The new handheld PS Vita launches on February 22nd in North America, and Sony has finally announced the complete game lineup that will be available that same day. It’s a very strong showing, with 25 titles planned for launch day, and more than 100 games currently in development.

The complete launch lineup follows:

Army Corps of Hell (Square Enix)
Asphalt Injection (Ubisoft)
Ben10 Galactic Racing (D3 Publisher)
Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend (Aksys)
Dungeon Hunter Alliance (Ubisoft)
Dynasty Warriors Next (Tecmo Koei)
EA Sports FIFA Soccer (EA)
Escape Plan (Sony, download only)
F1 2011 (Codemasters)
Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational (Sony)
Hustle Kings (Sony, download only)
Little Deviants (Sony)
Lumines Electronic Symphony (Ubisoft)
Michael Jackson: The Experience (Ubisoft)
ModNation Racers: Road Trip (Sony)
Plants vs. Zombies (SOE, download only)
Rayman Origins (Ubisoft)
Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen (Namco Bandai)
Super StarDust Delta (Sony, download only)
Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs (Drinkbox Studios, download only)
Touch My Katamari (Namco Bandai)
Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (Capcom)
Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Sony)
Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition (Sega)
WipEout 2048 (Sony)

Sony expects game prices to range from $9.99 all the way up to $49.99, presumably based on the scope and quality of the game. Sony also announced that every PS Vita system will ship with six AR Play Cards and one download voucher, good for several “AR Play” minigames (augmented reality). An additional ten games have been announced as “launch window titles,” meaning they should be out sometime within the PS Vita’s first quarter year on the market. Those ten titles are:

Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention (NIS America)
Gravity Rush (Sony)
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (WBIE)
MLB 12 The Show (Sony)
Ninja Gaiden Plus (Tecmo Koei)
Reality Fighters (Sony)
Ridge Racer (Namco Bandai)
Silent Hill: Book of Memories (Konami)
Supremacy MMA: Unrestricted (505 Games)
Unit 13 (Sony)

Might the PlayStation 4 look anything like this fan-made render?

Develop Online is reporting that “industry sources” believe that the next generation of Xbox will land in 2013, while the PlayStation 4 won’t come until “at least 2014.”

Develop believes that Microsoft will unveil the “Xbox Next,” as it’s tentatively been dubbed, at E3 2013, though the console’s release itself could get pushed into 2014, depending on various factors. But apparently, Microsoft and their industry partners are already working on the new device and even some game titles are in various levels of pre-production.

In another report, Sony’s PlayStation 4 will arrive sometime in 2014 or later, and that “various game projects are at very early stages” of development for that console as well.

What would you like to see in a new Xbox or PlayStation? Certainly Microsoft will incorporate their Kinect technology right into the console next time, no doubt with an upgrade to its sensors that will allow for cool new capabilities. Will they even bother with traditional controllers anymore? Every game Microsoft currently has in development for Xbox 360 is Kinect-friendly, so clearly they’re putting a big focus on Kinect. And there will be a nice bump in processor power and other tech specs as well.

What about Sony? Has Move been successful enough for them for it to be an out-of-the-box component in the future? What about discs? Will either console abandon them once and for all in favor of downloads, or — gulp — cloud gaming?

And most importantly, what exorbitant price will they ask us to pay this time? Will Microsoft keep taking a loss on every console sold? Will Sony expect players to take out a second mortgage to afford theirs?

Sony PlayStation Vita

The PlayStation Vita, Sony’s next-gen PSP handheld, is coming, with all its high-tech new bells and whistles. Would you like to know when?

February 22, 2012 is when you can buy a PSVita of your very own if you live in the United States, Canada, Europe, or Latin America. The Wi-Fi model will cost $249.99, and the 3G model will be $299.99.

Sony says that there are over 100 games currently in production for the PSVita, though they haven’t confirmed how many of them will be available at launch yet. When the system arrives in Japan in December, Sony is planning to make 26 games available at launch. The PSVita really ups the ante on the PSP in a big way, adding in cutting edge tech like an OLED capacitive touchscreen, a capacitive rear touchpad, Bluetooth, GPS, and more. There’s also lots of built-in social networking functionality with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and Foursquare.

So… will you be buying one?

Love it or hate it, DLC is the new normal in the world of video games. You pay $50-$60 for your boxed game disc, and then the publisher expects you to shell out around $10 (or more) extra to download additional multiplayer maps or entire episodes of solo play.

But is it fair?

The idea behind a DLC subscription model is to let gamers plunk down one lump sum with their game purchase that will cover planned content pack downloads that will be released in the future. So instead of paying $30 total for 3 content packs at $10 a pop, you might pay $20 for all 3 by buying them at one time. It sounds like a good deal, but is it? I mean, no matter how you slice it, you’re paying anywhere from $20 to $40 extra on a game you’ve (probably) already spent $60 on.

Most publishers come up with a marketing-friendly name for their subscriptions, like “Season Pass.” Just a few recent franchises to implement DLC subscriptions include L.A. Noire, Mortal Kombat, Gears of War 3, Call of Duty, and the entire library of EA Sports. But there are many more. The latest to jump on the “Season Pass” bandwagon? Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.

Sony and Naughty Dog have given Uncharted‘s DLC subscription service a fun-sounding name: the “Fortune Hunters’ Club.” It entitles you to the first four multiplayer map packs, the first three multiplayer skin packs, and a Fortune Hunters’ Club PS3 theme, for $24.99 — a value that ordinarily would cost you upwards of $45.

