Wipeout HD, Super Stardust HD and Pain are getting the 3D treatment in less than two weeks.
Super Stardust HD
On June 10th, Wipeout HD, Superdust HD and Pain will be receiving 3D updates in Japan. While a clear strategy hasn’t been communicated on how all potential PSN titles will be addressed, there are some details in this case.
Updates for Super Stardust HD and Wipeout HD will be made available for free. Pain will be a paid upgrade and cost 300 yen (roughly $3.30).
Wipeout HD
So while there isn’t a clear date for when these titles are going to arrive, Joystiq reached out to Sony and was told that North American & PAL details would be available “shortly”.
Sony has reached a milestone, and to celebrate, they are giving away 3D Televisions.
Sony Computer Entertainment Japan is reporting a significant milestone — 5 million registered PSN users. Along with that 5 million user milestone, PSN users have also downloaded 110 million pieces of digital content.
To celebrate, starting on June 3 through June 30 th, gamers will have a chance to participate in completing a quiz in an attempt to win 1 of 5 3D Bravia KDL-46LX900′s SCEJ will be giving away.
I wanted to share a gem I came across with you all who own PlayStation 3 and recently read the news posted on our blog regarding new VAIO P being able to interface and control your PlayStation 3. I have tested the software and it works like a charm on my VAIO TZ and VAIO X and frankly my guess is it would work just fine on any Bluetooth enabled computer, not only VAIO (but again it is my guess, so test it out at your own risk and post in comments).
All you need to do is download a piece of software called Remote Keyboard with PlayStation 3 , run the Wizard that will register your notebook with with PlayStation 3 and Vola! you are ready to rock your PS3. Your touchpad becomes a mouse pointer if you use a browser and your navigation arrows will help you jump through the various PS3 XMB menus. Of course the biggest perk is the keyboard use, so you can relocate yourself to PlayStation HOME and start chatting with the help of your keyboard easily.
Anyways, head over here and get your software and have fun with your PS3! Hopefully Remote Play which is another piece of software will be available soon as well.
Here is a shot of the screen once you exit the software:
During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Sony will open a variety of pavilions in seven countries (including South Africa) where visitors will be able to experience the “3D world Created by Sony,” featuring vivid 3D images of football as well as entertainment content including music, movies and games from across the Sony Group. At these “Sony 3D experience” pavilions, visitors will also be able to watch – for the first time in 3D – highlights of the 25 matches filmed during the 2010 FIFA World Cup (promotional trailer of the official FIFA film in 3D on Blu-ray Disc to be produced and distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment).
The pavilions will vary in size, with the premier location being Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, Johannesburg. Pavilions will also be located at three 2010 FIFA World Cup stadiums including Soccer City, Durban, and Cape Town, as well as at the “International FIFA Fan Fest (IFFF)” public viewing events in six cities (Berlin, Mexico City, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, and Sydney). Pavilions at the IFFF events will open during the 2010 FIFA World Cup starting from the first match on June 11 through July 11. Sony’s 3D experience pavilion at the Nelson Mandela Square will open to the public starting Wednesday, June 9.
Visitors can expect to see for the first time in 3D music videos from Shakira and South African group Freshlyground, the 2010 FIFA World Cup Official Song “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa),” and MISIA’s “MAWARE MAWARE,” (only artist chosen from Japan and Asia for the Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Album “Listen Up”). Also at the Nelson Mandela Square, Sony will offer an array of additional live 3D entertainment, including performances by South African music artists featured on the “Hello Afrika” album from Sony Music Entertainment, such as Lira, Freshlyground, Vusi Mahlasela and many more. Additional surprise performances by leading international and South African artists are planned.
The long rumored Premium PSN service has been confirmed to exist by none other than the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe President.
Andrew House
Previously written about on the web and by us here the subject has been one of speculation since Kaz Hirai stated it was something that was being considered. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe President Andrew House answered a few questions from users on the Official UK PlayStation Blog. Not surprisingly, one of those questions had to do with the PSN:
Will PlayStation Network become a paying service?
