GamerNode: Latest PlayStation 3 News

LittleBigPlanet pre-order gift from the gods

Sony's highly anticipated and frequently delayed platform game LittleBigPlanet is finally coming to PlayStation 3 owners this October.  And to kick off the awesome fest that will be the game, Sony has announced what is shaping up to be the best preorder bonus I have ever seen.

Keep in mind that this isn't a special edition, this is a freebie just for putting 5 dollars down at your local gaming pawnshop.  You get the LittleBigPlanet Creator from Brady Games (a guide to creating awesome levels),  LittleBigStickerBook (self-explanatory), LittleBigPouch (a small pouch to hold your game, pictured), and two exclucive pieces of SackBoy downloadable content in the form of Nariko and Kratos.  You can grab all the actual details on the Playstation.blog site.

I haven't been this excited about the extr...

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More about LittleBigPlanet to be revealed in time

Media Molecule technical director and co-founder Alex Evans has hinted that there is still more to LittleBigPlanet that the gaming community is completely unaware of.

Speaking with Eurogamer, he said:

"I really want to be able to do another [Game Developer Conference 2007] reveal. A lot of people say to me that when we first did that Sony GDC reveal of LittleBigPlanet, that was a big shock--people didn't see it coming. I want to do another LittleBigPlanet reveal that people don't see coming.

It's still LittleBigPlanet, but people will be saying, 'I thought it was this--now you're telling me it's this as well?!' That excites me hugely."

That excites me hugely! LittleBigPlanet is due for release this October, so Media Molecule still has both the Leipzig Games Convention and the Penny Arcade Exp...

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Team Ico making "something really, really good"

In a recent interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, Sony's Senior Vice President of Product Development Shuhei Yoshida talked a little bit about Team Ico's next project. The take-home message from Yoshida is that the game will be "really, really good," will be on the PlayStation 3, and will take four years to complete.

"They are working on a title. I started the ICO project. Ueda-san joined my team in Japan as a cinematic animator, but he created a short movie and presented it to me and said, 'I want to make this game.'

I said, 'Yes, let's do it, but you have never made a game. We have to have experienced people do it,' so it took a while, recruiting one person at a time. And because Fumito Ueda doesn't compromise, we had to move the development from PSone to PlayStation 2. Then I cou...

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Sony doesn't need senior citizen gamers

Scott Steinberg, vice president of marketing at Sony, tried to distance the PS3 from the Wii by saying that his company wasn't trying to convert "senior citizens" into gamers.

His remarks were made to underline Sony's direction in trying to convince PS2 owners to go over to the PS3 camp rather than trying to appeal to a broader audience.

"And as a brand, Nintendo's got their thing, and we're not trying to get the senior citizen group to get into gaming, we're looking to convert the PS2 owners and the tens of millions of installed base that were playing DVDs and playing games on their PS2, to now play Blu-ray movies and Blu-ray games with their PS3."

To offer a counterpoint, Blu-ray movies have not taken off in popularity as quickly as Sony hoped because of the higher price points, and as for ...

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The Last Guy trailer looks very creative

Sony Computer Entertainment have released the first trailer for their upcoming satellite imagery-powered PSN title, The Last Guy. The arcade-style action game looks very interesting, to say the least. It's about a heroic zombie who travels to large urban centers to rescue the human survivors of a strange ray that has turned half of the population into monsters.

The gameplay is a simple matter of rounding up the frightened citizens and having them follow you, duckling-style, to the cities' escape zones. There's no release date for the game at this time, but you can enjoy this video until one is announced:

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Afrika renamed an embarrassing Hakuna Matata

The upcoming PlayStation 3 game centering around photography of natural African wildlife looks like it will be renamed in Asian territories outside of Japan. I'm not sure if this is a joke or not, but Afrika's new title will apparently be...Hakuna Matata.

Honestly, I am feeling embarrassed for Sony Computer Entertainment and Rhino Studios right now, because that title is just awful. The last I heard (and saw), Disney was in no way involved in the production of this game, and Timon and Pumbaa did not have starring roles, so why on Earth would anyone choose to change the title from an iconic and alluring one to...Hakuna Matata?

I just hope the game A) reaches western shores, and B) retains its original name. What do the GN readers think about this change? Is it good? Is it bad? Does it even ma...

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Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty dated

Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest For Booty, which is a short PlayStation Network expansion of the well-received Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, has received pricing and release date information as of this morning.