Does this make anybody else nostalgic for the good old days when every component of a game came in the box, and “extra” features weren’t doled out piecemeal? It reminds me of a nickel-and-dime program from a cellular carrier.

PS Vita

Hope you’re ready to settle in and wait a while before getting your hands on Sony‘s successor to the PSP, because it ain’t arriving until next year. Christmas this year will be conspicuously “next-gen handheld” free, despite earlier statements from Sony that the PSV would be on sale this holiday season. Except in Japan.

A report from Bloomberg states that for unknown reasons, Sony’s plan for the PS Vita launch has changed. This December, Japan will be the first to get the new handheld gaming console, but Europe and North America must wait until an unspecified date in 2012. Sony must have a really good reason — perhaps a hardware component manufacturer’s inability to meet demand — to miss out on all those holiday sales.

The PS Vita is planned for a $249 price point, offering significant advances over the PSP, including both a touchscreen and rear touch controls, dual analog sticks, built-in wifi and 3G, souped-up hardware specs, and a brand new game storage medium. The device was one of a few new devices heralded at this year’s E3 for its innovations and advances in the handheld market.

Driver: San Francisco

EA, Sony, THQ, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Interactive have all announced plans to start charging for “Online Passports,” which will be required purchases for players who want to play with used game discs. Specifically, these $10 passports will be needed to play multiplayer games (like Ubisoft’s Driver: San Francisco, pictured above), but there’s nothing to keep publishers from using the same policy for singleplayer campaigns in the future.

The basics are thus: you buy a brand new game, a passport code comes with it, which you use for accessing all of the online features of the game. Once the code is used, it can’t be transfered to anyone else. So if the disc winds up in a “used games” bin at a retailer, or even if you just borrow it from a friend, you won’t be able to access any of the online features — unless you shell out an extra $10 for a new passport.

I can understand where game publishers are coming from with this; it’s a means of preventing user abuse of their online services. But it also muddies the waters between games being a tangible product, versus a virtual/digital service. With games starting to occupy more and more space in the cloud, game possession could become a thing of the past. Maybe soon we’ll all be renters, and there will be no owning games anymore.

The music industry tried out that same model a while back with devices like Microsoft’s Zune, where you had unlimited access to cloud-based music for a monthly fee. On the other hand, film buffs have taken to this business model in huge numbers, accessing Netflix’s entire inventory of movies for a monthly fee. The burgeoning digital book industry hasn’t caught onto this notion yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time.

Services like Gamefly are already already offering video game rentals (though this new policy means that playing the online portions of rented games will cost you an additional $10 per game), but are gamers ready for where this road may inevitably end?

Now that Nintendo has announced its intentions to jump the generational gap with the forthcoming Wii U, chatter around the industry inevitably must turn to its two chief rivals, and when they might answer Nintendo’s challenge with brand new hardware of their own.

Five years is generally considered the standard life cycle for a video game console. Nintendo’s Wii turns 5 this November, and its successor has already been announced for launch sometime next year. But what of Microsoft and Sony?

The Xbox 360 is the oldest of the bunch, coming up on its 6th birthday this holiday season, while the PlayStation 3 (like the Wii) will turn 5 around the same time. This means that when Nintendo’s Wii launches, it’s very likely that the Xbox 360 will be nearly 7 years old.

The Xbox 360 S

Microsoft certainly gained a tremendous amount of momentum by coming out of the gate with the Xbox 360 a full year before its rivals. Nintendo had the “new, wow!” factor on its side with the Wii’s motion controls, so being a year late didn’t hurt them. But Sony has continually felt like it’s playing catch up with the Xbox during this generation. (They were the last console to add Netflix, for example, and only created their own top-tier online service, PlayStation Plus, after witnessing Microsoft’s staggering success with Xbox Live.)

Microsoft has made nearly an annual tradition out of overhauling the Xbox’s “dashboard” user interface (with yet another on its way), while Sony still uses the same setup that they’ve had since the PS3 launched. Xbox has also done a solid job of consistently adding new features to their Xbox Live service, such as Netflix, ESPN, Last.fm, and they were the first console to integrate Facebook and Twitter. And they’re still adding new stuff all the time; at E3, they just announced plans to integrate live TV into Xbox Live’s many media offerings. Sony is doing better about adding new features, and is making a very strong case for 3D gaming of late, but still has a ways to go to catch up with Microsoft.

Microsoft and Sony have both refreshed their legacy hardware by upgrading their current hardware. The Xbox 360 S and PS3 Slim consoles trimmed down the machines’ casings while refining their innards — without really changing anything about the core experience — and lowering the price tags. And both companies have manufactured and marketed motion controllers with Kinect and Move, respectively. They represent two drastically different approaches to motion control, but both were birthed in response to Nintendo’s incredible success with the Wii.

The PS3 Slim

So what happens now? Does the next-generation console race begin again, thanks to Nintendo’s announcement of the Wii U? Will Microsoft and Sony jump on the bandwagon and trot out their next big home consoles?

