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137-722: Beautiful Katamari has gained extra attention because it was originally scheduled as a PlayStation 3 title in addition to the Xbox 360 , but development on the PlayStation 3 was abandoned and Beautiful Katamari was released for the Xbox 360 alone. All previous Katamari games had been exclusively available on Sony consoles. The game opens with the King of All Cosmos , his Queen, and the Prince, enjoying some tennis while on vacation. However,

274-535: A GameStop exclusive with 250 GB storage. PlayStation 3 launched in North America with 14 titles, with another three being released before the end of 2006. After the first week of sales it was confirmed that Resistance: Fall of Man from Insomniac Games was the top-selling launch game in North America. The game was heavily praised by numerous video game websites, including GameSpot and IGN , both of whom awarded it their PlayStation 3 Game of

411-408: A surprise hit and winning several awards. Its success led to the creation of the greater Katamari franchise , and inspired numerous subsequent games imitating its quirky, colorful charm. Some critics have hailed it as a cult classic and one of the greatest video games of all time , praising its gameplay, replay value, humor, originality, and Shibuya-kei soundtrack. A high-definition remaster of

548-463: A "huge demand" for the system. System sales for the following week were down 82%, selling 30,000 units, with a 60% drop in sales of the two most popular titles, MotorStorm and Resistance: Fall of Man . Its UK launch price of £ 425 was higher than its Japanese and American prices, with value-added tax cited as a reason by a staff member. The continental Europe price was €599, while in Ireland it

685-458: A "katamari" to collect objects smaller than the katamari, causing the katamari to grow and collect even larger objects, as to meet various objectives given by the King of All Cosmos . After successfully clearing any level once, the player can then attempt a time attack challenge on that level to make a katamari of a given size in the shortest time possible. Eternal modes, where the player is allowed to roll without any time limits, are available once

822-494: A 2009 study by SquareTrade , a warranty provider, found a two-year failure rate of 10% for PlayStation 3s. In September 2009, BBC 's Watchdog television program aired a report investigating the issue, calling it the "yellow light of death" (YLOD). Among the consoles that experienced the failure, they found that it usually occurred 18–24 months after purchase, while the standard Sony warranty covers one year after purchase. After this time period, PlayStation 3 owners can pay Sony

959-465: A USB keyboard and mouse and a web browser supporting compatible-file download function. Additionally, UPnP media will appear in the respective audio/video/photo categories if a compatible media server or DLNA server is detected on the local network. The Friends menu allows mail with emoticon and attached picture features and video chat which requires an optional PlayStation Eye or EyeToy webcam. The Network menu allows online shopping through

1096-524: A Western release. Media attention to the game from the Workshop, often called "Namco's snowball simulator", led to more pressure on Namco for a Western release. Takahashi was again invited to come present the game at E3 2004 . Players wanting the game to release in the West also wrote to Namco for a release. That July, Namco officially announced the game's release in North America for September 2004. The game

1233-506: A businessman, waiting for an appointment, rolling up office furniture and staff. The original prototype game's cover artwork featured the large red ball used in tamakorogashi , but for the game's final release, Takahashi developed the game's cover art, showing a large katamari on the verge of rolling over a city, emphasizing the scale of the game. The game was released in Japan on March 18, 2004, priced at about ¥4,000 , roughly two-thirds of

1370-587: A chrome trim with the logo in silver. Both models were announced for a simultaneous worldwide release: November 11, 2006, for Japan and November 17, 2006, for North America and Europe. On September 6, 2006, Sony announced that PAL region PlayStation 3 launch would be delayed until March 2007, because of a shortage of materials used in the Blu-ray drive. At the Tokyo Game Show on September 22, 2006, Sony announced that it would include an HDMI port on

1507-452: A dedicated GPU , believing the Cell microprocessor could handle all graphics processing tasks. However, game developers, including Sony’s ICE team (the central graphics technologies group for its game studios), demonstrated that without a dedicated GPU, the PlayStation 3’s performance would fall short, particularly when compared to the Xbox 360 . This feedback prompted the late-stage addition of

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1644-505: A demonstration of how the technology might work if it is implemented in the future. Firmware update 3.30 officially allowed PS3 titles to be played in 3D, requiring a compatible display for use. System software update 3.50 prepared it for 3D films. While the game itself must be programmed to take advantage of the 3D technology, titles may be patched to add in the functionality retroactively. Titles with such patches include Wipeout HD , Pain , and Super Stardust HD . The basic design of

1781-499: A different location, but found that the Namco and Now Production teams worked well together. The full team consisted of about twenty members between the two companies, and Namco had allocated a budget of about ¥100 million (about US$ 650,000–800,000 at the time of production) for the game; this was about the tenth of the cost of budget allocated for Namco's blockbuster titles such as Ridge Racer or Soulcalibur . The full game took

1918-649: A fixed fee for a refurbished console. Sony claimed that, according to its statistics of returned consoles, approximately 0.5% of consoles were reported as showing the YLOD. In response to the televised report, Sony issued a document criticizing the program's accuracy and conclusions; specifically that the faults were evidence of a manufacturing defect. The document also complained that the report had been inappropriate in tone and might damage Sony's brand name. PS3's hardware has also been used to build supercomputers for high-performance computing . Fixstars Solutions sells

2055-411: A giant ball into a goal. Both those ideas led to him thinking of a game where spinning a ball would roll ordinary objects into it, making the ball larger and larger over time. The evening he conceived of this idea, he spoke to a friend, one of the game designers in Namco, to see if it made for a good game idea, who agreed it had potential. The next day, he spoke to his former boss, Mitsutoshi Ozaki, about

2192-451: A given time, or collecting the largest item possible (such as a cow or bear). The player can attempt a score attack mode for any level, where the goal is to make the largest katamari possible in the time allotted. Certain levels can unlock an "eternal mode" by creating an exceptionally large katamari. In eternal modes, the player can explore the level with no time limit. Each level features two secret items that can be found. The first item

2329-408: A kind of visual alliteration . The name is officially transliterated as Katamari Damacy in most releases. Game creator Keita Takahashi said that the title suddenly popped into his head from the start and never changed during development. Katamari Damacy enjoyed moderate success in Japan. The game was sold at about two-thirds of the price of a new game at the time. It was the top-selling game

