Talk Playstation 3 News

many people are wondering what services and extra features premium subscribers will get. Thanks to TheSixthAxis, we finally have the details.

• Customer Service Priority Access
  Priority access to PlayStation’s customer service both online and via phone should you need technical help or have questions about your products. This feature gives you support with little to no waiting.
• Exclusive Experiences with Sony Brands
  Get member-only access to attend exclusive Sony events and experiences throughout the year, including those offered by PlayStation, Sony Pictures, and Sony Music.
• Extended Console Warranty 3 Years
  Get your PS3 warranty extended to 3 years as part of your overall subscription (requires you to keep your subscription active). The standard warranty on your PS3 is 1 year.
• Access to Beta Games
  Get access to Betas of popular games not yet released at retail (Betas offer bigger experiences than typical game demos). You will have the ability to play these games before others do.
• Early Access to All Store Content
  Get early access to select free and purchasable game related content on the PlayStation Store before it’s available to everyone else. This includes games, add-ons, themes, avatars, as well as free game demos.
• Member Demo Sharing of Full Game
  Share a level of a game that you just purchased for your PS3 with a subscriber who doesn’t own the game. Your friends could do the same. This would be an exclusive demo not available otherwise to those who haven’t purchased the game.
• Cross-game Voice Chat Access
  Get exclusive member-only access to cross-game voice chat. This is the ability to use your headset to voice chat with friends on your PS3 regardless of what they are doing on the PS3.
• Full Title Trial – 1st Hour Is Free
  Download full versions of select Blu-ray and PSN game titles and have the chance to play the entire game (single or multiplayer) for free for the first hour. After that time you will have the option of purchasing the game to continue playing.
• Token Wagering
  Get a fixed number of tokens per month you can wager with other players in competitive online games. These tokens could then be built up and redeemed for free PlayStation Network games and other content.
• User-to-user Challenges
  Unlock developer-created challenges while playing games. Compete with your friends to see who can be the first to complete these challenges. The PS3 will automatically offer and track challenges and winners and would post results. An example of a challenge is ‘first to get 10 trophies’ in a particular game.
• Free Access to PSOne Classics, PSP Minis, and PS3/PSP Themes
  Get a fixed number of PSOne Classic games, PSP Minis (bite-sized games), and PS3/PSP themes per month to keep for free for as long as you are a subscriber. The PlayStation Store offers these types of content for $2-6 each.
• Discounts on Store Content
  Get weekly member-exclusive discounts on specific games, game add-ons and themes on the PlayStation Store. Discounts may range from 20-50% off regular retail prices.
• Member Only In-game Content
  Get exclusive member-only in-game content for your PS3 or PSP such as new game play options, unlocked in-game weapons or player slots, exclusive levels, costumes/skins, and PlayStation Home spaces.
• Trophy Alerts
  Get automated alerts on your PlayStation XrossMedia Bar, PlayStation.com, and via text message (if you so choose) that alert you when your friends get any trophy or a specific one. This feature is customizable – you can choose which friends to receive alerts from and what kinds of alerts.
• Cloud Storage Space for Games
  Store your game saves on a virtual secure saver. This would allow you to access your game saves at any point in time, and from any PlayStation 3 or PSP console you are logged in on.
• Online Music Service
  Get a streaming music service that allows you to choose your channel based on music style, artist type, etc. and listen to an unlimited number of tracks. This service would be for use outside of playing a game and similar to Pandora or a Last.fm.
• Online Music Video Service
  Get a streaming music video service on your PlayStation 3 that lets you stream music videos from a continuously growing catalog of music and allows you to create a custom playlist to play back.  [Presumably an ad-free VidZone? ~Watchful]
• Automatic Downloads and Updates
  Customize the types of updates you want your PS3 to download automatically. These include game updates (patches) for games that you own, firmware updates, and game demos downloaded on your PS3 without manually having to select them and wait for them to finish downloading. Your PS3 can be set to automatically turn on for updates and turn off after completion.
• Loyalty Program Rewards
  Get rewards the longer you are a subscriber and also earn rewards by engaging with PlayStation such as buying games, downloading movies, and rating products. Rewards can include full versions of PlayStation Network games and digital movie rentals from the PlayStation Store.
• Facebook Connectivity
  Access to member-exclusive Facebook features on your PlayStation 3, such as viewing and linking your Facebook accounts with their PSN ID’s, updating your status, editing, uploading and sharing photos, and viewing photo albums of your friends on your TV.
• Catch-up TV
  Get access to popular TV shows and movies through service providers such as Hulu, simply by clicking an icon on your PS3 XrossMedia navigation bar.
• Netflix Access Without Disc
  Access the Netflix video streaming service on your PS3 without the need to insert a special disc into the drive each time to access the service. A separate Netflix subscription would also be needed to enjoy the service. Netflix offers over 17000 popular movies and TV shows for streaming on your laptop or a supported device such as a PS3.