The downloadable title will cost $14.99, and will be available in the U.S. and Europe on August 21st, with the Japanese version arriving on the 22nd.

Weighing in at three to four hours long, the new quest will feature Ratchet in a search to locate Clank, and apparently a bunch of pirate treasure.

From the announcement:

"As for the gameplay, Q4B focuses heavily on exploration and platforming, along with some of new experimental action for the franchise. For example, Ratchet will use the new kinetic tether on his Wrench to manipulate the environment, and he'll use elements ...

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PS3 sales in Q1 2008 twice that of 2007

Sony is steadily marching back into the thick of the console fight, and they've got the numbers to prove it. The company has announced that worldwide sales of the PlayStation 3 for the first quarter of 2008 reached a total of 1.56 million units, more than doubling the number sold during the same period last year.

The PSP, too, is selling more this year than last, shifting 3.72 million units worldwide, up from 2.13 million in 2007.

More numbers tell us that software sales are also on the rise, with the PS3 selling 22.8 million games and the PSP moving 11.8 million. Those are 18.1 million and 2 million unit increases, respectively.

The PlayStation 2 is the only piece of Sony gaming hardware to see a decrease, down to only 1.51 million units for the quarter.

Sony expects to sell 10 million PS3s ...

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Sony wants PS3 to appeal to a broader audience

Casual gaming seems to be having a pretty strong effect on the game industry as the big boss of Sony, Kaz Hirai, has taken notice and will be trying to shift the PS3 into the PS2's shoes...a game console that will appeal to a broader audience.

"If we're talking about the casual gamer, the PS2 is probably the right choice for them. We don't need the PS3 to feel like the console that will appeal to everyone at this point. We don't need to have one console try to be everything to everybody just yet," said Hirai.

He wants the PS3 to evolve. "Just as the PS2 marketing and positioning has evolved over the past ten years, we'll make sure the PS3 messaging evolves as well."

Hirai didn't specifically state what the "evolving message" is going to be, but if he is talking about following the footsteps o...

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Why no Red Alert for PS3. EA says "Too tough..."

About a month ago Electronic Arts revealed that Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 was pulled from development. No details were given as to why and no information was released about when the project would be started up again.

However, new information from EA says that Red Alert 3 was put on hold because it is too hard to program for. Amer Ajami, producer at EALA said:

"We actually announced a PS3 version early on but that was when we were still doing a lot of technical exploration of the architecture. PS3 is a very powerful system but as you guys know it's very exotic and tough to develop for and our engine really at the time wasn't designed for PS3."

However, not all is lost as Ajami said that EALA "might go back and do something with the PS3 later on."

Ajami's comment about the PS3 being "toug...

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Home to be delayed again?

Warning PlayStation 3 owners, Home may be delayed for a third time. While not confirmed by the Sony camp, a recent interview with Kaz Hirai is sure to have fans worried.

In the interview Mr. Hirai reflects on the last two Home delays and explains why he felt they were in the best interest of the product and the fans it would be reaching. Mr. Hirai feels it is better to release a fully featured and complete product as opposed to one which is half done. If Home is good enough, no one will complain once it finally hits.

"As I've said on numerous occasions, I'd much rather make sure we take the time to have a great service rather than rush something into the market - only for consumers to say: 'This is not enough for me.' I want to avoid that. If we have the right service, it doesn't matter wh...

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Resistance 2 beta now going worldwide

Insomniac says that the upcoming public multiplayer beta for Resistance 2 is going to be worldwide and not regional to just North America as originally announced for PSN's exclusive Qore (paying) membership service.

Insomniac said:

"For all of you folks outside of North America are up in arms because Qore is NA only, please don't worry. This is one of many ways to get in, and we plan to make the beta available in all territories, as we need to test all servers and worldwide play. Further details on how to get into the beta will be forthcoming."

This is good news for all PS3 fans. It may also be an indication that the original plans for making the public beta exclusive for Qore users would have shot Insomniac in the foot as subscriptions to the service are minuscule when compared against the ...

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Half off sale at the PlayStation Store

Sony is trying to lure the PS3 faithful into downloading game titles from the PlayStation Store. How? For a limited time only, PSN will be offering several downloadable games at half off.

Until July 31, the following games will be available for the price of only $4.99 per game (normally $9.99 each).

Pain: A game where you "get points by stringing together painful collisions and inducing chaos in the environment. It's the funniest game in town!"

