According to Australian consumer tech website Smarthouse News, Michael Ephraim, the Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment in Australia, has confirmed that an official announcement regarding price cuts for PAL PS3s will be made on July 12. This confirms the earlier news regarding a price-related announcement for Europe.

The announcement will reflect a price cut in all PAL territories including Australia and the UK. The 80GB PS3 Model is unlikely to be announced on July 12th, but don’t hold your breath.

Some of you may have noticed that the PlayStation Network Store was down earlier today. The Network is now back online and there seems to be a few minor updates. The main one we noticed was the ability to use the L1 button to navigate to a previous page and the R1 button to move forward. Sony has not made an official announcement regarding the matter, but many speculate that the update was in preparation for E3.

You can check the status of the PlayStation Network here, as well as any scheduled downtime information.

UPDATE (10th July 2007 at 21:27):

The PlayStation Blog has been updated with a post regarding the PlayStation Network update. The details of the update has not been disclosed.

Patrick Seybold, Sr. Manager of PR:
“As some of you may have noticed, we did a bit of minor maintenance on PlayStation Network this morning. For less than 20 minutes we took PSN down for a routine update, nothing more. It’s back online and fully functional. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Following from our previous article, new information has come to light regarding the 80GB PS3 Model. According to PS3 PR chief Dave Karraker, the red light is a result of a lighting effect and that there’s no change in the original controller whatsoever. The official PS3 blog explains that the PS button glows red when the debug controller is charged. Games Radar reports that the debug controller’s PS button does glow red when charging (see below), confirming the PS3 Blog Post.

From the photo above you will notice several differences between the ‘debug’ and regular PS3 kit. The PlayStation 3 has “TEST” written on the console itself while the SIXAXIS controller does not bear the word “SIXAXIS” like the regular ones. The controller’s PS button is also has a red glow, but not the same as the one on the box of the 80GB model.

Some speculate that the glow can be enabled via a Firmware update, while others believe that Sony is keeping a lid on things until E3. Either way, we will hopefully find out the truth in a few days.

Following the recent announcement regarding the PS3 price drop in North America, Sony has revealed to CVG that it will be making a price related announcement for Europe this Thursday at E3, but didn’t got go into specifics. This announcement may not be related to a price drop according to sources, but will instead involve added value – implying some kind of bundle deal.

It is unlikely that the announcment will relate to the 80GB PS3 model. The 80GB console in US will be bundled with Motorstorm, so maybe in Europe and the UK we’ll see MotorStorm bundled with the 60GB model. We will bring you an update on Thursday.

[Via: CVG]

After the announcement of the 80GB PS3, a lot of people noticed something strange on the box. If you take a look, you will see the SIXAXIS controller with the PS button glowing red. Many people are speculating that this could be the new SIXAXIS controller with rumble. Let’s wait to see what Sony announces this week at E3 before we jump to any conclusions. Have a look at the photo yourself below:

SCEA has announced that it will be releasing a new PS3 model in North America that comes with a 80GB hard drive and a free copy of MotorStorm, retailing at $599. The new model will on sale from August. In addition, the price for the 60GB version is being cut by $100, to $499 effective immediately, as we reported earlier. Finally, the rumors have been confirmed by Sony and only a few days before E3 kicks off.

In other news, Sony mentioned a forthcoming download service which will include videos, movies and other entertainment content for the PS3. And, Sony is planning to stream a live version of the E3 SCEA press conference this Wednesday, July 11th, starting around 11:30 A.M. pacific time.

[Via: PlayStation.Blog]

The 12th Issue of PSP M4M: Magazine 4 Men is now available to download. This time round, DK Jr. did a good job of keeping on schedule and released the mag on time. Issue 12 is dedicated to Wimbledon and has over 150 pages of content including various articles and plenty of babe photos. See the content summary below.

Issue 12 contains:

• Dangers of Flying
• A few Jokes
• Bar Phrases and their Meanings
• Paying for Online Porn
• High Definition vs Standard Definition
• Wimbledon Summary
• Wimbledon Babes
• Collection of PSP Wallpapers

Enjoy reading. Issue 13 should be available to download early next month.

[Download PSP M4M Issue 12]

Sony has revealed its plans to offer PlayStation Network coverage of E3. Sony states that consumers will be able to download E3 content onto their PS3 consoles directly from the PlayStation Store, including the entire SCEA press conference to be held on July 11th. A variety of game trailers, videos, and other editorial content from the show will also be made available.

In addition to the downloadable content available through the PlayStation Network, consumers can follow E3 2007 through daily content on Playstation.com and the official PlayStation Blog.

Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions will finally be released in Europe this October. War of the Lions is a update of the original Final Fantasy Tactics which was released on the PlayStation (PSOne). The game revolves around two characters, Duke Goltanna who fights under the banner of the Black Lion and Duke Larg who battles under the White Lion.

Although the game plays similar to the original, fans will be pleased to know that certain changes have been implemented to improve gameplay and deliver a better overall experience as compared to previous iterations in the series. The game should hit stores on October 26th 2007.

The rumors about the PS3 and XBox 360 price drop have spread across the Internet like wildfire. Information about the price drop has popped up on several websites claiming that the price drop has been confirmed. Circuit City is said to be dropping the price of the PS3 to $499 from July 15th. However, according to Reuters, Sony has no to cut the price of the PS3 at present to pep up demand and counter surging sales of Nintendo’s rival game console Wii.

“At present we have no plans [to cut the PS3 price]”, Ryoji Chubachi told Reuters in an interview.

The higher price tag has been cited as one of the main reasons the PS3 has been trailing the Wii in sales, and analysts have been widely expecting Sony to soon slash the price to increase demand.

[Via: Reuters UK]

UPDATE (6th July 2007, at 19:14):

Once again, further confirmations of the PS3 price drop are surfacing despite Ryoji Chubachi’s earlier statement. GameDaily has confirmed with “a merchandising manager at one of the world’s biggest retailers” that the price drop was true. Also, moles at both Best Buy and Target state that they too have word of a price drop. The Target mole reports that the retail chain’s inventory tracking program is listing retail for the 60GB PS3 at $499.99. And a mole at Best Buy tells us they just received their upcoming ads and that they all list the PS3 price at $499.99 as well.

Sony is obviously trying to keep the rumours under wraps to avoid loosing hardware sales. If indeed the rumours are true, we should hear from Sony next week at E3. Until then, we will keep you updated on any other developments.