Sony have finally set a release date for PlayStation Home, although it is only provisional at this time. Nonetheless, it is still good news for PlayStation 3 owners in Europe. SCEE have revealed the release date for Home as well as a number of other titles. Home is provisionally set to be released on October 11th 2007. See below for other release dates.

The date for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has not been set yet, but it is expected for release sometime before December. The other game release dates are as follows:

• October 4th – SnakeBall and Pixel Junk Racers
• October 11th – Home (provisional)
• October 18th – High Velocity Bowling
• October 25th – Aqua Vita, Operation C.F, Trials of Topoq and Eye Create
• November 8th – Tori Emaki
• November 15th – Mesmerize
• December 6th – Sky Diving and Elefunk
• December 13th – Pain
• December 20th – Dark Mist

[Via: TheSixthAxis]

The new firmware found on the PSP-2000 a.k.a. PSP Slim has already been dumped, with the help from Dark_AleX. Homebrew coder Mathieulh has succeed in dumping the files directly from the flash0 directory on the PSP, with the assistance of Dark_AleX.What makes this news so interesting is that it could now be possible to hack the firmware or even developer a custom firmware.

Dark_AleX left the PSP scene a few months back but could be returing to the homebrew scene. It is unclear exactly how the firmware was dumped from the PSP. Since the firmware is not available to download online, this does indeed seem legit.

As we reported a few week back, Sony was planning to release a new starter pack in PAL territories. This move has now been confirmed according to several sources. However, Sony has mentioned that different regions will be getting different starter packs. On September 19th, France will be getting a new starter pack containing the PS3 console. Heavenly Sword, F1 and an extra controller.

SCEE provided the following details about the new 60GB Starter Packs:

• There will be an extra controller
• All SCEE regions will start getting a new 60GB starter pack
• Two bonus titles will be included in the package
• Depending on the region, freedom to change the titles is up to the individual markets based on their unique conditions.

A statement by Sony reads:

“To remove any confusion, the Starter Pack, with an extra controller and two titles is a SCEE wide initiative and has been launched in all of our territories. The choice of which titles to include in the Starter Pack, and the freedom to change the titles is up to the individual markets based on their unique market conditions.”

The European PlayStation Netowork store has now recieved its weekly update. As previously reported, the MotorStorm Coyote Revenge VIP Pass is now available to download as well as a number of new game and movie trailers. Unfortunately, there are no new playable demos this week, but who knows what next week will hold. As for the US PSN, the Stranglehold demo is now available to download just as the rumor suggested. Check out the list below.

European PSN Update List

• Game
  • MotorStorm Coyote Revenge VIP Pass (add-on)
• Game Trailers
  • GT5 Prologue Trailer
  • Lair Launch Trailer
  • Heavenly Sword
• Movie Trailers
  • The Invasion

US PSN Update List

The US PlayStation Store has also been updated today with two new playable demos and add-on content for MotorStorm and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Check out the list below.

• Game Demos
  • Stranglehold
  • NBA Live 08
• Game Add-ons
  • MotorStorm Revenge Weekend Add-on Pack (New track, vehicles, races and race mode)
  • MotorStorm Add-on Vehicle 1 (Wakazashi Razor bike)
  • MotorStorm Add-on Vehicle 2 (Wombat Mudslide ATV)
  • MotorStorm Add-on Vehicle 3 (Atlas Varjack mudplugger)
  • MotorStorm Add-on Vehicle 4 (Atlas Arizona big rig)
  • Ninja Gaiden Sigma Weapons Master Add-on (5 survival modes)
• Game Trailers
  • Turok “Quite Kills” Trailer
  • PixelJunk Racers Trailer
  • Heavenly Sword “Making Of” No. 5
  • Heavenly Sword Anime No. 5
  • Lair “World in Chaos” Video
  • MotorStorm “Coyote Revenge” Video
  • Drillbit Tailer Trailer
  • Resident Evil: Extinction Trailer
• Wallpaper
• Heavenly Sword Anime No. 5 Wallpaper

A forum moderator at the Midway Discussion Board has suggested that the PlayStation 3 demo of Stranglehold will be available to download from the PlayStation Network Store this Thursday. Although the news has not been confirmed by Sony, the news could still be credible. The XBOX 360 demo was released earlier last month.

