Hasta La Gadget!

Sony sure is looking for a lot of attention for its newets Sackboy-featured PS3 game, LittleBigPlanet Karting. But it doesn’t want to do its own creative production. The company is holding a contest where users are asked to design a t-shirt for the upcoming PAX Prime event in Seattle. Whoever comes up with the best design wins a PlayStation Vita with 3G, and copies of LBP Karting for both the PS3 and Vita.

“Our artists can rework what you submit, so even if your drawing skills are not the greatest, go ahead and send in your creation! Winning designs will be selected by LBPK’s production team. We will take the winner’s design and place it on the exclusive T-Shirt that will be handed out at PAX Prime in Seattle,” Sony wrote in a PlayStation Blog post.

LittleBigPlanet 2 was supposed to be the game that let players create any kind of game they wanted. So, arguably, if you wanted a customizable LittleBigPlanet kart racing experience, you’d be able to create that already. But not everyone has that much time on their hands, so Media Molecule and development partners United Front Games will be bringing Karting to the PS3 as the next LBP entry. LittleBigPlanet is also making its way to the PlayStation Vita platform as well, so the series is still going strong.

[via PlayStation Blog]

Sony LittleBigPlanet Karting t-shirt contest announced is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Those living in Europe and some other countries, and rely a whole lot on your PS3 (especially with everything that PlayStation Network offers), you might want to take note that the following countries – AE, AU, GB, IE, and NZ, will not see your PlayStation Network remain online from 16:00 on Thursday 26th July 2012 until 08:00 on Friday 27th July 2012, BST, due to a scheduled maintenance program. As usual, the maintenance period would mean you cannot access services such as these – PlayStation Store on PS3, PSP and PS Vita, PlayStation Network Account Management, and PlayStation Network Account Registration.

Those who want to play online during the scheduled maintenance, you can do so if you happen to sign in to PSN prior to the maintenance window kicking off. Do take note that the services listed in the above paragraph will remain as dead as a doornail even if you are signed into the Network before. So do make a note of the above dates and times in your respective calendars lest you think that the PlayStation Network is under some sort of hacker attack.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: PlayStation Cloud : how Gaikai may change Sony Computer Entertainment forever, E3 Sony PlayStation Press Conference Live Blog,

AMD has been suffering a conspicuous brain drain, with executives like ATI veteran Rick Bergman and CTO Eric Demers crossing over to tangentially or directly competitive companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm. Chalk up another one for the list — strategic development VP Bob Feldstein has bounded towards NVIDIA’s (literally) greener pastures. The blow cuts deeper than usual through Feldstein’s responsibility for graphics in most of the consoles from the past few years: he headed up work behind the Xenos chip in earlier Xbox 360s and the Hollywood core in the Wii, and he likely had some say in the Wii U’s video hardware as well. While the staff shuffle won’t directly affect AMD’s Fusion processors or Radeon cards, it’s hard to see much of a positive for AMD’s future in video gaming, even in the light of rumors that the next PlayStation and Xbox might use some of Feldstein’s work.

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

AMD exec behind Wii and Xbox 360 graphics jumps the fence to NVIDIA originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that mysterious new PS3 variant that passed through the FCC not too long ago? Although that listing didn’t have photos to confirm a redesign, a new one has hit Anatel (essentially Brazil’s version of the FCC) with a quartet of pictures in tow. Specifically, it cites models CECH-4011A, CECH-4011B and CECH-4011C, matching up well with the 4K labeling from the aforementioned FCC visit — if you’ll recall, the current PS3 Slim has a 3K model number. According to Tecnoblog, the the three models point to a shockingly storage-cramped 16GB version, along with 250GB and 500GB variants. While this Anatel document appears to be from Sony, we’d be remiss not to mention that we haven’t been able to load the photos as Tecnoblog has. In terms of looks, apart from appearing extra slim — and decidedly less attractive — the system notably seems to be rocking a top-loading disc drive (this would be a first for the PS3). For now, we’d advise taking this potential leak with a grain of salt, but rest assured that we’ll inform you if we hear anything official from Sony.

Filed under: Displays

Did Sony’s latest PlayStation 3 redesign just get outed by Brazil’s Anatel? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A handful of details briefly slipped out about the project earlier, but now it’s here: the Ouya, an attempt not just to delve into the cutthroat world of TV game consoles but to try and shift the goal posts. At its heart, the design sounds more like a smartphone than a gaming rig with a quad-core Tegra 3 and 8GB of storage running Android 4.0. The upscale, RF wireless gamepad’s standout is a built-in trackpad for playing mobile games alongside the familiar sticks and buttons — clever, though not entirely new. But with completely open hardware and software, an emphasis on free-to-play gaming and an all-important $99 price, the system is a gamble by a handful of game industry luminaries that at least a subset of players are frustrated with the status quo enough to want a real break. Read on for the full details, including a Kickstarter project as well as added details from our chat with Ouya (and Jambox) designer Yves Behar.

Continue reading Ouya’s Android-based, hackable game console now official: we chat with designer Yves Behar

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

Ouya’s Android-based, hackable game console now official: we chat with designer Yves Behar originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 07:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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