Jack Tretton, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, had this to say:

“The new price will make the PS3 more accessible than ever before, so there’s never been a better time to join PlayStation Nation. We know that while future-proof technology is important to you, content is still king — that’s why we continue to focus on bringing you exclusive “must have” titles that are unmatched by anything else on the market. With games like Resistance 3, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and one of my personal favorites, Uncharted 3, all on the horizon, there’s a lot of great entertainment in store for you.”

You can read his official blog post here.

And don’t forget that Atlus is offering a free mini-soundtrack CD for anyone who pre-orders Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin.

The Sony Playstation crew has setup camp at booth #4237 during Comic-Con 2011, with hands-on demos of Resistance 3, Starhawk, UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception, Journey, Twisted Metal and more.  And for those of  you who want to get their Day Runner filled out ahead of time, check out the Sony Playstation panel schedule:

THURSDAY, JULY 21
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Get Into the Indie Spirit with PlayStation Network Game Developers: Meet and chat with thatgamecompany’s Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago as they, along with Minority Games’ Vander Caballero (Papo & Yo) and OverKill Software’s Bo Anderson (Payday), provide insight on their creativity and the inspiration behind upcoming PlayStation Network releases, and discuss what it takes to be successful as an independent developer. We’ll also have a few hundred Journey t-shirts to give away on a first come, first served basis, so get there early. Room 23ABC

THURSDAY, JULY 21
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Exploring a 1950′s Altered America: The Continuing Creation of the Resistance Universe: Get an exclusive first look at new game content with members of the Insomniac team including Marcus Smith (Creative Director), Kevin Grow (Animation Director) and Grant Hollis (Art Director), and actors from the Resistance 3 cast including Robin Atkin Downes (Joseph Capelli) and Crispin Freeman (Charlie Tent). Room 7AB

FRIDAY, JULY 22
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Developing Interactive Entertainment: The Performance Capture Techniques of the UNCHARTED Franchise and Today’s Film Industry: Join UNCHARTED 3’s Creative Director Amy Hennig, cast members Nolan North, Richard McGonagle, and Emily Rose to discuss the influence of theatrical techniques and styles from the history of film that have helped the team continually produce industry-leading and award-winning interactive entertainment. Room 25ABC

SATURDAY, JULY 23
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Twisted Metal @ SDCC 2011: Join David Jaffe, co-director of the upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive Twisted Metal as he reveals the newest Twisted trailer, unveils a near final cut of the game’s opening live action cinematic, and shows off the single player campaign, including a sneak peak of a new boss: The Brothers Grimm! Room 5AB

SUNDAY, JULY 24
10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. The Evolution from Warhawk to Starhawk: The New Universe that is Starhawk and the Characters Behind the Conflict: Join Starhawk’s Lars DeVore (Creative Director), Harvard Bonin (Senior Producer), John Hight (Studio Director), and Starhawk’s Writer, Koen Wooten, as they provide insight into the creative process behind Starhawk’s space western universe with never-before-seen concept art and exclusive story details. Room 25AB

Video Game Developer Open Emotion Studios (http://www.openemotionstudios.com/), announced that it has launched its action/platformer, Ninjamurai, for PSP/PlayStation 3. The game is now available to download on the PlayStation Network.

The new PSP Mini title puts players in control of a young ninja-samurai known as Ninjamurai on his quest to discover more about the “Black Armour” corporation and find those responsible for the death of his parents.  With reflexive combat options, break-neck speed and high-flying action, players must battle and outrun a number of evil forces.  The complex combat system is all about choice: players can focus on the speed of their Ninja training forsaking combative abilities but giving them extra speed, stealth and jumping abilities. Or if they prefer, players can challenge all those in their path via the combat stance which gives them a powerful magical jutsu, combo attacks and a powerful stab attack.  Players can opt to kill everything that moves or zoom past everyone and everything; with the  achievement system rewarding both approaches!

“Ninjamurai has been a really exciting title for our team to work on and we are really excited that now we can share it with U.S. gamers,” said Paddy Murphy, CEO of Open Emotion Studios.  ”As we have worked towards launch we have heard the game compared to Shinobi, Sonic, Canabalt, Mario and many others.  We are extremely flattered that people feel the influence of some of the best retro style games ever made in our title and we invite gamers to come in and check out the game and experience the fun for themselves.”

