There’s only two flavors of new content on the PlayStation Store for PC — an echochrome theme and, even better, a demo of Secret Agent Clank. We got word earlier today that the game has gone gold, so this will give you a sneak peek at what you can expect from Clank’s PSP game. The demo contains the first level from the game, so if you’ve got a problem with repetition, you might want to skip the demo and just pick the game up on June 17.
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A title like that doesn’t write itself very often, so I’m happy to take advantage. The new Rocketmen expansion pack, It Came From Uranus, is now available on the PlayStation Store. You’ll also now find two new Hot Shots Golf characters, each of which cost $.99, and are small enough that I reckon they’re already on the Blu-ray disc you hold in your hands.
Rounding out the DLC scene is this week’s installment of Rock Band tracks and 21 new Karaoke Revolution: American Idol tracks.
Sony has announced that a new firmware update has been released for PlayStation 3, which will bring the current version up to 2.35. If there are any features being added, Sony’s not saying, as PlayStation.Blog brings word that it’s a “minor update to improve stability of some PS3 titles.” Grand Theft Auto IV, perhaps?
Check back later today for an update on what’s been added to the PlayStation Store.
Honestly, there’s nothing you’re going to learn in this story that the title couldn’t tell you. The only piece of content on the PlayStation Store for PC is a demo of SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 2, which you can also download through your PlayStation 3 and send to your PSP. You can’t go wrong with a portable demo, but if SOCOM isn’t really you’re thing, I guess you’re just SOL this week, PSP owners.
The PlayStation Store has gotten a great update this week with three solid demos, new music for both Guitar Hero IIIand Rock Band, the expansion pack to PixelJunk, PixelJunk Monsters Encore ($5.99), and Rocketmen: Axis of Evil ($9.99). In addition to all that, there’s a number of trailers for games and movies, including an Iron Man trailer and one for WipEout HD and Mercenaries 2.
MTV and Harmonix have landed themselves a sponsor to temporarily drop the price of various songs in Rock Band from now through June 1. The songs will cost just 80 Microsoft Points, rather than the usual 160. Just who is sponsoring, you ask? Why, McDonald’s, of course. Because when you think rock music, you think McDonald’s.
The sales schedule is as follows:
5/6/08-5/12/08 :
Crushcrushcrush - Paramore
Rock ‘n Roll Band - Boston
5/13/08-5/19/08 :
Shockwave - Black Tide
Sugar Magnolia - Grateful Dead
5/20/08-5/26/08:
We Care A Lot - Faith No More
All the Small Things - Blink 182
5/27/08-6/2/08:
Gimme Three Steps - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Dirty Little Secret - All-American Rejects
Hopefully this sale works out well and we see future advertisers do something similar (and with a broader selection of music). Another point goes to Rock Band in the ongoing battle with Guitar Hero.
The long awaited MC Escher-inspired puzzle-platformer, echochrome, is set to release tomorrow on the PlayStation Store tomorrow for both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. Each version features 56 unique levels and will cost $9.99.
We’ve written our fair share about it, and if you checked out 1UP’s recent preview and import video review (above), you should know that this game is a must-buy for owners of either of Sony’s systems.
I’m glad the game ended up being a downloadable game versus retail, as there’s simply no way that the game could have been priced at $10 in stores. And at this price, it’s not going to be too expensive to pick up both versions of the game.
So who else will be getting the game tomorrow, and for what system(s)?
I imagine most people are going to be busy with Grand Theft Auto today, but that didn’t stop Harmonix from doing their weekly Rock Band DLC thing. Three new songs are now available, each for 160 Microsoft Points.
“Zero” - Smashing Pumpkins
“Red Tandy” - The Mother Hips
“Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear” - The Mother Hips
Is anyone going to be tearing themselves away from GTA IV to download any of these? Personally, it would have taken the very top of my wishlist to manage that task, and it’s not often that there’s even so much as a single song released that I’m all that excited about, and this week is no different.
PSP owners are in for a nice update on the PlayStation Store for PC this week, so long as they don’t mind forking over some cash. Two new retail PSP games (one decent, one good) are now available for download — LocoRoco ($22) and Kingdom of Paradise ($11).
Of course, the echochrome demo is now available as promised, as is the PS one Classic R-Types ($6). There’s also new game videos, wallpapers, and a music track for LocoRoco.
It’s so much, in fact, that for once you’ll have to hit the break to view the full list.
Def Leppard’s Guitar Hero IIIouting and the obligatory weekly dose of Rock Band tracks (now finally with a full album!), there’s a ton of great new content now available on the PlayStation Store. The biggest release is certainly the Variety Map Pack ($10) for Call of Duty 4 which naturally includes four new multiplayer maps.
