What happens when you smash a PS3 Slim into a Bravia HD TV?

I have experience pain before it was called a ruptured appendix, but this madness that Sony has done hurts me more than six rupture appendix mixed in with a little water boarding. The guys at Sony Australia, who apparently have thousands of Bravias lying around chillin, loaded a catapult with a PS3 Slim and launched it straight into the sexy beautiful black Bravia.


Well, fortunately for everyone, that's exactly what Sony Australia is gonna do. The video is actually a teaser for their upcoming offering, where 25,000 PS3 Slims will be given away upon purchase of "qualified Bravia LCD" TVs from October 22nd until the 20th of December.

NPD September: PS3 on Top surprise surprise

The combination of a new hardware model and lower price made PlayStation 3 the best-selling home game machine in the U.S. for the month of September 2009 for the first time ever, the NPD Group reported today. Sony was able to sell 491.8K units 32.4K units short from unseated the Nintendo DS with 524.2K units.

Total sales of videogames in the U.S. were $1.28 billion dollars, up 1% from last September.

U.S. Hardware Sales, September 2009:

Nintendo DS 524.2K

PlayStation 3 491.8K

Wii 462.8K

Xbox 360 352.6K

PSP 190.4K

PlayStation 2 146.0K

Top 10 Software Sales, September 2009:

1. Halo 3: ODST (360, Microsoft) 1,520,000


2. Wii Sports Resort (Wii, Nintendo) 442,900


3. Madden NFL 10 (360, Electronic Arts) 289,600


4. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS, Nintendo) 258,100


5. The Beatles: Rock Band (360, MTV) 254,000


6. Madden NFL 10 (PS3, Electronic Arts) 246,500


7. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (360, Activision Blizzard) 236,000


8. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3, Square Enix) 212,500


9. Guitar Hero 5 (360, Activision Blizzard) 210,800



10. The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii, MTV) 208,600

Socom: Confrontation Gets Cold Front PS3 DLC

SCEA Software Product Marketing Manager Scott McCarthy announced exciting news of a Cold Front DLC Pack for SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation on PS3.

According to Scott McCarthy: We are very happy to announce the COLD FRONT DLC pack for SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation.

Loaded with new features and content, this pack brings a brand new snowy Eastern European area of operations into play with two all new maps and three classic SOCOM maps for 16 to 32 players. The classic maps are drawn from some of the most popular SOCOM maps of all time, each built from the ground up for the PS3!

Kit yourself out in snow gear and fight your way through blizzard conditions, joining a team of mercenaries or a squad from one of the world’s top Special Forces regiments including the Russian Spetsnaz.

Try your hand at Arms Run, a new game mode that features dynamically placed missile launchers that must be activated or destroyed, depending on which side you’re fighting for.

Employ the new thermal vision scope weapon attachment to track your enemies’ heat signatures – vital in the dark and useful in daylight for picking out white camouflaged adversaries. In addition, we have new primary weapons to make use of and new attachments.

The pack will include:

• New Russian / Eastern European Area of Operation
• Snow setting complete with snow effects, new snow gear and camo for both the Special Forces and Mercenaries, and thermal vision
• New ARMS RUN gameplay mode
• 5 New Maps: Uprising, Entrapment, Blizzard, Night Stalker, Vigilance
• All new mercenaries characters with new looks and new VO.
• New Special Forces squad, the Russian Spetsnaz
• Gun turrets emplacements
• New music
• All new character specialization/progression system
• Allows players to pick a primary and secondary specialization and unlock new equipment exclusive to those specializations
• New weapons, including: 3 new weapons, 6 enhanced versions of weapons available as part of the new weapons specialization system, 2 new weapon attachments (including the thermal scope), 5 enhanced versions of weapon attachments also available as part of the new weapons specialization system.
• 2 new grenade launcher ammo types (flash and smoke)
• New Trophies
• This pack will be available for download via the Playstation Network for $14.99.

250GB PS3 Slim Now Available for Pre-Order in November

SCEA has officially announced a stand-alone (not part of a bundle) 250GB PS3 Slim model. This latest PS3 SKU more than doubles the storage capacity over the $299 120GB PS3 Model, and for only $50 more.

One day following the 250GB PS3 Slim’s announcement, it’s already become available for pre-order at least one major online retailer.

