When the PS3 was first announced, Sony intended to trump the 360 and Wii, claiming that its PS3 system was an Ultimate Media Center, and not just a gaming console. This theory was pushed heavily by Sony top boffins at E3 and similar gaming conventions but now, after seeing significant stagnant sales in what should be an ever-growing market of consumers, Sony has said they are going back to marketing the PS3 as a traditional gaming console.

“[The PlayStation3] is starting afresh as a console to play games with. Although pricing strategy is important, now we would like to put our strength in the number of software games,” Sony Computer Entertainment’s Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai told the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. Hirai also said he wanted to see the PS3 “escape as soon as possible from the red and return to the black in fiscal year 2008.”

The douching-up of the PS3 has been ongoing for a few years now, but gamers are finally starting to see prices come down to a reasonable level. With Sony wanting PS3 to start “afresh” as a console to do gaming on, we may see Sony re-embrace the casual gaming market with further price drops.

Ultra know-it-all head-hancho, Kathy Vrabek, of EA Games said that she is definitely not concerned with the poor ratings that EA games get from online game review sites such as Gamespot, IGN and Joystiq because she firmly believes gamers don’t actually read any of the reviews.

“I get less concerned about game reviews because the casual gamers don’t read any of those things,” EA Casual president Kathy Vrabek said.

Sales figures and game review scores obviously don’t seem to share a connection when it comes to the purchasing power of the average gamer. Advertising and word-of-mouth chatter have been keeping some of EA’s terrible titles very successful, regardless of the pounding they take from the major review sites.

“[casual gamers are] not swayed by a low score on IGN or a low score out of one of these gaming sites,” she went on to say. “It’s a little bit amusing, in that it’s people reviewing games against measures that are important to core gamers yet are not important to casual gamers.”

Are game review sites such as IGN and Joystiq even worth having around for anything other than screenshots? Probably not. Lose those high-paid game reviews and focus on more screenshots and video previews please! Let the hype machine roll on!

Some dudes from J.R. Antrim’s site put together a pretty interesting videogame look-a-like video. Some of the look-a-likes are shameless ripoffs and others just make me scratch my head. I think my favorite one was the Solid Snake / Kyle Reese comparison (even the same friggin’ hip gear) ;)

Yesterday’s rumors have been confirmed: a long-term game reviewer for Gamespot has been fired after posting a negative Kane and Lynch review. Suspected to be related, another Gamespot editor has also also announced he will be leaving the organization. We all know that every gaming review organization is paid big bucks by publishing companies to give their games positive reviews, so it only makes sense that this editor’s ass was canned.

Sony’s latest and greatest attempt to pull the PS3 out of it’s murky money sinkhole has been to get top designer Tom Dixon to design plush and elegant rooms to showcase the PS3 in. The rooms will contain workshops showcasing what the PS3 and PSP can do for you in your living room. Does Sony really think PS3 fans are that stupid that they don’t know how to use their own products? Retarded! This laughable attempt at popularizing the PS3 is one of the poorest marketing campaigns we’ve seen in a long time. Rather than showcasing the system, Sony feels the current lackluster titles of the PS3 would be better set off by being accompanied with soft leather sofas, pretentious cocktail bars and gentle piano music playing in the background.

“PlayStation and award winning designer Tom Dixon, with the help of some fresh new design talent along the way, created 3ROOMS to be your space as much as ours. It’s a modern East End apartment with a twist; here we host the most intimate of house parties for friends.”

“This innovative and inspiring space in East London is a much-needed place where creativity and technology coexist to form some great events. Versatile in design and rich in style, 3ROOMS is a place to communicate, relax and surround your self with the latest technology and wax lyrical about digital and its place in the real world.”

This sounds more like something you’d see at a pompous Apple media event.

After news that DivX Inc’s video compression technology would be fully supported by the Playstation 3, shares rose 2.4 percent, rising 44 cents to $19.07 this morning.

Word has also been made that the Xbox 360 will also be licensing the DivX technology as well, but no official statements have been released. Analysts highly suspect 2008 will be the year of DivX on the Xbox 360.

The news has been an incredible breakthrough for DivX Inc. as they go head-to-head with DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray technology on the next-gen systems. The battle of the video compression wars are on!

Video Game Nerd and Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter is predicting the video game market to show incredible sales numbers this year — more specifically a 50 percent increase over last year. The boffin’s forecasted sales for 2007 are $555 million USD compared to $369 million USD last year.

Gamers this year have sucked on the teets of titles such as Guitar Hero III, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4. The milk money that flowed out of Guitar Hero III’s swollen breast accounted for over $100 million USD in sales.

Pachter also predicts that the Wii will continue to lead the market in hardware sales, stating Wii will stand at 450,000, PS3 at 125,000 and the 360 at 325,000.

Basically, Guitar Hero III + Halo 3 = huge e-boner.

This guy actually used a Blu-Ray laser from a Playstation 3 in a Star Trek Phaser. Awesome!

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eMarketer has put together a sales chart, detailing the total system sales from the start of 2007 until September. A little while back, we heard reports that the Wii was gaining inches on the 360 and then all of a sudden, there were reports that the Wii had taken the lead in the console market. This time, it looks like the 360 is still in the lead but awaiting a swift pummeling from the Wii as it gains numbers dramatically (typically over 100,000 units more than the 360 per month).

Now, if we can only get a Castlevania game for the Wii, we’d be all set.