One recent report suggested that Microsoft is eying 2015 as a target launch window for its next major console release, though this report seemed to be comprised mostly of speculation. Yet it seems probable, does it not, that Microsoft is in no hurry. Thanks to Kinect and its constantly-improving slate of features, MS believes the Xbox 360 still has plenty of life left in it. And most gamers agree that graphically speaking, Xbox 360 games still look great. But how long will it be before its processing power simply can’t keep up with the times? The “you are the controller” functionality of Kinect is getting such a huge focus from MS nowadays that that technology will undoubtedly be a core part of the next Xbox, whenever that comes. So hey, “2015″ is as good a guess as any.

Sony chief Jack Tretton says that the PlayStation 3 is “just hitting its stride,” and I think he’s right. Despite the PlayStation Network debacle, it finally feels like the PS3 is reaching its full potential. Tretton also says that he doesn’t expect there to be a PlayStation 4 “for quite some time.” So I’d say we’re probably 4 to 5 years off, at least, for the next PlayStation as well.

Tretton makes a particularly shrewd observation in that same interview, when he notes that the horsepower capabilities of Nintendo’s new console were used as Sony’s benchmark back in 2006, when the PlayStation 3 was released. He posits that the Wii U is Nintendo finally arriving to the party, not jumping ahead to the next step. Tretton suggests that Sony (and by proxy, Microsoft), has nothing to prove against Nintendo (except, you know, the Wii’s staggering sales numbers).

So what do you think the future holds? Is Nintendo playing catch up, or will it set a new benchmark for Sony and Microsoft to meet? My gut says that Nintendo is scrambling now that the Wii’s last-gen hardware is finally cracking at the seams. But the Wii also taught us that no one should ever underestimate Nintendo.

Sony also showed off footage and demos from their hottest upcoming titles. But will 2011 always be Sony’s year of the PSN meltdown? Or did their showing at this year’s E3 help that image fade?

PlayStation head honcho Jack Tretton took the stage and addressed the “elephant in the room” right off the bat, apologizing to gamers for the PSN security breach. With that out of the way, Sony got down to business.

Something about Sony’s events always feel humdrum to me. They throw just as much money into the production as Microsoft does, but their format — lifeless speeches from corporate suits and game developers who are both more comfortable behind a computer screen than in front of an audience — is just dry. They also tend to throw a ton of details at the audience, apparently hoping that some of them will stick.

Anyway, they’re not nearly as bad as Nintendo, I’ll give them that. I’ll get back to the big N later.

Sony’s big event this year focused mostly on the PSVita handheld device. It was good to finally see the machine in action and get a feel for what it can do, but I was struck by how Sony didn’t have much of anything new to announce. There were no Portal 2-sized surprises.

Back to the top story. PS Vita was unveiled in all its glory, and we got to see quite a few games in action, being played live. First of all, take a good look at the hardware. There’s no denying the similarity between the form factor of the PSV (I think I shall take to using that — it sounds so much better than the alternative) and the PSP. The major differences exist under the hood.

This bad boy’s got tons of horsepower, along with a fancy OLED touchscreen, a rear touch panel that can also be used for unique game controls, dual analog sticks, both front and rear cameras, gyroscope and accelerometer, and more. It runs games off of digital downloads and a specialized flash memory card, and it comes in 2 flavors: Wifi, and Wifi + 3G. The 3G version is wired for AT&T’s network (an announcement that caused loud groans throughout the audience), and will cost $299. The Wifi-only model will run $249. Both are expected in stores by this holiday season.

The most memorable moments from the PSV demo were the Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Little Big Planet demos, which bothshowed off how PSV changes the gaming dynamic with its touchscreen controls. It’s nifty stuff, but looks awfully familiar to anyone who’s used an iPhone or iPad.

Sony also announced a dedicated 3D TV built just for PlayStation players. (You can use it for watching live TV too, of course, but it’s branded for PS gaming.) The medium-sized flatscreen offers a very unique capability: instead of splitting the screen when two local gamers are playing together, the screen will display two different images overlaid atop one another. Both gamers get a full-screen experience, but their orientation to the screen will determine which image they see. And both images are in 3D. It’s undeniably cool.

The PS3 has no bigger upcoming blockbuster title than Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and the trailer and demo we saw didn’t disappoint. The demo featured Drake fighting his way through an enormous ship at sea, which eventually starts to sink and even turns onto its side at one point, changing Drake’s entire orientation. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom for some sweet new screens from this hot title.

Here are some of the other games shown off during Sony’s E3 event.

First and foremost on the list is Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which is being developed by Bend Studios with collaboration from Uncharted creators Naughty Dog Games. The main thing Sony wants everyone to know is that Golden Abyss is an entirely new Nathan Drake adventure — it’s not a port of an existing Uncharted game. Oh, and also that they’re incorporating the NGP’s touchscreen controls right into the gameplay, so that you can interact directly with the environment instead of just mashing buttons. Looks pretty compelling, see for yourself:

A whole new Wipeout experience is on the way, and the bullet point news item is the fact that this will be the first multiplayer title ever to interface between two game devices. Wipeout will let you play head-to-head against other NGP players, and PS3 players. Both. At the same time. Yowza. Once again, as you can see from this video, the touchscreen and six-axis controls factor heavily into the gameplay.

Soundshapes is something unique. It’s a different kind of platformer where music and platforming become one and the same. Everything in the levels is synchronized to a sort of electronica/trance music, and manipulating things in the environment will add new notes, beats, and ever increasing complexity to the music. The video makes it look like you can’t really do anything wrong, with the key to the game being experimentation. You can even create your own levels and recordings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq_LSb6p6F0

Hustle Kings brings the popular PS3 billiards game to the new portable platform, taking advantage of (you guessed it) the touchscreen controls. Like Wipeout, this one will be cross-play enabled with the PS3, and even allow you to play it in turn-based mutliplayer rounds as each player comes online, a la Words With Friends. You can even use the six-axis to rotate the camera around your ball, and make use of the built-in still camera and microphone for chatting with friends.