2466-447: A magical, highly adhesive ball called a katamari around various locations, collecting increasingly larger objects, ranging from thumbtacks to human beings to mountains, until the ball has grown large enough to become a star. Katamari Damacy 's story, settings and characters are highly stylized and surreal , often both celebrating and satirizing facets of Japanese culture . Katamari Damacy received positive reception, becoming

2603-469: A perfect score is obtained on a level. The player can also change to another character that the second player also uses- Marcy. In Beautiful Katamari , players are urged to build katamari with specific types of items. For example, to make the planet Mercury , the King asks the player to collect liquids. After successfully completing the task, the player is rated on time, size, and the number of objects meeting

2740-406: A philosophy that his art needed to combine practical elements along with a bit of whimsy and humor. After graduation, Takahashi no longer had the desire to pursue sculpting as a full-time career, and saw the potential to become involved in video games as a means to continue his art interest in a larger medium. Joining Namco as an artist around 1999, Takahashi worked on a number of smaller projects for

2877-415: A powerful serve by the King causes the tennis ball to rip through the fabric of the universe, creating a black hole that sucks everything but the planet Earth into it. In order to correct it, the King commands the Prince to roll up katamaris on Earth to recreate the planets, sun, and other celestial features. Once the Prince completes this, the King then orders him to create a katamari large enough to plug up

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3014-583: A reported announcement by Namco Bandai to retailers. A demo was distributed in the September 2007 issue of Official Xbox Magazine and on the Xbox Live Marketplace on August 14. The demo spawned the player in one of several starting points in a single level with a three-minute time limit and an 80 cm katamari. The main menu featured the song " Nananan Katamari ". The demo level contained a song called Katamari Dancing by Takashi Utsunomiya which

3151-596: A slow start in the market but managed to recover, particularly after the introduction of the Slim model, and managed to sell 87.4 million units to outsell the competing Xbox 360 and become the eighth-bestselling video game console in history . Its successor, the PlayStation 4 , was released in November 2013; Sony started discontinuing the PlayStation 3 within two years' time, with shipments of new units ending in most of

3288-522: A small arena to collect the most objects within three minutes. The playing field is replenished with new objects periodically. Players can ram into each other, knocking items from their opponents' katamaris, and if one player leads by a fair amount, then it is possible to roll up the opponent's katamari. Keita Takahashi had studied art and entered the Musashino Art University to study sculpting in 1995. During his studies, he came to

3425-413: A small ball and become more complex and full as it got larger. Technically, the team found they could not implement this shrinking mechanic due to memory limitations, and further found that with the interactive music concept, it was not fun to shrink back down and hear the music regress to a simpler form. The shrinking concept as well as the interactive music approach were subsequently dropped. The prototype

3562-467: A third-party OS. On March 22, 2007, SCE and Stanford University released the Folding@home software for PlayStation 3. This program allows PS3 owners to lend the computing power of their consoles to help study the process of protein folding for disease research. In December 2008, a group of hackers used a cluster of 200 PlayStation 3 computers to crack SSL authentication. In November 2010

3699-425: A user's PlayStation Network ID. PlayStation 3 also limits the transfer of copy protected videos downloaded from its store to other machines and states that copy protected video "may not restore correctly" following certain actions after making a backup such as downloading a new copy protected movie. Photo Gallery is an optional application to view, create, and group photos from PS3, which is installed separately from

3836-412: A version of Yellow Dog Linux for PlayStation 3 (originally sold by Terra Soft Solutions). RapidMind produced a stream programming package for PS3, but were acquired by Intel in 2009. Also, on January 3, 2007, Dr. Frank Mueller, Associate Professor of Computer Science at NCSU , clustered 8 PS3s. Mueller commented that the 256 MB of system RAM is a limitation for this particular application and

3973-557: A year and a half to develop, with eight months of prototyping from the Digital Hollywood version. Takahashi said that the team was aiming for four key points in developing the game: novelty, ease of understanding, enjoyment, and humor. Iwatani compared the game to Namco's Pac-Man , which focused on simplicity and innovation and served as a template for future games from the company. At one point during development, Takahashi "proactively ignored" advice from Namco to increase

4110-399: Is a royal present that contains an object that the Prince can wear. Most gifts are non-functional, but one includes a camera that can be used to take in-game screenshots. In the two-player mode, a player can choose to play as either the Prince or one of his numerous Cousins. The screen is split vertically; player one on the left and player two on the right. Players compete simultaneously in

4247-569: Is also built-in on all but one early model. A couple of early models also had a built-in flash card reader (compatible with Memory Stick , SD and CompactFlash ). PlayStation 3 has been produced in various models: the original, the Slim, and the Super Slim. Successive models have added or removed various features, reduced the console's initial purchase price and weight, and increased storage capacity (with exceptions). Numerous accessories for

Beautiful Katamari - Misplaced Pages Continue

4384-607: Is also the opening song. According to a press release from Namco Bandai, Beautiful Katamari went gold on October 2, 2007. The game was released in North America on October 16, on October 18 in Japan and was released on February 29, 2008 in Europe. In 2021, Beautiful Katamari was added to the Xbox One and Xbox Series X and Series S backward compatibility catalog. During 2007, a post from Orange Lounge Radio in March contained

4521-417: Is considering attempting to retrofit more RAM. Software includes: Fedora Core 5 Linux ppc64, MPICH2, OpenMP v 2.5, GNU Compiler Collection and CellSDK 1.1. As a more cost-effective alternative to conventional supercomputers, the U.S. military has purchased clusters of PS3 units for research purposes. Retail PS3 Slim units cannot be used for supercomputing, because PS3 Slim lacks the ability to boot into

4658-570: Is now only available to users of original consoles who choose not to update their system software beyond version 3.15 or who have installed third-party, modified and unofficial versions of the firmware instead. The standard PlayStation 3 version of the XrossMediaBar (pronounced "Cross Media Bar" and abbreviated XMB) includes nine categories of options. These are: Users , Settings , Photo , Music , Video , TV/Video Services , Game , Network , PlayStation Network and Friends (similar to

4795-412: Is tested , and if one defective SPE is identified, it is disabled using using laser trimming , allowing the processor to function with seven SPEs. This approach minimizes waste by utilizing processors that would otherwise be discarded. Even in chips without defects, one SPE is still disabled to ensure uniformity. Of the seven active SPEs, six are available for developers, while the seventh is reserved for

