PSN Store Update Today

• Piyotama game ($2.99)
• Heavenly Sword Anime episode 1 (free)
• Heavenly Sword making of video 1 (free)
• Turok E3 trailer (free)
• 10,000 BC movie trailer (free)
• Fred Claus movie trailer (free)
• Superbad movie trailer (free)
• Perfect Stranger movie trailer (free)
• Gran Turismo - PS Premiere Event Trailer (free)
• Heavenly Sword - Legend of the Sword video(free)
• Ghost Rider - Blu-ray movie trailer(free)
• The Covenant - Blu-ray movie trailer (free)

NPD: PS3 owners unaware of multimedia features

Research obtained from NPD reveals that many consumers who own a PlayStation 3 are unaware of the systems various multimedia features beyond it's standard functionality as a disk-based videogames console.

The study, titled Next Gen Functionality & Usage, details that, while PS3 owners are found to download as much online content as those who own an Xbox 360, the majority of users were actually unaware of this function. Furthermore, most were more familiar with the Xbox 360’s online capabilities than that of PS3’s, and as a result were more likely to play games online on Microsoft’s next-gen console than Sony's.

The study also shows that around 71 per cent of those that own a PS3 as well as would-be owners rate the systems backwards compatibility option as its most important aspect; however, only 37 per cent were aware of it as a standard feature. Elsewhere, only 40 per cent of those who own a PS3 were aware of it’s capabilities as a Blu-ray player, though the number of those aware of the machines high definition output was considerably higher at 50 per cent, compared to only 30 per cent with Xbox 360.

Anita Frazer, an analyst at NPD commented: "I think what this really means is that gaming and all that is has to offer consumers has to be the first and primary focus of the machines and the software developed for them, whether it's from the first or third party manufacturers. While the extra features might be nice, they're not going to be a primary driver of a sale of a system.”

"That said, to the extent that the extra features might provide additional revenue streams for the parties involved, yes, there is more promotion needed to get consumers aware of the features and using them. I get asked a lot by people outside the industry if PS3 sales will benefit because it's a reasonably priced Blu-ray DVD player, and while I never believed a non-gamer would go out and pick up a PS3 in order to play movies, our research now backs this [belief] up. The systems are, by a big margin, game-playing devices."

Bioshock For PS3 (Spring 2008?)

The Tengu Restaurant was the site of lively conversation tonight, and like any lively conversation, there are some bits that are worth repeating

PSU learned while talking to developers at the dinner that Bioshock, the game that won the 2007 Game Critics Award for Best Action game, will be coming to the PS3 sometime in the near future.

BioShock is a title from 2K that fuses a scary atmosphere illustrated with horrific scenes, a deep storyline with an open-ended freedom to interact with anything and anyone, and a gameplay facet which incorporates actual thinking instead of raw gun power and a Hell Mary. Originally announced for all next generation consoles, BioShock appeared to be shaping up into an amazing multiplatform adventure. Soon after on September 26th, 2006, Microsoft announced that BioShock would be “released exclusively to the X-Box 360 and PC platforms this spring” at their X06 event. Soon after, Take Two Interactive released a press statement detailing BioShock's exclusivity: “2K is excited to release BioShock exclusively on Xbox 360 and under the Games for Windows brand on the PC.”

There was positive discussion almost to the point of confirmation that this title would hit for the PlayStation 3 next spring. While there have been various sources since X06 that claimed a PS3 version was in development, it would seem not a question of whether it's true at this point, but when it will happen. Despite our confidence in the integrity of our information however, we must emphasize that this is still a rumor, and Take Two has not officially confirmed this with us yet.

It's dollartastic! What's selling well this week?

Ps2 Kills

Ninja Gaiden DLC Fighting its way to PSN

UK, August 9, 2007 - Eidos is prepping the first of three downloadable content packs for Ninja Gaiden Sigma ready for September 13 in Europe. This initial pack adds a new Survival mode to the list of game options.

Unsurprisingly, Survival mode is a battle-orientated portion of the game that sees you fighting against an endless stream of bad guys. Developer Tecmo and publisher Eidos are planning to release three themed battles within Surival mode over the coming months and each has its own World Ranking leaderboard so you can show off to your mates.

September 13 sees the release of the first themed fight called Weapon Master. Here you're tasked with scrapping through five sections with a limited array of weapons. The aim is to master the unique features of each one and take out as many enemies as possible.

Tecmo is then following up this DLC with a second pack called Speed Master, where your goal is to beat baddies accurately and quickly. Finally, the third download is Rachel Master. This sees you playing as new female fighter Rachel in a bid to become the "World's No. 1 Fiend Hunter".