The NGP version of Super Stardust Delta is not a port of Super Stardust Delta HD for PS3. Being the first portable gaming console with two sticks makes NGP ideal for a dual-stick space shooter like SSD. It will be playable with both familiar dual-stick controls, and an entirely new control scheme that’s made just for the NGP.

It would seem that the recurring theme we’re seeing here is that most (if not all) NGP games are employing intuitive use of touchscreen and motion-sensitive controls to let gamers interact with popular Sony franchises in a whole new way. Sony promises to provide plenty more details on all things NGP — and PS3 — at E3 next week.

E3 is just two weeks away! Can you believe it?

What delicious (and what vaporware) delights will E3 2011 bring to gamers? What surprises do Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have in store for their pre-E3 media extravaganzas? What games will walk away from the week with the heaviest buzz? It’s impossible to predict what secrets all the major companies have up their sleeves, but here’s n early look at what we have to look forward to.

Microsoft

Spike is broadcasting the big Xbox event live (and commercial free!) on Monday, June 6th, at 9:30 AM Pacific. It’s expected to last 90 minutes. “Xbox 360: The Future Revealed” is the title of their event, which is a bold claim for a company that’s not expected to reveal any new gaming hardware. If you don’t get Spike, you can also watch it online at GameTrailers.com. Xbox Live will even have it available to stream in HD sometime after the event is held.

According to Microsoft, their event will give special emphasis to Gears of War 3 and Forza Motorsport 4, and a Halo announcement of some kind seems like a sure bet. Microsoft also claims that they’re going to “reveal the latest in innovation for Kinect,” which probably means a round of new game titles — which should be more impressive than last year’s, since developers have had more time to work with the hardware. Plus, there’s likely to be some firmware updates to Kinect in the works, so maybe we’ll learn about new capabilities the device will have in the near future.

As for what else they’ll have for gamers… who knows? Microsoft loves to surprise people, so anything could happen.

Nintendo

Gamers can watch live streaming video of Nintendo’s media briefing at e3.nintendo.com, on Tuesday, June 7th at 9:00 AM Pacific. Nintendo is keeping its secrets close, but we know they’re unveiling their next-generation console at E3, so expect this to be the focus of their event. It’s even going to be playable after the event, on the show floor. No games have been announced for the new console, so some biggies — including titles that can match current-gen software on the 360 and PS3 — will go a long way towards winning back the hearts of hardcore gamers. And there will no doubt be lots of new 3DS games to show off.

Speculation is all over the map on what the new console will involve, but the most prevalent rumors refer to a wild new controller that includes a large touchscreen, motion control, and lots of other bells and whistles. Plus, it’s E3 and it’s Nintendo, so expect to hear something about Zelda. And it’ll probably be another case of postponing a game to make it a console release title — just like what happened with the last Zelda launching with the Wii.

Sony

Oh, Sony, Sony, Sony… Sure, you have your new NGP portable device to tout, but how will you ever be able to get the focus off of the PR disaster that was the PSN implosion? Some big game announcements would certainly help, and there are probably some nice ones in the cooker for NGP. But we already know quite a bit about most of the PS3′s forthcoming triple-A titles, such as Uncharted 3 and Resistance 3. So it’s going to take a lot to knock our socks off.

Sony‘s media briefing is scheduled for Monday the 6th at 5:00 PM Pacific. No plans have been announced yet for live broadcasting of the event.

Games, Games, Games

So what are the big titles of E3 2011? It’s a safe bet that Modern Warfare 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will be big news all over the map, probably showcased at both the Sony and Xbox press events. There are an endless number of big titles in the works that will be competing for headlines at E3. These include Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, BioShock Infinite, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, Dead Island, Duke Nukem Forever, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Mass Effect 3, Prey 2, Prototype 2, Rage, Resident Evil: Raccoon City, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and the Tomb Raider reboot, among countless others.

One thing’s for sure: it’s gonna be a good E3.

Sony has just announced that Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, the ninth game in the series (if you don’t count Secret Agent Clank), will be available on October 18th, 2011 in North America. The PS3 exclusive is getting several pre-order incentives in the form of extra playable characters, but you’ll have to choose carefully which one you want; Amazon, Best Buy, Gamestop, and Walmart are all getting a different extra character.

For the first time ever, up to four players will be able to enjoy the game together in co-op that works both online and off. The built-in playable characters are Ratchet, Clank, Qwark, and cleverly, the villain Dr. Nefarious who must grudgingly help the heroes this time out. The playable incentive-buy characters are as follows:

• Pyro Blaster Unlock: Fry your enemies up with this Kerchu-engineered flamethrower that offers your enemies two choices: regular or extra crispy. Unlockable when you buy the game from Best Buy.
• Sheepinator Mod: The classic version of everyone’s favorite Ratchet & Clank weapon is back. Unlock the Sheepinator Morph Weapon Mod to transform even the fiercest aliens in the galaxy into harmless sheep. Unlockable when you buy the game from Walmart.
• T-Rex Morph Mod: Turning enemies into farmyard animals not your style? Want a more prehistoric take on the Morph-O-Ray? Use this T-Rex Morph Weapon Mod to transform your enemies from dangerous threats into a baby dinosaur. Unlockable when you buy the game from Amazon.
• Mr. Zurkon: A small, hovering synthenoid, Mr. Zurkon aids your team in battle by attacking enemies with his mounted laser while insulting and taunting them with his comedy-insult logic processor. Unlockable when you buy the game from Gamestop.

In Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, heroes Ratchet, Clank, and Qwark are teamed up with Dr. Nefarious when Dr. N’s latest evil plan goes horribly wrong, ensnaring all four characters within a powerful, mysterious machine.

The game will be the first in the series to support 3D gaming.

Another day… and still no PSN.

With Sony’s investigation into the cyber attack that took down PlayStation Network still ongoing, the electronics giant has revealed some details about the “Welcome Back” package that all PSN users will soon be receiving. Among Sony’s gifts to woo you back to PSN: $1 million in identity theft insurance for one year. Free.

The Welcome Back package is also said to include a free month of PSN Plus to all users, at least one free game download from the PSN Store, and extensions on current subscriptions to make up for gamers’ lost play time.

But the insurance thing is undoubtedly the gift that’s raising the most eyebrows among gamers. The year-long insurance policy comes via a deal between Sony and AllClear ID, a company that offers both free and premium (paid-for) identity theft insurance. The very notion that every single use of PSN will get a free insurance policy that could extend all the way up to a cool million — should a user find themselves the victim of identity theft during that free year — is pretty staggering. I can’t even imagine what this deal must be costing Sony, even with a presumed “special deal” discount of some kind.

Sony says that over the next few days, PSN users will be receiving emails instructing them on how to take advantage of this policy, and they’ll have until June 18th to redeem this free gift. Only U.S. gamers will benefit from this deal with AllClear, but similar deals are currently being negotiated for users from other countries.

PSN is expected to be restored sometime in the next few days, after more than two weeks of nonexistence.

Perhaps trying to take the focus off of the colossal disaster currently happening over on PSN, Sony today announced that a pair of tablets dedicated gaming are being added to the “PlayStation Certified” line-up of products. The “Sony Tablets” will join the Xperia Play telephone as part of this product line, which will primarily play ported PlayStation 1 games.

Running on Android 3.0, the two Sony Tablets are very different in design. Both come with built-in Wifi and 3G/4G compatibility, and both will run Sony-approved apps for web surfing, email, video, ebooks, and more via their touch-sensitive interfaces. Sony‘s press release on the tablets lists out these features, making the devices sound like iPad-killers. But the real focus for Sony is on downloadable games (a la the iTunes App Store), because that’s where they’ll make the bulk of their profits.

The first tablet sports a roomy 9.4 inch display (iPad’s is 9.7) and a slanted back which is supposed to make it easier to prop at an angle in front of you.

The second tablet has a pair of 5.5 inch displays (kind of like an extra-large Nintendo DS) which can be used as one giant screen or the bottom screen can be put to use as a virtual keyboard.

No word on pricing yet (expect dollar amounts competitive with Apple), but both devices will be available to consumers this Fall.

In a situation that for gamers is quickly growing to “Who shot JFK?” proportions, the PlayStation Network (PSN) — Sony’s answer to Xbox Live — was effectively killed by an external source sometime last Thursday, forcing Sony to completely rebuild the entire system. That’s five long days without the PlayStation Store and PS3-exclusive MMOs, which may as well be five months as far as PS3 gamers are concerned.

The question on everybody’s minds: who toppled PSN? Who could have perpetrated such an all-encompassing crime, catching Sony completely off guard and dismantling such a high-profile network so effectively? How in the world could Sony even allow their network to be open to an attack of this magnitude?

PlayStation’s launch of Portal 2 (not a PS3 exclusive, but still a big deal) was meant to be a high-profile affair, after Valve’s Gabe Newell made a surprise appearance on stage at E3 last year to announce that a much-anticipated Valve title would be coming to the PS3 for the first time. Portal 2 is also playable on PC and Xbox 360, so at least gamers have other means of playing through the game on other services. But for PS3 gamers, it just plain sucks.

And that’s just one title. Any number of others, particularly MMOs like DC Universe Online or PS3 exclusives with a big multiplayer component, like Killzone 3, are completely offline until Sony can resolve things. Which has to really suck for game developers, who are losing out on revenues from the outage, but have zero control over the situation.

Can you imagine something like this happening to Xbox Live, which boasts considerably more users than PSN? I can’t.

At this time, Sony has no estimates, and says it could still be quite a while, though they’re working as fast at rebuilding the system as humanly possible. Any bets on how long it will be before PSN is back up and running? I’m gonna guess at least three or four more days. If it’s any longer than that, some Sony heads are going to roll.

You can’t have a great hero without a great villain, or so goes the adage. The hotly-anticipated third entry in the Uncharted series has just unveiled its dastardly mustache-twirler. But in this case, the creative team at Naughty Dog has given hero Nathan Drake a nemesis with two X chromosomes and some refined sophistication.

Meet Katherine Marlowe, who’s reportedly the head of a secret society that dates back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I. (That’s four hundred years, for those without a history book handy.) Naughty Dog describes Marlowe as a “coldly calculating” woman that you don’t want to get in the way of.