4932-557: Is the 25th best-selling Xbox 360 title in Japan at 24,186 copies sold. PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 ( PS3 ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). The successor to the PlayStation 2 , it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November 17, 2006, in North America, and March 23, 2007, in Europe and Australasia. The PlayStation 3 competed primarily against Microsoft 's Xbox 360 and Nintendo 's Wii as part of

5069-494: Is unable to go to the Moon after it is wiped out by the King, and the daughter, whose name is Michiru, "senses" the Prince's work—she can feel when each constellation returns to the sky. Ultimately, the family, along with their house and town, are rolled up in the katamari that is used to remake the Moon. The player controls the Prince as he rolls the katamari around houses, gardens, and towns in order to meet certain parameters set by

5206-625: The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) created a powerful supercomputer by connecting together 1,760 Sony PS3s which include 168 separate graphical processing units and 84 coordinating servers in a parallel array capable of performing 500 trillion floating-point operations per second (500 TFLOPS). As built the Condor Cluster was the 33rd largest supercomputer in the world and would be used to analyze high definition satellite imagery. Sony has included

5343-732: The Dubai Autodrome . The PS3 sold 600,000 units in the first two days of its release in Europe. It became the fastest-selling home system in the United Kingdom with 165,000 units sold in two days, and became the second-fastest-selling system in the UK overall, the fastest being the PlayStation Portable . Some British retailers claim that the PS3 was subjected to as many as 20,000 pre-order cancellations, while others cited

5480-549: The Instant Game Collection Bundle . The Garnet Red and Azurite Blue colored models were launched in Japan on February 28, 2013. The Garnet Red version was released in North America on March 12, 2013, as part of the God of War: Ascension bundle with 500 GB storage and contained God of War: Ascension as well as the God of War Saga . The Azurite Blue model was released on October 8, 2013, as

5617-450: The PlayStation Portable media bar). The TV/Video Services category is for services like Netflix and if PlayTV or torne is installed; the first category in this section is "My Channels", which lets users download various streaming services, including Sony's own streaming services Crackle and PlayStation Vue . By default, the What's New section of PlayStation Network is displayed when

Beautiful Katamari - Misplaced Pages Continue

5754-581: The PlayStation Store and connectivity to PlayStation Portable via Remote Play. PlayStation 3 console protects certain types of data and uses digital rights management to limit the data's use. Purchased games and content from the PlayStation Network store are governed by PlayStation's Network Digital Rights Management (NDRM). The NDRM allows users to access the data from up to 2 different PlayStation 3's that have been activated using

5891-611: The Super Slim model were revealed: one with a 500 GB hard drive, a second with a 250 GB hard drive which was not available in PAL regions , and a third with a 12 GB flash storage that was available in PAL regions, and in Canada. The storage of 12 GB model was upgradable with an official standalone 250 GB hard drive, and a vertical stand was also released for the model. In

6028-655: The Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, although demonstrations (such as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots ) were held at both events on software development kits and comparable personal computer hardware . Video footage based on the predicted PlayStation 3 specifications was also shown (notably a Final Fantasy VII tech demo ). The initial prototype shown in May 2005 featured two HDMI ports, three Ethernet ports and six USB ports; however, when

6165-768: The United Kingdom , the 500 GB model was released on September 28, 2012; and the 12 GB model was released on October 12, 2012. In the United States , the PS3 Super Slim was first released as a bundled console. The 250 GB model was bundled with the Game of the Year edition of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and released on September 25, 2012; and the 500 GB model was bundled with Assassin's Creed III and released on October 30, 2012. In Japan,

6302-457: The seventh generation of video game consoles . The PlayStation 3 was developed on the purpose-built Cell processor, co-developed with Toshiba and IBM ; SCE's president Ken Kutaragi envisioned a home entertainment system akin to supercomputers . It was the first console to use the Blu-ray disc as its primary storage medium, the first to be equipped with an HDMI port, and graphically

6439-622: The 20 GB system, but a chrome trim, flash card readers, silver logo and Wi-Fi would not be included. Also, the launch price of the Japanese 20 GB model was reduced by over 20%, and the 60 GB model was announced for an open pricing scheme in Japan. During the event, Sony showed 27 playable PS3 games running on final hardware. The PlayStation 3 was first released in Japan on November 11, 2006, at 07:00. According to Media Create , 81,639 PS3 systems were sold within 24 hours of its introduction in Japan. There were reports that many of

6576-471: The 2003 Tokyo Game Show (TGS). The demo was critically praised by the press, with GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann describing it as a "good dose of weird fun". Sony expressed strong interest in pushing the game's release forward based on the TGS response, offering to handle the game's promotion in exchange. Sony advertised the game on numerous billboards and posters across Japan, and created an infamous television ad of

6713-523: The 2003 Experimental Gameplay Workshop after seeing it demonstrated at the 2002 TGS, and had been at the 2003 TGS to look for a similar title to exhibit in 2004. Discovering Katamari Damacy as an ideal title to exhibit, the group arranged with Namco to have Takahashi come to the United States to present the game. The press reaction to the session was described as "electric", but they were disappointed to learn from Takahashi that there were no plans for

6850-508: The 20th century, specifically praising the game for its "quirky manipulations of scale" that makes it accessible for all ages. Vice president of marketing for Namco Bandai Games America, Inc. Carlson Choi described the inclusion of Katamari Damacy to the exhibit as "a testament to the creative designs embodied in Namco Bandai's games, in addition to being a validation of video games as a modern form of interactive art". On November 29 of

6987-407: The 3D objects needed to populate his game world. Takahashi took Ozaki's advice, joining the project to help produce the prototype for his game. Alongside about ten students from the Digital Hollywood program, he had been able to gain some visual design artists from Namco to help with the prototype but had difficulty in getting any game development engineers, due to the low priority of the school. He

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7124-512: The Digital Hollywood Game Laboratory would follow a similar path. At the time, Masaya Nakamura was principal of this school, and oversaw one senior thesis class where the students were being trained on 3D modeling towards producing a game prototype with the help of other Namco employees, which could potentially be made into a full game. Ozaki suggested to Takahashi that he could have the students of this class create

