Take two looking into subscription model for AAA titles

Take Two boss Strauss Zelnick says that the company's looking into using a subscription pricing model for its triple A games. "The holy grail is taking a business, already a very large and successful business that's focused on packaged goods that you sell once and then are occasionally resold by others with new benefit to us, and turning that into a subscription business or a semi subscription business where we have an ongoing relationship with consumers, giving them products that they want," he said, speaking at the BMO Capital Markets conference.

"The AAA titles that people really want to have... are in the best position for this business model."

It's unsurprising that Take Two is looking into it. Not only is there potential to get a steady flow of income from your audience, it would help to cut out the second-hand gaming market, a market that publishers don't directly see returns from. One of their main problems might be in trying to get the publishing model to fit with the development cycles of single-player games- traditionally a cycle that sees most of the content released in one go after a protracted development cycle.

via CVG

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The PS2 is now an "open platform" in Europe

In a surprisingly canny move, Sony has declared that the PS2 is an "open platform" in Europe. Before you had to get official approval from Sony to get a game release, but that's no longer the case. You'll still have to have a PS2 dev kit to develop games, although Sony apparently lends them out. In practice, this means it's a lot cheaper for indie developers to make games for the substantial PS2 user base.

It's a smart idea. No doubt we'll get some more dubious stuff appearing- I don't give it long before some developer tries to cobble together a porn title- but there's also the chance we'll see some really great indie stuff appearing. It's a good way of giving a little more life to a console. Of course, you still have to have a fair amount of cash to cover publishing and distribution, but the barriers to entry have definitely been lowered.

GameDaily via CVG

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PS3 Firmware 2.5 is live, adds Flash 9 support

PS3 Firmware 2.5 is live, adds Flash 9 support

The latest PS3 firmware update is live. It's one of those non-essential manual updates that you have to select Network Update to activate, but unlike the last one, it does add some features. The biggest feature is probably support for Flash 9, which makes things a lot easier if you're a fan of web browsing on your PS3.

Other features include improvement of the account creation process for the PSN and easier account management. You'll also be able to get your wireless controllers and console to turn off automatically after a period of inactivity, and a scene search has been added to the Video category. It'll display in the control panel that pops up when you're watching video. Finally, you can queue up multiple videos to play in order by going into the newly renamed video settings (formerly known as BD/DVD settings). Exciting stuff.

via PS3Fanboy

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Guess what? Life with PlayStation is delayed

You might have guessed from the fact that Life with PlayStation didn't show up on any of last week's PSN updates, it has been delayed. Clever you. Despite being told that it would be out in July and then August, it seems that there's still a bit more spit and polish needed for the Wii News channel knock off.

Sony's official PlayStation blog broke the delay news, assuring everyone that the application is still "looking great" although the fact that we're still relying on shaky-cam shots taken during the very first conference unveiling as evidence of its existence speaks volumes about just how well the final product is doing.

However, Life with PlayStation does have one big trick up its sleeve, and that is Folding@Home compatibility. It must be the case that the Stanford research project has taken a hit since all the CoD4s, GTA IVs and MGS4s of this world showed up to use up those valuable PS3 Cell processor cycles, so even if Life with PlayStation isn't exactly a setting the world alight, at least it'll be doing some good.

Life with PlayStation is going to be freely available, surprise, surprise. Still no word on exactly when it'll be released though.

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Rumour: next PS3 Firmware to bring screen grab option

File this under 'quite neat'. CVG has a sneaky inside source that is spilling the alleged beans on the next major PS3 Firmware incarnation, version 2.50. In short, it will grant the new ability to grab screen shots.

They don't know how it will be done or what you'll do with them afterwards, but this is something that PC users have enjoyed for many a year, and with gaming communities growing ever larger and more people wanting to share their gaming achievements with the world, there's an obvious appeal to the idea.

