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Sony's 'Cross Buy' promo headed to North America and Europe, Japan undecided
Sony's "Cross Buy" promotion isn't just for Europe – SCE president of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida took to Twitter to clarify that the PlayStation 3/Vita promo is also headed to the United States. Japan, however, isn't so lucky. At least not yet. " PS Vita-PS3 Cross Buy price promo is coming to both Europe and North America. My quote by Famitsu was meant as 'not decided for Japan yet,'" Yoshida said. A piece from Famitsu was picked up yesterday (via Andriasang) that was misunderstood to mean the promo is exclusive to Europe.PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale was revealed during Gamescom 2012 to be the first retail game from Sony launching with the Cross Buy promo – if you buy either version of the game, you get the other version for free. Sound Shapes and Motorstorm RC already employ the promo, albeit on PSN. A variety of other upcoming first-party Sony games also support the promotion. Incidentally, we also support the promotion, because it's super boss.
Sony's Nasne TV tuner finally set to go on sale later this month in Japan
Less than a month ago we heard the news of Sony having delayed the release of its Nasne system due to quality control issues, but that all looks to be sorted out now. The electronics giant's said the NAS media streamer will finally be ready to hit Japanese shelves on August 30th for the previously known price of 16,980 yen (about $215) -- which, as you know, offers a decent 500GB of storage for all your entertainment content. There's still a few weeks until the eventual launch date, so that should be plenty of time to gather up some cash and be among the first to call one of these your own.
LittleBigPlanet celebrates 7 million user levels with massive, manic infochart
Media Molecule has trumpeted a new milestone for its LittleBigPlanet community: seven million user levels created and submitted. At some time last night, the seven millionth user level was uploaded to the servers, spurring the creation of the busy infographic above. See it in its full glory here.The celebratory image provides interesting context for the milestone, like how 200 new levels debut every hour. Did you know it would take Sackboy 21 years to run through every community level? Indeed, it's been a pretty eventful four years since the first LittleBigPlanet launched, and with the impending arrival of LittleBigPlanet Vita and LittleBigPlanet Karting on the PS3, Sony's newest (and most adorable) mascot shows no signs of slowing down.
PSA: PSN maintenance tonight, should last two hours
Starting at 12am PT (3am ET), PSN will be down for around two hours in North America. It looks like Europe won't be affected this time.The routine maintenance will go down basically the same as last week's maintenance – if you signed into PSN in the last few days, you should have no problem accessing apps and playing games during the downtime; however, if you haven't logged in recently, you'll be shut out. Relax, you still have some time to log in!The PlayStation Blog says PSN should be back up and running around 2am PT (5am ET). During the maintenance, both the PSN Store and Account Management will be inaccessible.
Payday: The Heist 'Wolfpack' DLC coming next week in US, available now in EU
It may not be a zombie-filled hospital, but Payday: The Heist's "Wolfpack" DLC does include new weapons, missions, and what appears to be some kind of fog-spewing basement or stairwell. You also get two new heists, a new crew member called "The Technician," a raised level cap and a few extra weapons when the DLC launches in North America, on August 7 for $9.99. If you're more into robbing French banks than American ones, the content pack has already been released in Europe for £6.49/€7.99.%Gallery-161546%
Gran Turismo 5 'Academy Edition' racing to stores on September 26
This fall marks two years since Polyphony Digital's latest Gran Turismo screeched onto retailer shelves, and four years since the company partnered with Nissan on its GT Academy. As a result, the developer's celebrating with a special edition release of Gran Turismo 5 – "Academy Edition" – replete with the various car packs released since the launch in 2010.More specifically, you'll also get Polyphony Digital creative lead Kazunori Yamauchi's fancy Nissan GTR that he raced in real life during the most recent Nurburgring 24-hour race. If you bought it in real life, it'd cost like a trillion dollars, so this is probably the best way to get access.When the "Academy Edition" of Gran Turismo 5 launches this September 26, it'll cost €29.99/£19.99. The game doesn't have a price or launch date in the US just yet, but we expect to hear more on that front in the coming days.
New PlayStation 3 model may be in the works, FCC filing suggests
A new filing on the FCC database shows what appears to be a new model of PlayStation 3. Most of the information is confidential by request, but a diagram showing the location of the FCC ID (above) suggests a hardware configuration that is shaped differently from the existing PS3 Slim – in fact, it's closer in shape to the original PS3.From the diagram alone, it's impossible to tell how this potential model differs in size. Perhaps it's tiny like a PSOne. Or perhaps it's just a slight cosmetic modification that will result in a functionally identical system. Develop reported rumors that this new model will be officially revealed at Gamescom; we're checking in with Sony, but it's likely we won't hear anything official until the convention.
