PlayStation 4

After September 22 but before December 21, that’s when you’ll see the PlayStation 3’s spiffy new motion controller on store shelves, says Sony. In a press release issued late last night, the company revealed its wand-based motion control peripheral for the PS3 will ship this fall in Japan, North America, and Europe with ready-to-play software. (Note to Sony: It’s just ’software’, ’software titles’ is technically double-dipping.)

“We have decided to release the Motion Controller in fall 2010 when we will be able to offer an exciting and varied line-up of software titles that will deliver the new entertainment experience to PS3 users, ” said Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kazuo Hirai in the press statement.

“We will continue to work to have a comprehensive portfolio of attractive and innovative games for the Motion Controller, not only from SCE Worldwide Studios but also from the third party developers and publishers, whom we have been working closely with. We look forward to soon unveiling the exciting software line-up that further expands and defines the PS3 platform as the ultimate entertainment system for the home.”

Microsoft’s ‘no controller’ motion sensing alternative, dubbed Project Natal, is due to ship by the end of the year, probably in November, placing it head-to-head with Sony’s product.

As expected, you’ll need the PlayStation Eye camera to use the double-wand system. The Eye’s been available for years, of course, and retails for $40 today. It’s also arguably the most underutilized, prematurely released official Sony peripheral in existence, so unless you’re hip to play Eye of Judgment (a totally decent card game, by the way) I’d wait to pick one up until they’re discounting it later this year, or, you know, bundling it with the PlayStation Arc.

Hold up, the PlayStation Arc? What the heck is that?

If you buy VG247’s claim, raised ‘on good authority’, a Sony insider says that’s what the motion controller’s actually named. You know, Arc. Like the plasma bolts spit from a Tesla Coil.

Interestingly, Sony says–my emphasis–that it will “vigorously promote the Motion Controller as the de facto controller of the PS3 platform along with the DUALSHOCK series controller.”

Translation: The Arc–I mean Tentatively Labeled Motion Controller Wand Duo PlayStation Accessory Thingy–gets to ride up front with the big boys. No lounging in the backseat or huddling in the trunk with neglected peripherals like the Eye, or the forlorn SIXAXIS accelerometer.

The PlayStation 3 verrsion of Just Cause 2, Square Enix’s upcoming open-world game, will have an interesting new feature. In order to help you capture those moments of gameplay that have to be seen to be believed, you will be able to upload clips directly to YouTube.

The game will automatically record the last 30 seconds of play to upload those once-in-a-lifteime occurrences, but will also give you the ability to set up 10-minute videos through the in-game menu.

Although the game will release on both PS3 and Xbox 360, only the PS3 version will have this feature.

Sony has announced that the PlayStation 3 (PS3) console has sold 3 million units in the United Kingdom since it was launched.

“We’d like to offer a huge thank you to our retail partners in helping us pass the 3 million PS3 milestone,” said Ray Maguire of Sony UK.  “The £249 price point is enabling us to reach a much broader audience and our line up of software, Heavy Rain, and God of War III – and that’s just in Q1 – should help maintain the momentum.” Back in July of last year, the console had reportedly moved 2.2 million units in the region, highlighting a very decent 800,000 units sold in the second half of 2009.

Around the same time, Microsoft had said the Xbox 360 was up to 3.9 million units in the UK, while in December of 2009, Nintendo revealed that the Wii had reached 6 million unit sales. The Wii is leading the market easily worldwide with 56 million units sold globally.

Microsoft revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that the Xbox 360 console sold 39 million units worldwide since it was launched. The last time the global installed base of the PlayStation 3 (PS3) was revealed by Sony was in its Q2 2009 financial data, and at the time the console had sold 27 million units worldwide.

High-level Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida recently told Play3 that the future Playstation 4 will use optical storage discs such as Blu-ray for its game library.

According to Anthony Severino of Playstation Lifestyle, Sony will have to  “go above and beyond” the current Blu-Ray format if it is to “withstand” the standard PlayStation 10-year lifecycle.

“While Blu-Ray is here to stay and certainly has plenty of life left in it, so does the PlayStation 3,” wrote Severino.

“When the time arrives for the PlayStation 4 to be released, there could be a need for such a massive capacity storage medium. If Sony sees a need for such a format in the future, they’d likely look to the PS 4 to replicate the success the PS3 had in ushering in Blu-Ray.”



Indeed, GameInformer reports that Sony is currently working on a successor to Blu-ray. The new format is apparently similar to the previously announced Holographic Versatile Disc, with a capacity of 6TB. 



Severino noted that 6TB was “more than enough” to support 1080p HD video, 3D imagery, uncompressed loseless HD audio, along with any other AV codec. 



“On top of all that storage, the format can use the massive amount of available space to implicate extra security measures, a major positive when pitching the format to game developers (and movie studios) who don’t want their games pirated,” he added.

According to Japanese blog My Game News Flash, a new page has shown up on Amazon.jp with a listing for a brand new entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series exclusively for the Playstation 3. This doesn’t appear to be Persona 5 either, since those games don’t have the Shin Megami Tensei branding coming before it like it does in the West.