7261-616: The Japanese market. Sony have since launched their budget range of PlayStation 3 titles, known as the Greatest Hits range in North America, the Platinum range in Europe and Australia and The Best range in Japan. Among the titles available in the budget range include Resistance: Fall of Man , MotorStorm , Uncharted: Drake's Fortune , Rainbow Six: Vegas , Call of Duty 3 , Assassin's Creed and Ninja Gaiden Sigma . As of October 2009 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of

7398-475: The King charges his five-centimeter-tall son, the Prince, to go to Earth with a "katamari"—a magical ball that allows anything smaller than it to stick to it and make it grow—and collect enough material for him to recreate the stars and the Moon. The Prince is successful, and the universe is returned to normal. A side-story follows the Hoshino family as the Prince works at his tasks. The father, an astronaut ,

7535-464: The King of All Cosmos. The player uses the two analog sticks on the DualShock controller in a manner similar to the classic arcade game Battlezone to control the direction the katamari rolls. Other controls can be triggered by the player to gain a quick burst of speed, flip the Prince to the other side of the katamari and more. Objects that are smaller than the katamari will stick to it when

7672-451: The King's request. Another level requires that the player roll up only hot items and avoid cold items to raise the katamari's temperature to 10,000 degrees Celsius. Beautiful Katamari is the first game in the series to support high-definition television resolutions of 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Multiplayer modes include 2 player support on the same console and 2-4 player support over Xbox Live in both cooperative and competitive modes. One of

7809-530: The King). A "worldwide katamari", representing the total size of all objects rolled up by all Xbox Live players and the player's contribution to that, is also available. Beautiful Katamari is the first game in the series to include downloadable content. Seven additional levels are available individually from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Each additional level occupies only about 384 kB on the Xbox 360 console's hard drive, leading game reviewer Aaron Linde to complain that

7946-431: The King, but the project leader rejected the idea. Action Drive was eventually cancelled. While working on other projects, Takahashi continued to try to think of game ideas, seeking to grow beyond being just an artist for Namco. Takahashi cited two concepts that led to the inspiration of Katamari Damacy . The first was a prototype shown by Sony Computer Entertainment called Densen (Japanese for "power line") that had

8083-505: The Namco Digital Hollywood Game Laboratory to develop the project for less than US$ 1 million. As director, Takahashi emphasized concepts of novelty, ease of understanding, and enjoyment. The game's plot concerns a diminutive prince on a mission to rebuild the stars , constellations , and Moon , which were inadvertently destroyed by his father, the King of All Cosmos . This is achieved by rolling

8220-726: The Netflix streaming service would also be available on PlayStation 3 in the United States. A paid Netflix subscription was required for the service. The service became available in November 2009. Initially users had to use a free Blu-ray disc to access the service; however, in October 2010 the requirement to use a disc to gain access was removed. In April 2010, support for MLB.tv was added, allowing MLB.tv subscribers to watch regular season games live in HD and access new interactive features designed exclusively for PSN. In November 2010, access to

8357-493: The Patriots , Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction , Devil May Cry 4 , Army of Two , Battlefield: Bad Company and Midnight Club: Los Angeles have also joined the list. As of March 31, 2012 , there have been 595 million games sold for PlayStation 3. The best selling PS3 games are Grand Theft Auto V , Gran Turismo 5 , The Last of Us , Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves . The last game released on

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8494-415: The PlayStation 3 edition of Beautiful Katamari was cancelled due to porting issues and stalled PlayStation 3 sales, with resources being redirected towards the development of a Wii version. Namco Bandai was contacted for comment, but a statement was not returned in time for the publishing of the report. Later on July 5, Namco revealed their E3 2007 lineup, listing Beautiful Katamari as Xbox 360 only. On

8631-438: The PlayStation 3 remained the same across all three major hardware revisions with a black plastic case with a convex top side when placed horizontal, which could also be placed vertical, with the convex on the left side. The original case design had piano black plastic with a Spider-Man -font-inspired logo that PlayStation designer Teiyu Goto stated that "was one of the first elements SCEI president Ken Kutaragi decided on and

8768-431: The PlayStation 3 version, Namco later released Katamari Forever , which shares some of its levels with Beautiful Katamari , for that console in 2009. Beautiful Katamari received "mixed or average reviews", according to review score aggregator Metacritic . Official Xbox Magazine wrote that the game clearly aims at everyone regarding its simplicity, and called it a refreshing contrast to serious titles. IGN gave

8905-626: The PlayStation 3 was Shakedown: Hawaii , on August 20, 2020. In December 2008, the CTO of Blitz Games announced that it would bring stereoscopic 3D gaming and movie viewing to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with its own technology. This was first demonstrated publicly on PS3 using Sony's own technology in January 2009 at the Consumer Electronics Show . Journalists were shown Wipeout HD and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in 3D as

9042-478: The PlayStation 3 would utilize Blu-ray and that the console would also play DVDs and CDs, and the following December, Nvidia was announced as a design partner for the console's graphics chip. Sony officially unveiled PlayStation 3 to the public on May 16, 2005, at E3 2005 , along with a boomerang -shaped prototype design of the Sixaxis controller. A functional version of the system was not present there, nor at

9179-406: The Prince to rescue her. To do this, the player would use the diminutive Prince's head, shaped like a hammer, to stun humans, after which the Prince would then "drive" the humans around by putting a steering wheel on the back of the human's head. Takahashi felt this would lead to interesting and creative gameplay, allowing the player to create havoc as the Prince followed the misguided suggestions from

9316-655: The RSX GPU during the console’s development. Physical media games for the PlayStation 3 were sold on Blu-ray discs and the console features a 2× speed drive which is also capable of reading Blu-ray movies, DVDs, and CDs. It was originally available with hard drives of 20 and 60 GB but various sizes up to 500 GB were later made available (see: model comparison ). All PS3 models have user-upgradeable hard drives. The system has Bluetooth 2.0 (with support for up to seven Bluetooth devices), Gigabit Ethernet , USB 2.0 and HDMI 1.4 built in. Wi-Fi networking

