PS3 Fanboy

Sorry this post is a bit late but SingStar has been, quite frankly, the last thing on our mind over the last day or say. Regardless, the SingStore has been updated with another eclectic collection of songs -- most of which we've never heard of. Business as usual, then. Again, Europe has bragging rights over the number of new tracks when compared to America. That's 25 versus 16 this week, for those keeping score at home. From the looks of things, Americans aren't missing out on much this week except, sadly, another Queen song. Check after the break for the full release list; tracks are available in Europe only, unless stated otherwise.

Plenty of new songs for you Singaholics today in the latest SingStar SingStore update. We're happy to finally see Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" on the list, not to mention our surprise at the inclusion of The Dandy Warhol's "We Used To Be Friends." There's plenty more to see after the break in the full list of releases. Unfortunately, it seems that the American SingStore has fewer new songs than are available in Europe. Unless stated otherwise all songs in the following list are on the European SingStore only. Which ones will you be buying today?

Sony has confirmed to us today that SingStar Vol 2 will be released in Europe on June 20th. Those lucky Australians will get it on June 19th -- technically almost two days earlier, thanks to the time difference. Vol 2 will feature a new pack of thirty songs, none of which are currently available on the SingStore. Sony is careful to tell us that licensing songs for a disc and licensing for the SingStore are two very different things, so don't expect to see these tunes available for download day and date with Vol 2's release. There's no reason why they won't be up eventually, however.

If you fancy seeing the really rather excellent tracklist for Vol 2 then take a peek after the jump. Sure, changing discs mid-party is a bit of a pain, but Sony has made is as painless as possible. We're particularly excited about the Killers, Kaiser Chiefs and Nirvana tracks. Good stuff, indeed.

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.

Speaking to Paulina Bozek, Producer of SingStar, at the PlayStation Day event we were able to gather a few details about the development team's plans for the year. High on their list is the integration of My SingStar Online, the game's online community service, with the official SingStar website. This will allow people who don't have a copy of the game to view the videos which have been uploaded by the community. Obviously this will be a huge boon, marketing-wise, as it will allow videos from the game to go viral, potentially scoring more customers.

Privacy is very important and with My SingStar Online being such a closed service right now (only accessible via the game) people see it as a safe place to put videos. When the integration with the we occurs later this year players will be given the choice to upload their videos only to the closed SingStar network or the internet. The details have yet to be ironed out, but this is a service we're very much looking forward to.

We also asked Bozek about region-specific content for Europe and the US. The SingStar team has "no interest" in exclusive content for any particular regions. Tracks will be made available worldwide as much as possible. The only thing that would prevent this is for licensing issues or censorship to get in the way. The team is committed to delivering at least 50 songs per month in Europe and America, with a SingStore update occurring every two weeks.

If you don't feel like downloading this 300+ MB trailer off the PSN, then you can alternatively watch it livestreaming here. There's some new SOCOM Confrontation footage to look at as well as other upcoming titles like Elefunk, LittleBigPlanet, SingStar, and Siren Blood Curse.

Also, check out the video after the break. It's Buzz from Buzz! Quiz TV showing us the all new features: choose a category, My Buzz connectivity, and other downloadable content.

Want to get your hands on SingStar (PS3) and Secret Agent Clank (PSP) before everyone else? Then you'll head off to the Bamboozle Festival this weekend. The two-day alternative music festival takes place this Saturday and Sunday at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, NJ. The festival features headliners, such as Snoop Dogg, Jimmy Eat World, and Panic at the Disco. The PlayStation Patrol Truck will be attending, and will showcase a number of PS3 games, such as SingStar, MLB 08: The Show and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Various PSP Zones will also be at the festival, and will feature titles like Secret Agent Clank and God of War: Chains of Olympus.

Playing well at the PlayStation Patrol Truck could net you the chance to meet Bamboozle artists. Top players will have the chance to challenge artists such as Armor For Sleep, Chiodos, Circa Survive, The Color Fred, The Audition and All Time Low. Winners will receive VIP access to the show.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit The Bamboozle Festival's official website. To see who else is attending, feel free to use the event's Facebook page.

As mentioned earlier, the US SingStore launch is something to get excited about. The Blu-ray disc (available alone for $40, or bundled with mics for $60), contains 30 tracks to get the party started. Afterwards, you can access the SingStore and download new tracks for only $1.49 each. Check out the entire song list, after the cut. And don't forget to enjoy our brand new screens from the game:

SingStar is finally coming to American PS3 systems next month. On May 20th, PS3 fans will be able to pick up the game in either a standalone SKU or one that includes two microphones. The microphone and game combo will be $59.99, while the standalone disc will be $39.99. PS2 SingStar microphones will work with the PS3 game. The disc will feature 30 different songs. As usual for the franchise, each song includes the music video (in HD, if available).

The American SingStore will feature over 200 songs for the US launch. However, it will be slightly different than the European Store."It's because of different broadcasting standards," a SCEA producer told us. Some content that's appropriate in Europe may not be accepted here in the States. The plan is to update each month with 25-50 new songs.

