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PlayStation credit card gives extra money back for gaming purchases
If you're a PlayStation fan, you probably use your credit card for a lot: games, add-ons, the virtually obligatory Plus subscription and the occasional accessory. Wouldn't it be good if you could at least get some compensation for pouring so much money into Sony's coffers? If you live in the US, you can. Sony has launched a Visa-based PlayStation credit card from Capital One that gives you discounts and redeemable points if you shop for Sony gear or PlayStation services.
Let Sony's favorite developers help pick your next game (updated)
Four years on and the PlayStation 4's digital storefront is pretty well stocked. But finding more obscure stuff to buy isn't the easiest and the search function kind of sucks. As a way of addressing that on the store's web version, Sony is introducing curated lists of games from "the industry's most creative minds," dubbed The Creators. PlayStation's head of worldwide studios Shuhei Yoshida has his picks listed, as does Rocket League studio Psyonix, Street Fighter's Yoshinori Ono and the Final Fantasy XV team among many, many others.
'Parappa The Rapper Remastered' comes to PS4 on April 4th
Downloading games from digital platforms is one of the great boons of our internet-equipped future, but holiday sales ramp up their value to a whole other level. But they also periodically run small flash sales to highlight overlooked titles. 'Play Collective' is a new promotion giving discounts on a handpicked selection of games coming into the PlayStation Store. PS Plus members knock 20 percent off the sticker price of six titles, including a couple remastered old friends from gaming days past: Parappa The Rapper and the LucasArts classic Full Throttle.
PlayStation is still getting away with 'minimum funding' charges
When game consoles stumbled into the modern era, their digital-content stores were a mess. Nintendo's Wii locked its customers into an annoying point system. The Xbox 360 obfuscated the value of Microsoft Points by using an odd 0.8 conversion rate. Sony's PlayStation Store listed its items in real, local currency but still forced users to load up digital wallets with a minimum amount before purchasing anything on the marketplace. Over the years, Nintendo and Microsoft fixed their digital-currency problems, aping Sony's up-front pricing and even improving upon it by allowing users to buy content without requiring them to add funds to a wallet system. Sony, on the other hand, hasn't changed. If you don't promise to spend at least $5 in the PlayStation store, you're not allowed to buy anything at all.
The original 'Red Dead' is on PlayStation 4
Sure, Xbox One owners have been able to play Red Dead Redemption since this summer, but Sony fans have been left out in the cold on PlayStation 4. Well, that's sort of changing. The game's progenitor, Red Dead Revolver, is the latest PlayStation 2 port from Rockstar Games to grace the PS4. But unlike past instances, you won't have to wait a week for the game to mosey over to the US PlayStation store from its European counterpart.
Sony hopes Michael Jackson's legacy can boost its streaming music service
Sony sure knows how to dangle a carrot in front of its customers. In a not-so-subtle use of music industry clout to drive its technology business, the company is offering access to five tunes off of the Michael Jackson album Xscape on its Music Unlimited streaming service days before the album's official debut (May 13th in the US). Meanwhile, iTunes and other services are getting one early song at best.
The seven big little details we love about the PlayStation 4 (so far)
Having spent the last year using the PlayStation 4 at trade shows and press events, we've got a fairly good idea of how games look and play on the parallelogram-shaped game box. The questions that remain largely revolve around living with the device: can it quickly switch between apps and games? how stable is online play? is voice chat clear? That kinda thing. We can't answer every query just yet, but we did spend the morning at Sony's NYC review event getting a better idea of the intricacies of the PlayStation 4. Below we've shared our favorite highlights, from party chat on a system level across all apps, to the "Play as a guest" feature -- head below and dive in with us.