The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com has begun accepting pre-orders for the upcoming 250GB PS3 Slim. Releasing November 3rd, the 250GB PS3 Slim is priced competitively at $349.99. This latest PS3 model will help keep up Sony’s momentum since it released the 120GB PS3 Slim back in early September.

Microsoft: Sony PS3 Sales will never catch up 'For Entire Generation'

Microsoft: Xbox 360 Will Outsell PS3 'For Entire Generation'

Let the shit-talking begin: Microsoft Xbox 360 director of product management Aaron Greenberg threw some serious blows(more like an Haaadooouken)in an interview with Game Informer, calling Sony's anticipated leading September PS3 sales "a short term bump."

"It is not a real concern to us," said Greenberg, acknowledging the likelihood of Sony's top slot sales numbers and adding "This is frankly not a real surprise to us or the analysts that follow this industry."

"What I can tell you is we remain confident that Xbox 360 will not only outsell PS3 for the full calendar year, but for this entire generation. It is similar to a game of baseball, it is not about just winning one inning, but instead being able to win the game by consistently delivering across all nine innings."

Microsoft has had a very strong performance over the past three quarters--it's the only console with year-over-year unit increases in a bad economy--it would indeed take an act of God for Sony to pull ahead in annual sales by the year's close. But as Greenberg says, it's the big picture that matters, and for the moment, Microsoft owns US sales by a unit ratio of roughly 2 to 1

There is one statement that Aaron Greenberg makes that really bugs me, Greenberg states: that success comes down to "much more than just hardware sales...it's about the entire ecosystem and investing in the future." Which is true but Sony has been investing in their gaming future ever since December 2004 and Nintendo a lot longer. Microsoft venture into Gaming is still relatively short compared to Sony and Nintendo. Sony may never catch up to Xbox 360 but they will slowly chop away at Microsoft 360 lead.

Uncharted 2: 3rd fastest-selling PS3 game "Ever"

These latest figures provided by VGChartz confirms that the amazing sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the 3rd fastest-selling PS3 game in the U.S. The only two games to have beaten it are Metal Gear Solid 4 at two and Grand Theft Auto IV at No.1.

Sales in other countries of the game are as follows, 47,000 units were shifted in Japan on its first day, with sales expected to reach 60,000 - 65,000 by the end of the week. There are no specific sales data for Europe, but week once sales should achieve around 400,000 - 500,000 sales.

Mass Effect 2 "kinda,sorta,maybe" coming to PS3

According to Polish gaming Web site Polygamia, Watamaniuk presented two games during the event, one of those being Mass Effect 2. In that section of his presentation, Watamaniuk said the sci-fi RPG was set to hit three platforms: the Xbox 360, PC, “and probably PS3.” Polygamia writes that the man realized his mistake and shortly began backpedaling, saying that the studio doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation. In other words, they don’t comment on stories like this.

God of War III demo out Nov 19 in Japan

The Japanese version of Infamous is being pack with an extra little surprise, Sony is giving out demo codes to download God of War III Japanese demo from the PlayStation Store.

The demo will be available on November 19, about a month after Infamous’ October 15 release date in Japan. Codes can be redeemed from November 19 to February 2010.

Fist of North Star To Sell A Million Domestically

Kenji Matsubara, Tecmo Koei Holdings head honcho, expects great things from the recently announced multi-platform title Hokuto Musou aka: "Fist of the North Star". The game is based on post-apocalyptic martial arts manga Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken). One of the best Anime to ever be released.

"Only in Japan, the game should sell a million copies," Matsubara told the Nihon Keisai Newspaper. According to the paper, the game is expected to launch worldwide, given the international familiarity with Fist of the North Star.

Rumor: PS3 cross-game chat in next firmware

In a PlayStation.com Forums thread about the existing Uncharted 2 chat system, a Naughty Dog staffer with the handle "ReklissAbandon" reportedly said that "the next PS3 firmware update is going to allow cross game chat."

Reported statement made by ReklissAbandon:

"I think they wanted people to have fun and ejoy the show since all dead players can talk to each other no matter what team you are on. But I will suggest it anyway. Not to mention that the next PS3 firmware update is going to allow cross game chat. So if players use that instead of in game communication then they would also be able to communicate enemies positions."

