Jens Uwe Intat, senior VP at EA Europe recently had an interview with MCV where he outlined his belief that Sony’s Motion Controller and Microsoft’s Natal will outperform Nintendo’s Wii in reaching out to those still classed as non-gamers, whilst offering new, interesting experiences to current gamers.
The UK PlayStation Video Store will be updated on Monday from now on, so here is your update for this week. New titles available to purchase this month include The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and The Hurt Locker, and new titles available for rental include Inglourious Basterds, Terminator Salvation and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Check out the complete list of new content below.
Soon, Europeans will have their chance to take part in the ModNations Racers Beta. The US has been enjoying the beta since December 15th 2009. On January 22nd 2010, 100,000 people from Europe will get access to the beta. To get access to the beta, simply be one of the first to log on to the PSN store on Thursday 21st and download the Beta. Once downloaded, the fun will start when the lights turn green on Friday 22nd of January.
Early in October, Arne Meyer, Senior Manager of Marketing Communications at Naughty Dog, stated in an interview with Edge Online that Naughty Dog wished to outsell the first Uncharted, which sold over 2.5 million copies world wide since it was released in November 2007. Well, it’s taken Uncharted 2: Among Thieves only two months to reach this target according to VGChartz (though the actual figures may vary).
The classic PSOne title, Final Fantasy VIII, will be available to download in Europe by the end of January. Mike Kebby over on the EU PlayStation.Blog has responded to various requests on a release date in stating that “FFVIII should be available by the end of Jan.” Kebby was also the one to suggest Final Fantasy VIII would be available in Europe by end of 2009. Lets hope its true this time.
Although games already support 3D audio in the form of 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, in-game audio between players still lags behind. There is no dimension in the voices you hear when playing with friends online – you cannot tell if the player is behind you or on the side. Dolby have solved this problem with their latest product: Axon.
The first PlayStation Video Store update for the US is now live, adding several recent movies including Jennifer’s Body, 9, District 9 and The Final Destination. Check out the clip below for a sneak peek of the latest installment in the “Final Destination” series. You will also find a free sneak peak to season 8 of 24 and several other free videos.
The release date for Heavy Rain has finally been confirmed for the US and Europe. The game is currently going through some final tests and checks, but is expected to be available in the US from February 23rd 2010, followed by mainland Europe from February 24th 2010 and finally the UK and Ireland from February 26th 2010.
At Sony’s CES Press Conference, Kaz Hirai announced that the PS3 will be fully 3D compatible this year. There will be two firmware updates at some point in 2010 — the first will add 3D Stereoscopic Gaming functionality to the PS3 and the second will add 3D Stereoscopic Movie functionality. Kaz also revealed that 2009 housed the most successful holiday season in the history of the PlayStation 3, with over 3.8 million units selling worldwide over the last 5 weeks of the year.