Sony to gift early PS4 owners $10 PS Store credit, 30-day Plus and Music trials
Microsoft may have dropped a whole lot of news on us today, but that doesn't mean Sony hasn't got a few surprises up its sleeve. With just a week until the PlayStation 4 hits stores in North America, the company has revealed a trio of surprises for PlayStation 4 buyers when they receive their units on launch day. As part of a special promotion, Sony will include $10 credit for its PlayStation Store, which can be used to against games, music or movies, a free 30-day membership to PlayStation Plus and a 30-day trial for its Music Unlimited streaming service. Sony appears to be onboarding gamers in the hope they'll enjoy its multiplayer gaming and media services enough to stump up the cash for a full subscription. The company says the offer is available for a limited period, and that its music offer will only apply to new users.
You can now use PayPal to fund your PS3 PlayStation Store purchases
PayPal support for Sony Entertainment Network, the company's online digital content hub, is nothing new -- Sony integrated the billing option in January of this year. Now, however, PlayStation 3 users that want a more secure way to fund their purchases directly within the PlayStation Store will find PayPal as an alternative at checkout. There's still a $5 - $150 cap on the amount you can add to your wallet, so you can't exactly go hog-wild with the downloads. But, hey, at least you now have even more flexibility to drain that checking account.
Sony begins testing faster, more efficient video streaming for PlayStation Store
Video offerings through the PlayStation Store should be getting a bit of an upgrade soon. But, before rolling out a brand new streaming tech to the entire catalog, Sony is beta testing the faster and more adaptive format with select discounted titles. Though the company is being a bit tight-lipped about what exactly the new tech entails, it's letting anyone who wants to take part in the trial period. Simply log into the store, scroll down to movies and you should see the "beta" section right on the front page. Movies in here will be delivered at a steep discount as a thank you for helping Sony put the more efficient format through its paces. HD films will set you back $1.99, while SD videos are just $0.99. Let us know in the comments if you notice any discernible differences.
Redesigned PlayStation Store now live in North America
PS3 owners: do not adjust your TV sets, the PlayStation Store has received a makeover. Sony's new revamped media portal is now available in the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. If you're experiencing a case of déjà vu, the update was originally set to hit back on October 23rd, but was sidelined after its UK launch was derailed by some early performance hiccups. Now that it's here, users will be treated to a snazzy new UI along with Most Popular charts, streaming videos on item pages, improved filters and an enhanced search engine. If you haven't already, you can grab this update by firing up your PS3 and directing the XMB to the PlayStation Store icon.
PlayStation Store redesign goes live in Australia, Europe and New Zealand with a rocky start
Sony vowed a long (long, long) overdue PlayStation Store remake starting this week, and it delivered just that today with launches in Europe as well as Australia and New Zealand. As promised, the PS3 shop's cleaner design scales more elegantly from standard to high definition, brings more intelligent searching and makes it easier to find everything related to a given game. We still wouldn't be too eager to dive in just yet, as there's been hiccups early on -- the sheer amount of traffic has reportedly brought the new store to a crawl, on top of teething issues with adding funds and recognizing PlayStation Plus memberships. Sony has promised fixes, but we're suddenly not feeling so bad about having to wait for that October 23rd North American launch.
PlayStation Store update hitting PAL regions on October 17th, North America on October 23rd
If you feel the current design of the PlayStation Store leaves a lot to be desired, then you'll probably be glad to hear it's being totally revamped. A new UI should do a better job of pushing fresh content at you, and its appearance will be consistent regardless of whether you're outputting in standard or high def. Searching has been improved to handle abbreviations and misspellings, and a dynamic list of suggestions will try to work out what you're looking for as you type. Also, Vita and PSP content will be separated, new filters will be available and content hubs will offer everything linked to a certain title, à la the Xbox 360 Marketplace. Sound good? Well, there's not long to wait – it'll be launching in PAL regions (Europe, Asia, Australia and others) on October 17th, while North Americans will receive it almost a week later, on October 23rd.
