Recent PS3 news:

Available to download from PlayStation Store now

Episode 4 of Access is now ready to download for all UK PS3 users, with the headline act this week being Ezio Auditore’s swooping farewell in Assassin’s Creed Revelations. Get an in-depth look at the old-timer’s cracking new moves, plus the ace new bomb-making mechanic.

As always, there’s a rummage through the ripest content on the PlayStation Store, which this week includes a look at gothic multiplayer romp, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, plus Helen Mirren wearing a Darth Vader mask. No, really.

There’s loads more to enjoy, including a jaunt around the recent Eurogamer Expo that takes a look at the hot line-up of upcoming PS3 blockbusters, as well as a visit to the London Philharmonic Orchestra where conductor Andrew Skeet talks videogame music.

If you want more from Access, then you can join the ever-growing community over on the Facebook page at facebook.com/playstationaccess, where you’ll find exclusive video content and the chance to sign up for future events.

PlayStation Access is available to download every Wednesday from the PlayStation Store, free for all UK users. It’s also available every Friday on YouTube, so no-one misses out on PS3′s HD excitement. 

Slim-PS3.com is updated frequently every day with the very latest Free PlayStation 3 news.

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OnLive, the service that streams cutting-edge games over an Internet connection is out in the UK today. Deus Ex on an iPad, anyone? This site is updated frequently per day with the latest gaming system news and games reviews.

Sony has slashed the price of its PS3, bringing a welcome new sub-£200 affordability to the slowly ageing console. The company has also put a price on its slightly
hideous
impressive PlayStation TV, bringing the UK release date forward from 31 December.

Okay, so it’s only a 24-inch display, but there’s a good reason to be excited. The idea is you can sit down with a mate to play multiplayer, but at such an angle that you both see an individual image. Let’s be clear — that’s two individual fullscreen feeds, so no more letterbox multiplayer when people visit. Oh, and it’s all in 3D. Nice!

It’s a shame it looks like a giant PSP, but it’s a relatively affordable £499, and it even throws in a free game (although not a free PS3). If more than two people could use it at once, you could throw a big sexy party when you buy it.

There isn’t a specific launch date, but according to the Register it’ll be out this autumn.

With the 160GB PS3 listed at £199.99, Christmas shoppers will be drawn to the nearly 5-year-old console like wasps to Orangina. Plus retailers will probably cut the price to something closer to £180 to compete with each other. Couple that with the PlayStation TV and a slew of blockbuster titles, and it looks like Sony could be popping corks by Christmas.

Speaking to MCV, HMV’s head of games Tim Ellis agrees: “It is great news and it will give a substantial sales boost to the whole sector. Clearly the £200 price point not only makes them more competitive versus Xbox, but also psychologically for the consumer it makes PS3 much more attractive being under £200.”

But beyond the obvious rush to come out on top in the Christmas console wars, what else might be behind the price cut? Some are taking it as a hint that a PS4 announcement is around the corner, if the corner were a big fat year or two. Still, the current generation of consoles are starting to saddle up for the ride into the sunset, so it’s a good time to start thinking about the future.

Slim-PS3.com is updated frequently every day with the very latest Free Slim PS3 news, reviews and features.

OnLive, the streaming gaming service, is coming to the UK on 22 September, bringing cloud-based game goodness to a range of platforms, including PC, Mac, iPad, HD tellies and Android devices.

We’d forgive you for never having heard of OnLive, so here’s the idea behind it. Cutting-edge gaming requires hefty hardware, which can be expensive and bulky. But OnLive is an online service that takes care of the computational grunt for you, streaming the whole game to you over an Internet connection. You’re playing the game on your screen, but what you’re actually seeing are images streamed from OnLive.

The benefit is you can play graphically demanding games on anything with a screen and a Web connection, without the need for discs or downloads. The snag? Your gaming experience will depend on the speed and latency of your broadband.

When it launches, you’ll be able to rent, demo or buy an impressive selection of titles, including Red Faction: Armageddon, Split/Second and Homefront.

There are no pricing details yet, but we’ll let you know when they’re announced.

We’ll be keen to try the service when it launches, and see if it’s any cop. We love the idea of playing massively demanding games on Android tablets, but we don’t know if this will please hardcore PC gamers, who demand millisecond response times, and will be upset if the online component introduces even the tiniest bit of lag.

OnLive’s success will also depend on whether publishers decide to make their games available on the platform. Whatever happens, we like the sound of a gaming shake-up, so we’ll be keeping a close eye.

