Sony

The rumours were true - SCE Australia is preparing a PlayStation 3 Grand Theft Auto IV bundle for release alongside the game on April 29. Newspaper advertisements from a major retailer put the bundle price at $748 - not a bad deal considering the PS3 is currently fetching $699, and GTA IV itself is priced at a whopping $120.

No details on the storage size, or whether the new bundle includes a DualShock 3 controller in preference of the antiquated Sixaxis - I have pinged Sony for a response, so stay tuned.

via Screen Play

Sony has unveiled a $199.99 God of War PSP bundle, dubbed the God of War PSP Entertainment Pack. Here’s the contents:

• Deep Red PSP with Kratos silkscreen in white
• God of War: Chains of Olympus
• Syphon Filter: Combat Ops (free download from PlayStation Store)
• Superbad (UMD)

The downside? You’ll have to wait until June 3 to get it, despite God of War: Chains of Olympus hitting shelves on March 4.

Pre-orders are now available at Amazon.

Good news for those in the US, the Ceramic White PS3 we reported on in October is making the jump across the Pacific. In fact it’s doubly good news, as the Ceramic White PS3 includes a DualShock 3, meaning that DualShock 3’s are likely to hit shelves at around the same time. So far we don’t have any dates, as all that tipped us off was FCC approval.

via Engadget

Sony have managed to bring the cost of PS3 production from US$800 to US$400 through the use of smaller chips and removal of unneeded hardware. Sony aren’t dancing with joy yet, as Nikko Citigroup analyst Kota Ezawa predicts that they will still lose $1.4 billion this year and won’t become profitable until 2009.

So what does this mean for consumers? Well nothing yet - there are no talks of a future price drop at this stage.

via PS3 Fanboy

Sony has revealed one damn good reason to like Blu-ray Profile 2.0 - at least if you own a PSP. Studios releasing movies on Blu-ray will have the option of including a version of the film optimized for portable devices like the PSP. Sony demonstrated using the Portable Copy feature of a PlayStation 3 to copy a Blu-ray to a PSP memory stick.

Gizmodo tells us the movies will be around 1GB, and will take approximately 3-5 minutes to transfer to a PSP over USB - and apparently the process could be made available for all existing Blu-ray titles.

Does anyone else feel like their investments in PSP/PS3 hardware just keep paying off?

via Three Speech

Sony have confirmed that Playstation Network cards will be available in North America early next year. The cards will act the same as those for the Wii and Xbox 360, except they will do away with the sometimes confusing points system and come in monetary values. Eric Lempel, director of PSN operations pointed out the function of the cards:

“The cards will be redeemable via the PlayStation Store for PC, and on the PlayStation 3 to supply the wallet with funds to spend on games, add-ons, and other paid content.”

Thanks to some photos snapped last week we know that there will be a $20 card, and we suspect a $40 card to coincide with Japan’s JPY 5,000 card.

via gamesindustry.biz

Watch and learn people. Here’s how you turn “coming dead last” into something that resembles a success of sorts. In November’s NPD figures, all three of Sony’s platforms occupied the bottom three rungs of the hardware ladder. But Sony refused to acknowledge any sort of failure, issuing a statement saying that combined PlayStation sales were up 160% from October, that the PS3 saw a 285% spike in sales over the previous month and that their total software revenue for the month was up 128%. Also highlighted was the fact three PS3 games made the month’s top 10 in sales.

We could also do some simple addition for you and tell you how the DS alone outsold all three of Sony’s platforms, but hey, we wouldn’t want to show up Sony’s fine PR work.

Read on for the official NPD figures for November
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Harmonix has publicly attacked Sony and Activision, claiming that their patch to use the Guitar Hero III controller on the PS3 in Rock Band was blocked. Harmonix claim they had the patch ready by December 4th but “continual objections” by Activision caused Sony to block its release. As a display of good will Harmonix have said that they “believe in an open standard philosophy of hardware and game compatibility” and that they “welcome all third party developers who wish to support our controllers and will provide any required support in order for them to do so.”

Its’ not really a big surprise that Sony would do this (we have all seen how they love their proprietary formats and devices), but I expected less selfish behavior from Activision.

Check after the jump for Harmonix’s statement.

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A recent article in Stuff magazine has indicated a revival of the Sony AIBO to be called the Sony AIBO PS. Before you get mad and throw stuff at us, this does have a little to do with gaming:  The new AIBO will have a camera in its head that will be viewable on your PS3 and PSP via WiFi. But the best part is you will be able to control your robo-doggie with your PSP or PS3. Once it gets a price tag it will probably cost an arm and a leg, but think of all the money you’d save on real dog food.

via Engadget

One of the main things that held the PSP back was the battery life. Sony have finally decided to remedy that by announcing a 2200mAh battery pack. The pack will add 20% more play time to the original PSP, and a massive 80% more play time to the PSP Slim. The new battery is quite a bit bigger than the standard one, so a new fitted battery cover is provided with the pack. No word yet on the release date, or price.

via PSP Fanboy