Eidos has yet to specify when Speed Master and Rachel Master will be made available.

Sony To Buy Rockstar?

Sometimes the most unexpected news will hit you in the oddest places. That was the case tonight as we sat merrily eating dinner with developers and journalists from around the industry at the Tengu Restaurant in Westwood, California.

We were coming from a joint Sony, Activision event there in Southern California, when we were told something we definitely weren't ready for.

The discussion at Tengu was fairly simple in its scope: various sources in the press and development team state that Sony is looking to take Rockstar “under their wings”. While we learned that any agreement Sony and Take Two entered into would not affect the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV, such an agreement would presumably affect any future releases from Rockstar, including the new franchise Sony has been discussing and L.A. Noire, which looks likely to be a PS3 exclusive at this point as well.

Rockstar, which is currently a part of Take Two Interactive, has produced several blockbuster franchises, including the Grand Theft Auto series of games, Manhunt and Bully. The studio has become famous for both the games it produces and the controversy surrounding their production. Rockstar has earned itself a reputation however as a developer which is focused on making excellent games, something that many of the studios that make up Sony World Wide Studios are known for.

As with any news this interesting, we must affirm that we trust our sources, but that our sources do not constitute an official confirmation. PSU will report back to all of you when we have more.

http://www.psu.com/Rumor-Control--Sony-To-Buy-Rockstar-News--a928-p0.php

Time Warner noted that consumers picked up "300" on Blu-ray by almost a 2:1 margin

Time Warner reported earlier today that their Helenican hit, "300" has become the fastest selling high definition movie of all time, moving more than a quarter million copies in less than a week.
Time Warner noted that consumers picked up "300" on Blu-ray by almost a 2:1 margin over HD-DVD, signifying a trend which USAToday reports has been the story since the beginning of the year. As the sales numbers consistently return postively for Blu-ray, Sony's format continues to outpace HD-DVD.
Here at PSU we find ourselves asking if Microsoft might not be forced to move to the downloadable distribution model next generation, which Bill Gates proposed several years ago. One thing is certain: BluRay is Sony's innovation and unless HD-DVD is able to turn something around fast, the format is destined to be mothballed.
Source: USAToday

Nice PS3 commercial from Acim Vasic

On playstation.facebook.com sum dude made a great PS3 commercial, Well enough talk from me lets play it...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rdG55x2VQE

Like he said Playstation forever

Aug. 2007


HD DVD BLURAY


38.20% 61.80%

Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection online

So it's not the highest quality,but this seems to be really good,which makes me think man I can't wait to play against the guys here & on the other forums,when I'll get my Playstation 3,but remember Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection Online mode & the others will come the 16th of August 2007,and Summer 2007 to the other people,that's probably September 2007,but you can always make a US account,so you can get it 7 days/a week from now guys


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkbCmZY_r7Q

Copy and paste link..Sorry

Piyotama to Hit PSN Tomorrow

August 8, 2007 - With its weekly update tomorrow, Sony Computer Entertainment will pop the chicken-filled Piyotama onto the PlayStation Network. The game is an egg-matching puzzle title that has you match colored eggs to free unhatched piyos (chickens). The core idea is simple, but with the ability to string together eggs for giant combos while having to change their order, there's a fair bit of strategy to be found

June 8, 2007		June 8, 2007

Behind The Curtain: The Warhawk Servers

As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to give you guys a bit of a “peek-behind-the-curtain,” to show you our sweet Warhawk server setup.

Those of you familiar with Warhawk already know that the game features a very unique server method that we call “Integrated Game Server” or IGS for short — the industry needs more acronyms don’t you think

The Warhawk IGS method means that instead of us forcing players to be connected to the SONY “mothership” for any and all games, we instead let players host their own servers on their own PS3s. This is fairly unique and it enables a couple of really nice benefits.

First, since Warhawk is a global online game, our IGS method scatters game servers quite literally into player’s homes all over the planet — the US, China, Europe, Australia, and Japan! No matter where you live, what time you want to play, or what language you speak, you’ll always be able to get your game on.

Secondly, this helps with latency. If you haven’t heard, Warhawk is a fast game, a very fast game, so we wanted to ensure you had the best chance of finding servers with good ping times. We also wanted to make sure people could host *and* play on their own servers. After all, why should you have to connect to a server a gazillion hops away when you know that there are Warhawk servers running in your state or city? Possibly on your same ISP? Maybe even friends in your neighborhood or buddies in your dorm?

Hence our desire to develop an IGS system for Warhawk.