9453-773: The U.S. award for "Excellence in Game Design" at the 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards , and G4 awarded Katamari Damacy its "Best Innovation" prize in its G-Phoria of that year. Katamari Damacy was one of the recipients of the 2004 Good Design Award in Japan, the first time a video game has won this award. During the 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded Katamari Damacy with "Outstanding Innovation in Console Gaming" and " Outstanding Achievement in Game Design ", as well as receiving nominations for " Game of

9590-408: The United States. Katamari Damacy Katamari Damacy ( lit.   ' Clump Spirit ' ) is a third-person puzzle-action video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2 . It was released in Japan in March 2004 and later in North America in September. Designer Keita Takahashi struggled to pitch the game to Namco's superiors, eventually seeking student aid from

9727-476: The World and Donut County . Katamari Damacy has spawned numerous sequels on the PlayStation 2 and newer game consoles. The game's direct sequel on the PlayStation 2, We Love Katamari , was released internationally in 2005 and 2006. Its story is self-referential , following on the success of the first game, most of the levels are based on requests from newfound fans of the King and the Prince. Though sharing

9864-767: The Year award for 2006. Some titles missed the launch window and were delayed until early 2007, such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion , F.E.A.R. and Sonic the Hedgehog . During the Japanese launch, Ridge Racer 7 was the top-selling game, while Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire also fared well in sales, both of which were offerings from Namco Bandai Games . PlayStation 3 launched in Europe with 24 titles, including ones that were not offered in North American and Japanese launches, such as Formula One Championship Edition , MotorStorm and Virtua Fighter 5 . Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm were

10001-495: The Year ", "Console Game of the Year", and " Outstanding Achievement in Original Musical Composition ". GameSpot named it the best PlayStation 2 game of September 2004. It later won the publication's year-end "Best Puzzle/Rhythm Game", "Best Original Music" and "Most Innovative Game" awards across all platforms. In 2015, the game placed 13th on USgamer's The 15 Best Games Since 2000 list. In 2019, it

10138-471: The ability for the operating system , referred to as System Software , to be updated. The updates can be acquired in several ways: The original PlayStation 3 also included the ability to install other operating systems, such as Linux . This was not included in the newer slim models and was removed from all older PlayStation 3 consoles with the release of firmware update 3.21 in April 2010. The functionality

10275-609: The ability to cut videos and add music and captions. Videos can then be rendered and uploaded to video sharing websites such as Facebook and YouTube. In addition to the video service provided by the Sony Entertainment Network , the PlayStation 3 console has access to a variety of third-party video services, dependent on the region: Since June 2009, VidZone has offered a free music video streaming service in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In October 2009, Sony Computer Entertainment and Netflix announced that

10412-488: The ability to zoom into 3D environments and change the angle and perspective of panoramas. It requires system software 3.40 or higher; 3D photos; a 3D HDTV, and an HDMI cable for the 3D images to be viewed properly. A new application was released as part of system software version 3.40 which allows users to edit videos on PlayStation 3 and upload them to the Internet. The software features basic video editing tools including

10549-486: The application, along with music and playlists. The software was updated with the release of system software version 3.40 allowing users to upload and browse photos on Facebook and Picasa . PlayMemories is an optional stereoscopic 3D (and also standard) photo viewing application, which is installed from the PlayStation Store at 956 MB. The application is dedicated specifically to 3D photos and features

10686-441: The black colored Super Slim model was released on October 4, 2012; and the white colored Super Slim model was released on November 22, 2012. The Super Slim model is 20 percent smaller and 25 percent lighter than the Slim model and features a manual sliding disc cover instead of a motorized slot-loading disc cover of the Slim model. The white colored Super Slim model was released in the United States on January 27, 2013, as part of

10823-464: The black hole and restore order to the universe. The Prince then rolls up enough stuff to create the "Super Giant", a very large Katamari that he then clogs up the black hole with. In the end, the black hole is stopped and the King of All Cosmos takes all the credit for stopping it. The core gameplay from the Katamari Damacy series is unchanged; the player, as the diminutive Prince, controls

10960-484: The complexity of the game. The core gameplay of Katamari Damacy is the subject of U.S. Patent 7,402,104, "Game performing method, game apparatus, storage medium, data signal and program". The patent, issued in 2009, primarily describes how the game maintains the roughly spherical nature of the katamari when objects are picked up, though extends to concepts such as tracking objects collected based on temperature or weight values, which were modes included with later games of

11097-406: The concept, further adding a way to reuse the King and Prince characters he had previously proposed, who also agreed it would make for a great game. However, as Takahashi was in Namco's art department and not in game design, there was no easy route for him to propose this idea to Namco's superiors. Ozaki suggested a novel approach for Takahashi through the Namco Digital Hollywood Game Laboratory. At

11234-773: The console have been developed. These accessories include the wireless Sixaxis and DualShock 3 controllers, the Logitech Driving Force GT , the Logitech Cordless Precision Controller , the Blu-ray Disc Remote , the PlayStation Eye camera, and the PlayTV DVB-T tuner/ digital video recorder accessory. At Sony's E3 press conference in 2006, the then-standard wireless Sixaxis controller

11371-518: The console’s operating system . The Cell processor has access to 256 MB of XDR DRAM main memory. Graphics processing is managed by the RSX Reality Synthesizer , designed by Nvidia and paired with 256 MB of GDDR3 video memory. The RSX chip can produce resolutions ranging from standard-definition ( 480i / 576i ) up to high-definition ( 1080p ). Initially, Sony’s hardware development team did not plan to include

11508-429: The cost of most major titles at the time. Namco had estimated that the game would sell over 500,000 units in Japan during its first year, and while the game did not make that metric, it had stayed as one of the top ten games sold in Japan through its first nine weeks on the market, with more than 100,000 units sold during that period, which was considered impressive for a new intellectual property . The public reaction to

11645-446: The environments "dull and lifeless". Import-centric UK site NTSC-uk gave it 6/10: "When throwing in the short nature of the game and the lack of loving care to the little things that seemed to be lavished on its predecessors... then fans of the series may be left feeling somewhat disappointed. Newcomers will no doubt discover the reason why so many people hold the series very dear to their heart..." As of December 2007, Beautiful Katamari

11782-608: The first week generating "over NZ$ 6.8 million dollars in hardware and software retail sales." On April 27, 2007, it launched in India, with the 60 GB model retailing for ₹ 39,990 (US$ 1000 at the conversion rate at the time). In Mexico, the 20 GB model launched with a price of 10,495 pesos, or US$ 974 at the time. The console was launched in South Korea on June 16, 2007, as a single version equipped with an 80 GB hard drive and IPTV . Following speculation that Sony