Ninjamurai tells the tale of revenge as Takezou Nishimura (Ninjamurai) journeys across a strange and twisted world to take on the might of the evil Black Armour Corporation. The PSP Mini will featuring 20 levels, a huge soundtrack, hand drawn visuals, 5 costumes, 12 in-game achievements, time trials and so much more!

For more information, please visit the official Website at
http://www.openemotionstudios.com/

Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts have decided to shut down the service on December 15. This will include both the video game as well as the trading card game. Sony also has discontinued the purchase of any tweleve, six, and three month subscriptions and will also provide partial refunds to any subscription that extends beyond October 15.

Active members of Star Wars Galaxies by September 15 will be given the last three months free as they will be involved in a “galaxy-ending event planned for the last week of live service in December.”

While it’s sad to see Galaxies end its eight year run, many are anticipating the official announcement of The Old Republic‘s release date to come around Galaxies departure.

[via EUCantina.net]

We’ve been waiting since the beginning of the year for this announcement:  The Sony Playstation Vita’s price.

Sony announced tonight during their press conference that the Sony Playstation Vita will come in two different models: WiFi + 3G and WiFi only. Both models will include a 5″ OLED screen, dual touchscreens, cameras and analog sticks.  There was also a focus on having Vita games that played in conjunction with Playstation 3 games, as well.

The built-in WiFi only model will run for $249.99, while the WiFi + 3G model will cost $299.99.  Sony also announced that AT&T will be the exclusive 3G carrier for the Playstation Vita. Data rates for the Vita are to be revealed at a later time.

A bunch of titles for the Vita were shown tonight, including Modnation Racers, Street Fighter X Tekken, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and Bioshock Infinite.

We hope to have more information on AT&T’s pricing scheme in the future, but this writer can’t help but be impressed with the pricing scheme of the Vita as is.  What do you guys think?  Let us know in the comments!

Maybe Sony thought that would be too predictable and so they went a different route. We got real Sony CEO Jack Tretton on stage handing out a real apology to the developers and to the fans. They seemed to be very humbled compared to last year’s “kickin’ butt and takin’ names” approach, and maybe they should be.

Regardless, they did have a lot to cover and they crammed it into just under two hours. The PS Move and the new handheld system now called the Vita got most of the coverage. Here is the complete rundown of the conference:

The first game Sony showed off was Uncharted 3. Developer Naughty Dog demoed a large part of a level that had Nathan Drake working his way through a sinking ship. The multiplayer beta was announced for June 20th and the full title will be released on November 11th, 2011 or 11 1 11.

Insomniac games demoed Resistance 3 next and not much was said about it. They show off some footage of a weapon that could shoot enemies through solid objects and you fight a giant bug. It was given the released date of September 6th, 2011 and can be purchased in a “Sharp Shooter Bundle” which includes a Sharp Shooter, a PS Move, a navigation controller, a PS Eye and a copy of the game for $150.

Sony announced a couple of special collections coming soon. Krato’s two PSP God of War adventures, Chains of Olympus and Ghosts of Spartain will be remastered in HD for the PS3. A couple of PS2 classics ICO and Shadow of the Colossus will be remastered in HD and bundled together on one Blu-Ray Disc. Both of these collections will be available this September and in 3D.

Sony had been really pushing the 3D at this point as, so far, every game announced was available in 3D. This turned out to be the build up to a 24” PlayStation branded 3D display that would allow two players to see two different full screen images on the screen when wearing the 3D glasses. A much better method for playing versus someone in the same room via split screen. The display will be bundled with two sets of glasses, a HDMI cable, and Resistance 3 for $499. I think I’m getting a new TV.

2K Sports was next to demo NBA 2K12 and show off its full PS Move support. This allows you to point to a player and press the PS button to pass, but it looks like the players movement on the court is AI controlled. They had Kobe Bryant out to demo it and he seemed to be impressed, but I doubt he is a true gamer.

Medieval Moves was announced to come out sometime this fall. It looked like an on rails Zelda type of game where the player has branching paths to choose from. The awkward switching between first and third person view depending on what weapon was welded turned me off. But I suppose Link does the same when holding the hook shot.

Developer Suckerpunch showed off inFamous 2. There wasn’t much to show that you haven’t already seen since it comes out today.

More intuitive PS Move controls will be added to LittleBigPlanet 2. By September you will be able to create new level with and for the PS Move.

Santa Monica Studios, the developers of Warhawk, show a trailer for their new third person shooter Starhawk. It showed some battles with giant robots in the desert which had a Borderlands vibe to it until you suddenly launched into space battle action. Consider me signed up.