No information was available as to whether the demo is exclusively for the North American PlayStation Store, or if it would also be available from the European PSN Store. Look out for a list of new released when the PlayStation store is updated this week.

Owners of the new slim PSP (PSP-2000) are already taking their shiny new PSPs apart to discover what Sony has done to the new model apart from the disclosed features. It turns out that the new PSP model has a entirely new PCB version – TA-085. The new PCB version could contain further measures to prevent downgrading and possibly the installation of custom firmwares.

Most of you know that the TA-082 PCBs have been patched to allow custom firmwares to be installed, so it more that likely Sony has put in a new measure to prevent this. Aside from the upgraded UMD drive, new video-out features and firmware version 3.60, Ookm, creater of homebrew enabler (HEN), speculates that the NAND Flash and DRAM memory could both be imbedded in the new CPU chip.

It is difficult to determine what changes Sony has made to the PCB and other components without the help of Sony themselves, but we’re sure the homebrew community will figure it out soon. Updates will be posted as more information becomes available.

Dylan Jobe, one of the developers behind Warhawk has posted an update to the problems some players have encountered while playing Warhawk. According to the forum post, Jobe claims that the team is working around the clock to get the issues resolved as quickly as possible. As most people already know, a few issues were fixed in the Firmware 1.92 update, but more fixes are still to come.

Incognito are tracking a number of problems, three of which are:

• Stats and Ranking errors, delayed posting, missing stats.
• “Connection Failed” or otherwise messed-up join game errors.
• Network Drops/Disconnects (a fix for these will be deployed in the next service window)

“Our team here at Incognito along with our great support team in San Diego were, and continue to be, diligently working on these issues. I want to reassure everyone that while we *have* been quiet these last few days, it is NOT a sign that we are off on some tropical island somewhere…we are hard at work on the big issues.”

The MotorStorm 2.0 patch will be available to download sometime today or tomorrow from the PlayStation Store, with two further packs coming later this month. The first patch will add a number of improvements to the online component of the game and include a new track for use in online and time trial play.

• Vehicle Select enhancement – your last-used vehicle in each class will now be presented as the default choice during vehicle selection.
• Assigned player colours are now displayed in the lobby to make keeping track of your friends and rivals easier during online races and Eliminator matches.
• Further Player-Stat Improvements.
• Purchasers of ‘Coyote Revenge’ can now race this track in Online and Time Attack.
• Purchasers of Eliminator Mode will find results from this mode also contribute to their Fame Ranking.
• Track Exploits for Grizzly and Raingod Mesa have been addressed.
• Headset support:
  • an occasional firewall conflict with headset communications has been resolved.
  • voice comms output now available exclusively through headset.
• Many other improvements and tweaks throughout the game.

Look out for the patch soon. We will update this article with any new information as we get it.

The earlier rumor has now been confirmed. PlayStation 3 Firmware 1.92 is now available to download using the PS3 System Update option. The firmware update is a minor one and simply increases PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility, as well as fixing a few issues with Warhawk and compatibility with other items available via the PlayStation Network Store.

An official changelog has not been posted on the European or US PlayStation web site so far, but below you will find a translation of the Japanese changelog:

• Performance for the additional item which is transmitted with PLAYSTATION Store was strengthened.
• PlayStation of the part in PS3 and operational status of the PlayStation 2 standard software were renewed.

We will update this article with a English changelog when it is available.

UPDATE (September 4th 2007 at 15:00):

The European changelog for Firmware 1.92 is now available, and differs from the Japanese changelog above. We are still awaiting the US changelog to see if anything else has been updated.

Playability

• Playability status with the PS3 system has changed for some PLAYSTATION 3 format titles*.
  • * This does not affect titles in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania.

Other changes have also been reported, but are not present in the changelog.

• Ability to add Flash wallpapers
• Seemingly faster XMB load times
• Improvements on Internet Browser application – the browser can load websites quicker
• Auto power off for the controllers – controllers are powered down when left idle
• Synchronized game clips in the games folder load up
• Faster transition from game to XMB – exiting games is now quicker
• Updated PSOne/PS2 controller compatibility