With a bit of luck, stage two will be full blown video recording so you can save up all your favourite online kills. Meanwhile I have to wonder again how long it will be before PS3 gets something resembling a full blown photo editing suite. The writing is on the wall, surely.

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EIF 2008: IGA Worldwide co-founder explains why his in-game ad agency is not spyware, not evil, and not an ad agency

Speaking at the ongoing Edinburgh Interactive Festival, IGA Worldwide co-founder and Vice President for publisher relations, Ed Bartlett, explained to attendees that he is not "a big evil corporate guy". IGA owns advertising space in video games; it has recently signed a deal with Sony that will put advertising into PSN games - the reason you might suspect him of being big, evil and corporate is that he's the one who plans market to you while you play games online, an area which until now has been delightfully free of Gillette adverts and anti-smoking campaigns.

The problem IGA faces is that people are very sceptical about in-game advertising. It's hard to get round the idea of giant Burger King ads suddenly hogging up a chunks of sky or plastering the once gloomy back allies of your online playground.

Intrusive ads, popping up right in the way of what you're doing sounds very much like spyware. And we definitely don't like spyware. "We are not spyware," Bartlett stated. "We're not evil," he then added. In truth, in-game ad agencies probably can't afford to risk driving people away by spoiling their game immersion, or at least not at this extremely early point in the concept's life.

Immersion was a point Bartlett soon touched on: ""We're not looking to have billboards everywhere. We want to make sure they work in context," he said.

He was also keen to point out his gaming credentials - an impressive list ranging from Sega to Acclaim and The Bitmap Brothers. "We don't represent brands; we work with them," Bartlett explained after denying IGA was even an ad agency. "We are gaming experts -- we know games from the ground up. ...We are pioneers." A pioneering ad agency though, basically.

(via Gamasutra)

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Life with PlayStation will land this month

Yeah, yeah, we know that Jack Tretton said at E3 that Life with PlayStation would be out in July. We also know that there was a Firmware update earlier this week that suspiciously seemed to do bugger all. Nevertheless, it seems that Life with PlayStation is still struggling with some "procedural matters" and won't be out for a bit. It'll be landing in August. The fact that no more precise date is being placed on it could well mean a few more weeks of waiting.

Life with PlayStation is a new PS3 service that we currently know decidely little about. Even actual photos of the software is thin on the ground, hence the blurry pic. It intends to bring information from around the world to your console. It's basically a big old globe with weather and news and stuff.

Life with PlayStation has some potential to be interesting but I have the feeling that a lot the excitement surrounding the failure-to-launch-in-July is more to do with the fact that yet another PS3 service is late, not that PS3 owners are champing at the bit for Google Earth knock off. Still at least Sony's keeping the information flowing in the fans' direction.

(via PlayStation blog)

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New PS3 Firmware 2.42 now available, does nothing

I tell a lie, it does do something. "This update improves the playback quality of some PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation format software," writes the PlayStation Blog. Be careful not to knock over any old ladies in your desperation to get home and start it rolling, y'hear.

Actually, it's more interesting that Sony is still keen on these tiny, largely pointless updates. After the SNAFU that was Firmware 2.40, you'd really expect Sony to be a bit more cautious about these things, seeing as a seemingly small error can turn into a quite gigantic annoyance that reflects badly even when only a small proportion of users is affected.

There haven't been hundreds of users clamouring for 'some' of their PS3 software to have its playback improved, so Sony obviously has not been fazed by the hiccups of the recent past. Good on 'em - we hope that despite the risks, Sony keeps coming up with the update goods.

On the other hand though, do we seriously need to waste ten minutes prior to a game just for this crap?

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Sony PlayTV will record while you game

We're still smarting from our lack of TV and Movie PSN Store, but Sony has kindly come up with a sort of consolation prize: Sony PlayTV.

Yes, we've seen a lot of this before but there are a few new things to add to the equation. Firstly, Sony's tech goblins have been working day and night and to overcome a tricky technical hurdle. But they prevailed and SCEE president David Reeves has revealed that PlayTV will record even while you play a game.