An exciting direction for the US SingStore is a new focus on independent music. Indie bands can create videos for distribution in the SingStore, with Sony taking care of rights and clearance. The SingStore will also expand to include support for song packs in the future. Like Rock Band, song packs may include discounts. Full albums are being considered as well.

Europe sure loves SingStar. In the first four months since the release of the SingStore, one million tracks have been downloaded across the PAL region. Other aspects of the SingStar community have become quite successful, as well. My SingStar Online has over 140,000 registered users. The official website has over 20,000 user-submitted videos, which have been watched over 2.5 million times. Wow.

The franchise has also sold over 12 million copies, over its multiple iterations (SingStar Bollywood, anyone?). The immense success of SingStar is great news for Sony -- will America be able to recreate that success when it launches on PS3 next month?

Sony let slip that their upcoming PS3 singing game, SingStar, will be striking American PS3 systems on May 20th. The game will be playable at this weekend's Coachella music festival, out in sunny California. Also playable at the Sony-sponsored event will be LittleBigPlanet and the already-released Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

We're still waiting for more details on the song list, and the US version of the SingStore. Hopefully, it won't be too long before all the details will be revealed.

We were getting worried that SCEA had forgotten about SingStar. It's been a long time coming, but SingStar is finally getting prepared for US release, months after the European launch. Since then, the SingStore has been expanding (albeit rather slowly), and a controversial "Volume 2" was already announced for European release.

Details on the impending US release of SingStar are few and far for now. When's the official release date? What songs will be included in the US version? What will be available on the SingStore? How much will it cost? Will it include the "Volume 2" enhancements? There's a lot to answer and, trust us, you'll find out soon enough.

ThreeSpeech has conducted an interview with Paulina Bozek, Producer of SingStar, in order to find out what's going on with SingStar vol 2 and the SingStore. Thankfully, the interview answers a lot of pending questions we had after vol 2's announcement. For starters, the "Harmony Mode" will be made available for SingStar vol 1 owners who don't want to buy another disc as a free update.

As for whether vol 2's songs will be placed on the SingStore, Bozek was a little more vague, saying that "licensing music for digital distribution is a different process to that of the disc-based product. When Vol 2 is released a number of tracks from the disc-based product will also be available to buy in the SingStore." This probably means that if you want all the songs on the disc, you'll probably have to pick it up off the shelf. Unfortunately, this means there will be some disc swapping involved as Bozek states that "SingStar tracks from the disc cannot be stored on the PS3 hard drive."

As far as new songs for the SingStore goes, Sony's London Studio are aiming to add "approximately 50 songs a month to the SingStore." A decent number, but we're looking for quality over quantity, which means fewer updates like today's, please. Check out the full interview for more info on Remote Play, the SingStore and wireless mics.

Another huge update of multi-European-language tracks will be hitting the Euro SingStore this Friday. SingStar fans will be getting quite a huge selection of songs -- those which will be used in sustaining the will to shatter friends' eardrums in a drunken haze. If you've been looking for more songs to shriek sing to, then this update will keep you comfortable for a while.

Now, this blogger is not too familiar with a lot of these songs, so you'll have to forgive him if he's only really happy to see Placebo's "Every You Every Me" on that list. To check the whole thing out, hit the jump. For the English tracks, just look below:

English Language

• GANGgajang - Sounds Of Then (This Is Australia)
• Placebo - Every You Every Me
• Corinne Bailey Rae - I'd Like To
  
• Dover - Serenade
  
• The Gift - Ok! Do You Want Something Simple?
  
• The Gift - Question Of Love
  
• Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite
  
• The Pipettes - Pull Shapes
  
• The Magic Numbers - Forever Lost
  
• Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)
  
• Roy Orbison - Crying
  
• Duran Duran - Ordinary World
  
• Maximo Park - Girls Who Play Guitars
  
• Natasha Bedingfield - These Words
  
• Billy Joel - Piano Man
  
• Billy Joel - It's Still Rock And Roll To Me
  
• Bic Runga - Sway

As previously rumored Sony will be releasing a second volume of casual sing-em-up SingStar for the PS3. While SingStar Vol. 2 will be little more than a 30-song expansion (much like the many, many PS2 SingStars available) there will be an additional gameplay mode available. There's no indication as to whether the songs on the disc are already available on the SingStore or, if not, whether they'll be made available soon after release.

We're wondering exactly why Sony are releasing a second volume. Wasn't the SingStore meant to prevent this sort of thing? Considering the market it's designed for (casual gamers) we can sort of understand if the extra volumes are released for people who have no intention of signing up to the PlayStation Network. But more gameplay modes? We hope to see this new "Harmony mode" released as a free download for SingStar Vol 1 users who do use the SingStore. If not, expect users of the original game to be quite angry. The release of Volume 2 brings with it more questions than answers, such as a price or release date. Also, how will this affect the still-pending US release? Stay tuned.