CryEngine 3 Beauty Speed Interaction Trailer HD

Today Crytek released their new CryENGINE 3 all-in-one multiplatform development solution, now available for licensees along with a video of it in action below!

Video after the jump:

Video Games | CryEngine 3 | Beauty Speed Interaction Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Press Release: Frankfurt a. M. (Germany), October 14th 2009 - Crytek GmbH (“Crytek”) is excited to announce that their latest all-in-one development solution CryENGINE 3 is now available for all developers.

CryENGINE 3 is the first game development platform for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, MMO, DX9/DX10 that also is truly Next-Gen-Ready - with scalable computation and graphics for all major upcoming platforms.

It provides the complete game engine to create AAA quality next generation games, and includes the redesigned CryENGINE 3 Sandbox™ level editor, a production-proven, 3rd generation “What you see is what you play” (WYSIWYP) - tool designed by and for professional developers.

CryENGINE 3 also introduces CryENGINE 3 Live Create™. It allows developers to work with a single editor, but see and play the results in real-time on PC, PS3 and Xbox360, hooked up to a single dev PC.

The engine takes care of the conversion and optimization of assets in real-time; enables instant, cross-platform changes to any part of game creation and as a result materially increases the speed, quality and significantly reduces the risk of multiplatform development.

“With CryENGINE 3 we are releasing the best development solution available today and tomorrow. With its scalable graphics and computation it is next-gen ready and with new features like CryENGINE 3 Live Create the best choice for game developers and companies developing serious games applications alike. It is the only game engine solution that enables real-time development and can ensure teams are able to maximise their own creativity, save budget and create greater gaming experiences.” said Cevat Yerli, CEO & President of Crytek.

“We’re delighted to launch CryENGINE 3 and we look forward to seeing what developers achieve with our all-new technology. CryENGINE 3 isn’t just about providing our trademark highest-quality graphics and our out of the box AI and physics for the first time on consoles – it also delivers real benefits to all disciplines in games development.

Programmers will create awesome new effects and gameplay; art, design and audio teams can play as they create with the fastest, entirely real-time WYSIWYP pipeline ever, materially reducing development time and risk – even producers, project managers and suits will love CryENGINE 3!

Of course, our international team of more than 20 dedicated support staff are available right now to help our licensees make the most of CryENGINE 3; at their studio or at one of our support centres around the world.” added Carl Jones, Director of Business Development CryENGINE.

CryENGINE® is the underlying technology for Crytek’s critically acclaimed games Far Cry, Crysis, Crysis Warhead and NC Soft’s recently released MMORPG blockbuster AION. It has already been licensed to a number of major game companies around the globe, including several recent serious games training and simulation projects. CryENGINE®3 is the underlying technology for the highly anticipated Crysis®2.

MAG PS3 Pre-order Public Beta is Now Open

SCEA's Director of Development Seth Luisi has announced that the MAG (Massive Action Game) PS3 pre-order Public Beta is now open, and has detailed the hours below.

"Today a whole new group of operatives joined the Shadow War. October 12 marks the start of the GameStop and EB Games pre-order MAG Public Beta period.

At 10:00 AM this morning, all those who pre-ordered MAG from GameStop or EB Games in Canada received access to the MAG Public Beta and joined existing Public Beta users. Be prepared to choose your side – Raven, Valor, and S.V.E.R. are once again locked in battle.

The hours for this phase of the MAG Public Beta are:

Monday – Friday:
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM EDT
8:00 PM – 12:00 AM EDT

12:00 PM – 3:00 PM CDT
7:00 PM – 11:00 PM CDT

11:00 AM – 2:00 PM MDT
6:00 PM – 10:00 PM MDT

10:00 AM – 1:00 PM PDT
5:00 PM – 9:00 PM PDT

Later this week or early next, we will be releasing a new version of the MAG Public Beta client. This will be a major update to the MAG Public Beta client and server set.

Remember, in North America the MAG Public Beta access from November 9 to November 20 will be available exclusively to people who pre-order MAG from GameStop or EB Games (in Canada).

If you live in North America and you want to continue playing MAG you will need to get your pre-order in to GameStop or EB Games and get your MAG Public Beta voucher code. This will also be the first time the MAG Public Beta will be available 24/7 with unlimited server hours (with the exception of server maintenance).

