Chubachi pointed out that global business conditions are getting worse and demand for its consumer electronics products have been falling since late November. He believes this trend is one that isn’t going away anytime soon, so the company needs to do whatever it can to keep its head above water.
He also said that Sony would have to reassess the planned expansion of its personal computer, Blu-ray Disc and semiconductor operations into “trillion yen businesses” by March 2011.

While the awful state of the global economy can be attributed to a portion of Sony’s current problems — including consumer demand for some of its electronic products — the company’s PS3 can only be competitive with the Xbox 360 and Wii by cutting the price of the system. Cheaper Blu-Ray disc players are not helping matters any, considering that the PS3 was being billed as an excellent cost effective means of playing Sony’s high definition disc format.

It is a tough position to be in — and one that will mean some hard decisions and difficult times for workers who may become a target to reduce cost.

NPD sales data numbers for the month of Nov. 2008 are in, and to its competition’s chagrin, Nintendo continues to dominate the hardware sales chart. for the month of November, Nintendo managed to sell through 2.04 million units in North America, outpacing its own sales numbers from the same period a year ago (981K) by twofold. The Nintendo Ds also did pretty well during the month, moving 1.57 million units, up slightly from 1.53 million in Nov. 2007.

While Nintendo’s platforms continue to take the rest of the pack to the woodshed on a regular basis, there’s some good news for Microsoft and some even more bad news for Sony; the Xbox 360 sold 836K units in Nov., up slightly from 770K units a year ago beating out the PS3, PSP and PS2. The PS3 moved 378K units, but was down from 466K a year ago. The PSP moved 421K units, but was down from 567K in the same period a year ago, and the aging PS2 moved 206K units - down substantially from 496K units in Nov. 2007.  (more after the break)

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Square Enix announced this week that its PSP Star Ocean title, STAR OCEAN: Second Evolution, has been delayed by about two weeks. Following the exploits of humankind’s journey across the stars, the STAR OCEAN saga comes to life in the completely remastered STAR OCEAN: Second Evolution, exclusively for the PSP system. The new game features a revised game engine, an improved battle system and fully voiced, all-new animated scenes displayed in 16:9 widescreen.

The game was scheduled for release on January 6, 2009. Square Enix did not disclose the reason for the delay. Mark January 20, 2009 on your calendars. More about the game can be found at na.square-enix.com.

Japanese hardware sales for Nov. 3 - Nov. 9 shot that the new Nintendo DSi is doing pretty well in the region, beating out every other platform out there including the usually impressive PSP. The DSi sold 104, 897 units during the week, followed in the distance by the PSP at 40, 726 units, the Wii at 24, 726, the PS3 at 18, 354 and Xbox 360 at 12, 759. The good old DS Lite, one the standard bearer of Nintendo’s hand-held business in Japan, is the real victim here; the system moved a meager 8, 381 units, only beating out the PS2 which moved 5, 743 units.

You can see the list - in order - after the break:

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Finally the most underappreciated stars of the Disgaea game universe from NIS America will get their on title. NIS America announced today a new action game for the PSP called Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? will be heading to the PSP in late February 2009.
As Nippon Ichi Software’s first pure action game, Prinny is a side-scrolling action game where players will control an unlucky penguin dude (Prinny) and slash their way through various Netherworlds.

The player Prinny starts with 1000 units (lives) to accomplish your mission, but even with those 1000 units you will have to use everything you find on the battlefield to survive. The Prinny has the power to lift and throw objects, stomp enemies, pilot tanks and planes and even UFO’s to bombard whatever gets in your way. Standard mode allows you to take damage up to 3 times before losing a life, giving mere mortals a chance to beat the game.

Look for the game on February 17, 2009.

THQ and JAKKS Pacific announced details on the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 collector’s edition, which just happens to be a PS3 exclusive. No worries for fans of the series on the Xbox 360 and other platforms - the extent of the SE contents is a bonus disc with some multimedia extras. Before we get into that it should be pointed out that publishers like THQ need to put a lot more thought into what collector’s edition of a game should contain besides behind the scenes stuff; we are in an age where it is easy to distribute extra contents like arenas, wrestlers and move sets, so why doesn’t THQ offer these kinds of incentives to gamers willing to fork out an additional $10 - $20? Maybe I just don’t get it.

PS3 owners that buy the collector’s edition of the game will get a bonus Blu-Ray disc containing behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the videogame, as well as more than two hours of WWE footage from a variety of popular SmackDown vs. Raw cross-brand matches from 2008. The content is delivered in a steel cage package for North America, while fans in Europe and Asia Pacific regions will see their items encased within a miniature ring. The SE edition is available at most major retailers for pre-order right now.

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 is slated for release on the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2. PSP, Wii, Nintendo DS and mobile devices on November 9.