Variety's video games reporter Ben Fritz looked into Sony's announcement yesterday about their video download service; turns out Sony has been in talks with all the major movie studios, but none have signed onto the PS3 download service just yet. It seems that Sony is looking to compete with Xbox Live Video Marketplace by adding extra features, such as allowing the owner of the download to transfer a copy of the movie to their PSPs, similar to their plans for Blu-ray. However, more features means more complicated contracts with studios, possibly leading to less content for the video download service on launch date. Fritz feels that if the PS3 download service has the same or better features as Xbox Live, it won't have problems getting major studios to participate.
Sony does have at least one studio backing it up though, and that is Sony Pictures. If they can convince just one other studio to sign on, they will have the same amount of studios Xbox Live Video market place had when it begin at the end of 2006. What do you guys think? Should Sony opt for more features, but have less content at launch? Or should they forget about the features and get as many studios to sign on as possible?
If your vocal chords simply can't get enough exercise from singing stuff on SingStar, you might love to know what's new on their SingStore. We'll list the songs in English below, but if you're interested in other languages, we'll add those after the cut. This is a good update for those who love ... uh ... Avril Lavigne? It's a fairly varied batch of choices, so watch your wallets carefully.
Avril Lavigne - Complicated
Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack - Tonight I Celebrate My Love
Good Charlotte - I Just Wanna Live
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
Shocking Blue - Venus
Golden Earring - Radar Love
The Hives - Hate To Say I Told You So
Hard-Fi - Hard To Beat
Avril Lavigne - My Happy Ending
Erik Faber - Not Over
Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died In Your Arms
R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts
Wilson Phillips - Hold On
Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You shouldn't've)?
Alphabeat - Fantastic 6
The Vines - Get Free
Roy Orbison - Only The Lonely (Know The Way I Feel)
Westlife - Queen Of My Heart
The Hoosiers - Cops N Robbers
Coldplay - Shiver
Coldplay - The Scientist
Duran Duran - The Reflex
Moloko - Sing It Back
Aslan - This Is
As we said before, songs from other lands or in other languages are after the cut. It would probably be fun to try them out at least once ... of course, it would be an easier choice to make if they were free.
It's starting. Maybe. What we thought was a marvelous adventure of free online courtesy of Sony may start to end up slapping price tags on more or what was initially free. The first offender is this screenshot taken from the Hong Kong PS Store -- when you try to download a PS3 theme for the upcoming title Dark Mist, you're asked to pay $7.00HK -- roughly $1 in the US. It's not much, but it's infinitely more expensive than free.
Xbox 360 owners will be familiar with this practice, as many dashboard themes and gamerpics will cost a dollar or two. Will this new idea bleed onto the other PS Stores? Would you pay for a theme on your PS3?
There's an interesting article over at BlogCritics -- they recently did a similar post on the Xbox Live service, so it's not like they're being one-sided. Basically, what are the five things the PSN has to address to remain relevant? We'll list their ideas below, but if you want to read more, check out their site. It's a pretty good read.
More content -- both original and classic titles: basically, more PSN releases and definitely start beefing up the PS One collection in stores outside of Japan.
Unified updates and stop delaying releases: The Japan PS Store, US PS Store, and EU PS Store all update at different times with different content. It's weird. Delaying releases (new Rock Band tracks released on a Tuesday, but aren't available on the PSN until Thursday) is also an irritation to be fixed.
Release Home: this is pretty self-explanatory. Home needs to release -- with it will be trophies, accomplishments, in-game XMB (allegedly), and launching games via Home. Releasing it would be nice, but we have to wait a bit longer.
Video and music should be here by now: Sony has its paws in tons of music and movie studios. Why is it taking so long to create and release video and music on the PS Store? It should come and soon, but who knows.
In-Game XMB: You know everything they have to say about this feature, probably. It's been cried for since the console's launch. It'll happen eventually. But it should've happened long ago.
