PlayStation News, Articles and Information for the UK and Europe

Sony’s advertising strategies for the various PlayStation consoles have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. This new one is definitely sublime. Combined with a fantastic line-up of software this year, their new advertising strategy should help Sony to shift a serious number of PlayStation 3s over the next few months. This is the North American version of the advert but we can hope that Sony have similar plans for the UK and Europe.

See the video for yourself below:

Square Enix have just revealed the first gameplay video from their forthcoming MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. The game is set for release later this year on PlayStation 3 and Windows PC. See the footage for yourself below:

Critically acclaimed interactive drama game Heavy Rain has achieved over one million sales since its release in February. With mixed opinions based on early previews, some gamers and journalists were sceptical of how successful Heavy Rain would be in terms of sales, especially given the unique nature of the game. However, upon release the game was hit by a flood of praise and high review scores, and quickly shot to the top of the computer game charts.

Heavy Rain, released exclusively for PlayStation 3, is seen of one of this year’s biggest PS3 exclusives, alongside God of War III and, eventually, Gran Turismo 5. With God of War III already amassing very strong sales in its first two weeks of release, Sony will be hoping that their other exclusives this year can match up to the success of Heavy Rain.

Full sales data for Heavy Rain are below: Read more

PlayStation Future are broadcasting live Modern Warare 2 gameplay for the next few hours with our resident MW2 guru Mudmoster7. Leave any requests below!

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

FirstPlay, thenew on-console interactive show for PlayStation 3 will be officially launched on April 8th 2010. The new service aims to deliver exclusive HD video reviews, previews and downloadable content direct to your PS3 and will cost £0.99 per episode or £8.99 for a three-month pass.

The final FirstPlay Beta is currently doing the rounds and features an HD video review of explosive new shooter Battlefield: Bad Company 2, plus exclusive preview footage from Lost Planet 2 and Super Street Fighter IV and more. The full details of the official launch episode are yet to be confirmed but MCV are reporting that Final Fantasy XIII and Just Cause 2 will feature heavily, the latter including an exclusive DLC in-game item.

A rumour originating at Dutch PlayStation website PS3Clan this morning claimed that, in an interview with Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai, they were told that all users, not just ‘Premium’ users, would be charged to use the PSN. However, the original story on PS3 Clan has now disappeared and it seems highly unlikely that the Sony Computer Entertainment CEO would let such a massive cat out of the bag in an interview with a Dutch PS3 website without letting anyone else know.

The story has spread pretty quickly around the internet but until there are some hard facts and official statements just take story as an unlikely rumour.

In a move that will prove unpopular with many fans, the latest PS3 firmware update (v3.21) will be released this Thursday 1st April and has been confirmed to remove the ability to install a Linux Operating System. All PS3s prior to the release of the PS3 Slim have the ability to run a Linux OS alongside the standard PS3 OS but from April 1st this option will be removed due to apparent ‘security concerns’.

Many fans tout the ability to install Linux as one of the advantages of the PS3 over the competition so this will be a blow to many. In addition, although the update is not mandatory, players will be unable to use the PSN, thus rendering the following abilities obsolete: Read more

Not much new in the Top 10 this week but quite a shuffle around. A price drop to £28 brings Modern Warfare 2 back up to the top spot, whereas Final Fantasy XIII drops again down to number 10 – as in Japan,  the majority of early sales were in the first week - hardcore Final Fantasy fans were clearly eager to get their hands on the game as soon as possible. Heavy Rain continues to do well, as does Uncharted 2 considering it was released nearly 6 months ago. With some of the biggest games of the year released this March, it’s been a very competitive time for developers seeking to make an impact on the charts. With Super Street Fighter IV, 2010 FIFA World Cup, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger as well as Episodes from Liberty City all being released next month, we should start to see quite a change in the charts. See the full chart below: Read more

The good folks over at PSN at Home have recently heard from a ‘trusted source’ that PSOne Classics may be getting Trophy Support some time in the near future, though the only other information on this is that the titles will only be getting 5 – 10 trophies per title. It remains unclear whether this would be retrospectively applied to existing PSOne Classics or just games released in the future.

While many SCEE gamers would welcome such a move, a bigger issue for many is the low number of PSOne Classics on the EU PSN Store, with the US and Japanese stores having many more titles available. In any case, this story is a rumour and with no official word from Sony or anyone else, don’t hold your breath waiting for PSOne Classics to get trophies just yet.

Heavy Rain will support the forthcoming PlayStation Move motion controller due to be launched worldwide this Autumn, according to a Belgian computer game magazine. The magazine lists a number of existing PS3 games confirmed to use the Move controller and Heavy Rain is one of them. Among the others are LittleBigPlanet and EyePet, alongside a host of forthcoming dedicated Move games like Sports Champions and Motion Fighters.

Sony announced that PlayStation Move would be released in the Autumn rather than a Summer release at originally thought – although this will take out any headstart over the competing Xbox ‘Natal’ which is launching at the same time, the short delay should give Sony and other developers more time to bring out a hefty number of titles that will support Move upon release.