Sony buys Gaikai cloud gaming service for $380 million
Cloud-based gaming service Gaikai has had plenty of spring in its step recently, and now we know why: it's been tying up a deal to sell itself for a rather substantial sum of cash. The $380 million agreement is slightly below the $500 million bandied about it in some rumors last week, so perhaps SCE execs feel like they've got themselves a bargain. SCE boss Andrew House promised that the union of Gaikai's "engineering talent" with his company's "game platform knowledge" would lead to "unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences." For his part, Gaikai CEO David Perry said he was "honored" to help Sony "grow their ecosystem." None of this sheds much light on precisely what the Japanese giant will do with its new acquisition, or how it'll deal with the potential (imaginary?) awkwardness of supplying a service direct to TV rivals like Samsung and LG. In any case, the two companies need to secure regulatory approval before getting down to the tricky stuff.
17 minutes of Tokyo Jungle gameplay to make your day better
Even in the apocalypse, love can blossom. Take the pomeranian in this long Tokyo Jungle clip, for example. After foraging for food, he finds a mate and then – well, we're a family friendly website. If you haven't had "the talk" with your folks, you may want to do that before watching this.
PS2 and PSP SOCOM servers shutting down at the end of August
Amazingly, Zipper Interactive servers for SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs have continued to be active since the game's original debut on the PlayStation 2 in 2002, meaning that crazy people dedicated fans with online adapter-equipped PS2s have been able to keep playing for nearly 10 years. Now though, since Zipper Interactive doesn't exist anymore and everything, the servers for four PS2 SOCOM games and four PSP SOCOM titles will be taken offline at the end of August.PlayStation 2 SOCOMs I, II, and III (as well as SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault) will be going dark, as will the PSP various SOCOM titles, Fireteam Bravo (I, II and III) and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strke.If this outage affects your regular gaming routine, we offer our most sincere condolences. Also, we'd like to point out that many thousands of games have been released since 2002, some of which you might enjoy. Perhaps this will be a good opportunity to go check some of 'em out?
Legend of Dragoon lands on US PSN on May 1
It's a long time coming, but fans of late-lifecycle PSOne RPGs will finally be able to download The Legend of Dragoon when it launches on PSN on May 1. Developed by Sony's Japan Studio, The Legend of Dragoon has been available on the Japanese PSN since December, 2010.Sony Worldwide Studios president Shu Yoshida recalls some of the hurdles of developing a four-CD game for the PSOne over on the PlayStation Blog. It took "well over" 100 people to develop the JRPG over the course of three years, starting in 1996 as a team of only a handful of people. And now that it's on PSN, it'll probably take you just as long to download it.
Latest Starhawk trailer showcases jetbikes, mech-jets
Similar to how combining peanut butter and chocolate dramatically improves both, Starhawk has discovered that combining jets and bikes, or jets and mechs, exponentially increases the level of wickedness associated with each craft.
Sony confirms Zipper Interactive closure
Today has been a rough one for the games industry. Following massive layoffs at Sega today, Sony has confirmed Zipper Interactive's closure after it was rumored last week.In a statement given to Game Informer, a Sony representative stated the move was the "result of a normal cycle of resource re-alignment within SCE WWS." Though the studio has been shuttered, "Zipper titles MAG, SOCOM 4 and Unit 13 will continue to be supported, including the new Daily Challenges in Unit 13."
Payday: The Heist steals some of your time, is free this weekend
All right guys, here's the plan: You see that game over there, Payday: The Heist? Well we're gonna boost it. First, we have to get past the 18 layers of invisible infrared lasers that line the hallway leading to the safe room. Concord will be introducing his own beams into the system, so if all goes according to plan, those should be no problem.After that, Harwell is going to use a complicated system of ropes and pulleys to suspend ... What? What do you mean, "Payday: The Heist is free on Steam until 4 PM Eastern, March 4." Patsy, I spent weeks putting this job together. Fine, you know what? You're all fired.
Buy 2 get 1 free on select Vita games at GameStop starting today
In true local-furniture-store fashion, purchasing any 2 first-party Vita games on this list will land you a third title (also from that list) free of charge. The deal runs between now and February 25, and while it excludes non-SCE games, it'll help you save some skrill for a memory card.
