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'Select' PS Vita apps hit the US PlayStation Store: Netflix, LiveTweet and Flickr (Update: video hands-on)
Did you just brave the lines of a midnight launch party and snag yourself a PS Vita in the US? Good news ye early adopters, Sony's PlayStation.Blog.US has just announced that select free apps will be available as part of today's PlayStation Store update. Currently, you'll find Netflix, LiveTweet and Flickr, but there's still nary of trace of Facebook or Foursquare among the bunch (nor any official word on release dates for that matter). We gave each app a download and quick spin prior to them being officially listed without much in the way of hiccups -- however, Netflix does take its sweet time to start-up. Disappointingly, Vita's 20MB cap on 3G data is totally in effect on Netflix, as switching to our cellular connection denied us any access to the service. We're giving the apps some extended use to bring you our initial impressions shortly, but for now, you'll find more info at the source link below.Update: We've added gallery below and a brief video hands-on just past the break to let you grab a taste of each app before downloading them for yourself.
Sony's latest PS Move Bundles let you go Medieval, get your groove on
Good ol' gaming bundles can be enticing when you're on the prowl for a new console or accessory set, and we have to admit, we'd be excited to lay some motion-controlled moves down with Sony's latest PlayStation offerings. Back at E3, we had a chance to slice enemies with virtual swords in Medieval Heros: Deadmunds Quest, thanks to the PS Move's 1:1 tracking abilities. With the game releasing next week, Sony's decided to offer it in a $100 bundle, packing a PS Eye, Move controller and a copy of Sports Champions (which Deadmund shares its gameplay mechanics with). If you don't already own a PS3 -- and love getting your groove on -- the Everybody Dance bundle may be your $300 ticket to the wand-waving fun; it features a 320GB PS3 Slim, PS Eye and Move controller, along with a DualShock 3 for when Duty Calls. These likely won't be Sony's last PlayStation-related bundles to hit shelves before the year's through, but if it sounds like your kind of party you'll find more info at the source link below.
Playstation 3D Display hits shelves November 13, Sony answers your burning questions
We'd imagine come November 13th, the above will be the scene inside many a PS3 owner's house. That's when Sony's hot little 24-inch PlayStation 3D display will officially be available in the US, Canada, Europe and parts of Asia. Sony took to its US PlayStation Blog today with the news, along with a lengthy FAQ to keep your GAS at bay in the meantime. If you'll recall, the 240Hz 1080p display packs a single set of component inputs, two HDMI 1.4 ports, stereo RCA outputs, a headphone jack, an integrated subwoofer, and of course, 3D-capability with supported titles. For five hundred bucks you'll get the PS 3D Display, one pair of USB-rechargeable 3D Glasses ($70 for each additional pair), a copy of Motorstorm: Apocalypse and even an HDMI cable. Notably, its fancy (and exclusive) SimulView feature will let two sets of 3D shades grab either the left or right side feed in supported 3D games for a private 2D view. Disappointingly, this puppy isn't wall-mountable, but hey, that 24-inch panel surely makes it ideal for a desktop setup, no? Full details at the links below, along with a refresher shot of those 3D specs just past the break.
How does one make a PlayStation game?
A good question and one that has been discussed over on the official PlayStation blog. Doling out remarkable insight, Shu Yoshida walks us through the creative steps taken in creating the games we love to play. Yoshida is the Senior VP of Product Development at SCEA, so if anyone knows what goes on in game creation, it's this guy. He starts off by telling us a little about Sony's policy on developers. They don't tell their developers "we need an action adventure game, so make one" rather, they take the ideas in and let the studios work on them until they show them off to Yoshida and Phil Harrison. At that point, they can red-light the project or let it continue, it is implied. That's good for keeping more quality games coming while filtering out the less-than-spectacular works, at least, for the internal studios.After a concept is chosen, there's the whole budget deal. A Blu-ray project on the PS3 generally has costs from $2-5 million just for a prototype (which takes over a year to create). After the prototype is created, the game gets shown to people inside of Sony to let them see how it's progressed as well as to create some marketing segmentation: who's the audience, what's the competition, how can they get said audience interested, et cetera. They bring in their selected audience to preview the game in the next stage and get feedback before development gets too far along to change the more core bits of a game.All in all, it's a really interesting read despite our attempts to shorten the explanation. Sometimes it's better to just check out the original article, since you can also see some early concept drawings of Calling All Cars! and leave your feedback and questions so Shu Yoshida can check them out.
Heavenly Sword demo in NA this week too
That was touch and go there for a bit. After confirming Europe would be getting their chance at the Heavenly Sword demo this week, there was still the lingering question of the North Americans. We don't want Sony giving Europe a big head, considering they're already getting the PSP Lite before Japan. The PlayStation blog confirms Heavenly Sword will also be making its North American public demo debut this week as well. Now everyone with a PS3 will get some time with Heavenly Sword and decide whether it's the next great Sony exclusive franchise -- they could use 'em. In the demo players take control of Nariko on a quest for Kill Bill-style vengeance. The game is slated for release in September.