The other revelation is that PlayTV will be out on September 10th. Its price is set at 99 Euros, which equates to a little short of 80 quid. I suspect £79.99 will be the price touted by most retailers. Unfortunately, that's still a bit too much to make it worthwhile, in my opinion. There are just so many online catch-up facilities available now that it's just not worth it. You could get TWO DualShock 3s for that money. Heck, you could probably get three games.

(via TechDigest)

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PSP Firmware 4.05 brings in music visualizers

PSP owners, set your PSPs to Update! via Internet! Confirm! Firmware 4.05 is out and ready to download.

Sony might have been expected to hold back the goods on Firmware updates for its consoles following the PS3 Firmware 2.40 fracas, but not so. It's not letting a few minor niggles get in the way of its tireless march to progress via frequent downloads; not one bit. This latest version brings, amongst "other things", new visualizers for you to ogle while you listen to music.

Very snazzy. Now then Sony, who wants to tweak the Remote Play settings so that I can see PSP visualisations but stream music off the PS3 (while keeping the audio output through my main amp). Sounds complicated but it'll save a ton of battery life!

But what are these mysterious other things? Why, something to do withthis probably.

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PSP Go!View is go!

Sony and Sky have announced that Go!View video on-demand service is now available for PSPs in the UK and RoI. You can sign up over at GoView.tv right now and get a free month long trial subscription.

Go!View essentially consists of a monthly subscription service that allows you to download content directly to your PC and then transfer it over to the handheld. It would have been nice to see a service make proper use of the PSP's wireless network connection, but the standard is probably far too old now to make for a practical download service. Not if you wanted any battery left afterwards anyway.

Because it is Sky, Go!View grants access to a pretty wide range of content provided by a large number of distributers and broadcasters, including Disney-ABC-ESPN Television, BBC Worldwide, Sony Pictures Television International, NBC Universal International Television Distribution, National Geographic and Sky Sports.

The payment system is a little bit more complicated than a straight forward per episode download (although that is available from £1.50 per show), encouraging you to subscribe to various packs. These consist of Entertainment, Comedy and Sports - a single pack costs £5, two cost £8 and all three sets you back £11.

Sony partners up with Double Fusion - in-game ad vultures are circling

Remember last month, when Sony buddied up with IGA Worldwide? Yeah, it wasn't exactly earth shattering. However, it's all part of a wider scheme to bring in more in-game advertising to the PS3. It's not stopping there though and a deal has been signed with yet another in-game ad company, Double Fusion.

"PS3 is open for the ad business," said Phil Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, SCEA. "We are very excited about hosting contextually relevant and well-crafted creative advertising on PS3," he added, "PlayStation is taking a major role in enabling this fast-developing sector that is both positive and inevitable for the games medium."

Forgive my cynicism, but should positive things necessarily go hand in hand with inevitable things? Oh never mind, it certainly is inevitable as companies realise that people are frighteningly good at ignoring all traditional venues of advertising. The idea of a game hosting a few tastefully done, suitable adverts in the right places isn't too repellent.

However, what is also inevitable is that somewhere down the line, an ad-company is going to go a step too far, and utterly ruin a game experience with their intrusive adverts. It WILL happen sooner or later. On the other hand, once marketing and online gaming cross over more and more, there's more potential for controversy, whether it be protests against an evil corporation or something that's totally un-pc. Or something accidentally hilarious. I'm looking forward to that side of it anyway.

Double Fusion (via Joystiq)

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PUMA collaborating with Sony on PS3's 'dress', but what on earth does that mean?

PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro is set to stage a worldwide preview of its collaboration with 'dress' for PlayStation 3 at Pitti Uomo.