Sony shuts down PSP Comic Store after October 30th, leaves most of us in the lurch for now
PSP Comic Store, we hardly knew ye. No really, we hardly knew ye -- which is probably why Sony is warning PSP owners that its comic book portal is shutting down after October 30th. Come Hallowe'en, we'll lose the option to download the necessary app or buy additional titles. Any currently owned comics will be available to download again until mid-January, but readers will be on their own to preserve existing libraries after that. Outside of Japan, that creates significant problems for literary PlayStation fans: while PS Vita owners in Sony's home country will get a Manga store and reader in October, there's no equivalent crutch for other countries (or any PSP owners) at this stage. The console maker is non-committal and says there's nothing it can discuss "at the moment," which to us is a hint that we shouldn't plan our reading hours around a PSP or PS Vita in the near future. [Thanks, Sooraj]
Fox kicks off its Digital HD initiative by joining Google Play and YouTube, offering movies early
Fox embraced a radical thought when it outlined its Digital HD initiative earlier this month: customers are more likely to buy digital movies if the content isn't artificially delayed and priced to match the releases on conventional discs. The studio is about to see if that gamble on common sense pays off. As of today, you'll find 600-plus Fox movies ready to buy or rent in HD across every major digital video store in the US, with many downloads cleared to arrive ahead of their physical counterparts at lower prices that reflect a disc-free reality. The media giant has also decided to play nicely with Google after a longstanding absence, putting its movies and TV shows on Google Play Movies and YouTube. Its tentpole movie release Prometheus is unsurprisingly being used as the prime incentive to try Digital HD; the title is available online three weeks before the Blu-ray launch at a more reasonable $15 price. The sci-fi thriller is even Fox's first movie destined for UltraViolet cloud lockers. Only Americans will have expanded access to movies and TV at first, but it shouldn't be too long before many countries can be creeped out by Michael Fassbender's android -- including on their Android devices.
Sony Japan: PSOne classics coming to Vita in summer update, PlayStation 3 to get downloadable PS2 catalog later this month
If you've been aching to wile away hundreds more hours replaying Final Fantasy classics on the go, then Sony Japan's got some good news for you. It's finally revealed that the ability to play those charming, if a little dated, PSOne titles will arrive on the PS Vita's next software update, version 1.80, later this summer. This little nugget was tucked away behind the news that a handful of PS2 titles, playable on all versions of the PS3, will launch in the Japanese PlayStation Store on July 25th. The first wave of titles include Biohazard Code: Veronica, Siren and Dragon Force, all priced between 800 and 1,200 yen. No news yet, however, on when (or if) a similar retro-gaming bounty will arrive outside of Japan.
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.
Pulled PSP titles restored to the Vita, security holes covered with tape
Seething about the removal of Everybody's Tennis or Motorstorm: Arctic Edge from the PlayStation Store? Relax, Sony's restored both PSP-titles in time for you to play 'em all through the weekend. Of course, both are now neutered (along with the Vita's firmware) so they can't be used to load arch-hacker Wololo's Vita Half-Byte Loader -- but it hardly matters, they've already got another top-secret exploit ready to launch on an unsuspecting world.
PSA: PlayStation Network goes down for maintenance from 9am EST
Sony is taking its PlayStation Network offline for another health check, starting this morning. During the 13-hour tune-up, you won't be able to access PlayStation Home, Store, their account or play online. Similarly, official PlayStation sites will also go down, but you can steel yourself through those offline hours by checking on the PlayStation Twitter account, which will provide all the latest details.
PS Vita gets (another) firmware update, free-to-play Montezuma Blitz available now
It's been barely a week since the last one, but Sony's now begun rolling out firmware version 1.67. It's another meaty download, weighing in at just under 100MB, although there's no detail on what it changes -- we're still exploring the update. Following the refresh, you can also pick up the PS Vita's latest free game, Montezuma Blitz, a Bejewelled-style puzzle game. However, it's not the first game to be offered up free on the Vita and some pesky in-game purchases taint that freebie status a little. Both the update and game are available to download on your Vita now.