Of course, our explanations of the choices aren't the same as those used by BlogCritics -- they go much more in-depth with their reasoning. It's a cool read and their choices aren't bad or too demanding at all. What do you guys think? What would you add to the PlayStation Network, given the chance?
This Thursday update will surprise our Canadian friends. SCEA has announced that it will adjust prices on content available on the PLAYSTATION Store for Canadian customers. According to the press release, "the adjustment comes as a result of the strengthening Canadian currency and SCEA's ability to localize pricing within the PLAYSTATION Store." The prices will be adjusted during a window of time prior to Thursday's content update. As a result, we recommend all our Canadian readers to wait until tomorrow's content has gone live before purchasing anything this week. You'll most likely save a few bucks.
"We are continually looking for ways to enhance the player experience on the PLAYSTATION®Network, and downloadable content through the PLAYSTATION Store is just one of our areas of focus," said Grace Chen, Senior Manager for the PLAYSTATION Store. "We anticipate that this price adjustment will meet the expectations of our Canadian consumers and provide them with a better PLAYSTATION Network experience."
Are you looking for something to put next to your alarm clock, MP3 charge station, PS3, or other eclectic figurine collections? Perhaps Sony's new Japanese mascot, Toro, will fit nicely amongst your other strange goods from the land of the rising sun. Toro's friends are also available for your collecting urges.
If you've ever ventured onto the Japanese PS Store, you've probably seen this cat in a bunch of different places. It was the first game to feature customizable soundtracks, if we remember correctly. Anyway, the figure comes with detachable faces that can represent how you feel that day. Or how you wish you felt. Enjoy!
Almost all of the news coming out of the recent Destination PlayStation retailer conference has been regarding various releasedates. Kotaku, however, is reporting that a small extra rumor might have snuck out of the conference concerning the PSN store and a (much needed) redesign. Nothing's official or confirmed as of yet, but the rumor is out there and that's enough to get us to cross our fingers.
We've often lambasted Sony for the state of the PSN Store and its horrific design, so we would love to see a redesign. The rumor goes that this store overhaul will come in April, around the same time Gran Turismo 5: Prologue hits and will resemble the Singstar SingStore. Sounds good to us, the Singstore is much flashier, easier to use and more practical than the current PSN store. Of all the rumors we've heard so far this year, this is the one we'd most like to see come to fruition.
It's the day you've all been waiting for (unless, of course, you're waiting around for Pain). Everyday Shooter is finally available in Europe - and it only took five months! Good going SCEE! There's also a demo and some DLC for GHIII. Here's the full release list:
Riff: Everyday Shooter full game (£4.99/€7.99)
Guitar Hero III "Classic Rock Track Pack" add-on (£3.99/€5.99)
Everybody's Golf 5 demo (free)
Conflict: Denied Ops teaser trailer (free)
Conflict: Denied Ops "Developer Diary 1" (free)
Conflict: Denied Ops "Developer Diary 2" (free)
Resident Evil 5 wallpaper (free)
Super Stardust HD theme (free)
Spiderwick movie trailer (free)
No PS1 games? Maybe we're being spoilt ... We're just so happy to finally see Everyday Shooter available in Europe. If you want to know what we thought of the game, check out our review and, if you want to see more screenshots, have a look at the gallery below. It's very pretty.
Another Thursday, another PSN update and, boy, have we got a treasure trove of content for you? Well, not really. There's a lot here but a lot is filler. Go! Sports Skydiving is almost certainly not worth a purchase, though Crash Bandicoot 3 definitely is. Here's the full release list:
Go! Sports Skydiving full game ($4.99)
Crash Bandicoot: Warped PS1 game ($5.99)
Lost Planet demo (free)
Rock Band DLC
Kiss' "Calling Dr. Love" ($1.99)
B-52's "Roam" ($1.99)
Faith No More's "We Care A Lot" ($1.99)
Motorstorm "Chinese New Year" add-on (free)
MLB 08 The Show "First Look" video (free)
Uncharted "Final trailer" (free)
Burnout Paradise "Dev Diary" video (free)
Burnout Paradise "Launch Trailer 1" (free)
Burnout Paradise "Launch Trailer 2" (free)
Conflict: Denied Ops "Dev Diary 1" (free)
Wall-E movie trailer (free)
30 Days of Night Blu-Ray trailer (free)
Uncharted Wallpaper 6 (free)
Uncharted Wallpaper 7 (free)
We've always been curious as to why we receive "Launch Trailers" on the store several weeks after the game's initial launch. Is it some attempt at ironic humour? Who knows. Have you downloaded Crash Bandicoot: Warped yet? No? Well get a move on!