In conjunction with the next phase of the MAG Public Beta, we are also introducing a ton of new features for our Web site, MAG.com. The updated site will include a community section with access to the MAG forums, RSS feeds, and new media and downloads for fans, including wallpapers, AIM icons, and XMB themes for each of the PMCs.

You can also read more background on each of the PMCs and enlist in your favorite private army. Check it out now at MAG.com. The Shadow War is coming 1.26.10."

PS3 is top selling console in September -- for first time ever?

EEDAR's analyst Jesse Divnich predicts 400,000 PS3s were sold in September, edging out both Wii and Xbox 360 sales (375k and 370k units respectively) .Wedbush Morgan mega game analyst Michael Pachter has also published his September video game sales preview for the US market.

Pachter estimates PS3 console sales of 410,000 units, a 76 per cent increase year-over-year. This should be enough to topple both the Wii (390,000 units) and Microsoft's Xbox 360 (350,000 units).

"We believe that the recent round of price cuts may benefit the PS3 the most in coming months, given that unit sales last year were only 1.5 million for the September -- December 2008 period," claimed the handsome man. "The Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 for the past 13 months, likely due to a higher perceived value proposition.

"We think that the PS3 will outsell the Xbox 360 in September, and may continue to do so for the rest of the year. Microsoft has the ability to lower price yet again, but we anticipate the introduction of a more feature-packed Xbox 360 in early 2010 (likely with a 250Gb hard drive) at the same $299 price point; we think that Microsoft will cut price only if it begins to lose significant market share to Sony."

Amazon Teams up with Sony To Sell PSN Content

Amazon Becomes First Online Retailer To Sell PSN Content Codes

PlayStation 3 owners rejoice, because Amazon have just announced a new effort with Sony that will allow PS3 owners to purchase PS3 and PSP content codes via Amazon, making Amazon the first online retailer to provide this service

Currently, the Amazon PS3/PSP section contains around 200 pieces of content (games, DLC, etc.), but that number will expand in the near future, as the service goes along. Some of the games available right now are Flower, Pixeljunk Eden, Echochrome and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. Amazon’s vice president of consumer electronics, Paul Ryder, said in a statement, “We are excited to expand our current library of video game platform downloads. PlayStation Network games are an important addition and we plan to continue making it easier for customers to instantly enjoy new content as well as their favorite games from the comfort of their living rooms.”

Bayonetta shoots it's way onto Japanese PSN

The PS3 demo for Bayonetta has gone live on the Japanese PSN Store, for those who can't wait for it to arrive on our end. It's still not too late to set up all regional PSN accounts for your PS3.

The demo apparently features an extended version of the Angel Metropolis stage seen in the 360 demo, but doesn't have the Clock Tower level in it, according to PS3Center. It's a healthy dose of 1195MB file of super sexy gun slinging ass kicking action.

We expect Sony to confirm today's UK PSN update any time now. Hopefully it'll be in there too, for those of you too lazy to create a Japanese PSN account.

Blue Christmas: EyePet Delay

Sony is the Grinch that stole Christmas, from legions of fanboy's and girls with the recent announcement that Eyepet will be delayed.

If you were among the many PlayStation 3 owners looking forward to a special holiday season spent playing with your fuzzy new EyePet thingamajig, prepare to be terribly disappointed. GameStop and Amazon both shifted the listed release data for the EyePet from November 2009 to April 2010, and now Gamervision has received the official word from Sony.

"The North American territory has decided to take additional time to focus on the EyePet product and can confirm it will not be available this holiday. EyePet is an innovative and exciting new IP to the PS3 platform and SCEA marketing will spend additional time to continue educating consumers and retail channels, setting the table for a successful product launch. We will provide more details on an updated launch timeframe very soon"

Sony PS3 PSN is Down

Good news Bad news, the bad news the Playstation Network is offline right about now. The good news Sony have just a few words to say about the matter, “Site Maintenance Notice: The server is currently down for maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later”. Apparently the maintenance should be all sorted in a few hours so you’ll have to do something other than play PS3 online. Maybe play it offline?

TDK Unveils New 320GB 10-Layer Blu-ray Disc

TDK has recently announce a new 10-layer Blu-ray disc capable of 320GB of storage in development. Can you say epic games!

According to TDK: “It is possible to write and read data on and from the disc by using a blue-violet semiconductor laser with an oscillation wavelength of 405nm and an objective lens with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.85, which are currently used for the Blu-ray disc.”