Sony incentivizes Vita Cross Play with free PS3 DLC, and vice versa
In the expensive, devious world of advertising, a successful word of mouth campaign is worth its weight in gold. Building something into your product that's fun to show off and talk about makes the purchase feel justified to the buyer, and instills a sense of "Dude, I want this" in the buyer's friends. You've got to give them something to talk about, though, which is why Sony is making the Vita's Cross Play functionality easier to jump into via free DLC for two of its titles.Well, free with purchase, we should say. Anyone who buys Hustle Kings for the Vita will be able to download the PS3 version of the game for free, and vice versa. Wipeout 2048 pilots that already own Wipeout HD and its "HD Fury" pack will receive the Vita DLC versions of both at no charge when they're released this spring. Sony describes this as "promotional" pricing, so we doubt free cross-platform transference will always be the norm. For now though, it's a good step towards establishing Cross Play as more than a gimmick in the minds of Vita owners and their friends.
Yoshida plays down lackluster Vita sales in Japan with PSP sales
President of worldwide studios for Sony Computer Entertainment Shuhei Yoshida recognizes that the Vita hasn't sold very well in Japan, but he thinks it will do better in the US. Why? Because Sony's previous handheld venture, the PSP, is still "very popular" in Japan. Or something like that."So, the Japanese launch, you saw the sell-through numbers, you notice that we haven't been able to sell out the units that we sold in," Yoshida told VentureBeat, responding to a prompt about lessons learned for the US launch from Japanese Vita sales. "But looking very objectively at the market situation there in Japan, especially on the portable, PSP is still very popular."Yoshida said Sony needs to communicate the Vita as a brand, not just another portable device, to potential players. Part of that is visible in Sony's marketing campaign, which includes $50 million of commercials, billboards, online banner ads, retail deals and hashtags."We are still seeing good sales through PSP, and we are advertising on TV, a dedicated PSP TV campaign, at the same time we are introducing Vita," Yoshida said, continuing to discuss the merits of the PSP as a children's entertainment system. He did mention one plan directly for the Vita: "At the same time, we are trying to communicate the value and new, exciting features of PS Vita to an older, mature, core gamer audience."
SCE VP: Move should have done better in Europe (but it didn't)
Sony Computer Entertainment UK VP Fergal Gara said the Move could have, should have done better in Europe, noting that the system's software lineup is crucial to its success. Gara named only one title, Sports Champions, that sold the best "by far" with a few hundred thousand units. We assume he expressed SCE's disappointment with the Move's success in the tone of, "I should have lost 20 pounds by now, even though I never work out and I eat bacon with every meal." Gara is focusing on future titles to support Move, and by "titles" he means Sorcery (a game announced at E3 2010), and "other things that we know are bubbling under." SCE is stepping up its marketing and internal development for Move, Gara said, hoping to revitalize Move in 2012.
Sony's Kaz Hirai to step up as president as early as April (updated)
Nikkei is reporting that Sony will be promoting current Executive Deputy President Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai to president as soon as April, while Howard Stringer is expected to remain chairman and CEO of the company. As you may recall, Sony started its search for a new president as far back as November 2010, and with Kaz's two promotions last year (to Executive Deputy President in April and to Sony Computer Entertainment Chairman in September), it isn't surprising that he's the chosen one to pick up some of Sir Howard's work. It'll be a while before we see the consequences of this promotion, and anything can happen between now and the board meeting as early as next month to seal the deal; but here's hoping that under Kaz, Sony will go easy on all these new memory card formats while it further unifies its various groups within the corporation. Update: Bloomberg has received a brief statement from Sony clarifying that the board has not yet made a decision on this promotion, which isn't really a denial of the plan considering the final board meeting has yet to take place.
Vita launch issues in Japan result in apology, software update [update]
For us suckers in North America, the PlayStation Vita is still just a distant object of desire. For the Japanese, though, the Vita is already a couple days into its life, but apparently it's got some ... issues. Our tech savvy brethren at Engadget are reporting that some users are experiencing "software bugs, unresponsive touchscreens and complete system freezes," resulting in many taking to social media to voice frustration. Sony, as it turns out, is listening, already issuing a software update and penning an apology letter. The video above showcases some of the Vita's problematic issues, and it should at very least help you to sympathize with your Japanese equivalent's frustration. The letter, well, it's in Japanese, and it's kinda non-specific, so you may wanna skip that part. Regardless, with any luck, said issues will be ironed out by the time Vita arrives on US shores on February 22. Here's hoping, anyway. Update: Sony UK counters this report and others, saying the company, "can't find any evidence of widespread glitches." [Thanks Gerry!]