High Velocity Bowling: In this bowling game, the SixAxis controller actually serves a purpose! You'll use the controller "...to simulate a genuine bowling swing with real lane environments, providing a truly next-gen bowling game.

PixelJunk Monsters: "Inspired by the popular and addictive "tower defense genre, PixelJunk Monsters takes the simple real-ti...

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Hirai counters "360 will outsell PS3" statement

Sony Computer Entertainment president Kazuo Hirai recently chatted with MCV, and in between discussion about PlayStation 3 SKUs and Home, he countered Microsoft senior vice president Don Mattrick's E3 claim that the Xbox 360 would outsell the PS3 this console generation.

Hirai's response was simply that Microsoft's definition of the term "generation" may be different from Sony's, and he reiterated Sony's plan to support the PS3 for a long, 10-year lifecycle.

"The key word there is this 'lifecycle' or 'this generation.' As you probably know, we're working on a ten-year lifecycle, we've said that since day one and we've proven it with PSOne and PS2. I guess Don is saying they're also going to be embarking on a ten-year lifecycle, then? If they are then that's terrific, but I've never seen them...

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New Killzone 2 trailer for PS3 is here

A new trailer for Killzone 2 multiplayer is out.

The video is only about a minute long, but so far, it looks pretty good. One thing we know from the trailer is that K2 is coming out in February 2009, so hopefully, we'll all finally be able to see just how good Sony's answer to Gears, CoD4 and Halo3 is.

The maps look detailed and the action sequences are nice. Hopefully the gameplay will be nice as well.

For a look at the trailer, make the jump to the next page.

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New Killzone 2 gameplay video

Behold the latest video of what was once labeled a misrepresentation of how well the PS3 can perform. Does it surpass the graphic prowess of Gear of War 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, or Call of Duty 4? You be the judge. Too bad we have to wait until early 2009 to play this bad boy.

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Sony's got an Afrikan orchestra

Sony has remained relatively quiet about the upcoming photojournalistic safari sim, Afrika, for the PlayStation 3. The following video clip, however, is anything but that.

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at the recording of the game's soundtrack by composer Wataru Hokoyama and his orchestra, who have done work for award-winning independent films, the Dungeons and Dragons movie, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Have yourselves a listen, and hopefully I'll have myself a gameplay session at E3 next week.

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A conversation with a Sony head

It's not often that one gets to sit down with the head of a major studio. It's even less often that one gets to sit down with the head of Sony's Worldwide Studio.  Luckily, someone did. (Unluckily that person wasn't me.)

Fortunately with the power of the Internet at my disposal I can easily direct you to not only ThreeSpeach, the 'semi-official' PlayStation blog, but also their interview with Shuhei Yoshida (the aforementioned head of Worldwide Studios).

Since the interview questions are being asked by someone who is quite literally on the Sony payroll they are more on the mild side.  It's more of a 'getting to know the guy who replaced Phil Harrison' piece than anything else but there are a few interesting bits hidden behind the fluff.

Mr. Yoshida talks about why there are fewer third party ...

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Despite rumors, Kratos NOT in PS3 Soul Calibur 4

It looks like the Ghost of Sparta will not be joining the cast of Namco Bandai's upcoming Soul Calibur 4 on the PlayStation 3, after all.

Last week, the internet was abuzz with rumblings from EGM's Quartermann that Kratos would be making a guest appearance in the PS3 version of the game. This was a highly believable claim, considering the franchise's history. Link, Heihachi, and Spawn all appeared in Soul Calibur III, and Darth Vader, Yoda, and Starkiller have already been confirmed for SCIV.

Unfortunately, the rumor was shot down during the latest 1UP Yours podcast, where it was confirmed that after spending hours with the game, Kratos is nowhere to be found.

Of course that doesn't rule out downloadable content to come later on, but for now God of War fans are out of luck.

[via 1UP, QJ.net]...

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Sony pulls 2.40 update for PS3 off servers

Yesterday it was reported all over the internet that firmware version 2.40 was crashing and freezing up PS3s after installation.

Sony has announced that it has pulled the update from its servers and will be keeping the PS3 community in the loop with "further information" as it tries to solve the issues, which Sony states, has only affected a small number of machines.

On the official PlayStation Blog, Patrick Seybold, director of corporate communications at Sony said,

"As has been reported on many gaming blogs and websites, we have temporarily taken Firmware v2.40 offline. We've received a limited number of calls from consumers experiencing an issue with installing the system software update on their PS3.

"While our consumer services department has seen a low volume of calls on this topic, w...

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