I think that's officially the most confusing opening sentence I've ever written here. Okay, PUMA is some kind of fashion brand name apparently. I just thought it made football boots and tracky bottoms, but there you go. 'dress', which I'm putting in inverted comments because of its belligerent refusal to use a capital letter, is some kind of interactive fashion software made by Sony. Pitti Uomo, I have no idea about. I guess it's a real life fashion show.

Therefore 'dress' will be hosting PUMA's latest trainers and vest tops and so on, while at the same time as being shown on a real life catwalk, thus "bridging the gap between the virtual world and real world of fashion."

All fixed now - Firmware 2.41 finished and available for download

Wednesday, Schemensday - ahead of rumoured timings, Sony has seen fit to unleash Firmware 2.41. Following a slightly disastrous launch of Firmware 2.40 last week, Sony has been ironing out all the bugs and has come up with an upgrade that (hopefully) won't bork your console and will give full in-game XMB access to all those who missed the first opportunity.

I also noticed that this time my console didn't automatically remind me that an update was waiting, so just pop right into Settings --> System Update --> Update via Internet to find it.

Note also that if you did manage to update to 2.40 the other day, you will now need to run this extra update in order to access the PlayStation Store and play online. Isn't this FUN?

PS3 Firmware 2.41 out on Wednesday?

Word is spreading that an updated PS3 Firmware will be out on Wednesday, taking the version to 2.41 and granting in-game XMB access to all those like me who missed the small window of opportunity to upgrade last week.

If you somehow missed the fun and frivolity last week, Firmware 2.40 launched but with a major hiccup: it was killing some users' PS3s. As a result, it was pulled for further testing and presumably 2.41 has ironed out whatever kink it was that prevented it from installing properly.

2.41 should therefore provide a glitch-free upgrade process but is unlikely to do anything else. Given the nature of the problems experienced by last week's unfortunate victims, it has to be said that there's little chance of it providing a miracle cure for anyone with a now buggered PS3. Still, Sony has yet to make an official announcement on the subject so we've got our fingers and toes crossed for you.

(via Next-gen)

Sony promises "Trophies for every game", but can it really deliver?

Despite an apparent unwillingness from developers, Sony is making bold promises about the rollout of the brand new PS3 Trophy system. Eric Lempel, Director of PlayStation Network Operations has told GameSpy it's working hard to persuade developers to take up the opportunity.

However, there's a tinge of egotism to the statement. Lempel boldly promises that "Ultimately, we'll have trophies for every game," but acknowledges "we didn't want to force it on [developers] immediately". He also accepted that the time required to implement the Trophy update would eat into existing development schedules.

Disaster! Firmware 2.40 IS bricking PS3s - Sony pulls update

We certainly weren't the only ones reporting the problems suffered by many PS3 owners attempting to install the long-awaited PS3 Firmware 2.40 yesterday. Sony heard the deafening cries and has taken a drastic measure to solve the problem - Firmware 2.40 has been withdrawn and is no longer available to download.

As you'd expect, complaints on official forums and across the rest of the web are extremely vocal but even so, Sony is surprisingly eager to downplay the issue while it tries to find the root of the problem. Spokespeople are stating that the issue is only affecting a "limited number of users" and that the "consumer services department has seen a low volume of calls on this topic".

But though Sony might want to limit the damage as much as possible, this is little short of a PR disaster. Firmware 2.40 was long-anticipated and well-hyped for an extremely good reason: it offers a major improvement of the PS3's features set. If a bug is killing consoles, that's going to seriously impact on customer confidence.

Firmware 2.40 may be bricking PS3s!

Like the header says: Firmware 2.40 could spell death for your PS3. Panicking might be the safest bet.

Now normally, I don't hold much stock in these kind of reports. Invariably, whenever a new Firmware or a new game comes along, it causes death for someone's PS3, or so they claim.

