South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics is aiming to be the first TV-maker to offer a full HD 1080p LED-backlit 3D television in Europe. It will begin shipments of its 3D-capable units to Europe next month along with expansions of its 8 and 7-series LEDs and 6-series LCDs.
For plasma proponents, Samsung is aiming to ship 3D plasma televisions to Europe in “late Spring”. The company will also release its new BD-C6900, a 3D Blu-ray player, and will offer 9-series LEDs and the HT-C6930W home theater rig in Spring.
3D models come with “wireless-ready” capabilities and sport a built-in Ethernet connection to access the company’s Internet@TV online applications store. Among the media downloads being offered from the service is software from the History Channel, Cartoon Network, Google’s Picasa and BBC’s iPlayer.
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According to an interview with IGN, Sony senior VP of marketing Peter Dille says the company is on the fast track to passing the Xbox 360 in sales soon, also saying that the PS3 will still be around in 10 years, and the 360 will not.
“We can be passionate fans, but I don’t think they’ll be around in 10 years so I’m very confident we’ll pass them within that time frame,” says Dille. “I mean, we’ve got 31 million [units sold] worldwide right now - they’ve got 39 million [units sold]. I don’t even need to go out 10 years. I’m not going to make any predictions for your interview today other than we’ll pass them, but you look at where we are today and where they are today, and they had an opportunity to sprint as far ahead of us as possible when they had the head start. Well, we’re breathing down their necks and they can see us in the rearview mirror and it’s not going to take too long to pass them.”
Additionally, Dille confirmed that the company would begin adding subscription models to PSN, although gaming would remain completely free.
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MCV is reporting today that the BBC is actively trying to get back into gaming, looking to turn intellectual properties into DS, Wii and iPhone games. The company is also looking to turn the properties into games that can be played online via social networking sites such as Facebook.
Of the popular properties the BBC is looking to convert, Doctor Who, Top Gear, and In The Night Garden are the most popular.
“We are open to conversations with anybody in games about all kinds of business models to see how we can extract more value,” said Neil Ross Russell, MD of licensing. “Outside of Disney we have the most well-known line-up of children’s characters around the world.”
“We’ve been reactive to the market in the last few years,” adds Dave Anderson, head of multimedia development at BBC Worldwide, noting that the company closed its gaming division in 2005. “There were a few opportunistic licensing deals, but we were largely aggregating and holding on to our properties to wait and see how the market developed.”
