The Heavy Rain demo that likely kept Sony and Quantic Dream developers tossing and turning at night, as they tried to find the right mix of gameplay that best summed up what the game is about, has finally received a release date confirmation of February 11th on the EU PlayStation Store.

Mike Kebby, a member of the Sony PlayStation Store management team, confirmed the above information in a post on the Official EU PlayStation Blog, and though a US demo date has not been mentioned as of yet, many are speculating that it will hit the same time as the US (Feb 23rd) and EU (Feb 26th) release dates for the full game are only three days apart.

[Source: EU PlayStation Blog]

Does anyone remember the GameDaily “Epic Fail: Games that will Probably Suck” list, because I sure as hell do. In fact, I probably went a little overboard in my response to their calling LittleBigPlanet a “glorified version of PowerPoint” with a future full of “crap content”.

Well, I guess that old PowerPoint presentation finally won them over, because they gave the Media Molecule IP a 9.0 “Excellent” score. Here’s a snippet of what they had to say: Read more…

A trusted source has let Ripten in on some information regarding the status of several high profile Sony titles on the horizon, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to take a break from my LittleBigPlanet fun-fest and fill you all in. Read more…

Many of us believed that the recent delay of Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet was meant to allow for a recall, reprinting, and redistribution of the game after what some deemed to be offensive lyrics were brought to the attention of Sony.

While this may still be the case, it is also possible that the move to recall the game was nothing more than Sony’s way to ensure the impending LBP patch would be approved and accessible on PSN before the exclusive PlayStation 3 title hit stores. Read more…

After reading about the suspiciously low Metacritic user score of 6.3 for Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet, I decided to dig into the story a little deeper. For those unfamiliar with the situation, allow me to fill you in. Read more…

Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet is proving that little is not only the new big (as the mini billboard shown above cleverly states), it’s also the new entrepreneurial cash cow.

While early copies of the game have been selling on Ebay for upwards of $150, the demand for everything Sackboy doesn’t end there. Miniature LittleBigPlanet billboards (which I must admit look pretty cool) are surfacing on Ebay with starting bids of around $35.

This is not good people. I’m afraid that the rush of attention may eventually overwhelm a young Sackboy, causing him to become emotionally withdrawn in his later years. Do you really want to see a reality TV show thirty years from now staring an overweight and drug addicted Sackman, sitting on a couch, sharing child star stories with Gary Coleman and Corey Haim? I didn’t think so.

Check out a few more of the LBP billboards after the jump. Read more…

LittleBigResistance: Delay of Sackboy

The recent controversy surrounding Sony’s decision to delay the release of LittleBigPlanet, over a Qur’an reference made in one of the tracks, has many gamers flexing their memory muscle in an attempt to illustrate a double standard.

The belief is that Sony’s 2006 decision to essentially ignore the Church of England’s request asking for the removal of the Manchester Cathedral from their Resistance: Fall of man game, paired with the company’s recent willingness to comply to the perceived wishes of a Muslim community, demonstrates favoritism.

Several prime examples appear as comments appended to Kotaku’s recent post regarding the recall. Here are excerpts from a few of my favorites:

“Where’s the balls you had when it came to standing up to the Church of England, Sony?? Fuck you and your double standard, you bastards.” - Lachoy

“Sony, clearly, not willing to lift a finger to defend Western values or preserve our sensibilities, but willing to bend over backward to appease Islamic twits. They take our market for granted.” - rateoforange

To all those bringing up the Church of Manchester incident as a valid analogy: where the fuck have you been for the past 15 years? Stop thinking in absolute terms: “Christians are OK with it, so Muslims should be too.” Yes, there is a double standard here, and no, it’s not the end of the world. - Antiterra

This got me thinking about the two scenarios from a pure business standpoint. Armed with only an opinion, my belief is that Sony isn’t demonstrating favoritism, rather they are making what they believe to be sound business decisions based on a bottom line mentality.

While opinions are nice, I realized that any level of convincing was going to require more than a hunch. I needed proof that the cost of a potential Cathedral replacement would drastically exceed those associated with the recent LittleBigPlanet delay. Read more…

Remember Eight Days?  Sony London’s cover shooter that was making waves in 2005?  Come early 2008 we believed the game was entering full production. Come mid-2008, the game was cancelled and later replaced with…EyePet. Now all that’s left of Eight Days is the lost development footage found floating on youtube. Read more…

It appears that you will have the opportunity to earn a few bucks via the sale of your user-created LittleBigPlanet content — assuming the stuff you create actually sells. David Reeves, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, was quoted saying:

“What we’re trying to do with LittleBigPlanet is almost iTunes meets eBay in the sense that once an individual or a developer has qualified by producing certain levels or certain add-ons, they will then be able in the future to exchange these and make money out of them … Eventually, it’s feasible that you might well see the first LittleBigPlanet millionaire!”

The key words of course being “future” and “eventually”. In an apparent effort to prevent consumer confusion, Sony issued a follow up statement to the one above, stating:

“SCEE and Media Molecule can guarantee that all consumer-generated content will be free at launch.”

So, while the notion of profiting from something you enjoy sounds great, it appears you won’t be stuffing your Sackboy with cash right away.

Sources: ps3fanboy.com, eurogamer.net

Although Guerilla Game’s love child has been delayed until 2009, most likely to avoid big name titles like Resistance 2 and Gears of War 2, SCEE’s Playstation day brought us the rare treat of real Killzone 2 gameplay footage.  Read more…

Just concept art– but check below for gameplay footage.

Yesterday, at Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe’s Playstation Day Thingy, DICE showed off the first bit of real-time gameplay from Mirror’s Edge. Read more…

Sacre Bleu! We’re sinking!

December was the last we heard of the lifetime sales of the next generation of consoles in France. We were given the figures 270,000 for the Playstation 3 and 500,000 for the Xbox 360. According to the French newspaper Les Echoes, the Playstation 3’s lifetime sales have since doubled. Read more…

That’s right. No rest for the wicked during the holiday period. At least not in Euro land. There’s been a mini update with a surprise appearance. Read more…