All that said, we still want to make sure that there are always an abundance of wicked-fast Ranked Dedicated servers available for players. The images that accompany this post were taken by our very talented IT team here at SCEA. And yes, what you’re looking at is an enormous server cluster for Warhawk…of rack-mounted PS3s!

During the public beta, many of you wanted *way more* Ranked-Dedicated servers to play on so you could level-up and earn awards, rank upgrades, etc….

Well…ask and ye shall receive!

In addition to players being able to host their own servers, 32-player “dedicated” servers for your clan practices or 24-player “player” servers, SONY has made a great commitment to all of our Warhawk players by staging Warhawk Server clusters similar to this one all over the world.

The system that our IT team engineered for Warhawk is truly killer and we couldn’t be happier with the setup — and hopefully players will be stoked too once the game launches. Just for the record…I am fairly confident that our IT team is not comprised of Autobots.

For those of you who participated in the beta, you may remember toward the end that some players started to “spoof” the official SONY server names — shame on you. I will find you all online and shank you repeatedly or snipe you in the crotch!

So…in the beta forums you all asked for a way to identify official SONY servers from player servers…Again, your wish is granted.

When Warhawk launches, all official servers are displayed with an eye-pleasing blue color in the server list. This gives players a really quick way of picking which server they want to connect to.

Alright, this post is getting pretty damn long so I gotta wrap it up.

The last thing I want to mention, and those of you who participated in the beta already know this, is that we don’t force game match-making on to our players with Warhawk. When you log-in to Warhawk, you get a server list…a *global* server list (with customizable filters of course), just like many of us have come to love from years of PC gaming. *You*, the player, get to choose the server you want to play on. If you don’t see a server out there that has exactly what you want…then launch your own.

And yes, you can play on your own server too…even in 4-way split screen.

Well…hope this gives you a bit more info on Warhawk’s server system and setup. If you have any questions please post them in the comments and I’ll try to answer as many as I can.

Rock on!

BluRay

http://www.bluraysavings.com/index_ca.html

PS3 2007 Upcoming Releases

*NOTE: All release dates are subject to change and are based on North America.

Updated: August 8th 2007

August 2007:

August 14, 2007 - Madden NFL 08 ~ Electronic Arts
August 21, 2007 - Ghost Recon: Advanced WarFighter 2 ~ Ubisoft
August 28, 2007 - Dynasty Warriors Gundam ~ KOEI
August 28, 2007 - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 ~ Electronic Arts
August 28, 2007 - Warhawk ~ Sony Computer Entertainment

September 2007:

September 01, 2007 - World Snooker Championship 2007 ~ Sega
September 03, 2007 - NHL 2K8 ~ 2k Games
September 04, 2007 - Lair ~ Sony Computer Entertainment
September 04, 2007 - Medal of Honor: Airborne ~ Electronic Arts
September 11, 2007 - DiRT ~ Warner Home Video Games
September 11, 2007 - NHL 08 ~ Electronic Arts
September 12, 2007 - Heavenly Sword ~ Sony Computer Entertainment
September 13, 2007 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix ~ Capcom
September 17, 2007 - John Woo Presents Stranglehold ~ Midway Games
September 17, 2007 - Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions ~ Ubisoft
September 18, 2007 - Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights ~ THQ
September 24, 2007 - Skate ~ Electronic Arts
September 25, 2007 - World Series of Poker 2008 ~ Activision

October 2007:

October 01, 2007 - Clive Barker's Jericho ~ Codemasters
October 01, 2007 - Eye of Judgment, The ~Sony Computer Entertainment
October 01, 2007 - Hot Shots Golf 5 ~ Sony Computer Entertainment
October 01, 2007 - Monster Madness ~ SouthPeak Interactive
October 02, 2007 - NBA '08 ~ Sony Computer Entertainment
October 02, 2007 - NBA 2K8 ~ 2K Sports
October 02, 2007 - NBA Live 08 ~ Electronic Arts
October 02, 2007 - Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction ~ Sony Computer Entertainment
October 04, 2007 - Elefunk ~ Sony Computer Entertainment
October 04, 2007 - PlayStation Home ~ Sony Computer Entertainment
October 09, 2007 - Folklore ~ Sony Computer Entertainment
October 09, 2007 - SEGA Rally Revo ~ SEGA
October 09, 2007 - Tony Hawk's Proving Ground ~ Activision
October 11, 2007 - Rocketmen: Axis of Evil ~ Capcom
October 18, 2007 - Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix ~ Capcom
October 22, 2007 - FIFA Soccer 08 ~ Electronic Arts
October 23, 2007 - Cars Mater-National ~ THQ
October 23, 2007 - Ratatouille ~ THQ
October 23, 2007 - Conan ~ THQ
October 29, 2007 - Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock ~ RedOctane
October 30, 2007 - Need for Speed ProStreet ~ Electronic Arts

