PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale new characters drop in at Gamescon

This week at Gamescon Sony is letting the big guns rip with a brand new trailer for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, complete with several new character reveals. First you’ll find Ratchet and Clank, then dropping in on you will be the ever-so-unpopular Spike from Ape Escape, a Devil May Cry favorite you might recognize as Dante, and none other than Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet. What a strange and wild journey this is about to be!

The first video you’re going to see is called the “Main Event”, then you’re going to get a peek at individual trailers for each of the new characters including gameplay. This first video shows the characters looking fabulous in their cinematic-mode style, standing around looking epic or otherwise jumping about for glee. This trailer was released at Gamescon 2012 in Germany, if you’d like to know.

The above trailer also uses the song “Genesis” by Justice from the album Cross (or the cross symbol, if you prefer.) Below you’ll see the first character trailer with Spike from the game Ape Escape. This little guy will be rolling with a massive sword and set of energy moves for close-range attacks as well as specials like his energy blaster. Terrifying satellite bouncing included!

Next you’ll see SackBoy from LittleBigPlanet, complete with rocket packs and some undeniably hardcore-looking fists of metal. This isn’t Mortal Kombat, but Sackboy wouldn’t look all that out of place there for one reason or another.

Have a peek at Dante after that, with one of the more human looks of the game. You’ll be slicing your way through your opponents with a massive scythe and pistol, not to mention a batch of lovely white magic and a red iteration of yourself for ultimate bloodthirsty supremacy.

Finally there’s Ratchet and Clank, with so many gadgets your head will spin. Fly and hover, toss bombs, create little minions, and bust out some of the most massive guns in the game. You’ll be playing as Ratchet some times and Clank the others, and you’ve got a special move that includes you busting out your spaceship’s full offensive systems on the entire gaming grid at once – watch out!

Stay tuned as Sony continues to unleash fury upon Germany and brings the PlayStation universe into the future in waves. Check the timeline below for all the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale history you can handle, and watch the gaming throne, Sony wants it back!


PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale new characters drop in at Gamescon is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Sony executives stand up for struggling PS Vita

It isn’t exactly a secret that the PlayStation Vita has been struggling ever since it launched earlier this year. Though it’s hard to get exact numbers out of Sony, weekly sales charts from Japan and monthly sales charts from NPD here in America don’t paint a pretty picture – the Vita keeps slipping while the Nintendo 3DS is posting some sky-high numbers on occasion. It’s kind of funny in a way, seeing as how the 3DS had the exact same problem as the Vita after its own launch, but that’s another discussion for another time.


As with most of these downturns, Sony’s gaming executives are there to say that everything is going well. Wired has pulled together some recent quotes from SCEJ president Hiroshi Kawano and SCEA president Jack Tretton, and the feeling at Sony is pretty clear: the Vita is doing okay, and if it isn’t, then the upturn is right around the corner.

Kawano, for instance, recently told 4gamer.net that the Vita experienced “extremely lively” download sales in June, which he takes to mean that the Vita is on the rise. He unsurprisingly didn’t talk numbers, so we don’t know how well the Vita is actually doing in the digital realm. Tretton recently told GamesIndustry International that Vita sales are “acceptable” and that he’s feeling much better about the Vita now than he did four months ago. He claims that the Vita has the hardware, and with good games, the buyers will come.

But that right there is the kicker: “acceptable” sales aren’t good enough for a lot of big-time developers and publishers. A platform needs to be showing strong sales (or at least a lot of potential) before the big guys will spend millions of dollars on making a game for it. The Vita definitely has some exciting games on the horizon, but it doesn’t have as many as it should. That probably isn’t going to change as long as Vita sales remain average, so Sony still needs to come up with a plan to get Vitas flying off the shelves. Nintendo did it with the 3DS price cut, and as much as Sony is resisting the idea of a PS Vita price cut, that may just be the thing the Vita needs to become a smashing success. Stay tuned.


Sony executives stand up for struggling PS Vita is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


PlayStation Plus coming to the PS Vita this year, cloud storage increasing from 150MB to 1GB ‘from September’

PlayStation Plus coming to the PS Vita, cloud storage space increasing from 150MB to 1GB 'from September'

Sony’s decided that you’ve been playing so much with their dedicated online service, you deserve more space for your cloud saves. From next month, users will see their cloud storage increase from 150MB to 1GB. We were also teased that the PlayStation Vita would be getting into PlayStation Plus soon, but it looks like SCEE CEO Jim Ryan is holding onto that tantalizing nugget for now. Hopefully we’ll hear more on this a bit later.

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PlayStation Plus coming to the PS Vita this year, cloud storage increasing from 150MB to 1GB ‘from September’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayStation Mobile detailed: different screens, same games

PlayStation Mobile announced connects to Android platform

Sony’s decided to spill the beans on PlayStation Mobile, its upcoming cross-platform gaming service. It will connect to your own PSN ID, linking into its software store and aiming to offer up a “wide range of portable experiences.” We’re still looking at PlayStation-certified devices here, but Sony’s also announced that ASUS and (bizarrely) Wikipad hardware will join the (pretty Sony-centric) line-up. We can already recognize a handful of Xperia phones alongside the Tablet S and, of course, Sony’s premier handheld, which will also be able to play the incoming selection of mini-games.

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PlayStation Mobile detailed: different screens, same games originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayStation Vita Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified bundle announced, pricing MIA

Playstation Vita Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified bundle announced

Sony’s handheld will get its own companion bundle for its incoming (and exclusive) Call of Duty title. The set will include the game, a PlayStation Vita and a carry pouch — camouflage pattern TBC. Unfortunately, Sony it neglected to mention a price or a date — though it’s likely to arrive around the same time as the game, later this year.

