Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Sony didn’t want to make a big deal about this (so humble, that Sony) but the PlayStation 3’s recent 2.50 firmware update has a few extra additions aimed straight at home theater buffs. First up is a place to enter your DivX VOD Registration code — necessary if you want to get any of that Sony Pictures or Warner Bros. DivX-encoded video that’s on the way — along with new Sequential Playback and 50Hz video output settings, plus support for chroma upsampling & Mosquito Noise Reduction video enhancement on homemade Blu-ray discs and DVDs. On a more minor note, the BD/DVD settings section has been renamed just Video Settings, while the Cinema Conversion and Upscale options are getting all their mail delivered to BD/DVD Cinema Conversion and BD/DVD Upscaler, respectively. Peep the PlayStation site for the rest of the exciting details (there’s a German keyboard layout change that is not to be missed), and then go back to watching Hulu in a tiny box with a poor framerate in your newly Flash-enabled browser.

[Via PS3 Blog]

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Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

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Filed under: Gaming

Sony’s firmware elves haven’t gotten a break since the last round of console updates — PS3 2.50 and PSP 5.00 have just been announced on the PlayStation Blog. Nothing terrifically major for the PS3 apart from support for the SOCOM Bluetooth Headset’s High Quality mode, as well as some trophy tweaks and power management options, but the PSP gets a WiFi version of the PlayStation Store, with downloadable games, trailers, and demos. No word on when these will actually become available, but we’d guess it’ll be relatively soon.

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Filed under: Gaming

We’ve been intrigued by Sony’s PlayStation Home concept for, like, ever now, but considering just how long the thing has been delayed, we’re trying to avoid any contact with pre-launch fodder in order to keep our hopes low. That being the case, we realize not all of you care to safeguard your hearts in the way we have ours, so we felt it prudent — nay, necessary — to pass along PS3 Fanboy’s in-depth walkthrough of the service. SCEA’s Jack Buser recently took the time to sit down and open up for a marvelous preview of the Plaza, Game Space and lots of other nooks and crannies we’re sure you’re interested in venturing into. To the read link, we send you. Try not to get lost, okay?

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/Life_with_PlayStation_begins_today_2′; After making a false start earlier today, Sony Computer Entertainment just announced the official, global launch of its free, Life with PlayStation PS3 service. Initially, Live Channel will deliver worldwide news and information such as weather and live camera images from 60 cities around the globe — more interactive content will be delivered in time. Check the video demonstration after the break for setup instructions and quickie overview.

[Via Playstation.Blog]

Continue reading Life with PlayStation begins today

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/Life_with_PlayStation_begins_today_2′; After making a false start earlier today, Sony Computer Entertainment just announced the official, global launch of its free, Life with PlayStation PS3 service. Initially, Live Channel will deliver worldwide news and information such as weather and live camera images from 60 cities around the globe — more interactive content will be delivered in time. Check the video demonstration after the break for setup instructions and quickie overview.

[Via Playstation.Blog]

Continue reading Life with PlayStation begins today

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Filed under: Gaming

You know how it goes with Sony and PS3-related peripherals. A big introduction, followed by a slight delay, followed by a longer delay, followed by a little something to take the sting off. Here we have word from Noam Rimon, senior development manager at SCEA R&D, that the news-blasting (and uncomfortably named) Life with PlayStation will once again be delayed. According to Noam, Sony is “still pushing some paperwork” on the service, though he gave no expected time frame for the actual launch. Nevertheless, he softened the blow by announcing once and for all that it will indeed be free (and accessible directly from the XMB) whenever it finally goes live. Gotta take the good with the bad, we guess.