As you can see in the cutscene above, she’s a longtime rival of Drake’s over a ring that’s central to the story because it belonged to his ancestor, Sir Francis Drake. This ring is the key to unlocking “an ancient mystery” that I assume is related to finding Iram of the Pillars (aka “Atlantis of the Sands”), which we already know is the ultimate goal of the game.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception arrives on the annoyingly clever date of 11-11-11. Sony sent over some screenshots, character concept art, a render for Katherine Marlowe, and the aforementioned cutscene, all of which I now present for your consumption. You’re welcome.

Following months of speculation and insider leaks, Sony at last unveiled its follow-up to the PlayStation Portable. It’s codenamed “NGP” (next-generation portable), which I can only assume means that Sony isn’t planning on calling it the “PSP2.”

The new device is a powerhouse of hardware, with tons of cutting-edge features packed into its sleek, stylish frame. At a special event last night, Sony worked hard to make the NGP out to be a high-tech cross between the power of a PS3 and the social capabilities and capacitive touchscreen of a smartphone or iPad.

That’s right: the NGP comes with a touchscreen — and not only that, but the rear of the device is equipped with a touchpad of the same size, allowing for new ways of playing. The front screen is 5″ wide, offering 960×544 resolution, and it’s not LED — it’s OLED, the next-gen screen tech that’s brighter, clearer, and draws less electricity to run. It has the usual arrow and PS action buttons, along with two analog sticks (compared to one on the PSP), making it more like a PS3 controller. It also uses the same Sixaxis accelerometer and gyroscopic sensor that’s inside the PlayStation Move controllers. Other specs include some striking similarities to the iPhone: 3G and Wifi connectivity, a three-axis electronic compass, built-in GPS, Bluetooth, and both front and rear cameras. No idea if Sony is planning a “FaceTime”-like video chat feature for those dual cameras, but they did mention that ARGs (augmented reality games) would definitely play a big part of the new device.

NGP will support downloadable games as well as a new physical media that’s basically a specialized flash memory card. The best part about this is that flash cards are upgrade-proof, meaning that future games will be able to use flash cards that hold more data but maintain the same physical size. Sony says that DLC and saved games will be stored directly on these flash cards as well.

Social networking is a major component of the NGP, with full PlayStation Network access and a whole new application called “LiveArea” that makes it easy to keep up with your friends’ activities. LiveArea will work with every game, automatically displaying the latest stats and activities of your friends on whatever games they’re playing. Another feature called “Near” will keep track of where you take your NGP, and show an interactive map that displays the locations of your friends when they’re nearby.

Franchises with titles announced for the NGP at Sony’s special event include:

• Killzone
• Uncharted
• WipEout
• LittleBigPlanet
• Call of Duty
• Resistance
• Little Deviants
• Hot Shots Golf
• Reality Fighters
• Gravity Daze
• Smart As
• Broken
• Hustle Kings

Sony also announced a new initiative called “PlayStationSuite,” which will bring last-gen PS features and games to specially-licensed and authorized smartphones (such as the leaked prototype that’s been making the rounds). The NGP handheld will be compatible with all PlayStationSuite content, and will be backwards-compatible with PSP downloadable content as well.

No pricing has been announced yet — although with all that advanced tech crammed into such a small package, there’s no way it’ll be cheap — but Sony expects to deliver it to the marketplace by the end of this year.

Could Sony be plotting a competitor to Nintendo’s 3DS that’s packing horsepower equivalent to its powerhouse home console? That’s the rumor du jour circulating the gaming world today. According to British print mag MCV, which covers the goings-on inside the game industry, Sony has been telling game developers that the PSP2 will be in stores by Christmas 2011, and that it’s planning on competing against the 3DS by offering a high-end device that’s leaps and bounds beyond what any other handheld is capable of.

The appearance of the PSP2 has yet to be shown to developers, but it’s expected to be very similar to the original PSP in design, with similar dual stick controls and button layouts, only with an HD screen and a honkin’ lot more horses under the hood. MCV claims that Sony has actually been using the phrase “as powerful as the PlayStation 3″ to describe the new device. This is expected to be a wholly different device than the “PlayStation Phone” that’s been circling the Net with leaked photos for weeks, and my gut says that it’s likely as much of an answer to Apple‘s iOS devices as Nintendo’s latest offering.

Sony is plotting some big reveals about the PSP2 at the Game Developers Conference and E3, including the media format that Sony will be using for game sales. Downloads are expected to play a big part in the new device, but Sony wants to keep retailers happy by continuing to offer some kind of media (although it certainly won’t be the failed UMD format).

Will high-def portable gaming be enough to attract on-the-go gamers away from Nintendo’s splashy new 3D device? And do you think it’s really possible to cram all of the power of the PS3 into a handheld console? I wouldn’t even want to speculate on how much that kind of portability might cost…

So there’s a press release making the rounds today about how Microsoft’s new Xbox motion controller Kinect has sold one million units in its first 10 days. This is big news for Xbox because Microsoft has made big noise about wanting to sell 5 million Kinect units by the end of this year, and they claim that these initial numbers put them on track for that.

But I can’t help wondering how this news stacks up to Kinect’s motion-controlling competition. First-week ticket sales mean everything at the box office, so why not apply that same prognostication factor to gaming? One million units in ten days is a great pull quote, but did Kinect manage to do better in its first week than Nintendo or PlayStation? And more importantly, what does this mean for Kinect’s future?