November 2007:

November 05, 2007 - BlackSite: Area 51 ~ Midway
November 05, 2007 - Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ~ Activision

November 06, 2007 - LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga ~ LucasArts
November 06, 2007 - Mercenaries 2: World in Flames ~ Electronic Arts
November 06, 2007 - Turning Point: Fall of Liberty ~ Codemasters
November 06, 2007 - Unreal Tournament 3 ~ Midway Games
November 08, 2007 - Talisman ~ Capcom
November 13, 2007 - Army of Two ~ Electronic Arts
November 13, 2007 - Assassin's Creed ~ Ubisoft
November 13, 2007 - Beowulf (Action) ~ Ubisoft
November 13, 2007 - Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway ~ Ubisoft
November 13, 2007 - Kane & Lynch: Dead Men ~ Eidos Interactive
November 13, 2007 - Orange Box, The ~ Electronic Arts
November 13, 2007 - Simpsons Game, The ~ Electronic
November 13, 2007 - Soldier of Fortune: Pay Back ~ Activision
November 13, 2007 - SingStar ~ Sony Computer Entertainment
November 13, 2007 - WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008 ~ THQ
November 20, 2007 - Haze ~ Ubisoft
November 20, 2007 - History Channel: Battle For the Pacific ~ Activision
November 20, 2007 - Rock Band ~ MTV Games
November 20, 2007 - Time Crisis 4 ~ Namco
November 20, 2007 - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune ~ Sony Computer Entertainment

December 2007:

December 04, 2007 - Golden Compass, The ~ SEGA
December 04, 2007 - TimeShift ~ Sierra
December 17, 2007 - MX Vs. ATV Untamed ~ THQ

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground demo coming soon

Activision has announced their upcoming release, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, will have a PlayStation Network (PSN) demo before Thanksgiving. In other words, once November roles around keep a close eye on the PlayStation Store.

While numerous people feel that Tony Hawk is repetitive, this next-gen title will surely be a crowd pleaser. With hit after hit, the Tony hawk franchise has provided gamers with countless hours of fun and a multitude of challenges. It may not be 100% innovative, but with the ability to define your career, style, and character through game play, it should still be prominent in many gamer's Christmas presents.

Proving Ground features a customizable online lounge, skate videos and greater park mechanics. Going from single player to online has never been so easy.

Stay tuned to PSU for future content updates, possible network advantages, and of course the review on Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.

PlayStation 3 Boosts Blu-ray Sales

According to industry analyst GfK, 95 per cent of the market for high-definition DVD equipment in Australia is accounted for by the PlayStation 3.

Launched in March, Sony's next generation console provided a big boost to Blu-ray software sales, GfK analyst Sharane Lewis said.

The PlayStation 3 dominated the competition as 55,000 units in Australia were sold by the end of June, compared with just over 1000 units of dedicated Blu-ray players, according to GfK figures.

In comparison, total sales of HD DVD capable players, including the Xbox 360's $249 HD-DVD add-on launched in March, were under a weak 2000 units figure.

Blu-ray software was and still is averaging sales of 1500 units weekly, compared with 250 units weekly for HD DVD, Ms Lewis said.

Sony has been agressively leveraging their Playstation 3 to sell through its Blu-ray hi-definition video format, a sell that has earned Sony an edge against its competition, HD-DVD. Since launching the PS3 Sony has seen considerable gains, leaving many to wonder if the a pre-packaged HD-DVD XBox 360 would have been prudent.

Jaffe confirms 3 PS3 exclusives

David Jaffe announced during a recent interview that his newly established independent studio, Eat Sleep Play, is working on three original games for the PlayStation 3 console. Coupled with their current work on Twisted Metal, their little studio should be at full tilt for the next couple months.

Jaffe said, “I can’t disclose themes… but the new game is medium to hardcore in terms of game and play will focus heavily on multiplayer.” With the creation of God of War under his belt, nothing but excellence is expected from here on out. He then went one to say, “I am more excited about this game than anything I have ever worked on. I cannot wait to unveil it.” Another huge positive for fans and especially promising with the Leipzig Games Convention and the Tokyo Game Showon the horizon.

The first untitled game should be released in 2008 with the others to follow. While we do not know whether or not the games will be Blu-ray disc or for download, stay tuned to PSU for future announcements about the Eat Sleep Play studio and David Jaffe.