A new PS one Classic was also released today with R-Types ($6), ending that particular drought. (Even though you and I both know we probably won’t see another Classic for weeks.) There’s also the Biolith Rebellion 2 expansion set for The Eye of Judgment, whichs adds more than 100 new creatures, spells and abilities, so that sounds like a must-buy for fans of The Eye.
There’s also plenty of videos, demos of both echochromeand Iron Man, a map pack for Army of Two, downloadable songs for Karaoke Revolution, and more. So hit the break and check out everything now available for download.
Today, folks over here in the States will be able to get their hands on a playable demo of echochrome via the PlayStation Store and the PSP’s version. Unfortunately for some of our PAL territory brethren this is not the case. Eurogamer was told by Sony that the demo won’t be part of today’s PAL Store update.
Like Chris told you yesterday, the demo offers a tutorial and is just like the Japanese version only in English. The full game will have 56 levels on the PS3 and 56 on the PSP, a level creator tool on both systems, with downloadable content and user created content.
For more information on echochrome, check out our previous posts.
PlayStation Portable owners might recall the Japanese echochrome demo I posted about last month, which was a small sampling of what to expect from the MC Escher style game. If you didn’t feel comfortable downloading the file or couldn’t deal with the Japanese, you’ll have a chance to finally try the game out tomorrow when a demo is released on the PlayStation Store for PC.
Don’t expect anything different from the Japanese demo, though. As SCEA’s Scott Goryl put it succinctly, “Yes, this is the same demo that was available on the Japanese Store. Except, well, you know, with English.”
The full game will contain 56 levels (which are different from the 56 levels you’ll find in the PS3 version). For now, you’ll have to enjoy the trailer above and wait a littel longer.
Its a shame to see a promising game begin to falter. Last week’s announcement regarding server consolidation for the recently launched Pirates of the Burning Sea MMORPG might not be the best sign that the game is doing well. Regardless it sparked a discussion between Ron and I about why MMORPGs fail today and thus this week’s Podcast was born. Then the topic moves to my recent trip to Chicago to meet with Wizards of the Coast about the future of Dungeons & Dragons. If you’re interested in more info on D&D 4E be sure to check out The Analog Gamer.
The rant and rave section of the podcast features a rant at a very special audience and Ron implores Sony to fix the horrible problems with the Playstation Store and its downloads.
This weeks show is available by direct download here.
As always, you can get past episodes from our podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com, and you can send your comments, questions, suggestions, or snarky comments to podcast@filefront.com.
File-N-Forget is also available on the iTunes Music Store.
Supposedly, Sony is in negotiations with movie studios to bring movies to the PSN this summer according to the LA Times. The service would be comparable to XBL Video Marketplace and apparently Tim Schaaff is pushing the project.Industry analyst Hurt Scherf (Park’s Associates) states that this is a war that Sony must win over Microsoft as it is crucial to the service’s survival.
“They’ve got to get a win in the digital, and I’d say on the electronic delivery side of the business. That’s where the future is. They’ve got to establish a toehold in that space.”
Sony has yet to comment on a movie service, but Peter Dille, senior VP of marketing for SCEA had this to say on Inside PlayStation blog last week:
“Many of you have been hearing rumblings about a video service that will allow you to download full-length TV shows and movies via PlayStation Network for North America. While I don’t have any new announcements here for the PlayStation Nation, it’s already been confirmed that we’ll be offering a video service for PS3 in a way that separates the service from others you’ve seen or used.
“Ultimately the goal of the PlayStation Network service will be to break through the overwhelming clutter of digital media to give you the TV, movies and gaming content you want. More on this very soon…”
Of course Ross Honey, senior director of Microsoft’s media and entertainment group, team had to comment on this as well, because that is just the nature the Microsoft beast:
“It isn’t easy to do this. There is a lot of work to be done in just making this work and getting that movie up in high quality. We’ve had over a year’s experience on how to do this, so we can focus on innovating as opposed to working out the kinks.”
Microsoft has made a deal to bring rental movies via XBL to users from both Paramount and Warner Bros movie studios.
You would think that, with no updates to the PlayStation Store for PC other than a cosmetic update to match the PS3’s update, this week would be a fairly significant. But you’d be wrong.
All there is this week is basically a message that says, “You should envy PlayStation 3 owners,” in the form of two new videos of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.
That’s it. That’s all. Maybe next week will be a little better.
It’s been two weeks now since there’s been a real update to the PlayStation Store, so much of what’s been released today is catching up for missing out on the past few weeks – Rock Band songs, videos, and a UEFA Euro 2008 demo.
Of course, the big news is that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has been released. I’ve spent some time today playing it, and I think it’ll be a fine holdover for diehard Gran Turismo fans.
The new Warhawk Broken Mirror pack is also now available for $8, as well as a bundle with both the Broken Mirror and Omega Dawn DLC packs.
