Concerns have been raised over the lack of new PSOne classics to hit the PlayStation Store. And rightfully so, as Japan is fortunate enough to receive new additions nearly every week, while those of us in North America and Europe often go weeks before seeing a new PSOne title on the store. Good news is, that should be changing eventually, according to SCEA marketing man John Koller.

Yes, we are working on further PSone additions to the PS Store and should see those launch shortly.

Shortly? Hopefully that means within a month or two. People are becoming impatient!

Sony Says More PS One Games On PSN ‘Shortly’ [MTV]

As a reward to faithful fans across the globe, Ubisoft.com members can now link up to their Xbox Live or PlayStation Network account to receive access to the skin of Altair from Assassin’s Creed. Non-members can create an account at PrinceofPersia.com. If you recall, this isn’t the first time Ubisoft has used assets from Assassin’s Creed in another title. The Altair skin also made an appearance as a costume in Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 4.

On a related note, the publisher announced that Prince of Persia went gold today and has entered the manufacturing process. The game will ship to retail shelves on December 2 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Those planning on picking up the game are encourage to place a pre-order at GameStop, so as to receive a free upgrade to the limited edition version.

Ubisoft announced today that a selection of downloadable content for its open-world shooter Far Cry 2 will be made available “later this November.” Dubbed Fortune’s Pack, the DLC promises to bring additional vehicles, as well as all-new weaponry and maps to the game’s single-player and multi-player aspect. Pricing is set at a reasonable $9.99. The full content listing, along with screenshots, can be found past the jump.

read more »

Oh dear. It seems that Eidos has not learned since the widely-publicized Kane & Lynch fiasco last year, which ultimately resulted in the firing of longtime GameSpot employee Jeff Gerstmann. In a recent Twitter posting, GameSpot UK journalist Guy Cocker revealed that he received a request from Eidos asking to hold back reviews of Tomb Raider Underworld until Monday — after the game’s retail release date — if the score was less than 8.0. Sure enough, the company’s Birtish PR branch confirmed this, explaining that it has been “trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos.”

Just that we’re trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that’s handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don’t put people off buying the game, basically.

Talk about unethical. In other words, their objective here is to mislead the public by asking that reviews containing damaging information about the game are withheld, in hope that more people will be inclined to buy the game.

The firm quickly issued a follow-up to its previous statement, which can be found below.

read more »

The infrastructure of Sony’s online virtual community Home is about to be given its first real test, as SCEE community team manager “TedTheDog” announced today that “over a hundred thousand invitations” to the ongoing beta have been sent across European territories. More invites will be sent out next week on the November 27 as well. For those who did not see an invite pop up in their mailbox, don’t fret, as the publicly accessible open beta is said to be right around the corner.

There’s no word on if SCEA will also be sending out invites by the metric ton here in North America, but we should find out soon.

SCEE v1.0 Patch notes [PlayStation EU]

While void of any new playable titles aside from a demo of Capcom’s MotoGP 08, this week’s PlayStation Store update is packed with add-on content. Up for grabs now are various costume designs for Media Molecule cutesy platformer LittleBigPlanet, along with a trio of BioShock challenge rooms and over $30 dollars worth in Dead Space content.

Despite receiving a new firmware update earlier today, the PSP store was once again left neglected this week. Full content listing can be found after the break.

read more »

Square Enix is ramping up development efforts here in the West, having just opened an LA-based studio and also naming itself as the publisher of Supreme Commander 2. While still in search of prospective employees, the studio is currently working on downloadable offerings, according to U.S. division president John Yamamoto:

All formats – Xbox Live, WiiWare, PlayStation Network – are all viable formats for us. We started the in-house development team a couple of months ago and we’re starting with downloadable content because the team is still small.

Gradually, I want to expand that team, and also evaluate lots of middleware, because western middleware is much more advanced compared to Japanese middleware. So we will study and feed back information to Square Enix in Japan.

The studio is rather small at the moment, consisting of only three members, so it makes sense to focus on smaller DLC based efforts. However, Square Enix plans to expand that head count to as many as thirty people within the next twelve months.

Square Enix LA studio to focus on digital titles [GI.biz]

Following the release of Twisted Metal: Head-On: Extra Twisted Edition last year, things have been quiet surrounding outspoken game designer David Jaffe and his Utah-based business venture Eat Sleep Play. But according to a recent blog post from the main man himself, he paid a visit to Sony HQ yesterday to discuss a “new game.” Naturally, no details on this game were provided, but Jaffe mentioned that he feels a 2010 release date is being strongly considered.

read more »

Publisher Square Enix releases fifteen new screenshots from Level 5’s upcoming Nintendo DS RPG Dragon Quest IX. The game is scheduled to hit Japan in March of next year. A U.S. and European date have yet to be announced.

Dragon Quest IX Screenshots

Rockstar gave us the first look at Grand Theft Auto IV’s The Lost and Damned expansion today, but in reality we’ve only seen a small fraction of the entire package. According to the official announcement made just minutes ago, The Lost and Damned will include “new multiplayer modes, weapons and vehicles,” as well as new music tracks.

“Making these episodes has enabled us to expand the narrative and the experience of interacting with a game world in really innovative ways,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We hope fans of the game enjoy the new way of experiencing life in Liberty City contained in this first episode.”

From what has been said thus far, the DLC for GTA IV looks to be a very substantial add-on. Xbox 360 owning GTA fans are in for a treat. Full announcement is after the break.

read more »