I can assure you that the current PSN as you know it will remain a free service. It is something that our competitors don’t offer and something that shows our loyalty to the PlayStation Community. However, Kaz Hirai stated a few months ago that we were looking at a premium service to sit alongside the current free service and that objective has not changed. You’ll learn more about it very soon.
While not providing a great deal of details it does confirm that the service exists, that the current PSN as we know it won’t change, and that has the support of the SCE Chairman Kaz Hirai which would imply a big initiative.
A lot of speculation has been made about exactly what services would be included (DLC, free PSN titles, cross-game chat), but with with E3 17 days and 16 hours away (yes I am that excited), it won’t be long until we find out.
Sony has developed a super-flexible 80 μm-thick 4.1-inch 121 ppi OTFT-driven full color OLED display (16 million colors) which can be wrapped around a thin cylinder. To create the display, Sony developed OTFTs with an original organic semiconductor material (a PXX derivative) with eight times the current modulation of conventional OTFTs. This was achieved due to the development of integration technologies of OTFTs and OLEDs on an ultra-thin 20 μm thick flexible substrate (a flexible on-panel gate-driver circuit with OTFTs which is able to get rid of conventional rigid driver IC chips interfering roll-up of a display) and soft organic insulators for all the insulators in the integration circuit. By combining these technologies, Sony successfully demonstrated the world’s first OLED panel which is capable of reproducing moving images while being repeatedly rolled-up – around a cylinder with a radius of 4 mm – and stretched.
Sony will unveil the results of this development on May 27 at “SID (Society for Information Display) 2010 International Symposium” in Seattle, WA (May 23-28).
Sony will proceed with the development of the solution / print based process which manufactures display devices from organic materials that are easily dissolved in common solvents. This process requires fewer steps, and consumes materials and energy more efficiently – thus has a smaller environmental footprint – compared to the conventional high temperature vacuum semiconductor process which use inorganic, silicon materials.
Sony will continue to improve the performance and reliability of its flexible organic displays because the application of these developments are expected to yield thin, light-weight, durable and mobile devices with enhanced form-factor.
So how did Sony do it?
An OTFT (Organic Thin-Film Transistor) is a thin-film transistor with organic (carbon-based compound) semiconductor. The OTFT can be directly made on a flexible substrate at low temperature below typically 180°C. It has high mechanical flexibility and therefore it is expected to realize thin, light-weight, mechanical-shock resistant and form-factor enhanced electronic devices, such as flexible display, e-paper and RF-ID tag. Because organic materials can be easily dissolved in common solvents, development of electronic circuits in a large area with solution/printed process has been attractive much attention.
Sony has developed organic semiconductor material, peri-Xanthenoxanthene (PXX) derivative, which is stable under exposure to oxygen, moisture, light and heat and improved current modulation of eight-times that of conventional OTFT with organic semiconductor of pentacene. Improvement of this OTFT achieved the world’s highest-resolution OTFT-driven OLED display with resolution of 121 ppi and 432 x 240 x RGB (FWQVGA) pixels.
This is the world’s first demonstration of an OLED display with an integrated gate-driver circuit with OTFTs. The improvement of the OTFT described above enables integration of a flexible gate-driver circuit with OTFTs on a display panel. The roll-up capability is possible because the rigid driver IC chips has been removed from the display.
In order to enhance flexibility of the display, Sony has developed organic insulators for all the insulators in the OTFT and OLED integration circuit. These organic insulators can be formed with the solution process in the atmosphere which is requires fewer steps, and consumes materials and energy more efficiently – thus has a smaller environmental footprint – compared to the conventional high temperature vacuum semiconductor process which use inorganic/silicon materials.
The OTFT-driven OLED display with the aforementioned technologies (1-3) can reproduce moving images while rolled-up around a cylinder with a radius of 4 mm. Even after 1000 cycles of repeatedly rolling-up and stretching the display, there was no clear degradation in the display’s ability to reproduce moving images.