11919-460: The game 8.5 out of ten with his EGM staff), argue that the game's limitations, such as having "basically ... the same" objective in each level, are made up by its strengths, like "elegant" controls, its soundtrack, and "wicked" humor. As a well-executed, non-traditional game, Katamari Damacy has been influential in the game development community. Since its release, a number of other games have been inspired by Katamari , such as The Wonderful End of

12056-557: The game a 7.8 out of 10, calling Beautiful Katamari "a welcome addition to the barren category of family friendly games on 360" but also found fault in the game's short length and the lack of evolution in the Katamari series. Other critics lamented the lack of originality in Beautiful Katamari . Game Informer called the game the "ugly duckling" of the Katamari series, praising the new multiplayer facilities but calling

12193-528: The game was acclaimed by critics, and was mentioned and praised on TechTV , and was a featured sidebar in the May 2004 edition of Time magazine. Time continued to praise the game in its November 2004 "Best games of the year" special, calling it "the most unusual and original game" for PlayStation 2. Most retailers underestimated the demand for such a quirky game, and only purchased a few copies of this sleeper hit ; it rapidly sold out nationwide, with sales surpassing 120,000 units in North America. It also won

12330-608: The game was positive enough that Namco ordered a sequel by December 2004. At this point, Namco had not considered any Western release for the game. Katamari Damacy was first shown in the United States at the Experimental Gameplay Workshop during the March 2004 Game Developers Conference . A group of Western developers from the International Game Developers Association had previously brought Mojib-Ribbon to

12467-424: The game was shipped feature-complete but crippled unless players paid additional money. One of the Beautiful Katamari achievements explicitly requires that the player "download stages" to be able to build a 1,500,000 km katamari. Additional downloads were available on the U.S. Xbox Live Marketplace and they immediately unlocked ten cousins or presents. These downloads did not introduce new cousins or presents into

12604-514: The game were stated to retain the dual analog control scheme of the PlayStation 2 Katamari games, and also include online play features. Designer Jun Moriwaki said in April that while a Wii version of Beautiful Katamari was under consideration, difficulties were presented by the system's controller that had to be first resolved. IGN Nintendo editor-in-chief Matt Casamassina reported in June that according to unnamed sources close to Namco Bandai,

12741-481: The game, Katamari Damacy Reroll , was released on Windows and Nintendo Switch in December 2018, on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2020, and on Google Stadia in September 2021. In a drunken stupor, an eccentric, god-like entity called the King of All Cosmos destroys all the stars, Earth's Moon and other such celestial bodies in the universe, save for Earth itself. Despite acknowledging his mistake,

12878-480: The game; they merely worked around the game's need to have the player find these hidden objects. Downloadable content for the European market was released on May 7, but mistakes were made with the item names, resulting in two items named "Perfectly Sized Katamari" with identical descriptions and only an image to differentiate the two. There were 6 additional levels available for download on EU Xbox Live Marketplace at

13015-415: The initial systems were obtained by businessmen who paid mainly Chinese nationals to buy the system without any software to resell on eBay , and, as a result of this, there were more hardware units sold than there were games. Ridge Racer 7 was the highest selling game on launch day. Soon after its release in Japan, the PS3 was released in North America on November 17, 2006. Reports of violence surrounded

13152-447: The katamari rolls until more objects are picked up. Animals such as cats will chase the katamari, knocking things from it, but once the katamari is great enough, it will scare the animals away, and they can be rolled up once they are chased down. As objects stick to the katamari, the katamari will grow, eventually allowing objects that were once hurdles to be picked up, and creating access to areas that were formerly blocked. In this manner,

13289-457: The latter two platforms bearing a release date of "TBD". When asked by 1UP during the 2007 Tokyo Game Show , Beautiful Katamari director Jun Morikawa claimed specifically that the game will not be available for the PS3, though another Katamari game that stars the King of Cosmos in the lead will make its way to the PS3 "soon". Morikawa also suggested the same for the Wii. Due to the cancellation of

13426-450: The logo may have been the motivating force behind the shape of PS3". The PlayStation 3 uses the 64-bit Cell microprocessor , developed jointly by Sony, Toshiba and IBM , as its CPU . The processor consists of a 3.2 GHz PowerPC -based Power Processing Element (PPE) and seven Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). To improve manufacturing yields , the chip is initially manufactured with eight SPEs. After production, each chip

13563-418: The most successful titles of 2007, and both games subsequently received sequels in the form of Resistance 2 and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift . At E3 2007 , Sony was able to show a number of their upcoming video games for PlayStation 3, including Heavenly Sword , Lair , Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction , Warhawk and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune ; all of which were released in

13700-536: The online battle types is a "Thingy Battle", similar to a mode in We Love Katamari , where each player must collect the most of a specific type of item. Game lobbies include simple mini-games. The game tracks all progress by the player in the various modes and shares this data through Xbox Live to allow the player to compare their performance to others, including on normal request levels, time attacks, and online play performance (tracked as "cookies" awarded by

13837-431: The original version. A Super Slim redesign was released in late 2012, further refining the console. During its early years, the system received a mixed reception, due to its high price ($ 599 for a 60-gigabyte model, $ 499 for a 20 GB model), a complex processor architecture, and lack of quality games, but was praised for its Blu-ray capabilities and "untapped potential". The reception improved over time. The system had

13974-460: The player as a young girl traverse floating islands of various homes connected by power lines. The game, though never released, gave Takahashi the idea that the ordinary world could be made interesting with only small changes to perception, and that a game could be fun without the need to cause violence. The second idea was from the game of tamakorogashi played in Japanese school's undōkai or sports days . In tamakorogashi , students attempt to push

14111-416: The player comes into contact with them, while greater objects can be hurdles; colliding at high speed with any may cause objects to fall off the katamari, slowing the player's progress. The game uses size, weight, and surface area to determine if an object will stick to the katamari. This allows slender objects, such as pencils, that are longer than the katamari is wide, to be picked up, and these will alter how