If you do the math, and in terms of “first week sales,” Microsoft‘s numbers equate to approximately 700,000 units in its first week. My research shows that in the U.S., Sony sold approximately 60,000 Move units (defined as an Eye Camera and one Move controller) in their hardware’s first week. As for the Wii console, when it first launched back in 2006, Nintendo claimed that it sold 800,000 units in the first eight days — which equates to approximately 525,000 in the first week.

Now it’s important to remember the importance of supply-and-demand when it comes to early sales. Sony and Microsoft both offered ample supply in their first week of sales, but Nintendo’s numbers were hampered by the fact that they had a nation-wide shortage of initial hardware units available. Early adopters had to work hard to even find a Wii console in those first months, when retailers sporadically received scant shipments which would usually sell out within minutes. So Nintendo could have sold more — a lot more — Wiis if they had had more units available at launch.

But here’s how first-week sales in the U.S. break down, in approximate numbers:

Nintendo Wii: 525,000
PlayStation Move: 60,000
Xbox Kinect: 700,000

The clear winner is Kinect, and it points to a strong future for the peripheral. But this doesn’t necessarily mean Kinect will outsell Wii in the long run, as that’s a very lofty goal; Wii has got a gigantic 4-year head start, and has demonstrated incredible staying power, with over 36 million units sold in the U.S. and some 76+ million sold worldwide.

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In 2011, Sony is going to reward players for being mega-fans, through a new “PlayStation Rewards” program. The overall concept sounds a bit like PlayStation Plus, just without having to pay for it. But Sony insists it’s more than that.

The program is going to reward players based on user rankings of “Select,” “Pro,” and “Legendary.” These three rankings are determined by how much you play a game, download demos, play PlayStation Home, use the PlayStation.com Forums, answer PSN surveys, and buy stuff on the PlayStation Store. Higher user rankings will get you greater access to stuff like exclusive Home avatars and content, themes, events, giveaways, and entry in special sweepstakes.

PlayStation Rewards is currently being offered as a closed beta to PlayStation Plus users, but it will open to the public early next year.

The PlayStation Phone is real.

It’s seemed like such an obvious thing, for so long, that tech-heads have been expecting it for years. After all, with the iPhone proving that smartphones can also be powerful gaming devices, why wouldn’t Sony engage in some corporate synergy between its Ericsson and PlayStation divisions?

Thanks to Engadget, we now know that the dream of a PSP Phone is no dream at all — it’s real. The popular tech site got its hands on this leaked prototype PlayStation Phone, which could be both the long-awaited PSP2 and a smartphone in one device. Engadget reports that the prototype appears to be running Android 2.x, complete with its own app store for buying and downloading games. (The PSP Go, with its download-only games, must have been conceived as a bridge between the original PlayStation Portable and this PSP Phone.)

Its specs are a handsome step up from the PSP, since it uses a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 processor and has 512MB of onboard RAM, with a microSD expansion slot. (The iPhone 4 also uses a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM.) The PSP has only 333MHz processor with 32MB of RAM. The PSP Phone has a generous-sized screen along with the standard PlayStation buttons and D-pad, as well as the standard shoulder triggers. One of the most interesting features is something entirely new to gaming devices: that long silver strip you see between the two recognizable controllers is actually a multitouch trackpad that emulates the same basic functionality as a pair of thumb sticks.

Sony is internally referring to this product with the codename “Zeus.” That’s all that’s currently known about the device; we have no idea when to expect it or how much it will cost, but my guess is that it will be priced to compete with the iPhone, its obvious target competitor.

Follow @FGgamer on Twitter for the latest gaming news.

Sony’s first handheld gaming system is six years old. That’s one year older than tradition tells us is the average life of a game console.

The industry has been waiting and watching for Sony to announce a true successor to the PSP, but so far, nada. So in place of actual news, there’s always rumors and speculation to fall back on. If the Move motion controller has taught us anything, it’s that Sony has slipped into imitation mode (Move is essentially Wii HD, even down to its near-identical-to-Wii remote controllers). So the question becomes: with the next-gen PSP, will Sony target iPhone or Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS?

One rumor last week suggested that the PSP2 might be a hybrid phone and gaming device, a la the iPhone, but built on a heavily-modified version of Android 3.0, and might be available as soon as October. This same report claimed that PSP2 versions of God of War, Modern Warfare, and Little Big Planet are already in the works.

Today, the rumor du jour is that Sony‘s new device will have a touch-sensitive area on its back, though no one seems to know if this means the back of the device will double as a touchscreen, or if it’s some new mode of control. It’s also said to be the size of the original PSP, with plenty of room for slots for stuff like flash storage, and might even include physical media — a possible indication that Sony might be abandoning its recent direction of download-only mobile gaming.

Since Gamescom Europe is currently taking place and Sony has yet to make an announcement about the PSP2, it looks like we still have some waiting to do. So… heard any good rumors?

England’s MCV magazine is reporting that Sony might be planning to make a surprise announcement (which would be less so now, I suppose) at next month’s E3: the PSP2.

Now that the iPad is bringing high-def handheld gaming to the masses, Sony has to be feeling the pain with its low-def PlayStation Portable. Then there’s the already-announced, but yet to be seen, Nintendo 3DS, the successor to Nintendo’s uber-popular DS handheld, which is reportedly upping the ante by adding 3D screens to its new device that requires no special glasses to view. Add these two together and you’ve got yourself a world of hurt for Sony’s handheld device, unless they’re already planning to answer both devices with something brand new of their own.

