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SingStore Update: Hello, is it No Doubt and A-Ha you're looking for
The U.S. SingStar Store is still playing catch-up with its European counterpart, but today's 60-odd new arrivals should bring us a bit closer to parity. Check out the full list of new tracks, including packs from No Doubt, A-Ha and Lionel Richie and the Commodores, after the jump.
SingStar's European tracks come stateside, all releases worldwide from now on
SingStar fans living in the U.S. haven't exactly received equal amounts of attention as SingStar fans living in Europe. (Luckily we've got all this freedom and liberty to make up for it, right guys? Woo!) Tons of downloadable songs that arrived on the European PSN have yet to come stateside -- but thanks to a recent deal struck up between Sony and Universal Music, the two regions' musical selections will begin moving towards parity with a series of major content updates, the first of which is due out this Wednesday, December 15. This first update will add 64 songs to the U.S. SingStore, as well as 11 new tracks for SingStar Dance, all of which are listed after the jump. Also, all future DLC releases for the series will arrive at the same time in the U.S. and Europe. Finally, we can put this bitter jealousy to rest.
EyePet Move Edition ... now in 3D!
EyePet may have been delayed a year for its North American debut, but it's become a far more advanced game since its original release (at least technically). High tech families equipped with a super-fancy 3DTV will not only play the game with the Move motion controller, but with newly added 3D support as well. Whereas implementing support for Sony's motion controller added about nine months of development time to London Studios' pet simulator, 3D took about a month to implement. Unlike many other games, very little detail has been sacrificed to produce the 3D effect. The character model has been largely untouched, although some of the props have received some tweaks. (Other games drop the polygon count or texture resolution to achieve the demanding technical requirements necessary for 3D.) Most families won't experience EyePet in 3D, an unfortunate reality of the formats infancy. "The switch to 3D won't happen overnight but we're very proud to be pushing the first family titles in 3D, including Eyepet," a Sony rep told us. However, EyePet's implementation of 3D is some of the best we've experienced from Sony. Instead of focusing on flashy effects, there are a number of subtle implementations. The best part of the demo was washing the EyePet. Over time, steam appears on what appears to be virtual glass. The steam builds up slowly over time, and the slow drops of water that roll down are incredibly believable in 3D. Does it change the game? No. But did it look cool? Absolutely.%Gallery-95463%
EyePet to support PlayStation Move, hits North America holiday 2010
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playstation/EyePet_supports_PlayStation_Move_US_release_this_holiday'; Sony announced during its GDC 2010 press conference that the upcoming US release of EyePet will feature support for its motion controller, PlayStation Move. The game will allow players to manipulate toys and also play games with their EyePets. Furthermore, it's even possible to create new toys. The promotional video during the event showed off a child using the Move to draw a car on some virtual paper, which then jumped off the page and became an object that players and the EyePet could then interact with. In addition, Sony announced that EyePet is slated for a North American release this holiday. There was no mention of what will happen to the European version of the game, which was released last year. Presumably, Move support will be added once the peripheral launches.
Sony reveals SingStar Viewer application for PS3
Though SingStar may not possess the massive community base of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Sony recently unveiled a PS3 application which offers a great deal of social networking capabilities to the karaoke game's players. Titled SingStar Viewer, the app (which appears under the Games folder of the XMB) allows users to browse and purchase songs from the SingStore, as well as view and vote on videos, photos and profiles uploaded by members of the MySingStarOnline community. This impressive functionality is totally free, and accessible even when the SingStar disc is absent from the PS3's drive. The PlayStation.Blog post, which announced the software, didn't give a firm release date for the app, but suggested you "check the PlayStation Store over the coming weeks." Check out the video after the jump to get a brief demo of the services offered by the application. Then wonder if you're confident enough in your karaoke chops to place videos of you and your friends singing in front of the cruel, cruel internet.
SingStar developers working to fix bugs introduced in latest patch
Dave Ranyard, the Game Director for SingStar, recently announced a fairly huge patch for the karaoke-infused rhythm title on the European PlayStation Blog. See, it would have to pretty large in order to completely encompass the game's previous patch, which apparently broke a lot of things. The game's last patch, software update 4.20, is apparently capable of deleting purchased songs off the system's hard drive, crashing the game in the middle of those songs or generally corrupting your media files. Fortunately, SingStar v4.30 is currently undergoing QA testing, and is targeted for a December 1 release. Just in time for the holidays, SingStar owners will receive the gift of not having their stuff deleted any more. Or, as we like to call it, the gift that keeps on giving.
Sony confirms EyePet US release this holiday
Sony has confirmed to us at a holiday showcase event in New York City tonight that the PlayStation Eye game, EyePet, will definitely be heading to the US in time for the holidays. Our roving reporter, Andrew Yoon, says that the game will be available standalone as well as bundled with the PlayStation Eye camera. Previously, the game was only announced for a European release after it was first revealed at Leipzig GC last year. We're happy to see the adorable simian-dog-thing will be making the jump across the Atlantic and won't be suffering from the chronic case of Q1-2010 flu that's making the rounds. If you're hungry for more, check out Engadget's video from today's event, or our impressions from E3.