PlayStation.Blog promises more news to come
After today's big announcement, the PlayStation.Blog has been updated with further clarification of the price drop and 80GB launch. As well as this, the blog gives us some more information about what we will be getting out of E3 as console owners, and when. The keynote speech, as well as being put up on the PSN for everyone to download, will have a live feed, starting half an hour before the speech, (11am pacific time) at the official US PlayStation website.As well as this, at least some of the content we are expecting to see on the PSN in terms of trailers and videos will be put up shortly after the keynote address. No word of any demos, but we wouldn't be surprised if Sony pulled one or two out of their hats. Perhaps the subtly hinted imminent Heavenly Sword demo? Regardless, we're going to be inundated with content. Seybald states that there is far more to come this week that we currently aren't aware of, including more "Inside the Developer's Studio". It looks like we're going to be glued to the PSN this week, what about you?
Lair nearing completion; Devs speak on PlayStation.Blog
Ryan Hamlyn, associate producer on Lair, has written a post on the PlayStation.Blog explaining that the game is nearing completion and on track for its August 14th release date. Hamlyn has been playing the game for a while now and claims that the more he plays this game, the more fun he's having. The post also includes a short explanation on how they developed some of the larger creatures for the game, including the "Spiderwasp" shown above. It may be hard to see clearly at such a low resolution, so check out the official PlayStation.Blog Flickr account (just goes to show that Sony truly appreciate Web 2.0) , where all the screenshots from the "Inside the Developer's Studio" feature have been put up at full resolution. Simply click "all sizes" above the picture to view it in different sizes, including 1920x1080.Finally, the official Lair website is up, with exclusive new videos and "other cool content". It's pretty exciting to see the first non-launch AAA exclusive for the PS3 nearing completion. We just can't wait to finally play it.
Dave Karraker would not take a Ferrari to Home Depot
Analogy alert! Dave Karraker recently slapped a new post on the official PlayStation blog regarding developers' complaints that the PS3 is hard to develop for. His stance on the issue is thus: "Since PS3's Cell processor allows MORE features -- better physics, more complex graphical processing, lighting or sound, etc. -- there is inevitably going to be more cost in supporting those extra features. It's not that PS3 is harder to write for, it's just that you can do more with it." You know what? That sounds like a valid claim. We're seeing some very amazing things come out of the PS3 as of late.Going further down the post, Karraker talks more about the SPU's in the PS3's Cell. These are generally considered the most challenging point in a developer's learning curve and Karraker responds by giving us some Confucius-laden wisdom: "SPUs are not 'normal' processors like the PPU. There is a trade-off between performance and versatility. A Ferrari is not the best car for a visit to Home Depot." We know we'd never roll into Home Depot with our Ferrari. You can't fit anything in those cars! But what does Karraker mean? Is the SPU worthless for ports, at least making them far more difficult to program, or games that take place in big, empty warehouse stores? No matter the case, we're glad Sony's got a blog to support their baby. We know we've needed the reinforcements.[via Gamasutra]
Jack Tretton teases E3 surprises, promises "more than 100 titles" by year end
Sony has been going full throttle on it's new PlayStation.Blog with some of the biggest names at the company doing regular posts. This time, the president and CEO of SCEA, Jack Tretton weighs in with an interesting post about the past successes of the PlayStation brand and some of his thoughts of the future. It's interesting stuff and definitely worth reading. He also gives game-starved PS3 owners some good news by implying that the drought is almost done: "We have more than 15 games coming from our own internal studios alone this year for PS3. Our third party partners will weigh in with a host of great games giving us more than 100 titles by year end on that system alone."Later on in the piece are hints that we're in for some cool surprises at E3 too, stating that not only will we see new stuff on the known titles like Ratchet and Clank or Heavenly Sword, but also they will announce "a few surprises we have up our sleeves that no one has seen." Intriguing and exciting stuff and we'll find out in less than a month! Anybody want to start the random unsubstantiated guessing on what they're gonna show? I say ... Killzone Bowling and Barbie's Xtreme SOCOM Adventures.[Via N4G]
We have a new blog competitor: Sony
Uh-oh ... are the PlayStation Fanboy blogs in trouble? Sony has thrown off their gloves, and they're ready to go head-to-head against us in the blogosphere. The top people from Sony Computer Entertainment America will be sharing their thoughts on the state of PlayStation, and will undoubtedly leak a few secrets along the way.The PlayStation.Blog will feature "product news and title announcements to developer updates and industry opinion posts – all of which will come straight from the people here inside SCEA who are working, thinking and playing with this stuff every day." (Editor's note: it's two words, Pat.)Of course, we kid about this whole "competitor" thing. We've pushed Sony incessantly on getting more proactive with the gaming community, and it looks like they've finally taken our advice. This is a step in the right direction, and we can't wait to find out more from the PlayStation.Blog.