A new trailer for Sly Cooper Thieves in Time was shown, but unfortunately it won’t be coming out until 2012.

Icelandic Developer CCP, who made the MMO EVE, announced their new PS3 exclusive Dust 514. It will be the first console FPS that will be connected directly to a PC MMO, namely EVE. It will have PS Move support, a dedicated server for online play and, although they didn’t say how, Vita support. There will be a closed beta before the end of this year and a full release before the end of 2012.

Irrational Games showed a new trailer for BioShock Infinite. They PS3 version will have PS Move support and will be bundled with the original Bioshock on the same disc. They also announced that the Bioshock universe will be expanding to the Vita but didn’t go into how.

Some titles with exclusive content was next. Saints Row The Third is set to be release on November 15th, 2011 and will have a game mode that is designed for the PS Move. A Star Trek game tied into the new movie slated for 2012 will not only have a prequel game available only to download from the PSN, but PS Move support and the option to buy a phaser style of PS Move controller. Sweet. You will be able to snowboard down Mt. Fuji in the new SSX but only on the PS3 and Need for Speed: the Run will get several exclusive cars. And finally Battlefield 3 on the PS3 will have Battlefield 1943 bundled on the same disc.

Sony’s new handheld device, the NPG, finally got its new official name, Vita. Vita means life in Latin. It has two dual analog sticks, a front and rear touch pad and two cameras. A Wi-Fi only model will sell for $249 and a Wi-Fi/3G model will go for $300 and be available sometime this holiday season.

Some jeers could be heard from the audience when it was announced that AT&T would be the exclusive carrier for PS Vita. AT&T got a notoriously bad reputation during their exclusive contract with Apple by underestimating the amount of bandwidth they would have to provide new iPhone customers.

Vita had a few games announce for it including:
• Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Yes, it looked really good. The game play is a mixture of button or touchscreen mechanics. It is nice that they give you an option to use both.
• Ruin which looked a little like a Diablo clone.
• Modnation Racers uses the touch screen controls to make new race tracks and player created race track and mods that have already been created on the PS3 can be used on Vita.
• LittleBigPlanet will allow you to create game with and for Vita’s touch controls
• Street Fighter X Tekken is big awesome from a third party developer as Cole from inFamous will be a playable character on the Vita version.

And after a brief wrap up that was the end of the show. No Kevin Butler and no fun, but we did get a good look at what Sony has up its sleeve. Hopefully, by the E32012 Sony will be in a better mood and we can be entertained again.

The moment we all have waited for is here; the PlayStation Store is back up, any everyone is bombarding it.

As reported before, Sony announced the “Welcome Back Program” to its loyal PlayStation Network users. Any member who signed up for PSN before April 20, 2011 is treated to two free PS3 games, two free PSP games, 30 days free of PlayStation Plus, a slew of free PlayStation Home virtual items, a selection of “On Us” movie rentals for this weekend only, and 30 days free to their Music Unlimited Premium membership.

Because the PlayStation Store just got back up, a lot of people have been getting error codes, like the one posted above. I myself had a problem when I went to redeem inFAMOUS, found out it disappeared, and didn’t see it at all under my Download History. Sony has given the steps necessary steps to recover your free games if you find out the same issue. Follow these steps:

• Go to your XMB
• Go to the PlayStation Network menu
• Select Account Management
• Select Transaction Management
• Select Services List
• Select SCEA Promotions.

There should be listed Welcome Back and then whatever free offer you selected. From there you can go in and select your game again to download.

There are five free PS3 (including 3 PSN only) games available, however members are only allowed to pick two. Those choices are:

• Dead Nation
• inFAMOUS
• Little Big Planet
• Super Stardust HD
• Wipeout HD + Fury

The PSP also have four games available, but also only allows to pick two. They are:

• Killzone Liberation
• Little Big Planet (PSP)
• ModNation Racers (PSP)
• Pursuit Force

As far as for the movies, Sony has pulled three for people to watch this weekend. All three are available for download and for HD, but they are only the rental versions. They are:

• Bad Boys
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
• Ghostbusters

Enjoy your free stuff.

Just in time for Fathers Day and 2011 Graduations, Sony has announced the latest addition to the Limited Edition PSP Entertainment Pack series. The latest PSP bundle will include:

• Piano black PSP-3000system
• 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo
• MLB 11 The Show
• Gran Turismo

The new Limited Edition PSP Entertainment Pack will be available in June and will retail for $159.99