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PlayStation Vita Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified bundle announced, pricing MIA originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PS Vita and PS3 cross-buy feature revealed: buy one copy, get the other free

PS Vita and PS3 crossbuy feature revealed Buy one copy, get the other free

Sony’s kicked off its Gamescom event in Germany by revealing a new deal for games playable on both the PS3 and its handheld relative, the PS Vita. The incoming PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale and Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault will be two of the first titles to arrive on both — with a single purchase giving you both versions. According to Jim Ryan, president and CEO for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, you’ll get both copies in the single package but there’s no word on whether both, or one, will be digital download-only. We’ll update this post when we hear more.

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PS Vita and PS3 cross-buy feature revealed: buy one copy, get the other free originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: gaming

Welcome to Engadget’s back to school guide! The end of summer vacation isn’t nearly as much fun as the weeks that come before, but a chance to update your tech tools likely helps to ease the pain. Today, we’re getting our game on — and you can head to the back to school hub to see the rest of the product guides as they’re added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back — at the end of the month we’ll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides — and hit up the hub page right here!

DNP Engadget's back to school guide 2012 gaming

It’s time to balance out that daily grind at school with some well-deserved leisure. Fortunately, many of our choices walk that fine line between work and play — if you’re willing to stump up some more cash beyond a normal laptop, you could get something capable of handling the latest PC titles. Some of our other choices may be a harder sell in the education stakes, but we all need some stress relief, right? And with bigger consoles nearing the end of their life cycles, there’s never been a more wallet-friendly time to get involved. Jump in after the break for our favorite gaming choices. If all your money’s been earmarked for learnin’, then you should certainly enter our sweepstakes. Leave a comment after the break for a chance to win, and visit our giveaway page for all the details.

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Engadget’s back to school guide 2012: gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jet Set Radio HD priced and dated by SEGA

It’s time finally, after long last, to get our hands on the epic inline skating rock and roll music explosion known as Jet Set Radio here in the future, 2012! This game has been a fan-favorite ever since SEGA dropped it on the console known as Dreamcast. Now we’re ready for a summer release here on September 19th on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

You’ll be able to pick this game up on the PlayStation Vita as well, but you’ll be waiting a bit longer – October 16th to be exact. The Xbox version you’ll be able to pick up for 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 from the Xbox LIVE Arcade. For PlayStation you’ll be heading to the PlayStation Network where you’ll be getting it for $9.99 as well.

UPDATE: The PlayStation version will be popping up on the 18th of September, as it turns out – lucky you!

The PS Vita version will be working cross-platform with the PS3, but the developers of the game have not yet made it clear if once you’ve got the PS3 version you’ll get the PS Vita version for free, per the situation on other recent cross-platform games. Other games that’ve come out recently that are PS Vita and PS3 for the price of one have been Zen Pinball 2, WhipEout HD, and Motorstorm RC – catch em all!

This release will hopefully once again bring some fantastic and groundbreaking aesthetics to the console universe as it did all the way back in its original release. Cell-shading and fabulous art direction influenced masses of games right from the start of that epic drop. Another game coming soon for re-release in “HD” is NiGHTS Into Dreams – a Sega Saturn game. Can’t wait for both!


Jet Set Radio HD priced and dated by SEGA is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


NPD: Xbox 360 ruled a steadily declining video game empire in July

Xbox 360 slim review

Microsoft must sometimes feel like its lead in the game market is a Pyrrhic victory. The Xbox 360 once again topped the NPD Group’s hardware charts in July, claiming a near-majority 49 percent market share of consoles — but the 203,000 units sold were a steep drop from the 257,000 units that traded hands in June, and a far cry from the glory days that would have given a victory more meaning. Nintendo and Sony haven’t shared their own figures, although the analyst group notes that only Nintendo’s 3DS and DSi had any kind of increase in the month. The industry as a whole was unmistakably feeling the combined effects of the pre-holiday doldrums and a console generation that’s long in the tooth: hardware revenue was down 32 percent in the month to $150.7 million, while the games in question saw revenue dip 23 percent to $260.7 million. If you need a culprit, earlier reports for the second quarter had credited similar shifts to sales of physical game copies declining faster than digital sales could replace them. Hope remains in the usual fall spike; even so, the July figures suggest the big three platforms might be living on borrowed time.

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NPD: Xbox 360 ruled a steadily declining video game empire in July originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ragnarok Odyssey arrives on PS Vita

Ragnarok Odyssey has finally hit the PS Vita, and in English, too – letting fans of the franchise able to better experience this unique game right in the comfort of their palms, now how about that? It is said that you would do well to prime yourself for quite a tough challenge with Ragnarok Odyssey, so here is a little bit of background story for your reference. Basically, Ragnarok Odyssey is all about a passage which is located along the Millennium Peaks, where it is rumored to open up access to the long-sealed off Sundered Land. The thing is, Sundered Land is teeming with creatures who would love nothing better than to take over the world and wreak havoc on everyone, so it is a good thing that you, as a mercenary, is there to help save the day again.

With plenty of lands to explore not to mention having their respective bosses at each land for you to slay, you can be sure that you are in for a finger smashing good time with Ragnarok Odyssey after you purchase it.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nintendo 3DS outsells the PS Vita in Japan, PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale leak confirmed to be the real deal,