Bandai Namco and SCEI to establish a new joint company CELLIUS for Cell software

[Aeoniss]

Still, it's a really neat idea. Love the fanservice. Evangelion has always been great at that..

Hopefully the new movies will end happily, without all the characters dying. Especially Misato and Rei.

 

[Gradthrawn]

Looks like its out now. I can't understand a damn thing that's going on, but the presentation seems impressive. From what little I can gather, you're playing a reporter. You start off creating your ID, name, name again (?), birthday, and gender. It all goes onto this ID card. I'm going to guess that like other PSN content of a similar vein on the Japanese store, that the chance of localization is zero.

 

[patsu]

Wait... so you can download it from the Japan PS store now ? How many days trial period do you get ?

 

[Gradthrawn]

Wait... so you can download it from the Japan PS store now ?

Yep, you can download it now.

How many days trial period do you get ?

Not sure. Can't tell if its a trial, a demo, or just simply a base package where additional content is paid. If I remember correctly, the other related item was paid for add-on content (based on the yellow plus typically on add-ons on the JP PSN store).

 

[patsu]

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/01/21/gundam_viewchives/

At the Tokyo International Anime Fair last March, Bandai Channel quietly debuted a PlayStation 3 Gundam video-on-demand service dubbed "Gundam Viewchives." All went quiet after that, but the service suddenly returned into the spotlight today as the company gave it a formal announcement.

Gundam Viewchives (presumably meant to be a combination of "View" and "Archives") is a video distribution service focused exclusively on the Gundam franchise. The service lets users view footage from all 43 episodes of the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam anime.

To access the service, users must install the Gundam Viewchives software to their PS3. The service includes two sections: GV Wing and Theater Wing.

The studio's technical expertise appears to be coming into play here. The Viewchives uses a Cellius-developed video distribution service called WB-DRIVE. This service shares data between users in order to stream HD video of max 30Mbps data rate. The service also uses encryption protocols that make use of the Cell processor's computational power.

Bandai Channel and Cellius hope to test out this new technology during the closed beta.

 

[Nesh]

what about the other projects of cellius?

 

[obonicus]

I'm sure we'll have an application soon in which Vegita reads the sports news.

 

[egoless]

Delete

 

[patsu]

The Viewchive [choke] is not a news reader.

The Misato Katsuragi News Project is Bandai Namco's news caster service.

After reading the article, the Gundam Viewchive seems more like a video encyclopedia of the Gundam world. They basically index each scene so that fans can revisit and decypher the complicated Gundam universe/history/relationships. The UI is supposed to simplify navigation and lookup.

It would be like someone slicing the Halo timeline, universe, characters, scenes and make a random access video encyclopedia out of it.


I wonder if they can turn this into an educational title platform.

EDIT: I am guessing the WBDRIVE technology distributes the video clips as well as hosts the 250 people theater event. It sounds like a P2P media network ("shares data between users in order to stream HD video of max 30Mbps data rate").

Uplay and waypoint sounds more like a game-specific community site or a Playstation Home space.

 

[Nesh]

I'm sure we'll have an application soon in which Vegita reads the sports news.

Yeah I forgot about the other application in the japanese PSN.

But I thought it would have been something bigger. What about the other projects they released images ago?

All these years and we saw almost nothing. Just these new announcement and the other news application

 

[patsu]

Since Gundam is ahem... a deep subject, I think the Viewchive may be a useful platform for distant learning and self learning.

The same author has an impression article here: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2009/03/18/gundam_vod_for_ps3/

They can add exercises and quizzes (mini-games) on-the-fly, a student/participant management system, and an authoring kit; and they may be good to go.

If they want, they can use Arc to author the title, control the knowledge navigation and play the mini-exercises/quizzes too. Do it !
[size=-2]Start with something simple. Pick the subjects wisely.[/size]

 

[patsu]

It's part of a larger download service:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/01/23/bandai_channel_vod_service/

As is often the case, the daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper was first to report on this week's new developments for the service. A portion of the paper's report can be seen at the Nikkei Net IT Plus site.

The paper's report is about more than just the Gundam Viewchives service, though. While the service will start with Gundam, the paper reports that Bandai Channel plans on expanding to properties beyond Gundam in the future.

Bandai Channel's announcement this week did not offer details on fees for using the service. However, Nikkei does suggest that this will be a membership-based service. Bandai Channel aims to reach 300,000 members within two years.

The paper also touches upon some of the technology that powers the service. Developed by Cellius, a studio formed by Namco Bandai and Sony in 2007 to develop software that utilizes the Cell processor, the service's WB-DRIVE technology allows for low cost video distribution. The service will also let users post their opinions on videos to the internet.

 

[corduroygt]

I think they should work on the next Ace Combat instead of working on this, Still no Ace Combat on PS3...

 

[obonicus]

Different teams, I don't think there's any overlap between Project Aces and whoever's in Cellius.

 

[patsu]

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/03/19/misato_katsuragi_news_cast/

First released on June 6, 2009, "Misato Katsuragi's Reporting Project" is a paid PlayStation 3 service that has an animated version of the Evangelion's Misato Katsuragi character read news to viewers using a synthesized voice. Users are also able to dress Misato in costumes.

As detailed here, users must purchase an ¥800 "news license" to access the service for thirty days. Those licenses will stop being sold on May 6 at noon. The service will stop one month later on June 5, just before midnight. All news feeds will end, so news broadcasts will no longer be viewable.

In an announcement at the product's official site, Namco Bandai said that the service is coming to an end as originally planned.

Why tie it to the news license. People don't pay for news. Would like to see her report free Internet news (or my own forum posts ).

 

[Nesh]

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/03/19/misato_katsuragi_news_cast/



Why tie it to the news license. People don't pay for news. Would like to see her report free Internet news (or my own forum posts ).

Were they planning to support it for a limited time? What was the purpose then?
Or is this because it is a failed service and they decided to stop the support now?

I dont get it

And what happened to the other CELLIUS projects?

 

[patsu]

I don't know. May be they gave it a timeline for testing the water. The other Cellius streaming project went into beta earlier this year. By the look of things, it may be another trial service.

 

[Mobius1aic]

Maybe:

1. Cell BE game Development Software for the PS3 and possibly a PS4 with Cell based/derived architecture? (makes sense) I guess if it was true that the company was around specifically for Cell development for the PS4 era, then we could basically confirm Cell architecture for the PS4, but we can't confirm that. Didn't IBM decide to end pursuit of Cell development (at least this iteration)? I'm sure Sony could be allowed to further develop it independently.
2. Sony and Namco want to create Cell based home computers? (doesn't make much sense, but it would be cool)
3. Movie/media production? (makes sense) Since Bandai and Sunrise (best known for anime production) are part of the same conglomerate, Cell based computing arrays could make alot of sense for Bandai in production, especially with Sony's expertise in the field of TV and movies.