14248-463: The player might start the game by picking up thumbtacks and ants, and slowly work up to the point where the katamari is picking up buildings, mountains, and clouds. The typical mission given by the King of All Cosmos is the "Make a Star" mode, where the player needs to grow the katamari to a specific size within a given time frame. Other missions have more specific collecting rules, such as collecting as many items (swans, crabs, pairs) as possible within

14385-426: The popularity of the competing Nintendo Wii. The Move’s "wand" controllers use internal inertial sensors detect motion while the position of a glowing orb is tracked using a PlayStation Eye or PlayStation Camera . It went on sale in late 2010. According to Ars Technica , the number of PlayStation 3 consoles that have experienced failure is well within the normal failure rates in the consumer electronics industry;

14522-556: The previous Nintendo 64 console. Thus, Takahashi's team decided to develop for the GameCube for their prototype even though the final game was expected to be a PlayStation 2 release. In creating the prototype, Takahashi had envisioned that while the ball the player rolled around would grow as they rolled over objects, it would also shrink if they collided with obstacles and lost objects from it. This would have been tied to an interactive music track, which would have started off simple with

14659-455: The publisher. One of these was called Action Drive , inspired by Crazy Taxi but with more spy-based elements atop the driving gameplay. During this, Takahashi came up with the ideas of the characters that would be central to Katamari Damacy : the King, the Queen, and the Prince of all Cosmos. His idea would have been that the queen had been kidnapped by agents on Earth, and the lazy King sends

14796-462: The release of the PS3. A customer was shot, campers were robbed at gunpoint, customers were shot in a drive-by shooting with BB guns , and 60 campers fought over 10 systems. The PS3 was released on the same day in Hong Kong and Taiwan as well. The console was originally planned for a global release through November, but at the start of September the release in Europe and the rest of the world

14933-641: The report that Namco Bandai announced Beautiful Katamari to retailers, which included a release for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the Wii. According to the post, the PlayStation 3 version of Beautiful Katamari was to feature support for the motion-sensing feature of the Sixaxis Wireless Controller . The post was removed at the request of Namco Bandai. In mid-April, the game was confirmed by Famitsu to be in development for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan, and officially announced by Namco Bandai Games America on April 20. Both versions of

15070-415: The same day, Famitsu reported that Beautiful Katamari had been cancelled for the PS3 and was currently in development for the Wii and Xbox 360. The box cover image for the Xbox 360 version, released in late August, indicates that the game is exclusive to the Xbox 360. In September, Namco-Bandai's U.S. website briefly identified Beautiful Katamari as a title for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii, with

15207-442: The same font as the logos of Sony 's then-current Spider-Man films ), with a new "PS3" wordmark evoking the design of the PlayStation 2 wordmark replacing the capitalized PlayStation 3 lettering. In September 2012 at the Tokyo Game Show , Sony announced that a new, slimmer PS3 redesign (CECH-4000) was due for release in late 2012 and that it would be available with either a 250 GB or 500 GB hard drive. Three versions of

15344-470: The same function and design as Sixaxis, but with vibration capability added. The controller is heavier than the standard Sixaxis controller and capable of vibration forces comparable to DualShock 2. It was released in Japan in November 2007 and rolled out to the rest of the world throughout 2008. During E3 2009 , Sony unveiled a motion controller, the PlayStation Move , partly in response to

15481-557: The same mechanics, We Love Katamari introduces new gameplay features, such as co-operative play, and new goals, such as collecting the most valuable objects, that would continue through its sequels. On July 29, 2012, the game was included in an exhibit at the New York Museum of Modern Art , entitled "Century of the Child: Growing by Design". Here, the game was used to demonstrate the change in toys and "playthings" over

15618-508: The same year, the game was included in the permanent collection of video games of the Museum of Modern Art. Curator Paola Antonelli selected Katamari Damacy among the first fourteen games to be displayed in the museum, which was chosen according to a variety of criteria, including "visual quality, elegance of the code and design of playing behavior". A high-definition remaster of the game made with Unity , titled Katamari Damacy Reroll ,

15755-514: The series. The music in Katamari Damacy was widely hailed as imaginative and original (winning both IGN 's and GameSpot 's "Soundtrack of the Year 2004" awards) and was considered one of the game's best features. The soundtrack was released in Japan as Katamari Fortissimo Damacy . Its eclectic composition featured elements of traditional electronic video game music, as well as heavy jazz and samba influences ( Shibuya-kei ). Most of

15892-408: The system software at 105 MB. It was introduced in system software version 2.60 and provides a range of tools for sorting through and displaying the system's pictures. The key feature of this application is that it can organize photos into groups according to various criteria. Notable categorizations are colors, ages, or facial expressions of the people in the photos. Slideshows can be viewed with

16029-408: The system starts up. PS3 includes the ability to store various master and secondary user profiles, manage and explore photos with or without a musical slide show , play music and copy audio CD tracks to an attached data storage device , play movies and video files from the hard disk drive, an optical disc (Blu-ray Disc or DVD-Video) or an optional USB mass storage or Flash card, compatibility for

16166-441: The system was shown again a year later at E3 2006 , these were reduced to one HDMI port, one Ethernet port and four USB ports, presumably to cut costs. Two hardware configurations were also announced for the console: a 20 GB model and a 60 GB model, priced at US$ 499 (€499) and US$ 599 (€599), respectively. The 60 GB model was to be the only configuration to feature an HDMI port, Wi-Fi internet, flash card readers and

16303-724: The third and fourth quarters of 2007. It also showed off a number of titles that were set for release in 2008 and 2009; most notably Killzone 2 , Infamous , Gran Turismo 5 Prologue , LittleBigPlanet and SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Confrontation . A number of third-party exclusives were also shown, including the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots , alongside other high-profile third-party titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV , Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare , Assassin's Creed , Devil May Cry 4 and Resident Evil 5 . Two other important titles for PlayStation 3, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII , were shown at TGS 2007 in order to appease

16440-747: The time, Namco had been following in the model that Konami had used in 1997: Konami established the Konami Computer Entertainment School to help educate new game developers which were eventually hired in Konami, and several of the experimental ideas founded by the School during this time became products within the Konami Games & Music Division (later, Bemani ) that were highly successful, including Beatmania , GuitarFreaks , and Dance Dance Revolution . Namco hoped