The Sony Dash is your favorite parts of the internet customized the way you choose, available in a dash. Over 1,000 free apps can be displayed at the touch of a finger. Choose from your favorite information and entertainment content including weather, traffic, social networking, movies, music and more – pushed right to your kitchen, bedroom, or office. The dash Personal Internet Viewer connects quickly and easily to your existing wireless network and features a vibrant 7 inch LCD touch screen for accessing a variety of video services for online music and viral videos, full-length feature movies and TV shows. You can also listen to MP3s and internet radio via the built-in stereo speakers, or by using the headphone jack (headphones not included).
Our “Win a Sony Dash in a Dash” contest was simple enough: we merely asked you to submit a picture of yourself in a Dash. We received dozens of interesting entries, and after consideration it seems like Pauric O’Donnell really captured the feeling of the word dash. His winning picture is above. Thanks to Sony for providing the Dash for our contest, and congratulations, Pauric!
Keep an eye out for an even bigger contest celebrating our second birthday soon!
In an interview with Gamasutra, Rob Dyer SCEA’s Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations discusses a wide variety of industry topics as they relate to the Sonyverse. Specifically he gave his on thoughts on DLC (downloadable content), his preference for disc based delivery of content, and how these things relate to console exclusivity.
One of the questions that came up is exclusivity. In the day and age we live in, it’s not as common place as it once was as publishers can expand their games to a much larger audience given the market share of the PS3 and the 360. Rob commented on this by stating that in those instances, it’s about exclusive features. With Batman’s exclusive content as an example, he made the point that “exclusive content that is meaningful” and it adds to the overall value from both a publisher perspective and a gamer perspective. He further went to add that it’s “Not about taking share away from Microsoft. It’s about expanding the pie” which is why securing the right type of content is so very important.
The next big topic was DLC (downloadable content). When mentioned that Microsoft has been extremely aggressive in the DLC space, he had some very specific comments surrounding that situation. He cited that, their being aggressive about that as being the difference between Microsoft and Sony. It comes down to the product lines. With two different machines, publishers have to make a decision on how they are going to distribute DLC. He mentioned “are you going to give it for the arcade user or that guy that actually has a hard drive”? That being said, he made the point that publishers know that 100% of the PS3 user base can utilize the DLC generated for it regardless of their PS3 type provided they have access to it.
Along the same lines, he highlighted that, he would encourage more content on disc than via DLC. The reason for this is from an access standpoint. Siting that the PSN userbase is 70-73% of the installbase, that’s a significant number of people that for whatever reason, will not have access to any DLC based content. While not only highlighting the blu-ray capabilities of the PS3 by being able to include large amounts of additional data as a value add, he mentioned focusing on disc based content versus DLC based content is preferable so that “100 percent out there can play”.
Rob then discussed the complexities of DLC from both a developer and publisher perspective. That it goes beyond just deciding their will be DLC, it’s determining what type it will be, which vendors will get what types, and coordinating it all prior to release takes quite some time. For example, he stated “We did the Batman deal 15 months before street” which gave them the necessary time to “get everything lined up”. Rob eluded to a few a deals that should be surprising by saying “Come find after our press event at E3. There’s going to be some announcements. You’re going to look at me and go, ‘Okay, when did you start these’?”
With E3 on the horizon and Comc-Con 2010 right around the corner, expect to hear even more from Sony when it comes to content.
Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that programming from HBO, the premium cable television network, is available starting today in the USA on the PlayStation 3 (PS3), making it the first gaming system to offer HBO original television programming.
“The HBO library of premium original content is a perfect example of how PS3 has become the most content rich entertainment platform in the living room,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president, marketing and PlayStation Network, SCEA. “When you combine the iconic programming from HBO with the existing TV, film, live sports and original programming available on PlayStation Network, our customers have access to the content they want, when they want it, at home or on the go with the PSP.”
