The Sony Pictures blockbuster District 9 was given a release date of December 29th this week but more interestingly was the revelation that the Blu-ray version will include a demo of the upcoming God of War III video game on the same disc.
The God of War series is a Sony-exclusive and has been a blockbuster franchise so far, with the first two games selling almost 9 million units combined.
Sony says that gamers can unlock an “exclusive making-of featurette of the game” after they complete the demo included with the movie.
“The combination of District 9 and the game demo of God of War III is an unprecedented home entertainment offering,”notes Lexine Wong, senior executive VP at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “We are thrilled to give consumers not only an incredible high-definition presentation of District 9 and the wealth of bonus material about the movie, but also a taste of what is destined to be the biggest videogame of 2010. This pairing of the movie and game demo is just another example of what is possible with the Blu-ray format.”
Peter Dille, senior VP of marketing and PlayStation Network at Sony, also added, via VB: “Blu-ray functionality has long been a differentiator that separates the PS3 from other home entertainment systems. Through this collaboration with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, we’re able to create a unique experience only available on the PS3 system that blends two of the most popular entertainment options available, watching District 9 and playing God of War III off the same disc.”
Result for: revelation
Following a number of complaints at the revelation that Sony imposed a block on Intel’s Virtualization Technology (VT) in some VAIO models - which is present in the Core 2 Duo chip that ships with affected VAIO notebooks - Sony has promised The Register that it will make an effort to clarify the policy more clearly on its websites.
Customers were unhappy to learn about the limitation in the VAIO BIOS after buying a model which Sony recommends for the upcoming Windows 7, because it blocks Windows 7’s XP-mode. It is a feature that has received considerable media attention and put some minds at ease about going with Windows 7, so it isn’t inconceivable that customers who saw Sony advertise VAIO notebooks for Windows 7 assumed they could use this feature, even if they didn’t know the VT technology is included in the CPU.
If they did know, then they most likely would have been unaware that Sony has disabled it since its advertisements fail to declare the fact. “I’ll take the action to be clearer on our site that VT will not be enabled,” Senior manager for product marketing Xavier Lauwaert promised The Register.
He said the Vaio Z series would be “top of the list” for getting VT support in the US but said he could not comment on getting the BIOS of Sony VAIO’s in Europe working with VT.
Result for: revelation
Netflix has revealed that it will hold a second challenge to improve the movie recommendation systems offered by the service to its customer. The revelation came from chief product officer, Neil Hunt, even before the company has announced the winner of the $1 million prize for the first challenge.
The contest was launched in 2006 by the DVD rental giant, aimed at improving predictions of titles customers might be interested in by 10 percent. Contestants from 186 countries, amounting to 51,000 people, decided to give it a shot. Right now, two teams called BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos and The Ensemble top the leader board with The Ensemble just edging Bellkor’s with 10.10 percent compared to 10.09 percent.
The winner will be announced in late September when Netflix will announce the details of the second competition. “While the first contest has been remarkable, we think Netflix Prize 2 will be more challenging, more fun, and even more useful to the field,” Hunt wrote.