16577-503: The time. Artist, designer, and creator of the previous Katamari Damacy titles, Keita Takahashi , was not involved with Beautiful Katamari , which was directed by Me & My Katamari co-lead game designer Jun Moriwaki. Early in 2007, various reports suggested that Beautiful Katamari was in development and might be released in North America in Autumn. These reports were based on a United States trademark filing, retailer listings, and

16714-522: The tracks were composed by Yuu Miyake , and many feature vocals from popular J-pop singers, such as Yui Asaka from the Sukeban Deka 3 TV series, and anime voice actors , including Nobue Matsubara and Ado Mizumori. One track is sung and written by Charlie Kosei , composer of the Lupin III soundtrack. A single-level demonstration of the final version of Katamari Damacy was exhibited at

16851-410: The video and social networking site MUBI was enabled for European, New Zealand, and Australian users; the service integrates elements of social networking with rental or subscription video streaming, allowing users to watch and discuss films with other users. Also in November 2010 the video rental service VUDU , NHL GameCenter Live , and subscription service Hulu Plus launched on PlayStation 3 in

16988-469: The week of its release with 32,000 units sold, and sold over 155,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2004. However, Namco originally estimated that over 500,000 units would be sold in Japan. The game was not released in PAL territories such as Europe and Australia since publishers thought it was too "quirky" for these markets; Electronic Arts picked up both sequels, We Love Katamari and Me & My Katamari , for release in Europe. In North America

17125-726: The world by 2016, and the final units produced until May 29, 2017 in the Japanese market. The PlayStation 3 began development on March 9, 2001 when Ken Kutaragi , then the President of Sony Computer Entertain ment , announced that Sony , Toshiba , and IBM would collaborate on developing the Cell microprocessor. At the time, Shuhei Yoshida led a group of programmers within this hardware team to explore next-generation game creation. By early 2005, focus within Sony shifted towards developing PS3 launch titles. In September 2004, Sony stated that

17262-421: Was announced. The controller was based on the same basic design as the DualShock 2 controller for the PlayStation 2 but was wireless, lacked vibration capabilities, and had a built-in accelerometer that could detect motion in three directional and three rotational axes (six in total, hence the name Sixaxis). At its press conference at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show , Sony announced the DualShock 3 controller with

17399-541: Was built from the ground-up to support 3D graphics via the Emotion Engine . However, Sony had not provided any updated software development kits , believing that developers would be able to figure out the hardware. As a result, the console was difficult to develop for at its launch. In contrast, Nintendo had recently announced the GameCube and that it would provide more developer-friendly features in contrast to

17536-504: Was completed within about six months, in time for the year's Japan Media Arts Festival for exhibition. Takahashi also presented the game for an internal review, leading Namco to green light the game's full development. Full work on Katamari Damacy began in late 2001. Namco assigned Now Production , based in Osaka , to help bring the game to the PlayStation 2. Takahashi was initially concerned about having to work with an external studio in

17673-476: Was delayed until March. Since it was a somewhat last-minute delay, some companies had taken deposits for pre-orders, at which Sony informed customers that they were eligible for full refunds or could continue the pre-order. On January 24, 2007, Sony announced that PlayStation 3 would go on sale on March 23, 2007, in Europe, Australia, the Middle East , Africa and New Zealand . Its European launch price

17810-413: Was fortunate to find that some of the engineers from Namco's arcade game division were going to be laid off, and he was able to convince three of them to join his team to retain their jobs within Namco. One initial difficulty faced in developing the prototype was their choice of platform, the PlayStation 2 . At the time the project started, Sony had just announced the specifications for the console, which

17947-476: Was never officially released in Europe, though its subsequent sequels would receive European releases. In the Japanese language , Katamari ( 塊 ) means "clump" or "clod" and Damashii is the rendaku form of tamashii ( 魂 ) which means "soul" or "spirit". Therefore, the phrase approximates to "clump spirit". The two kanji that form the name look similar (sharing the same right-side element 鬼 ), in

18084-494: Was ranked 49th on The Guardian newspaper's The 50 Best Video Games of the 21st Century list. Although the game has rapidly achieved a cult following and has been praised by many reviewers, it also has its share of criticism. A common complaint is that the game is relatively short and repetitive—it can be completed in under ten hours, and the gameplay stays virtually the same all the way through. However, others, such as Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewer Mark McDonald (who gave

18221-823: Was released on the Nintendo Switch and Windows on December 7, 2018. Known as Katamari Damacy Encore in Japan, it is the first title in Bandai Namco Entertainment 's Encore series of remasters. The game includes support for the Switch's gyro controls in addition to its traditional control scheme. Reroll was nominated for the Freedom Tower Award for Best Remake at the 2020 New York Game Awards. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were released in Japan on November 19, and worldwide on November 20, 2020. A version for Amazon Luna

18358-492: Was the first to be able to output at 1080p (Full HD) resolution. The console launched together with the PlayStation Network online service, and was also the first to be controllable from a handheld console through its Remote Play connectivity. In September 2009, the Slim model of the PlayStation 3 was released; it no longer provided the hardware ability to run PS2 games, but it was lighter and thinner than

18495-566: Was working on a 'slim' model, Sony officially announced the PS3 CECH-2000 model on August 18, 2009, at the Sony Gamescom press conference. New features included a slimmer form factor, decreased power consumption, and a quieter cooling system. It was released in major territories by September 2009. At the same time, a new logo was introduced for the console to replace the previous " Spider-Man " wordmarks (named due to their use of

18632-797: Was €599 (€629 in Ireland, £ 425 in Britain), R 6499 minimum in South Africa, AU$ 999.95 in Australia, NZ$ 1199.95 in New Zealand. On March 7, 2007, the 60 GB PlayStation 3 launched in Singapore with a price of S$ 799. In the United Arab Emirates , the system retailed for 2499 dirhams on March 23, slightly less than the price in Europe. Sony also hosted a large launch party with singer Shakira performing at

18769-563: Was €629. Over 27,000 units were sold in Australia over the course of the first ten days of sales and nine of the top ten best-selling games, including systems and handheld, of the week were for the PS3; overall, software and hardware sales resulted in A$ 33 million netted for Sony. One analyst called it "a spike in retail spending not previously witnessed at the launch of any other system in Australia". In New Zealand, over 4,800 units were sold in

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