At this moment though, the problem still apears to be growing to epidemic proportions. Currently, the most vocal complaints are to be found on the Official PlayStation boards in the US, with less evidence on official boards in other regions. This thread, helpfully entitled '2.40 broke my PS3' is a pretty obvious place to start. With only a couple of seconds of browsing I even found video evidence too:

Once again it seems to be the older 60GB PS3 models that are suffering the most. Which is even more concerning given that there aren't 60GB models being made any more.

The only (and highly unofficial) solution on offer is a complete reformat of your PS3 hard drive. Not exactly impossible to do, but then not ideal either. If you are suffering the same problem, unfortunately you won't be able to tell us about it, but we wish you the very best of luck.

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What won't Firmware 2.40 do?

We already have a pretty good idea of what Firmware 2.40 does do, mainly because we've done most of the same things a year or two ago on a rival system that it's impolite to mention the name of.

Whatever happens, we expect to be getting to grips with the system tomorrow when the upgrade launches. In the meantime though, you're probably thinking, 'Well, gee, that Firmware 2.40 does pretty much everything I ever wanted the PlayStation 3 to do'. And you're right, almost.

However, it would be pretty unusual for one PS3 update to actually solve all the problems we wanted to be solved, so here's a list of the things it doesn't do:

See Life with PlayStation in action

In addition to yesterday's brief bit of info, there's now a video floating around the web. It's shaky and in a foreign language, but hey, you can see stuff happening. It could be really exciting stuff, and that's exciting!

Yes, it is a huge rip off of an idea that Nintendo tried out a year ago. But we're inclined to agree with Kaz's assertion that it could be greatly expanded over time and become something far more interesting, mainly because of the sheer difference in power between the systems.

The first stage appears to be news and weather organised by their locations on a globe. You'll navigate with your Sixaxis DualShock 3, natch. Then later it'll be a place to store "photos and movies according to their recorded time and place."

Intriguing, and keeping the idea of integrated photo and video editing tools on the PS3 alive. Pricing and availability has yet to be confirmed. Probably safer to think of a date somewhere post-Home.

(via Engadget)

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Sony creates Life with Playstation

No, the PS3 not being used as part of an elaborate new Frankenstein machine (although, AI, distributed computing... anything could happen). Instead this is a new initiative from Sony, called 'Life with PlayStation'.

It was unveiled at the Sony Strategic Meeting in Tokyo and it's a system to let PlayStation users view daily world news on an interactive virtual globe. Errr... isn't that like the Nintendo Wii News Channel?

Anyway, you'll be able to cruise a globe and pick up different news pieces from cities and locations of your choice. Its other feature is that it will boast geo-tagged pictures to be viewed on the globe, so it'll be a bit like Google Maps too.

There's no reason why such a system shouldn't work. However, customisation options will paramount to its popularity. Furthermore, the geo-tagged photo option raises an interesting question about where you are going upload the content from. It would seem silly to be forced to do so from a computer. Could this pave the way to a photo uploading tool for PS3? How about some more sophisticated editing tools?

(via PS3Attitude)

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Rumour: Firmware 2.40 XMB features detailed and loosely dated

The slightly-evil-corporate-empire-magazine-slash-website, CVG, has a big scoop on its hands this morning: a leaked list of everything that Firmware 2.40 has to offer for the PS3's XMB.

Firmware 2.40 is now widely known as 'the one that will give us in-game XMB access at long last', but when we say in-game XMB access, we of course don't want complete access to bloody everything, just music, friends lists and messaging is basically what we're gunning for. Sony is well aware of that, but what is it actually prepared and able toprovide? Quite a lot, it seems. Here's the list:

• Friend category
• View, send, receive messages
• Manage downloads
• Set the vibration feature of the controller
• Sign in to PlayStation Network
• Register friends
• Manage Bluetooth devices
• Terminate the game
• Music category
• Use the system BGM
• Work the system BGM operation panel
• Settings category
• Assign controllers
• View profiles
• Game category
• Set audio devices
• Use the voice changer

Leaked PS3 Trophy screens being circulated

Note that the above is not from an official source, coming instead, as they so often do, from an anonymous whistleblower. Hence why it is obviously a photo taken of a screen although notably without the usual array of dodgy angles and blurriness. PS3fanboy broke the story (and hopefully won't mind us borrowing their pic) also has confirmation, albeit from another anonymous tipster claiming to be a game dev, that these are probably accurate.

