PS3 Fanboy

There's no better way to prove you're a Killzone 2 fanboy than to don a Killzone costume in PlayStation Home. amazon.com is offering a unique promo for those that pre-order the upcoming FPS on their site. According to the online retailer, players will receive "costume pieces for your head, torso, legs, hands and feet; you can customize your Home avatar to look like an ISA Soldier, a Helghast Assault Trooper, or something in between." This offer is currently an exclusive to the retailer, so you may want to take advantage of this rather unique deal. The patient types, however, will wait and see what other shops are offering for pre-ordering the game.

[Via NeoGAF; Thanks, Noshino!]

Congrats! You unlocked a Trophy! Time to sync it up with ... Oh, wait. Looks like there's a bug in the PlayStation Network right now, preventing users from syncing their Trophy data with the servers. You won't be able to compare Trophies with friends, with a frustrating error message (80022D27) popping up at every attempt.

Considering the large number of complaints on the PlayStation Forums, it looks as though this is a widespread Network-wide outage. There's no word yet on what's causing this problem or when it'll be fixed. Stay tuned.

[Thanks, Tariq!]

Looks like your ol' friend, the PlayStation Network, is taking a bit of nap this morning. The service will be undergoing "regular scheduled maintenance." And you know what that means -- free God of War III demo for everyone!*


* No.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is launching "Get in the Game" tonight, a project which will offer five hopeful developers a chance to make content on the PlayStation Network. Ultimately, five creative teams will be chosen to receive GBP 10,000 each to prototype their ideas over the first three months of 2009. If good enough, these prototypes may be realized as games for release on PS3.

SCEE will be holding a free workshop in December to give developers better insight into what makes a PlayStation Network title.

The PlayStation Network video service has been rapidly growing with a plethora of HD and SD downloads and rentals. This holiday will see the service expand to over 1,000 movies and 2,500 television shows. "The consumer demand we've seen for our PlayStation Network video delivery service is phenomenal, and we expect continued momentum this holiday season with a line-up of blockbuster movies that offer something for everyone," said Susan Panico, Senior Director of PlayStation Network. "Complementing this demand for high-definition downloadable content, the new 160GB PS3 bundle enables customers to download and store even more movies, TV shows, games, music and photos, making the PS3 the ultimate entertainment center and holiday gift."

Some of the movies planned for the holiday include:

• The Dark Knight (12/9)
• Fred Claus (11/25)
• Hancock – rated and unrated(11/25)
• Horton Hears a Who (12/9)
• Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (11/26)
• Step Brothers – unrated(12/2)
• X-Files: I Want To Believe (12/2)

Who knew making things free makes them more attractive? Although the Xbox 360 has a larger install base, it appears Sony has caught up with the number of connected users going online. Sony has announced 14 million users have registered on PlayStation Network -- a number matching Xbox LIVE's headcount (announced at TGS last month).

Because PlayStation Network is free, people may be less hesitant to jump in and dive into online gaming and shopping. It also means that the numbers may be slightly inflated, as people may own more than one account per machine. Regardless, we're glad that Sony has been able to support such a large number of people on their console for free -- an impressive feat.

[Thanks, Cameron!]

Hate the long delays between game releases in America, Europe and Japan? Well, that may be over, according to a report by GameDaily. A change in the game approval process means developers can submit to just one territory, and gain approval in all. "Previously games had to be submitted separately through Sony Europe, Japan, and America. Now, the game idea is sent through a single website for approval."

Sony is hoping this will encourage even more developers to release their games on PlayStation Network. They'll continue to tout the benefits of the PSN: it's free, doesn't require a publishing partner, and can be distributed around the world simultaneously. Will developers be able to refuse this kind of offer?

With so much user-generated content being placed onto the PlayStation Network through Game 3.0 titles, like SingStar and LittleBigPlanet, it's unsurprising that Sony's terms of use have a clause that allows them to redistribute and use user-generated content without compensation for the original creators. "You authorize and license SCEA a royalty free and perpetual right to use, distribute, copy, modify, display, and publish your User Material for any reason without any restrictions or payments to you or any third parties."

For example, Sony could show off your latest LittleBigPlanet level in a commercial they air. Or, they may show off your amazing drunken SingStar vid in a magazine ad. Maybe they'll make money off ads that run in your private apartment in Home. There are a lot of possibilties.

However, there is one fear, as pointed out by I have the Princess. Could Sony also redistribute user-generated levels from LittleBigPlanet as paid DLC? If so, there's no entitlement for the creators to gain a single penny off of those purchases. We doubt something this drastic will happen. Instead, we still believe LBP creators might, just might, have a chance to get rich off the game.