The following popular shows from the award-winning cable network are available on the HBO section of PlayStation Store (navigate to the HBO section by selecting TV Shows> Networks> HBO), with more titles and additional seasons to be added each week:
True Blood (season two in addition to season one)
Big Love (seasons one through three)
Entourage (seasons one and two)
Eastbound and Down (season one)
Multiple seasons from HBO signature shows such as The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, Rome, Da Ali G Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Flight of the Conchords.
“We’re extremely pleased to offer our premium programming on Sony Computer Entertainment’s PS3 system,” said Henry McGee, president, HBO Home Entertainment. “This premier gaming system will offer an exciting new way for consumers to purchase HBO’s award-winning programming.”
“HBO’s innovative and popular programming rounds out Sony’s premium TV content offering and enables consumers to enjoy an even wider array of award-winning mini-series and episodic content,” said Michael Aragon, general manager, Global Digital Video Distribution and Operations for Sony Network Entertainment.
ModNation Racers (PS3, PSP), developed by United Front Games and Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (San Diego), brings an entertaining twist to classic kart racing, while empowering players of all levels to fully customize and design their entire racing experience. The second title in PlayStation’s PLAY, CREATE, SHARE series, ModNation Racers allows players to not only enjoy developer-made content, but unleash their imagination with easy-to-use editing tools to generate customized tracks, karts and characters that can be uploaded and shared with the ModNation community via PlayStation Network.
ModNation Racers’ user-friendly creation tools feature a simple interface and a robust menu of options to trick out tracks, karts and drivers with a variety of accessories. If players are not feeling creative, ModNation Racers also features a Story Mode with a humorous narrative and a wealth of pre-made characters, karts and over 25 tracks to try. Here’s a video review courtesy of IGN:
“We continue to deliver on the success of PLAY, CREATE, SHARE movement with ModNation Racers as the next title in the series started by LittleBigPlanet,” said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President, Product Marketing, SCEA. “Combining deep customization with solid kart handling, and online multiplayer options, ModNation Racers brings a creative and interactive kart racing experience to life. It’s a breath of fresh air in the kart racing genre only available on PlayStation.”
ModNation Racers’ single-player career mode tells the tale of Tag, an inexperienced racer given the opportunity to compete in the world famous ModNation Racing Championship. Players with the PS3 system will dive into the ModSpot, the game’s central hub, showcasing each game mode including career, online, creation, and more. In the ModSpot, players can check out the community’s top Mods and Karts, enter Hot Lap tournaments, play the Top Tracks voted on by the community, and socialize with other racers. ModNation Racers also delivers Career Central mode leading players to beat the computer and unlock more content for creation.
Players of all ages will keep coming back for more ModNation Racers with an infinite number of customizable possibilities for cars and drivers. Players can CREATE unusual and unique racers by resizing character features such as eyes and ears, applying different skin designs and colors and trying on different apparel options. With kart creation, players can choose between dozens of body types, from school buses to sports cars and customize with an array of parts, ornaments, decals, and paint jobs.
In just minutes players can build a track or spend hours perfecting it with the same tools the developers used to design the game. By simply driving, players build a track that is laid out behind them. Players can create tunnels, bridges and hairpin turns as well as alter the terrain and morph the land to form mountain ranges, lakes, and more. With auto-complete, players can finish their track at any point during the building process and instantly populate it with obstacles and scenery. Whether a player builds a track covered in weapons or a narrow road for pure racing, the depth of track creation in ModNation Racers truly offers players a unique racing experience.
ModNation Racers features multiplayer options for both the PS3 and PSP systems. The PS3 system version includes split-screen racing with up to four players offline and two player split-screen online. Players also have the option to go online and battle against 11 other players on the PS3 system version. The PSP system version allows up to six players both online and offline. Through PlayStation Network, players can SHARE their creations with the rest of the world and interact with the community on the platform by uploading racers, karts and tracks online for others to experience.
Sony Develops “SmartAR” Integrated Augmented Reality Technology
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PSP®go Phase Out
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