What do you make of them?

Call of Duty Classic is available for download on the Playstation Network and has shot to number 1 of being the most downloaded. Check out the top 20.

01. Call of Duty Classic
02. LittleBigPlanet PSP
03. Madden NFL Arcade
04. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
05. Final Fantasy VII
06. Borderlands Zombie Island
07. Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines
08. Marvel vs. Capcom 2
09. Resident Evil 2
10. Battlefield 1943
11. Tekken 6 PSP
12. Dragon Age: Origins Warden’s Keep
13. Fat Princess
14. Dissidia: Final Fantasy
15. Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 3
16. Rock Band Nirvana Pack 2
17. Diner Dash
18. Gran Turismo PSP
19. Braid
20. Madden NFL 10 PSP

Source.

We all know that Playstation Network is going to have a premium service where you’ll have to pay for it. No one knows the details of how much you have to pay or what you’ll get in return but one rumour is floating around that it may favour trophy hunters.

Playstation Cloud was supposed to be a type of Trophy comparison system for the Playstation 3. While I doubt it will be under the name Playstation Cloud I do believe that this premium service will include some type of special treatment towards Trophy Hunters.

Psnathome think that the premium service will have:

• Financial rewards for Playstation Trophies
• Advanced PSN profile looks
• Advanced comparison of trophies between friends
• Playstation Trophy Leaderboards

What do you think/want to see in the premium service?

The Playstation Network is apparently going to undergo some maintenance on the 10th of December 2009. According to DragonRay on the official US Playstation Forums, here’s the deal:

I sent Sony an e-mail about this and was told it’s affecting ‘a very small number of users’ and may be addressed by scheduled maintenance due dec 10 — as far as I’ve seen it’s affecting a fairly large number of users so people having this issue need to contact sony support so they realise it’s a big problem – the answer told me basically that it’s just trophies and not important enough to worry about since it doesn’t affect gameplay , and didn’t even acknowledge the part about not being able to use the color change option without trophy synch — we need to all let sony know how widespread the issue is

Are you having trophy sync issues?

Ever since the Playstation 3 launched with Playstation Network, overtime many people wondered if Sony will keep the service free, or bring in some sort of subscription based service. Well now it appears that Sony will indeed bring a in a premium level service and yes you will need to pay for it.

During the presentation, which emphasized Sony’s plans to make its game business profitable in the next fiscal year, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai confirmed the plans. “We will be building upon our current free [PSN] service offering with premium content and services to start the subscription model,” he told attendees.

Will we have to pay for it anyway? No, Kaz Hirai has said that the current level of service would remain gratis.

SCE will further increase sales by offering users new entertainment through the combination of hardware, software, peripheral, and PlayStation Network,

Especially in the online area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services.” (Emphasis added.)

Even without subscriptions, PSN revenue is on the rise. For the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2010, Sony expects ¥50 billion ($563 million) in earnings from the service, a threefold increase from the year prior. In addition to game-related content, the PSN’s retail component–the PlayStation Store–offers video offerings, such as television shows and movies for both rental and sale.

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In Sony’s recent conference the company revealed some Playstation Network stats and said that more than 33 million users are registered to the Playstation Network as of November 16, 2009.

The PSN has been online ever since the launch of the Playstation 3 back on the 11th of November 2006. During that time Sony has expanded the Network and moved it to the PSP and the service continues to grow even stronger. Better yet, it’s still free!

