SCEK
Latest
PSA: PlayStation Store returns to South Korean PS3s May 16
After being taken offline last July, the PlayStation Store will finally reopen for business on South Korean PlayStation 3 units on Thursday, May 16. The service was originally removed to comply with new South Korean legislation that made it illegal for persons under the age of 18 to verify online accounts with their real name or age. As a result, use of the PlayStation Store is now restricted to users 18 and older, regardless of whether the service is actually being used to buy something. As an apology to all users affected by the months-long outage, Sony Computer Entertainment Korea is gifting all eligible users one free month of PlayStation Plus.
Sony suspends PlayStation Store for PS3 in Korea, blames new law about selling to minors
Sony has been caught unawares by a legal change in South Korea, which prevents under-18s from being asked for their names or ages for the purpose of account authentication. No sooner had the company announced a half-price sale at its PS Store and then it was forced to pull the whole thing down in order re-work the interface and make it compliant. It's expecting to reopen it sometime "this year," but in the meantime the Store is strangely still accessible to PSP and Vita users of any age, while multiplayer and other PSN functions will continue to run on PS3. There must be a lawyer somewhere for whom this all makes complete sense, and hopefully they work for Facebook.
World Sand Sculpting Championship holds special surprise for Sony fans
Sony took some time to promote the PS3 and PSP at Korea's first annual Invitational World Sand Sculpting Championship. We're impressed by how the sand PS3 simply towers over these Asian girls. As we ponder the incredible manpower used to create these massive sand recreations, we can't help but think to ourselves ...There's a Invitational World Sand Sculpting Championship???
Sony provides earthquake relief with autographed swag
There was an earthquake in Sichuan recently -- a pretty bad one. Corporations and individual people have been taking care of donations, including Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong. They have put together some eBay auctions for autographed PlayStation paraphernalia. All proceeds go to World Vision Hong Kong.SiliconEra has put together a listing for the items and some of them are still without bids! The only problem is you have to be physically present in Hong Kong to claim these prizes. So if you want some pre-paid PlayStation Network cards signed by some pretty famous Sony folk, or a model, a singer, or an actress, go for it. It's for a good cause, but since it forces you to be in Hong Kong, it's a bit difficult to be the good Samaritan.
Sony kiosks hit Korean theater, bank
When Nintendo put Wii kiosks outside in the cold of a London winter , we thought it was a little nutty. When Sony put a PS2 in the lobby of the England National Symphony, we thought things couldn't get weirder. Well, those crazy foreigners are at it again. This time it's Sony Korea setting up PS2 and PSP kiosks in movie theaters and a PS3 unit in a bank.AVING USA has pictures of the "ZAM ZONE" in Seoul's MEGABOX multiplex, which feature rows of systems set up in front of comfortable-looking stadium-seating-style chairs. The "Bank Zone," on the other hand, comprises a single PS3 and HD monitor with a leather chair in the corner of a Shinhan Bank branch in Seouls' COEX convention center.We can see the appeal of playing a few games when you're out at the movies, but the bank? Do people really feel the urge to have a high-end gaming machine nearby when waiting to deposit checks? Are businessmen going to take time out of their busy schedules for a quick game of MotorStorm? We tend to doubt it.[Via Insert Credit]
Korean home shopping channel sells out of PS3's in 3 minutes
While the launch of Sony's PlayStation 3 in Korea has gotten a lot more blog-time here than you'd expect, it's because of the surprisingly different model they are receiving. An 80GB hard drive, downloadable content and video on demand support (TV shows, etc), lack of the Emotion Engine chip for emulation ... it's like a different console! Perhaps that's one of the reasons why consumers grabbed the system quicker than announcers would be able to talk about the available features.If you read slowly, the time it took you to get to this paragraph is about the time it took for PS3's to sell out on a popular Korean home shopping channel. Putting 200 units up for pre-sale, the hosts of the show prepared to talk people into buying the expensive system by highlighting all the features. It wasn't necessary. All 200 systems were sold in under three minutes. Sony is amazed and baffled: they expect decent demand for the system now, but they didn't get to talk about what the system could do before they were all gone! Enjoy your PS3 launch next Tuesday, Korea. It seems you're ready for it.
Sony Korea plots a June launch
You thought the PS3 was done launching, didn't you? You'd be wrong ... dead wrong. Or at least breathing heavily at the announcement that Sony plans to launch their PlayStation 3 in Korea this June. That's right, now you can snag your very own Korean PS3 at the low, low price of around 550,000 won (about $600). The launch is slated to be a 60GB-only event. No more of the puny 20GB, although if you're not into metal trim, you're out of luck since that's your only choice.We give you a ballpark estimate of the price because SCEK isn't exactly sure about the final price or the model details (maybe there will be a few 20GB?), nor are they set up for a marketing campaign yet. But it's safe to assume that there won't be any 20GB models and the price, therefore, would reach a maximum of 600,000 won. Do we have any Korean readers out there? Do you guys plan to snag this device as soon as possible? What other places does the PS3 still need to launch in? Let us know if you live in such a place.