London Studio boss to leave Sony
Sony will say goodbye to Jamie MacDonald, London Studio chief and VP of the company's World Wide Studios on May 29, according to Develop. Neither the company nor MacDonald was willing to provide any further comment.You probably don't recognize the name, but MacDonald was leading London Studio when it launched franchises like EyeToy, SingStar, The Getaway and absolutely not Eight Days. He will also be remembered for his pioneering work in being responsible for a heated, groundless fanboy and girl argument in beloved Joystiq post "London Studio boss to leave Sony."
SingStar's DRM is broken and needs to be fixed
So says Infinite Bits. While it may sound unlikely, this Infinite Bits writer (who long-time readers of PS3 Fanboy might recognise), had his PS3 sadly croak and had to redownload all his content again on his backup PS3. Not a huge deal, the PSN allows you to download content on up to five PS3s, right? Right. Except for SingStar. In fact, the DRM on that game is so restrictive that, short of opening another master account and rebuying the songs, there's no way of getting them back. Ever. SingStar songs can only be grabbed once. If you lose it because your PS3 dies, or accidentally delete the file, you're pretty much screwed. The SingStore will think you already have it and won't allow any more downloads, or even purchases (should you be willing to pay again for the priviledge). You don't need us to tell you that this is flawed and broken and definitely needs fixing. SingStar's DLC is great, in terms of both quality and quantity, but suffers majorly from this single flaw. Make enough noise and hopefully this can be changed by the time SingStar Volume 3 comes out.
Sony's Choice: EyePet beat out Eight Days
It's harder to single out Nintendo for overlooking its "core audience" when you find out things like this. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Shuhei Yoshida, Sony's head of worldwide studios, revealed that the company chose to fund development of a desktop toy virtual pet – EyePet – over a promising core audience action title, Eight Days.When asked about the effect that canceling London Studio projects The Getaway 3 and Eight Days had on other titles, Yoshida responded, "There are so many things that we want to do, more than we can do with the resources. So when London Studio was looking at the early work on EyePet and the prototype of Eight Days, they knew they couldn't do all of them." So ... EyePet it was.Granted, we don't know with any certainty that Eight Days was going to be any good, but an original action IP on a still very core audience console would seem like something worth investing more time in over a ... virtual pet.Yohshida also said regarding the London Studio, "There are even more things they're working on at early concept stage." Tip for the staff there: If you don't want your big games canned, don't mention your "pet" projects to Shuhei the next time he pops in for a visit.
SingStar Volume 2 heading to North America in October
Recently released in Europe and Australia, SingStar Vol. 2 will take the stage in North America sometime in October, no doubt letting armchair harmonizers looking for the next in Sony's karaoke series breathe a sigh of relief -- preferably not directly into the mic. This latest expansion will add 30 new sing-along tracks, as well as support for Trophies, presumably used to club off-tune rockers over the head for butchering radio favorites. However, given the advent of the SingStore, the need for regular discs seems trivial, especially once our arms tire from all that disc swapping. Plus, we'd rather cherry pick songs we know we'll like rather than buy in bulk and hope for the best. That's just how we roll. [Via PS3 Fanboy]
Lack of online contributed to Eight Days cancellation
To be honest, when we first heard about Shuhei Yoshida – Phil Harrison's replacement as president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios – we didn't like him. Sure, he's probably outrageously qualified for the gig, but we feel like we went through hell with Harrison, deep in the trenches on the front lines of a nasty console war. So, basically, we're saying that we haven't bonded with Yoshida. Yet.In an interview with Develop Magazine, Yoshida comes semi-clean on Sony's seemingly swift decision to can Eight Days, one of the two London Studios games cancelled earlier this month (the other was, of course, The Getaway). The main culprit: a "key" corporate focus on "online technology and PlayStation Network" ... sort of. Actually, Yoshida safely says the decision was really about budget and how the game fit into their publishing portfolio, but with the aforementioned focus on the PlayStation Network and games that utilize it (like LittleBigPlanet), Yoshida conceded that a lack of online content in Eight Days "was part of the consideration." See, that was a tough call but we made it through together. We feel closer already.
The Getaway and Eight Days have been cancelled
In another Sony announcement made today, it appears that two games being developed by the internal London studios have now been potentially canned. The Getaway and Eight Days are now out of production, thanks to budgetary redistribution. Gamesindustry.biz have the full statement from Sony, in which they state that "this decision was made following an internal review of all games and it was deemed that with the incredibly strong list of exclusive first party titles coming up both this year and in the near future, resource should be reallocated to enhance those projects closer to completion."It's thought that this is a direct result of Phil Harrison's successor, Shuhei Yoshida, becoming President of Sony's Worldwide Studios. We heard relatively recently from The Getaway's lead writer that the game was still in production and UK newspaper The Guardian had a recent article claiming Eight Days was ramping up to full production, so it's disheartening to hear that the projects have been canned.[UPDATE] CVG states that "A Sony UK representative assured CVG that both titles had been "completely cancelled", and so will not be rescued from the bin at a later date."