PlayStation 3 has been giving tough times to owners lately and we hope you recollect the issues faced after updating to 3.00 firmware. Now, a discussion thread about the firmware 3.10 crashing Blu-ray drives of PS3 consoles is catching everybody’s attention.

PlayStation 3 official forum members have cited the firmware 3.10 update bearing PS3 freezes while playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Many other members have reported similar freezing issues with other games too. Basically, the game disc on the Blu-ray drives gets affected. For some PS3 owners, the optical drive won’t read disc after freeze occurs.

Just like the firmware 3.00 update, the PlayStation 3 owners suffer game freezes yet again. Yeh sure, Xbox 360 owners who were Red Ring of Death victims can now smirk on these PS3 freezing victims. Apparently, the issue has something to do with the firmware update or the Blu-ray drive itself.

A PlayStation 3 gamer has apparently abandoned the game for ever, after her avatar was repeatedly hassled in Sony’s PlayStation Home virtual world.

Some nasty man kept getting behind her, it seems, and crouching down.

Her roommate, Whoef, was outraged on her behalf, and pleads eloquently  in a web post for drastic measures.

While the perpetrator is punished, he says, the victim should be given a free personal space which includes a mini-game. “The game consists of the harasser being placed in a very small courtyard and the victim, using an automatic tomato gun, shoots tomatoes at their harassers,” he suggests.

“Home should create the Home Jail, then the harassers can harass each other, since that seems to be their only purpose for being on Home. Put them where they belong. There is no reason Home can’t make money on future rapists,” he continues.

“After losing all their items, like a real jail, Home can sell them orange jumpsuits, flip-flops and they can decorate their jail cells with a few items such as bunk bed, toilet and a bed roll.”

He really ought to start his own site – the guy’s inspired.

As the release draws closer for a title that will bring unique, interactive gameplay on the PlayStation 3 like no other, France has a new PS3 bundle in it’s forecast. Seeing that Quantic Dream is based in Paris, France, it would make sense for them to make all of France dripping wet with a new Heavy Rain PS3 bundle.

A new PS3 bundle has been unveiled for France, a Heavy Rain bundle will be released on February 24. The PlayStation 3 bundle will include a 250 GB PS3 Slim and a standard Heavy Rain copy, all for 349 Euros ($498/£304). Check out the bundle below:

Amazon.fr also has listings for MAG and God of War III PS3 bundles, but neither of them are accompanied by a pack shot like the Heavy Rain box above. If a retail box for either title is revealed or if any of these bundles make their way outside of France, we’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Sony will launch worldwide a motion controller for its PlayStation 3 in the fall of this year alongside an “extensive” line-up of compatible software titles, it said Wednesday.

Sony had originally been planning to launch the controller in the spring of 2010 so the revised launch date represents a six-month delay from its original plans.

Its launch will come about four years after Nintendo revolutionized gaming with its Wii console and motion-sensitive controllers, and shortly before Microsoft is expected to introduce a similar system for the Xbox 360.

Sony’s controller, a prototype of which has already been demonstrated, has a glowing ball mounted on its end that is tracked by the PlayStation Eye camera, which will be a requirement for the system. Few other details are known about the device at present and it’s only been shown a few times since its debut at last year’s E3 gaming convention.

Motion-sensitive gaming proved to be key to the success of Nintendo’s Wii with casual gamers and both Sony and Microsoft are hoping their new systems will be equally successful.

The Wii controller can be swung like a bat or jabbed like a punch and the movements are copied on-screen. This unique way of gaming proved to be more attractive to some than the flashy, high-definition graphics on offer from the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Microsoft’s system, called Project Natal, seems more advanced than both the Sony and Nintendo systems because it does away with the controller completely. The gamer’s actual body movements are detected and mimicked inside the games so punches, kicks and jumps are translated immediately into movements. Microsoft plans to launch Natal in time for the end-of-year holiday sales period.

Sony offered little other details of its launch plans and didn’t name any of the games that will be compatible with the Motion Controller.

“We will continue to work to have a comprehensive portfolio of attractive and innovative games for the Motion Controller, not only from Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios but also from the third-party developers and publishers, whom we have been working closely with,” Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, said in a statement. “We look forward to soon unveiling the exciting software line-up that further expands and defines the PS3 platform as the ultimate entertainment system for the home.”

The year is shaping up to be an important one for PlayStation 3 owners.

Sony is aggressively promoting 3D entertainment and the PlayStation console will play an important part in the push. The company has already promised to add 3D capability to all PS3 consoles through a firmware, and several companies are working on 3D games. It will, however, be necessary to buy a compatible television to enjoy games with the additional dimension.

Sales of the console have recently enjoyed an uptick after Sony launched a revised model that’s smaller and cheaper than the original PlayStation 3. The console saw record sales in the last five weeks of 2009 with 3.8 million units sold worldwide, a 76 percent jump on 2008, Sony said earlier this month.