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Filed under: Gaming

It looks like a recent PlayStation 3 theft took a few more twists and turns than your garden variety console heist, with not one but two individuals finding themselves finding themselves short a PS3 before all is said and done, and one of ‘em eventually winding up with an unwanted Xbox 360. Our story picks up when one Dustin Waller gets a used PS3 as a gift and goes about using it, unknowingly, under the previous owners PlayStation Network ID. As luck would have it, that “used” PS3 was actually stolen, and after a month of good times, the police showed up at his door and took the console away. Apparently, they used Waller’s IP address to track down his location, which we assume means Sony was also involved, although that tidbit’s not exactly clear. But that’s not all, when Waller went back to the 3-D Games store that the PS3 was purchased at to get a refund, they refused him, and would only give him an Xbox 360 in return, which Waller complains “isn’t nearly as expensive or sophisticated as the PlayStation.”

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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Filed under: Gaming

Although Sony announced that the updated 80GB PS3 “Core” configuration would come to the States in September, it looks like other parts of the world will be getting it a little earlier — Sony Computer Entertainment Europe chief David Reeves told reporters last night that the new SKU would hit Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand on August 27th. Worldwide pricing wasn’t announced, but Sony confirmed that the new model would cost £299 in Britain and €399 in Europe. Sadly, it doesn’t look like the Playstation Store’s new video service will be making the trip anytime soon, but Reeves said that Sony is “working on it.” That’s great — we’re still more interested in a 60GB launch console, though.

[Thanks, Matt]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Remember that PlayStation-branded SOCOM Bluetooth headset we told you about a while ago? Not surprisingly, it’s for real, and we spotted it in Sony’s booth alongside SOCOM Confrontation here at E3. It looks to be a relatively nice unit, a bit bigger than your standard Bluetooth headset intended for phones, and the USB charger it comes with is clearly intended to hang out with your PS3. Sony points out that the headset sports a giant mute button for your in-game arguments with significant others, and battery time is promised to be “exceptional.” They wouldn’t tell us exactly how exceptional, but we’ll believe them for now. Finally, they did confirm that you’ll be able to pair this with your cellphone in case you want to show off your SOCOM love while away from your living room.

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Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment

The long delay until Sony launched its video download service (actually more like a few hours), is over. HD and SD rentals, and SD purchases from an assortment of movie studios is now available in the Playstation Store by selecting the video button at the top left. Need to know what’s available in your region but aren’t near your PS3? Check out the website for a list of what awaits.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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Filed under: Gaming

Sony just announced at E3 that it’s cutting the price of the 80GB PS3 to $400 in September, and that the new model will have the “current functionality” of the 40GB PS3. So it’s really more like the 40GB PS3 is getting a capacity bump, since we’re taking that to mean backwards compatibility is going out the window. That also means that the 80GB PS3 now costs the same as a 60GB 360 and an Xbox Live membership, which should make the decision a little harder for some people. We’re also wondering if that’s the end of the line for PS3 backwards compatibility entirely — we have a feeling launch consoles are about to get a little more precious.

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Sony just announced at E3 that Playstation Network users now have the ability to rent and purchase moves and TV shows. Like, immediately — the service is getting flipped on tonight. It’s not just Sony content, either: Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, and something called Funimation are signed up from the get-go. Video will be available in both SD and HD, and TV pricing starts at $1.99. Movie purchases will run $9.99 - $14.99, while rentals will be $2.99 - $5.99. What’s more, the content is “portable,” meaning that videos downloaded on your PS3 can be watched on multiple PSPs. It doesn’t look like movies can be purchased in HD, but downloads are progressive so content starts playing a minute after you hit begin the download.

PSN users will also get a single persistent sign-on across every device that can access the network: PS3, PSP, PC. It’s not clear whether those aliases will carry over into games themselves or if friends lists will start working across devices as well, however. The integration is scheduled to happen for this fall, though, so you might want to go and grab your handle of choice relatively soon.

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Logitech’s put out a couple PS3 driving wheels, but the new Driving Force Wireless is the company’s first wireless driving controller for Sony’s console. The 2.4GHz wheel features a one-piece design with an expandable lap rest so you don’t need to clip it onto a table or desk, and there’s the usual wheel-mounted d-pad and buttons. Should be out in August for a cool Benny.