In keeping with two weeks ago, Capcom will be placing a multiplayer demo for the upcoming Xbox 360 port Lost Planet on the US PSN Store the same day it arrived in Japan. As with the DMC4 demo two weeks ago, Europe has missed out on the demo and so will probably get it next week - though no doubt most of you will be picking it up from the US Store today anyway.
The US Store update isn't up yet, but we'll let you know what's available as soon as we find out. If you don't want to wait until then, you can go ahead and grab it from the Japanese Store. It looks like the servers are worldwide, meaning the version you have won't restrict who you play against. Read our complete impressions here.
Blimey Sony, give us time to get out of bed before updating the store, won'tcha? Today's early store update is not bad at all. A short list, yes, but there's no filler content here. Here's the full release list:
If you fancy the look of Lost Planet, don't forget that there's a demo available on the Japanese PSN Store. As for Sky Diving, we'll probably have a review up of the game before too long. We're not expecting much, but you never know. Enjoy your free game add-ons - the Folklore "Malion" pack contains the winner of the European "Design a Folk" competition, which was won by Jeff Read from the UK.
The PlayStation 3 is experiencing a power surge. No, it didn't ingest PowerThirst, but people have been purchasing the system and utilizing the PlayStation Store more than even Sony expected. SCEE president and CEO, David Reeves, expressed that very sentiment in regards to the European market: "We've gone from zero to almost double-digit millions in terms of what people have purchased in euros." Awesome.
If this is any indication of Sony's 2008 domination (relative to their performance in 2007), we're off to a great start. We wonder how PSN sales are doing in the US and Japan, because quite frankly, Europe has often gotten the shaft when it comes to downloadable titles. We can only imagine if there will be another surge when Home releases, or if we'll get a surprising lull. Who knows.
Need For Speed ProStreet "Premium Car Bundle 1" add-on pack ($5.99)
Need For Speed ProStreet "Premium Car Bundle 2" add-on pack ($5.99)
Tony Hawk's Proving Grounds "Stevie Williams Skater Profile" video (free)
We'll save you some counting; there are two demos, two full games and seven game add-ons. As a result, this may in fact be the best update we've seen yet. PixelJunk Monsters is a great little game and we should have a review up for you soon. In the meantime, if you want to try it out for yourself without paying, grab the demo off the Japanese PSN Store. Don't be afraid, it's in English.
We've wanted to test our ability to solve some Escher-like puzzles since we first saw Echochrome. The date is drawing closer and closer for its release, with a March release in Japan. Maybe we're crazy, but we doubt there will be much localization to do for other countries so we'd think it'll show up shortly after the Japanese launch. The Japan-only PSP version of the game releases on March 19th, the same as the PSN title. Will the two be compatible in any way? Share puzzles? We'll see.
If you were in the video game news business many years ago, you may remember a game called Vib Ribbon. It was a sort of musical game, a rhythm game if we may, sort of like PaRappa the Rapper. This game was different on the original PlayStation though, as it allowed you to slide in any audio CD you wanted to use as your rhythm tracks.
Unique levels and clever programming were everywhere and now the title is coming to the PSN. Will it be a remake? Will it be a port of the original? It's a natural fit for allowing the use of any music you want. We'll keep you posted as more information becomes available, but this is a classic game that should not be overlooked.