PSP2 rumors have circulated for years (along with artist renderings of what the sleek, stylish new device might look like, such as the one above), but MCV‘s report sounds pretty convincing, even though it comes from the second-hand reports of the usual “industry insiders.” Of course, last year’s E3 brought us the PSP Go, the minor “upgrade” to the original PSP that deleted data discs in favor of downloadable content. But the PSP Go hasn’t caught on, and fans have been clamoring for a whole new device with boosted speed and capacity, and a bigger, high-def screen, for a long time.

Chances are, this report is just wishful thinking. But Sony would be crazy to not at least be planning the next PSP. The only real question is if 2010 is the year it’ll be unveiled. Sony has its new Move motion controller to show off at E3 this year, but that’s old news, comparatively. I can’t imagine anything else Sony could do to make big headlines at E3 than pull of a mega-surprise like a whole new device.

The news is that Sony is releasing a patch that will remove the option to install another OS (LINUX!) on the PlayStation 3. If you bought your console prior to the age of the PS3 Slim, you would remember this option. If you’re relatively new to the world of PS3, then the news will not matter to you.

Anyhow, it is not surprising at all that negative reactions are cropping up all over the place. For those leaning towards the geek side of things, that install other OS option is a BIG thing. Why is Sony making this move?

I couldn’t find the reason behind it, but what’s going to happen is this (courtesy of the PlayStation blog):

The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009. This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.

In addition, disabling the “Other OS” feature will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system.

I know what you’re thinking: let’s not upgrade! After all, no one’s putting a gun to our head to upgrade, right? Think again. If you don’t upgrade, you’ll lose theses features:

• Ability to sign in to PlayStation Network and use network features that require signing in to PlayStation Network, such as online features of PS3 games and chat
• Playback of PS3 software titles or Blu-ray Disc videos that require PS3 system software version 3.21 or later
• Playback of copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server (when DTCP-IP is enabled under Settings)
• Use of new features and improvements that are available on PS3 system software 3.21 or later

Oh Sony, what are you doing???

Until recently, the two major players in the handheld gaming wars have been Nintendo and PlayStation. The N has a strong history when it comes to handhelds, going back to the bestselling handheld gaming device of all time, the GameBoy. Sony has had significant success with the PlayStation Portable, an overall more powerful machine than any handheld device before it.

In the last few years, the race has heated up, as Nintendo has upgraded its wildly popular Nintendo DS in increments (DS Lite, DSi, and the forthcoming DSi XL), while Sony recently released the PSP Go, a new version of the PSP meant to do away with the unpopular UMD media format in favor of downloadable content. And then there’s Apple, which scored an unexpected and unforeseen slam dunk with the iPhone/iPod Touch, a convergence appliance that turned out to be an incredibly fun and versatile gaming platform. (To date, there are nearly 1,000 gaming apps available to download from iTunes.)

But now, things are about to get really interesting.

First up, Nintendo is hard at work on the successor to the DS, and thanks to one crafty journalist who gleaned everything he could about the DS2 from game developers at the recent Game Developer’s Conference, it looks like the next-gen DS is going to feature two higher-res screens that unfold with barely any seam in between, so that the two can be used separately, or as one big screen. This year’s E3 conference is speculated to be the DS2′s official unveiling, where Nintendo will boast that its new handheld has the same horsepower as the GameCube.

Apple is about to change the game again with the release of the iPad. Okay, so that might be a bit of hyperbole — I can already hear the critics crying foul, dubbing the iPad an oversized iPod Touch. It’s not an entirely unfair description, but consider this: the iPhone/iTouch is comparable in

size to the DS and PSP, with a screen size of 3.5″ and a resolution of 480×320 pixels. The iPad dwarfs this with a 9.7″ screen, displaying at 1024×768 resolution. Does size matter? I think it will when Apple has what is by far the biggest self-contained handheld gaming device on the market. Plus, of all of the new gaming devices, the iPad will be first out of the gate.

As for Sony, rumors have been circulating for years — with very little solid evidence — that a next-gen PSP is in the works, complete with a high-def touchscreen. Sony is playing its cards close to the vest on this topic, though.

But wait, there’s a newcomer to consider. Microsoft is getting ready to join the mobile gaming world thanks to the impending release of its new Windows Phone 7 mobile OS, which can work directly with an Xbox Live user’s profile. Full Xbox Live games will be playable on WinPhone7, with unlockable Achievements, user avatars, and more, all of which behave much as they do on the game console.

The war over mobile gaming is raging, and it’s about to get more interesting than ever. Where do your loyalties lie?

We already know that a number of consumer electronics companies and broadcasters are pushing full steam ahead with plans to launch hardware and programming in 3D, and now Sony and CBS have partnered to open up a 3D Consumer Research Centre.

Located in the CBS Television City research facility at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, it’s designed to be “a dedicated resource devoted to studying 3D in all its forms”. That’s according to Sony Electronics’ executive VP and CMO, Mike Fasulo.

Created in two zones, one section will focus on 3D theatrical entertainment while the other concentrates on 3D home entertainment.

Visitors will be able to see the latest 3D cinema releases coming up, as well as explore the latest hardware such as HDTVs, PS3 and 3D Blu-ray and learning about new launches such as ESPN 3D.

Obviously, you’d expect the facility to be highly Sony focused, though there’s also support from RealD, a company providing advanced 3D filters and eyewear.