So basically what we're seeing is from the PS3's long-awaited answer to Xbox 360 gamercards, imaginatively named 'Gamercards'. Included within it is another system much akin to Xbox 360's Achievements, but named Trophies for PS3.

We suspect that the rather blank looking area at the top would normally be populated with your PSN ID and avatar as well; it's highly likely these were left out by the source so as to not be identified and, err, fired.

Rumour: In-game XMB landing with Firmware 2.40 this summer!

Yes - it's the return of the rumour about the feature that Sony has ignored for so long that I've actually stopped giving a shit about it. Actually quite a brilliant strategy in that sense.

Well, Sony hasn't been ignoring it and hoping it will go away, or so the rumours say. It has in fact been beavering away on implementing the feature, and it's nearly ready to go. It's expected sometime in the summer, landing with the Firmware 2.40 update.

This speculation is made more convincing by the fact that Sony man Ray Maguire basically said as much in March.

We're not sure of the veracity of the rumour, but Gaming Age is. They have a few more details of what exactly in-game XMB will entail: "universal friends list and in-game messaging will be included, in addition to a few rather nice surprises (*cough*soundtracks*cough*)".

If there's any chance of an official confirmation, it will be in the next few weeks. We'll keep you posted, of course.

(via CVG)

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YouTube functionality heading to PS3 games

YouTube's developer blog has revealed that PlayStation 3 has integrated the YouTube API to allow integration with upcoming games. The upshot will be that players will be able to record in game footage and upload it directly from within the game.

Obviously, this breaking announcement means that few games currently support it , but Sony has confirmed that Mainichi Issho - a sort of artificial life Animal Crossing-esque game (as far as I can tell) - is the first to support YouTube functionality.

Devs will be able to integrate the technology in future titles and older games could get the same treatment from PSN updates if the creators are so inclined.

This may be one of the biggest innovations Sony has brought to console space since the PS3 launched. Even before the YouTube generation emerged, gamers have loved creating videos of themselves in-game, particularly when it comes to online FPSs and pounding German trance. To be able to do it direct from the game itself sounds like a great idea but on the downside it's one that will throw up a host of extra pressures for developers.

DivX support extended to PS3 game developers

After transforming our consoles into piracy funlands, the PS3 DivX support is going to finally get a role in something more constructive. DivX has announced that the video compression technology is now available to PS3 game developers too.

"PS3 users can already use their PS3s to watch their own DivX videos, and now they'll also be able to enjoy the quality of DivX in the games," said Kevin Hell, CEO of DivX, Inc.

I'm certainly not an expert on video encoding and compression, but presumably more choice isn't a bad thing. I also get the impression the whether DivX's compression system is really good enough for high definition is a matter of some debate, so it maybe this won't make a lot of difference to PS3 game developers.

Also the compression aspects aren't really all that essential seeing as few games are even coming close to tapping in to the full capacity of Blu-ray discs either. However, perhaps it will come in handy for devs working on PSN titles where space is at more of a premium.

DivX (via Tech Digest)

Related post: DivX Certification lands on PS3

PSP still way ahead in Japan, so why does Sony continue to ignore it?

Japanese sales for the week ending May 4th are in, and PSP remains some distance ahead - With an amazing 100,000 consoles sold (Monster Hunter shifted 102,000 units this week) the PSP was 30,000 ahead of its nearest competitor the Wii, which had a large increase itself. Perhaps more significantly, it was close to twice the number of DSes sold this week. Amazing. This can't all be down to one game, can it?