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Filed under: Gaming

Sony’s official blog says PSP firmware 4.05, out now, contains “other features” in addition to a couple new music visualizers, but it’s not clear what they are, apart from a slightly tweaked XMB animation if you’ve got a wallpaper set up. Go forth and download — let us know if there’s anything earth-shattering in there, won’t you?

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Gaming

Kaz Hirai took to a Tokyo stage today to give us a peek at the Playstation’s future, and he let slip a couple of interesting tidbits. First, Sony will be launching a new program called “Life with Playstation” that will give users real time news and weather, using a globe metaphor reminiscent of the Wii’s News Channel. Of course, since the PS3 has considerably more horsepower under the hood, the globe is a rendered weather satellite image showing cloud patterns, and it also supports geo-tagged photos and other content. Kaz also previewed the video-download service set to launch next month at E3, which will allow you to download or stream video to the PS3 and PSP. The store looks a lot like the current PlayStation Store, and it looks like HD rentals will run around $6 while SD purchases will clock in around $13 when it launches in the States this summer. We’ll learn a lot more at E3, presumably, but for now we’ll just settle for a decent screen shot of that globe interface.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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Filed under: Gaming

Considering how little attention the PS3’s motion-sensing functionality currently receives, we’re not inclined to think that Sony’s making an even deeper push into the Wii’s territory, but a site called Playstation Lifestyle says that Sony conducted focus-group testing on a controller similar to the Wiimote earlier this year. Apparently the device was mounted on a foot-tall mini-tripod, and was demoed with tennis, fencing, and paintball mini-games, as well as used to play Quake on a laptop. That’s not to say that Sony’s ever going to bring this stuff to market, but it would certainly be interesting if it did — and coupled with those persistent Xbox 360 remote rumors, the gaming landscape could suddenly be overrun with people miming tennis.

[Via Wii Fanboy]

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Microsoft is making some noise today about the Xbox 360’s sales numbers — it’s the first of this generation of consoles to top 10M sales in the US. That’s well ahead of the Wii, which stands at 8.8M, and the PS3, which has under half the 360’s installed base at 4.1M units sold. Worldwide, the 360 is also doing quite well: Microsoft says it’s moved 19M consoles total, and that 12 million people are signed up for Xbox Live. That’s behind the Wii’s global sales of 25M units, but Microsoft isn’t exactly content with second place — it’s making a point to say that the 360 has the ” largest global install base of any current gen, high definition gaming console.” Take that, Mario. Meanwhile, the PS3s doing quite nicely for itself as well: in addition to outselling the 360 in both the US and Europe, Sony says worldwide sales were up an astounding 156 percent last year with a total of 9.2M units coming off shelves, and that it expects to sell another 10M consoles by March 2009. Looks like the console race is hitting the next level — any bets on how things will shake out in a year?

[Via Joystiq]

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2008 was predicted to be a big year for the PS3, and it looks like things are going according to plan: Sony announced today that European PS3 sales had topped the five million mark, and that the PS3 has been outselling the Xbox 360 sur le continent since October. Combined with the PS3’s strong US showings lately, and that’s a pretty solid run — and we’d assume things are only get to get better once MGS4 hits in June. Hmm, looks like a few of you decided to take the plunge after all.

[Thanks, Nimro]

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Filed under: Gaming

Now that the Dual Shock 3 is finally here, it looks like Sony’s finding creative way to dump off old SIXAXIS stock — like tossing ‘em in MGS4 PS3 bundles. Japanese PS3 buyers will be able to choose from three “Welcome Box” MGS4 bundles in Satin Silver, Ceramic White, and Clear Black, and in addition to Snake’s latest adventure and a Dual Shock 3, they’ll find a SIXAXIS inside. The bundles will cost ¥49,800 ($470), compared to ¥51,800 ($492) for the gunmetal gray bundle that doesn’t include the extra controller, so basically Sony’s giving Japanese buyers $20 to take a SIXAXIS home. That’s quite a deal, but honestly, we’d rather take drop the Jackson on that super-hot gunmetal unit home than have another (obsolete) controller lying around.

[Via Joystiq]

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