This has been a trend in newer, higher-capacity Blu-Ray discs. Due to the spread of high speed Internet connections everywhere and firmware being written to non-volatile (update-able) chips, it means that our PlayStation 3 consoles may simply be a firmware update away from reading these 10-layer behemoths of Blu-ray discs in theory.

Trophy Whores: EyePet Trophy List

EyePet for Sony Ps3 will be hitting North America stores November 17th a few days after the much hyped and loved Uncharted 2 series. Eyepet a virtual pet grooming game will be Sony first foray into Augment Reality gaming. A new gaming segment that Sony will be going after with vengeance.






Bronze

Hello World
Help your pet take their first look around

Songbird
Teach your pet 25 different songs

Green Paws
Fill your garden with different flowers

Gourmet Pet Food
Unlock every type of cookie

Shopaholic
Download 1 free item from the EyePet store

Style Icon
Give your pet 10 new looks

One Good Day
Pass a Pet Report

Pet Panic
Wake with a fright then stroke your pet back to sleep in 40s

Pet Artiste
Teach your pet 50 drawings

12-Wheeler
Create a model car with at least 6 pairs of wheels and beep the horn

Flying Saucer
Make a model plane that’s only a wing and made of metal and fly it into space with your pet dressed appropriately

Stunt Pilot
Break 140 mph in a model plane without smashing into the ground

Speed Wash
Wash your pet in under 60s

Silver

Day 1 Mastered
Complete all Day 1 challenges at gold level

Day 2 Mastered
Complete all Day 2 challenges at gold level

Day 3 Mastered
Complete all Day 3 challenges at gold level

Day 4 Mastered
Complete all Day 4 challenges at gold level

Day 5 Mastered
Complete all Day 5 challenges at gold level

Day 6 Mastered
Complete all Day 6 challenges at gold level

Day 7 Mastered
Complete all Day 7 challenges at gold level

Day 8 Mastered
Complete all Day 8 challenges at gold level

Day 9 Mastered
Complete all Day 9 challenges at gold level

Day 10 Mastered
Complete all Day 10 challenges at gold level

Day 11 Mastered
Complete all Day 11 challenges at gold level

Day 12 Mastered
Complete all Day 12 challenges at gold level

Day 13 Mastered
Complete all Day 13 challenges at gold level

Day 14 Mastered
Complete all Day 14 challenges at gold level

Day 15 Mastered
Complete all Day 15 challenges at gold level

Excellent Owner
Pass 20 Pet Reports

Fish Fascination
Fill your aquarium with every type of fish

Solid Silver
Complete every challenge at silver level or higher

Gold

Best Friends
Stroke your pet at least 30s a day for 5 days in a row

Prize Bonanza
Unlock every prize

Gold Rush
Complete every challenge at gold level

Platinum

Platinum Pet
Unlock all other trophies

No secret trophies, totalling to a nice 35 trophies.

Via[thesixthaxis.com]

Naughty Dog Talk Uncharted On PSP, Jak & Daxter On PS3

With Uncharted 2 on the heels of a released on October 13th while receiving great praises as one of the best games to hit any console in a very long time.

An interview with Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells conducted by the Examiner has revealed some interesting clues regarding Jak & Daxter franchise, as well as the future of Uncharted franchise. When asked if Naughty Dog’s next project would be Jak & Daxter on Playstation 3, Evan responded, “I think you know I can’t answer that question. But I will say that all of us here love the Jak and Daxter franchise and would love to play in the universe again. Right now most of the studio is on a much deserved vacation and with all of the hard work that went into finishing Uncharted 2, we haven’t even decided what we’ll be working on when they get back.”

As for the future of Nathan Drake, Evan showed interest in the Uncharted franchise taking the jump to PSP, “We’d love to see Uncharted grow beyond the PS3. It would be interesting to see what sort of changes to the design one would make for a portable system. But right now Naughty Dog is purely focused on PS3 development so we can’t promise anything from us in the near future.”

So there you have it, Uncharted will eventually see the light on PSP/PSPGo and Jak & Daxter will be making an appearance on PS3 in the near future. Naughty Dog is a very AAA developer and they know there is a huge market for anything Jax & Dexter, it's a PlayStation mainstay.

Via:[Examiner]