PlayStation News, Articles and Information for the UK and Europe

Those of you who crave PSN Store updates will be pleased to know that during this year’s E3 video game convention, scheduled for the 14th – 16th June 2010, the European PSN Store will be updating daily with new trailers to showcase the latest games unveiled at the expo. The first two days will contain trailers only, while the update on the 16th June will be that week’s full store update. Mike Kebby from the EU PSN Store, had the following to say:

“As per previous years, the plan is that you will see daily updates during E3, but these daily updates will feature trailers only (apart from the usual Wednesday full publish).”

In case you hadn’t seen it elsewhere, the EU Store will be updated on Wednesdays from now on, rather than the previous update day of  Thursday.

The details of the collector’s edition of Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, the latest game in the long-running Prince of Persia saga, have been unveiled according to PS3Trophies.org.

Among the bonus items included are additional in-game character skins and a special ‘survival mode’ which sounds a lot like Resident Evil 5′s Mercenaries Mode that came with the recently released Gold Edition of the game. Also included with Forgotten Sands will be a soundtrack disc, special casing and a free download for Prince of Persia Classic from the PSN Store.

Price of Persia: Forgotten Sands is currently scheduled for release on May 21st in the UK.

If you’ve looked at VidZone recently you may have noticed a rather substantial new feature – VidZone TV. If you don’t already use VidZone, now would be an excellent time to load it up and find out what all the fuss is about. Vidzone TV adds to the already huge library of entertainment on Vidzone by letting you watch dedicated video ‘channels’, like the Rock Channel to Chart TV.

 Though it can be a lot of fun tracking down your favourite songs and putting together in your own personal playlist, one of the very few criticisms levelled at Vidzone is that it can take time to do this. Vidzone TV now lets you watch endless streams of your favourite videos and artists on demand, whenever you want. Rest assured however, you can still make your own playlists and play around to you heart’s content if that’s what you prefer.

If you’ve not done so already, check out Vidzone and see what you think!

Despite the recent call for applicants to the Final Fantasy XIV beta on PS3 it looks like Sony gamers may not be getting access to the first stage of the beta, which will be for PC gamers only. According to Connected Consoles, Hiromichi Tanaka, who was interviewed in the latest issue of Dengeki Magazine, had the following to say:

“We may not make it in time for phase 1 of the beta, but around phase 2 of the beta we believe we will be able to support PS3.”

That’s not definite but makes sense that Square Enix would want to test out everything on PC first – bug reporting and troubleshooting could be much easier on a computer than on a console. Still, it looks likely that everything’s going ahead for the second phase of the beta – just keep your fingers crossed until then!

Sony has apologised to PS3 gamers who lost out as a result of the removal of the PS3′s ability to run a Linux operating system. Although only a very small handful of gamers used this feature, many were nonetheless dismayed at losing a function which they saw as one of the benefits of the PS3 over the competition. In their official statement, Sony said:

“We are sorry if users of Linux or other operating systems are disappointed by our decision to issue a firmware upgrade which when installed disables this operating system feature. We have made the decision to protect the integrity of the console and whilst mindful of the impact on Linux or other operating system users we nevertheless felt it would be in the best interests of the majority of users to pursue this course of action.

“As you will be aware we have upgraded and enhanced functionality and features of the console by numerous firmware upgrades over time and this is a very rare instance where a feature will be disabled. Further enhancements are in the pipeline.”

Sony then went on to excuse themselves for what they have done:

“Users do have the choice whether to install the firmware upgrade and this is clearly explained to them at the time the firmware upgrade is made available for installation. Furthermore our terms and conditions clearly state that we have the right to revise the PS3′s settings and features in order to prevent access to unauthorised or pirated content.”

It is a shame that the PS3 has lost this function but gamers should also be aware that this whole fracas was kicked off because a hacker used the Linux OS on his PlayStation to hack the console, potentially opening it to piracy abuse. Who do you think is more at fault? Sony, or the hacker?

Fresh off the Yahoo news press comes a rumour that a next-gen PSP in currently in the works and will be officially unveiled at this year’s E3 in June. There’s only very slight evidence to suggest this but poor launch of the PSP-Go coupled with sightings of the phrase ‘PSP 2′ are starting to set rumours flying around the web.

Our impression? Sony have enough on their plates with the fantastic line-up of 2010 exclusives, the forthcoming 3D support and of course the launch of PlayStation Move in the Autumn without adding a PSP 2 into the mix. Either way, June 2010 should be a very interesting month for PlayStation fans!

We’re not sure if this is a delayed April Fool’s Day joke or what but according to Kotaku, a Japanese third-party hardware developer is planning to release a slightly cumbersome looking add-on TV screen for the ‘PS3 Slim’, turning the console into a quasi-portable gaming machine. The add-on will be released in Japan on May 27th for around 25,000 Yen, which is roughly £180.

Maybe a few real hardcore gamers will be interested but it’s difficult to see this taking off here in the UK.

As reported on CVG, highly anticipated racing game Gran Turismo 5 may support both PlayStation Move and 3D, according to the developers Polyphony Digital. When asked about both forthcoming technologies, Kazunori Yamauchi, the developer’s boss, went on record stating:

“We’re always attuned to new technologies. If there are display devices or peripherals that seem interesting, I’m sure we’ll work to support them.”

 Although not a definitive yes, Move and 3D support are clearly a possibility for Gran Turismo 5 – perhaps that’s one of the reasons for the game’s substantial delays. No release date for the UK/Europe has been announced yet but it’s likely that Gran Turismo 5 will be released in the late Autumn this year. As with previous Gran Turismo games, it will be exclusive to PlayStation and this will be the first full-blown Gran Turismo game released for the PS3.

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

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.