Either way, David Reeves is now confident that the PSP will go from strength to strength - in Japan at least. "We've seen in the last six months that because of the success of the PSP in Japan many Japanese developers have got some absolutely phenomenal games," stated Reeves. "They're not Monster Hunter 2G or things like that, but they are in development and we'll see them over here."

Really? Because we've not seen much evidence of some of the biggest and best Japanese titles making it to the UK, and any that have made the journey have been met with shrugged shoulders and weak sales. With Reeves admitting he wished there were more games on PSP, surely PlayStation Day was the time to prove Sony was firmly behind its handheld. Yet, aside from a version of Buzz, there's not much on the first-party horizon. Considering Nintendo has left the DS in the capable hands of third-party developers while it takes time out to focus on Wii, and even the all-conquering twin-screened handheld is starting to wilt, what hope does the undersupported PSP have? Sony needs to provide compelling reasons for gamers to buy their sleek, shiny portable, and there are precious few evident on the release schedule for the rest of this year.

(Interview quotes via GI.biz)

GTA IV PS3 patched up; goodbye freeze glitch?

Rockstar/Sony have released a patch for GTA IV PS3, taking the version to 1.01. The lack of any patch release notes makes it pretty hard to work out what has actually been fixed, however there is reason to believe that the two companies have been working on solving some multiplayer hang-ups and streamlining some of the load times.

The far more prevalent issue that's been in the news (although unknown to the chairman of GTA IV publisher, Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick apparently) is the freeze issue affecting some older 60GB PS3 models. It's very hard to tell how widespread the problem is, particularly if you don't actively experience it yourself, as outpouring of complaint from PlayStation forum users isn't the best means of calculating the scale of the problem. These could be the gripes of a very small subset of GTA IV PS3 players, or there could equally be a vast base of affected users who don't frequent the relevant forums.

Either way, it's hard to tell what's been fixed without the patch makers actually giving us the deets. So far though, according to yet more forum posters (some of whom have allegedly spoken to support people) this patch only dips into the multiplayer glitches and even then the issues of rank data not being collected properly still persist. Hmm, kinda reminds me of something....

Those hoping for a proper fix to the freeze glitch had probably better not get their hopes up. Those wanting an end to multiplayer woes might have a bit more luck (just don't hold your breath).

(via GamingToday)

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Sony settles on PlayTV date and price

There have been a few rumours about the PlayTV date and price, all of which have been resolutely denied by Sony so far, but at the PlayStation Day event yesterday SCEE's David Reeves unveiled the official deets: September, EURO 99 / £80.

PlayTV is a small accessory and software for recording digital terrestrial telly onto your PS3 hardwar, with the added bonus being that the content is then viewable at any time, from anywhere on a PSP via remote play. It's reasonable to expect that you'll be able to copy it over for times when you don't have network access / the connection is playing silly buggers.

It is also believed that the recordings will be DRM free so that non-PSP owners should be able to take their content out and about with them too.

Eighty quid sounds a lot better than some of the numbers being bandied about before, but still a little too expensive for an impulse purchase. For that money, I think I'll be giving it at miss. Anyone else?

PlayStation Day (via NextGen)

Rumour rubbished: Sony says Q4 for PlayTV in Europe

Guess that old Amazon leak was wrong after all - Sony Australia has told Gizmodo that the digital TV tuner and recording software for PS3, called PlayTV, won't be out until Q4.

Proof that the natural order of things has been rebalanced after that appalling DualShock 3 slap in the face; Australian PS3 owners will be getting their PlayTV a month after it hits Europe. Gizmodo reckons that it could be pointing at the end of October time frame here.

Price is our most immediate concern. Again, all we have to go on is "less than 200AUD" (around £94). I'd bloody hope it is less than £90 quid. In the end it is basically only a Freeview tuner and some software. The £60 price tag Amazon was once claiming suddenly seems a whole lot more realistic.