If you’re fidgety and can’t wait, you can head over to the OnLive site and sign up ahead of time. Or tell us what you think about streaming gaming in the comments below, or on our Facebook page.

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Amazon is planning to unleash its online game download store in the UK this October, MCV reports.

The store would serve as a place where you could purchase games, then download them digitally, without having to go through all the hassle of having the darn things delivered to your house.

The service has existed in the US since 2009, which in tech-years equates roughly to the bronze age, so we’re glad Amazon has finally seen fit to bring it to our green and pleasant land. According to MCV’s sources, the service is currently in the testing phase, but is on track for a proper release in autumn.

Amazon is not the first to try and capitalise on digital downloads. Steam, from Half-Life developer Valve, is currently king of game downloads. But Amazon has the benefit of already being a household name that people trust, so when it comes to grabbing new customers it could have a massive advantage.

Assuming the UK service is the same as the US version, when you browse to a game that can be downloaded, you’ll have the option to buy it normally and have it posted to you, or to download it there and then. Tidy.

It looks as if the whole world is abandoning physical media. Not only did Apple remove the optical drive from its latest Mac mini, but it made Lion, the latest version of OS X a download via the Mac App Store.

Are you all for the gleeful abandoning of rubbish physical objects? Or do you prefer to have a physical collection of games? Let us know in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.

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UK studio is preparing to release its first iPhone music game, armed with major label tracks

UK startup 8linQ is hoping to spearhead a new wave of music games for smartphones and tablets, with its first game Say What?! due to be released on 20 July for iPhone armed with a licensing deal with major label Sony Music Entertainment.

The company is a joint venture between three partners: Music In Colour, Reactify and Metropolis Group. The first of those is a music production company formed by former staff from FreestyleGames, which developed the DJ Hero console games, while the latter is one of the most prestigious recording studios in the world.

Based at the studio complex in London, 8linQ has been working on Say What?! for several months, culminating in its launch next week with playable tracks from artists including Calvin Harris, Scouting for Girls, the Zutons and The Nolans.

“The music business needs to capture a new audience,” says joint managing director Chris Lee. “Rather than make a game then license the music, this is much more of a partnership. We think there is a great opportunity to leverage the mobile platform to build something that reaches a wider audience, and monetises music.”

Say What?! takes a different approach to DJ Hero and other console music games like Guitar Hero. Lee says that 8linQ’s key aim was to avoid any assumption that the game’s players will be experienced gamers.

The game uses a scrolling collection of icons, which relate to individual highlighted words within the lyrics to the current song, which are displayed above. If the word ‘I’ is highlighted, the player might have to tap on an eye icon, for example, while ‘down’ might be the cue to tap on a downward-facing arrow.

At higher difficulty levels, the clues get more cryptic. “There will be puns left, right and centre that take you a good five seconds to crack what the icon is representing,” explains Yuli Levtov, the game’s designer, and founder of the third partner in the joint venture: generative music studio Reactify Music.

“It’s almost a Generation Game mechanic: a simple layer that lives over the music,” says Lee. “We’re not trying to be cleverer than that. This is about something that appeals in its simplicity, and we’re trying not to niche it. It should appeal as much to 8-13 year-old girls as it does to 30-40 year-old males.”

Lee adds that Say What?! was inspired by iOS games like Cut the Rope and Trainyard. “They’re cute, you’re allowed to fail and it doesn’t matter,” he says. “Far too many games can fall into the trap of having a game mechanic based on failure, and the fear of failure driving you to do stuff. We don’t think that’s what the mobile audience wants.”

Say What?! will be free to download with four included tracks: one from a big Sony Music artist, and three from emerging acts signed to Music In Colour. Tracks from Sony – and ultimately other labels too – will be sold via in-app payments of £1.19 per song.

It’s the second example this month of a major label selling music within this kind of game, following EMI’s deal with Facebook games publisher MXP4. Downloads within Say What will be chart-eligible too.

“It will be a great story if you can take a catalogue title – a single that was released 20 or 30 years ago – and see it get into the top 10 with 100,000 downloads because it’s in a game,” says Ian Brenchley, joint managing director of 8linQ and managing director at Metropolis Group. “This is the merging of music and software in a really nice evolutionary form, that monetises music in a different way.”

Lee says that making games for iOS has been a fresh challenge for the team members who cut their teeth on DJ Hero and other console games.

