Thursday, May 03, 2007 - Posts

Thursday, May 03, 2007 7:16 PM

PlayStation Home beta comes to Europe

The first phase of the European beta for PlayStation Home kicked off yesterday evening, starting with "a small group of both internal staff and known beta testers."

Sometime during "summer," the online community will be made available to a wider group of testers. Those who are interested in signing up can register their interest on the company's Web site.

Sony Worldwide Studios president Phil Harrison first announced Home--billed as a community-based, three-dimensional sim for the PlayStation Network on the PlayStation 3 console--at this year's Game Developers Conference.

In the US, Sony confirmed that the beta would also run in two phases, with 15,000 users beta testing in April and 50,000 in August, although numbers have not been given for the European beta. Home is set for release in the US and Europe "around October or November time," according to SCEE's senior PR manager Jonathan Fargher.

Emma Boyes
May 2, 2007

Source: GameSpot UK
posted by Auri with 0 Comments
Thursday, May 03, 2007 7:13 PM

New PlayStation next year?

Days after Sony's Ken Kutaragi hinted his plans for PlayStation 4, an unnamed "Sony insider" has reportedly claimed that a new PlayStation could be available next year.

The report on Smarthouse.com suggests that the insider has tipped the new PlayStation to include the same chipset as the current PS3, but will boast other hardware modifications in the "drive bay" and "attachment areas".

The report refers to the mystery machine as the PS4, but if it does exist, it sounds more like a reworked PS3 to us - like the slim-line PS2.

Kutaragi has already hinted: "As a matter of course, I have the vision of PlayStation 4, 5 and 6, which will merge into the network."

Best start saving now, then.

Mike Jackson
May 3, 3007

Source: CVG
posted by Auri with 0 Comments
Thursday, May 03, 2007 7:11 PM

PSone titles now working on PlayStation 3 and PSP

If you've been hankering to play those classic PSone games on something besides your PSP (or your, uh, PSone ...), then your reception of Sony's recent 1.7 PS3 firmware update was likely something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, news that the PSone emulation software was enabled, allowing you to play the games you've already been rocking on your handheld, was great; however, the revelation that the functionality would not work until May probably left you a little frustrated.

Well, it's May and Sony has announced that the PSone format software available from the PlayStation Store will now be operable on both the PS3 and PSP systems. If you've already purchased any titles, you'll be able to re-download them to your PS3 at no additional charge. We'll give our copy of Crash Bandicoot a spin on the PS3 later today and report back on how it goes. Now, if we could only skip the PS3 entirely and download straight to the PSP ...

Compatible titles include:
  • 2Xtreme
  • Crash Bandicoot
  • Destruction Derby
  • Jet Moto
  • Jumping Flash
  • MediEvil
  • Rally Cross
  • Syphon Filter
  • Tekken 2
  • WipeOut
Christopher Grant
May 3, 3007

Source: Joystiq
posted by Auri with 0 Comments