• 5.4 million unique users are signed-in to PSN daily
• 1.4 million Playstation Store visits daily
• 25 Petabyte downloads monthly

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That’s right, remember the little green frog? Frogger is coming to the Playstation Store after Kondami today announced Frogger Returns.

Based on the timeless arcade game, the latest iteration of Frogger delivers the addictive dodge-and-run gameplay fans know and love on an all-new platform.

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If you Subscribe to Qore last week (not single episode) you will get the MAG beta test on Thursday.Sony put some things up about the rules to get the Mag Beta:

• The Qore MAG Beta offer is open to Qore subscribers only, not to single episode purchasers.
• All Beta invitations are restricted to persons 18 years and older.
• We must have your current, valid e-mail address on file.
• You must be opted in to receiving communications from PlayStation.
• Vouchers will be sent to the e-mail associated with the PSN account that purchased the Qore subscription, not to any sub-accounts

* Please allow at least 5 business days for delivery once you subscribe.

If you get the Mag beta you will be able to play it September 17 to November 8, Mondays through Fridays, 10AM – 1PM and 5-8PM Pacific.

Update: Also, if you were a private beta tester, you’ll automatically be rolled over into the Public, and you’ll be able to start playing again on the 17th. Thanks Aerofox for the Tip

Have Fun!

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FurySevenSix Community Team Leader of the European Playstation Forums has let everyone know that there is a scheduled Playstation Network Maintenance that will take place on the 28th and 29th of July 2009.

Hey guys just a quick notice to let you know that on Tuesday 28th from 2pm to 5:30pm and on Wednesday 29th from 2pm to 6pm the PSN will be offline for scheduled maintenance. As soon as this has finished the PSN will be back online for further use.

During this time some of you might be unable to sign-in. If you are already signed in during the maintenance, some users might be signed out automatically. Any user who is signed out or unable to sign-in should be able to sign back in after approximately one minute.

More arcade classics are on the way to the Playstation Network and the latest reveal is Strikers 1945 Plus. So whats new? The Plus version will feature revamped graphics, ad-hoc cooperative mode , 6 planes and a new endless play mode.

The classic game will be published by PM Studios and will be released in July for the Playstation Portable at a price that is currently unknown.

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It appears that Final Fantasy Tactics could be released on the Playstation Store after Final Fantasy VII was released. Tactics was originally released on the Playstation back in 1998 and was Square’s first entry into the land of Ivalice.

It seems that FFVII is not the only Final Fantasy game being released on the PSN, we believe many more will be released with Tactics being the next one.

Take a look at the picture above, it is the ESRB rating for the game. No word on a release date yet but be sure to check back soon.

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Sony Computer Entertainment America have revealed plans for the Playstation Network and Playstation Store. SCEA will be looking to improve the digital quality of the games that are coming soon.

New items for the PSP such as songs will be in better quality when downloaded from your PC. The Playstation Store has some great games coming out such as Fat Princess and more PSone originals are on the way.

There are currently around 200 full games and Sony plan to expand that to 300 by the end of this year.

Things are looking great for content downloaders.

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John Slavin, Designer, Nihilistic has spoken over on the PSBlog about a game called Zombie Apocalypse. This downloadable game from Konami will be released on the Playstation Network at some point next month.

Zombie Apocalypse is pure and gory wish fulfillment. We wanted to strip off the woes of increasingly complex modern mega-games, and retreat back into the world of dank arcades and late-night movie rentals that was our childhood in the 80’s and 90’s.

Below are the key features of the game.

• Deadly Environments
• Four Unlikely Heroes
• Zombie-Killing Arsenal
• Racking Up the Score
• 55 Days of Terror

Check out the PSblog for more info.

Sony showed a code in a new Playstation Home trailer that will unlock two new hats. If you use this code ‘MC56 BXBC 349K’ it will unlock the Koi Hat for guys and Shark Hat for girls.

Go over to your Playstation Network XMB, click on “Account Management” and then scroll down and click “Redeem Codes,” very easy once you know where your going.

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The PlayStation Network will be going under scheduled maintenance on Saturday, April 18th. The maintenance will last from 1:30AM to 7:30AM EST (5.30AM – 11.30AM UTC).

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