“I love the immediacy of being able to create content,” he says. “Development cycles are so much shorter, and you get that immediacy of feedback too, where you can watch how your consumer is playing, react and develop new features. We have designed this game so that if we get a song at 9am, we can have it for sale by 9am the next day.”

Say What?! will also be the first game to be promoted using the Future Games Network, a service that is being launched by another UK developer, Future Games of London. The idea behind the network is to promote other developers’ iOS games to FGOL’s existing community of 18 million players.

It’s a good example of the promotional networks that are springing up around apps and games, just as 8linQ is an example of the kind of partnerships that are emerging as companies from different creative industries target the apps market.

Apps

iPhone

Games

Mobile

Mobile phones

Smartphones

Technology startups

Music games

Sony

Calvin Harris

Scouting for Girls

The Zutons

Stuart Dredge

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OXM UK: Rocksteady Studios talks maintaining Batman’s identity. Slim-PS3.com is updated several times every day with the latest Free Slim PS3 news.

The Sony PlayStation Vita has been listed for pre-order on game retailer ShopTo.net’s website with a 4 November release date. Sadly, this date is probably more speculation than official launch.

We’d love to think the Vita is coming so soon — we can’t wait to slide our sticky, cake-covered fingers on that rear touch panel. Sony told our friends over at GameSpot UK, however, “No one has communicated any release dates to retail partners. That date
is not official as we haven’t
announced anything yet.”

It seems probable that ShopTo has put a speculative launch date on the Vita in order to attract more attention and pre-orders. It’s a cunning tactic — the Vita is going to be a hot product when it eventually arrives in stores, and its estimated price of £225 for the Wi-Fi only model is pretty reasonable for such a big-screened, capable gadget.

The gaming community — and us — have been eagerly awaiting the
Vita after its outing at E3 last month. The powerful quad-core
processor found at the Vita’s heart, in concert with the dedicated graphics
unit, should provide some serious grunt for games, which should
look beautiful on the 5-inch AMOLED screen.

Still, we do expect the Vita to be in stores in time for Christmas, so it could be that ShopTo isn’t too far off the mark. It is unlikely, however, that we’ll be seeing it before it lands in the US.

For more info on the Vita, check out our preview here and keep your eyes peeled for a full hands-on soon.

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Latest PS3 news: Supremacy MMA announced for consoles in UK and Stateside; various pre-order bonuses detailed. Slim-PS3 is updated regularly every day with the very latest Free Slim PS3 news and reviews.

Sony’s online gaming service PlayStation Network is still offline in the wake of a massive security breach that saw hackers make off with over 100 million users’ personal info. With the service still not expected to get back online before the end of May, it seems that gamers are voting with their feet and trading in their PS3 consoles for cash, or for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console.

The stats come from an investigation conducted by videogames publication Edge, and suggests that UK retailers are experiencing a serious spike in PS3 trade-ins, a slump in sales for PSN points cards and more business heading the way of the Xbox 360 in the form of trades and game pre-orders.

One source explains, “In the first week of downtime we did not really see any major change in sales or trades. However from the second week onwards we have seen an increase of over 200 per cent on PS3 consoles being traded in, split almost 50/50 between those trading for cash and those taking a 360 instead.”

Now, ‘over 200 per cent’ increase sounds pretty drastic, but without knowing what the actual figures for trade-ins before the PSN outage were, it’s hard to get a sense of the scale of the problem. But anecdotally, it’s powerful evidence that gamers are severely fed up with the downtime — enough so that they’d switch to a rival console.

It seems like the most impatient gamers are those who play online shooters like Modern Warfare 2 or the totally-serious-war-game-except-there’s-a-zombie-mode Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Another source (though this one was from a Belgian retailer) said gamers were “bringing in PS3s together with all their games and they don’t want money, they want an Xbox 360. In every case it is because of Black Ops and or Modern Warfare 2.”

Another high street source said, “pre-orders have been cancelled and flipped over to 360 versions of games.”

Obviously this is a small sample, but if your comments are anything to go by, there are plenty of disgruntled PS3 gamers out there.

Meanwhile, Industry Gamers has got hold of a letter sent from Sony to its publishing partners and developers, which seems to indicate that Sony isn’t sharing any more info with its business partners on the outage than it is with the public, which is sure to aggravate companies who depend on PSN for business.

Will your console allegiances swing if PSN remains broken much longer? Are you a Sony fan through-and-through, or a gloating Xbox fanatic? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page, and be sure to vote in our poll on whether you’ll ever trust Sony again.

Also read With PlayStation Network still down, what else is there to do?

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