LittleBIGPlanet Release Dates and PS3 Bundle Confirmed

Sony has revealed worldwide release dates for LittleBigPlanet. We already knew the game would be available in the UK on October 24th, but now a October 21st release date for North and Latin America has been confirmed. As for Japan, they can expect to see the game arrive on the 30th of the month and Europe, Australia and New Zealand will get their hands on it on the 22nd. That’s not all, though. An 80GB PS3 bundle will be made available on the 29th in Europe and the 31st in the UK.

To recap:

• North & Latin America: 21st October
• Europe, Australia & New Zealand: 22nd October
• UK & Ireland: 24th October
• 80GB PS3 Bundle in Europe: 29th October
• Japan: 30th October
• 80GB PS3 Bundle in UK & Ireland: 31st October

To celebrate the launch of the game, there will also be some limited-time-only DLC made available for early adopters. Specifically, these are a “Spaceman” costume (shown above) and a rare T-shirt.

Life With Playstation Delayed…Again

Life for Playstation has been delayed once again after Sony promised it to consumers by August. Touted as Sony’s all in one solution for news, weather and other functions such as music playback, gamers have been waiting anxiously for the free software from Sony. Noam Rimon, Sr. Development Manager for SCEA’s R&D department stated over the weekend that, “I’ve got some good news and some okay news. We’ll start with the okay part. We’re still pushing some paperwork on Life with PlayStation — so hold tight just a bit longer. Now on to the good news, the Life with PlayStation application is looking great and to quench some of the curiosity around what it’s all about, here’s what I can share today.

We’re going to offer this as a free service that will be easily accessible directly from the XMB. Life with PlayStation will feed live content to your PS3 with updates on news and weather on a visually stunning and interactive global map. Imagine being able to wake up to your PS3 to see if you need to pack an umbrella for the day. Or just relax as you listen to your favorite tunes while reading up on top news from around the world.

We’re also very excited to share that Life with PlayStation will be combined with our Folding@home project. What does this mean? While you’re tuned into Life with PlayStation, you’ll also be helping Stanford researchers cure diseases like Alzheimer’s and various types of cancer while Folding@home is running in the background.

We know you’re eager to check it out for yourself, so we’re working hard to get it in your hands. Stay tuned.”

Sony, please, would you stop announcing release dates you don’t intend to keep? I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve done this. Also, check out our previous coverage of the application Life for the PS3.

How Much Are The PS3 Price Cuts Costing Sony?

While Sony fought the Xbox360/Live revolution by pushing their console out as quickly as possible, it is now clear that the introduction of this juggernaut has had deep financial repercussions amongst a myriad of other woes. The birth year of the PS3 was criticized heavily and had an initally weak game library. In typical Sony fashion, the PS3 models offered to consumers was confusing and the software came out bare (Sony loves to do hardware first, features later, which tests the patience of consumers). 2008 is regarded as a power year for the PS3 which would enable more sales since a slew of incredible games are now being released consistently and the console is becoming so flexible. There is one caveat – the American economy is struggling.

Consumer confidence in America and many other countries is slumping, so its natural for the common man to balk at high console prices. The true price in console gaming isn’t just the system, but the games and everything else associated with it. Sony took a huge hit by dropping the price of the PS3, but they had to adapt to the dawn of a new financial era, where they couldn’t rely on America for a strong launch like they could before. The figures are staggering, as stated by Kotaku:

Pricing the Playstation 3 below its production cost caused Sony to lose $2.16 billion in 2007 and $1.16 billion in 2008, the company revealed today.

Sony’s fiscal 2008 annual report delineated potential risk factors to its investors, outlining that “the large-scale investment required during the development and introductory period of a new gaming platform may not be fully recovered.” The loss figures were provided as an example of the “significant negative impact” introducing a new platform can cause at first.

“In the past, large-scale investment relating to capital expenditures and research and development for the manufacture of key components, including semiconductors supplied for [PlayStation 3] was also recorded within the Electronics segment,” the company said.

In order to stay competitive, said Sony, it had to invest large amounts of money in research and development to introduce the PlayStation 3 into the market, and these sorts of expenditures don’t always get recouped, especially if a platform “fail[s] to achieve such favorable market penetration… resulting in a significant negative impact on Sony’s profitability.”

Even if it can recoup its investment, Sony said, it’s still possible to have lost large amounts of money on the platform’s introductory period, and even a successful PS3 might take a while to replace what it cost to produce. These possible outcomes are currently a risk for the company, Sony said.