Did anyone else notice that with the latest firmware update, the PLAYSTATION Store and PLAYSTATION Network have reverted back to the less-loud PlayStation Store and PlayStation Network. Does this mean the PS3 is now PlayStation 3 (it's officially spelled PLAYSTATION 3)? What do you prefer?

Do you see yourself downloading movies or television shows off the PS Store?
	Yes, this is what I always wanted.
	No, don't really need it.
	Maybe, if there's a good selection.
	Other: tell us in the comments

Here's a nifty feature some of you have been looking forward to -- an official way to display your PSN ID on various websites. Obviously, you will need to have a PSN account. You will also need to sign up for a PlayStation Underground account as well if you do not already have one. Linking to the two of them together will allow you access to the PLAYSTATION Network portable ID. The PSN portable ID "is a visual summary of your PLAYSTATION®Network account, including your Avatar, "About Me" message and Online ID." There is even an HTML code provided for you to display this information wherever you please.

You can also now access your Friend List via the PSU -- in addition to the information on their portable ID, you will see their online status. If online, you can view their comment/status and what game they are currently playing. If they are offline, you can see when they were last online. At this time, you cannot manage your Friend List via the PSU. So what are you waiting for? Link your accounts up here.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Just a foreword: we're not trying to instigate any console wars or flame wars here. This is just a pretty interesting article written objectively from the mouth of a self-proclaimed "Xbot" -- whatever that is. The author goes on to explain why he feels now is a pretty good time to switch from the 360 to the PS3. He points out a few good reasons and we'll outline them below. It's up to you to confirm or deny these ideas; come to your own conclusions about the reasons and let us know!

First off, he points to the 2.40 update (once it gets ironed out for those experiencing problems), saying it brings the PSN to almost all the same features as Xbox Live and it's free. The price is no longer a complaint, considering the built-in WiFi and the ease of replacing the standard 40GB hard drive with any 2.5" SATA drive. Blu-ray is inevitably going to become the next media format for gaming and movies (digital downloads are a ways off). PS3 comes standard with Blu-ray capabilities. His next point is about the open peripherals of the PS3: almost any device you can plug into it will work and the hard drive is very simple to replace with any laptop hard drive. The PS3's media center support is great, too -- DivX codecs are supported and most audio and picture files are as well. He concludes by stating the PS3 has no RRoD problems and trophy support will become just as addicting as gamer scores.

Those are his points and he feels it's a good time to move onto the PS3. Surely, many will disagree and others will nod in accord. But it's not about making a list of features -- it's about your opinion on the matter, given the information. Leave yours below!

Sony may have already proved that they're listening to what we want with the redesign of the PSN Store, but there are plenty of other features people are clamoring for from the service. Peter Dille, Senior Vice President of the PlayStation Network, has written a post on the PS.Blog letting everyone know that they are listening and that features are coming. Specifically, he confirms that in-game XMB is coming this year, along with a video download service (for North America) and "other community-related services."

There's lots of exciting stuff to come this year then, not to mention Home which will (literally) add a whole new dimension to the PlayStation Network. Dille promises that more information on the video download service will be coming "very soon" and states that we should "stay tuned" for "more announcements on the expanding community functions within PLAYSTATION Network in the near future." Trust us, Peter (can we call you Peter?). We've been "tuned" for over a year now. Let's here more about those features ASAP, please.

Lastly, the PlayStation Network cards are finally getting released in the US. They're shipping out to retailers this Spring and will allow you to add either $20 or $50 to your PSN wallet. Handy for those of you who don't have a credit card.

[Thanks to everyone that sent this in!]

Wow, more and more rumors popping up on the interwebs are proving to be true. This time around, the rumor about an April PSN store overhaul has been confirmed in an interview with John Hight, SCEA's director of product development. Hight is quoted saying, "I think you will see a pretty big change in the PlayStation Network in the early part of April, where we roll out some new interface stuff largely based on customer feedback." So, we now know there's definitely a redesign coming, but we're still in the dark about new content like, oh say, that rumored video download service.

Also in the interview, Hight confirms that the rumored expansion for Warhawk should hit the PSN by April, too. Hight stated, "We just released an expansion on Warhawk in September, and we'll release another one in April." Further more, when questioned about Japanese PS1 games on the American PSN store, Hight had this to say, "I'm pretty darn sure they will [appear on the American PSN], but I don't know which titles." Now hold your horses, what that probably means is that we could be seeing a similar title catalog, and not that Japanese version games will appear on the US PSN. Nice, but not a guarantee. Well, we'd be happy if we could just get Resident Evil 2 in our store ...