Sony and Sky team up for new PSP video download service Go! View

Sony has unveiled a joint project between PlayStation and Sky which will see the launch of the first official PSP video download service in Europe.

It designed to allow PSP owners access to a wealth of video content including TV shows, films and sports on the go.

Presumably because of the PSP's pretty weak Wi-Fi connection, a PC is still a necessary part of the equation, so content will be downloaded first to PC, but will organised into a sensible PSP-friendly format.

And now the catch: it's going to cost you, of course. We don't know how much yet, but you'll have the choice of pay-per-view or subscription options.

The service will be launching this summer. Precise dates, and any details we get on what content is available we'll let you know as soon as we hear. Meanwhile you can register you interest here.

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Rockstar Social Club opens tomorrow

A new front page on the Rockstar Social Club has delayed the grand opening of the GTA IV social site. It's not a huge wait though - it'll be opening tomorrow, 17th April instead.

Like so many other aspects of GTA IV, the Rockstar Social Club looks set to offer a major leap forward in the design of video game community websites. It is designed to track player stats no matter which console they play on, which is about as close as we're ever going to get to uniting PS3 and Xbox 360 communities in a shared gaming space.

It's particularly good for PS3 players too because, in the absence of official Sony-endorsed Achievements (expected to introduced whenever Home launches), the Social Club will actually be rewarding your efforts with its own built-in system, one that neatly ties into Xbox Live achievement points we assume.

In short, you'll be able to directly compare your progress, score and online prowess with your Xbox 360 owning friends. If it contains any kind of forum, you can bet that this is where the most furious Xbox 360 vs PS3 game comparisons will be made.

Related posts: Rockstar unites consoles with new Social Club website

iPlayer does work on PS3 - so who's controlling whom, Auntie?

Although the BBC seems to be happier concentrating its efforts on the Wii's new iPlayer, one hacker wasn't convinced by the Beeb's reasoning for the iPlayer's absence on PS3. So he created PS3iPlayer.com, an entirely unofficial version of the normal iPlayer which really does work on the PS3.

To try it out, point your PS3 web browser at PS3iPlayer.com (it won't work from a PC or Mac).

It's not 100% perfect by any stretch, but with a bit of patience and perseverance, you can navigate through and watch just about everything on the iPlayer site. You can even make the videos full screen, although the frame rate ends up a bit low.

Problems there may be, but as the clever coder who made the site said himself, "It's mainly a demonstration of how easily the BBC could support the PS3 with their Wii version", adding that all the site does is mask the agent string to look like a Wii and add some tweaks to the Javascript and CSS. It only took a day to put together.

PS3 Firmware 2.30 deets and PlayStation Store walkthrough vid

Next Tuesday, April 15th, is the grand PlayStation Store reopening. The early design was alright n' all, but woefully unequipped to handle the huge amounts of downloads that were subsequently added over the first year of the PS3's life.

Having recently replaced my PS3 HDD, I discovered firsthand how much of a pain it was to find all the old content so a makeover will certainly be welcome and present a far better first impression to the PS3's newer users. You've probably seen the odd screen by now, but here's a video to talk you through the new changes.

Damn, still no confirmation of a Home open beta.

BBC iPlayer coming to PS3 soon?

Yesterday, the Beeb announced a deal with Nintendo that makes its iPlayer video streaming service compatible with the console's web browser. The BBC's Darren Waters has since raised the question of why the PS3 and Xbox 360 haven't had the same treatment.

The Xbox 360 is probably out of for good - not only does it not have a web browser, but Microsoft has its own downloadable media interests to defend. Although Sony is planning something similar down the line, it hasn't reached that stage yet and it does have a web browser. So surely a similar PS3 iPlayer service can't be far off?

Darren Waters quotes the BBC's Future Media and Technology Group Controller who says ""If you want to get on the PlayStation or Xbox, they want control of the look, the feel and the experience; they want it done within their shop, and their shop only."