Finally. It seemed like this day would never come, but you can finally head to the PlayStation Store and – right now – download Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for $40. As of this moment, PSN seems to be handling the load well enough; the download is going fairly quickly for me considering it’s 1.9GB. If it manages to hold up for the rest of the day, I think that’d be a pretty big knock on Xbox Live for it struggling when a major download is released. It’s a win-win for Sony fanboys.
Earlier this week, two developers from Polyphony Digital participated in a chat with members of the PlayStation forums. While they didn’t go into much detail on any of the subjects thanks to time restraints, they did reveal hit upon a lot of key points – like the omission of all movies from the PSN version of the game. They can all be downloaded from the PlayStation Store, though, with the exception of “Beyond the Apex” which is the one difference between the Blu-ray and PSN versions of the game in terms of content.
You can check out the full transcript of the chat here.
Sony senior VP Peter Dille knows we want more from PlayStation Network. It’s a great service considering its age and the fact that it’s free, but in an “Inside PlayStation Network” post on PlayStation.Blog, Dille outlined (with varying levels of detail) the plan to continue improving PSN.
In addition to the new PlayStation Store, which officially reopened yesterday, Dille explained that the key points to making PSN a success are the PlayStation community, free online gaming, digital media download services, and original content.
Interestingly, he harped on one specific point that I happened to also go on about in today’s story on the new XBLA releases. He said, “One of the most critical elements to PLAYSTATION Network that we’ve focused on since day one is delivering quality games. We’ve always stressed quality over quantity (in other words, fewer arcade remakes and more original content) as well as games that show off PS3’s tech, and games like Everyday Shooter, Super Stardust HD and PixelJunk Monsters are proving that you can get a great experience for $10, or roughly the cost of a movie ticket.”
As for the PlayStation Network’s attempt to topple the Xbox Live Video Marketplace, Dille didn’t have any specific announcement to make, but he did say “it’s already been confirmed that we’ll be offering a video service for PS3 in a way that separates the service from others you’ve seen or used. Ultimately the goal of the PLAYSTATION Network service will be to break through the overwhelming clutter of digital media to give you the TV, movies and gaming content you want. More on this very soon …”
In-game XMB is still scheduled to be released this year, along with “other community-related services.” That includes the launch of Home, and he also suggested a system like Xbox Live achievements could be in the works. We had previously heard of this being a feature in Home, but that it wouldn’t be a mandatory feature for games to include achievements. Hopefully Sony will reconsider that particular point.
Dille also confirmed that PlayStation Network cards are “rolling out” to retailers, so there will be denominations of $20 and $50 popping up in stores very soon.
All in all, it sounds like PSN will be continuing to make some solid improvements this year. It remains to be seen how Sony’s download service would separate itself from other services or how well Home will come together. If the PlayStation Store is any indication, though, PSN certainly has a bright future.
In case you didn’t happen to notice yesterday, new firmware is now available for the PlayStation 3 which allows you to access the brand-spanking new PlayStation Store. I can say from firsthand experience that the new Store is much, much nicer than the previous iteration. (Although it would’ve been difficult to take a step backward from that mess.) There are broken images here and there, and the mainpage is simply taunting you as it says Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is coming soon, but overall I think you’ll all agree that it’s a much better shopping experience.
For whatever reason, Sony decided to release two juicy pieces of DLC out of the bag yesterday instead of waiting for the usual Thursday update. First is the free Lair “Dragons and Control” pack, which includes the much-needed analog stick control update, rumble support, and two new dragons. The other piece of DLC is an add-on to Super Stardust HD. It costs $4.99, but take my word on this one: it is absolutely positively worth it. Stardust was a really good game already, but with this new add-on content I have no problem saying that it’s significantly better than Geometry Wars. I never thought I’d say that about anything other than Geometry Wars 2. The add-on will give you several new game modes and a retro soundtrack that you should definitely check out.
Check back tomorrow for what should be a monster update for content on the PlayStation Store.
Now, I don’t know the exact criteria that have to be met in order for rock music to be considered classic rock, but clearly, when bands are as old as those featured in today’s DLC release, they automatically qualify. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Motley Crue, Blondie and The Police all have four songs that can now be found on the Xbox Live Marketplace. Each song will run you 160 Microsoft Points ($2) with the exception of the Motley Crue song, which will cost half that, at 80 points.
“Call Me” by Blondie
“Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd
“Message in a Bottle” by The Police
“Saint of Los Angeles” by Motley Crue
There’s also a bundle with all four of the songs, Classic Rock Pack 01, which will save you some money – it’s just 440 points.
The big news about this week’s DLC is that the Motley Crue song is actually debuting in Rock Band. While I couldn’t care less about the song, and Jonathan seems to believe this will bring about the apocalypse, I’m very interested to see how the song does. It’d be pretty cool – albeit difficult – if the first time you hear a song, it’s you playing it in Rock Band.
PS3 owners should be seeing this content on Thursday.
PSP owners are in for a nice update on the 
