PS3-Sense posted up some new screenshots of a new Homespace called 'Summerhouse'. Check out the screenshots below.

Expecting PlayStation Home this spring? Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's not happening. Not a chance.

Sony Computer Entertainment today announced that it is extending the duration of the closed BETA for PlayStation Home to summer 2008. As a result, a further number of registrants will soon be invited to test the service and the open BETA has been subsequently pushed back till fall.

Details on applying for the extended closed BETA will be provided at a later date. Home was first slated for September or October 2007 and then pushed back to "Spring 2008." And now, like that, Sony slides it back again.

Press Release: SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES EXPANSION OF CLOSED BETA TESTING

FOR PLAYSTATION HOME IN SUMMER 2008 Open Beta Service Scheduled For Fall 2008

Tokyo, April 22, 2008 - Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) announced today that it will expand the Closed Beta testing for PLAYSTATION Home in Summer 2008, inviting a further number of registrants from the PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3 ) users. Following completion of the Expanded Closed Beta test, the PLAYSTATION Home Open Beta service will commence in Fall 2008.

"We understand that we are asking PS3 and prospective PS3 users to wait a bit longer, but we have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today," said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

"Our overarching objective is to provide users with new gaming experiences that are available only on PLAYSTATION Home. Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service, maintaining the PlayStation® tradition."

The PLAYSTATION Home Open Beta service that will become available in Fall 2008 will be built around providing new and fun community gaming experiences.

Details of the Closed Beta testing features, registration for the test and the opening of the service will be announced as they become available.

For those of you lucky, lucky folks in Europe (or the UK, more specifically), it looks like your wait for the PlayTV rollout is coming to a close. According to Amazon's British wing, you can now pre-order the PlayStation 3 add-on for £59.99 ($120) with an expected release on July 31st. Over here we'll just continue to twiddle our thumbs, watch paint dry, and check out our Blu-ray version of The Song Remains the Same... again

Here is a video of Version 8 of the Home beta. Its mostly showing the marketplace and some of the functions about it.

Previous rumour reports of the PlayStation Network getting a huge overhaul in April would appear true as SCEA's director of product development confirms: "you will see a pretty big change in the PlayStation Network in the early part of April."

The rumour emerged from a retailer-only presentation, in which Sony was said to have unveiled plans to give the PlayStation Network a makeover, as well as demonstrating a new Video Store.

Sony has since remained cagey on the subject, however SCEA's John Hight has told Gamasutra: "We give [Sony's PSN team] a lot of feedback based on how our customers are reacting to things, and I think you will see a pretty big change in the PlayStation Network in the early part of April, where we roll out some new interface stuff largely based on customer feedback."

Hight held back on exactly what these changes would entail, but did tease: "Simplification, cutting down on the number of mouse clicks, making it easier to find stuff that you want to find... that's kind of an outgrowth of us having more content now, so we have to make sure that you can get at it easily."

We can't wait.

Ever wanted to know what the best selling PSN games are? Well, here it is. The top 10 PSN purchases since the system's launch.

* flOw
* Mortal Kombat II
* Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection
* PAIN
* Warhawk
* High Velocity Bowling
* Super Stardust HD
* Calling All Cars
* Aquatopia
* Everyday Shooter

Are you surprised that flOw is the best selling PSN title so far? We are as well. Even more surprising: how well Mortal Kombat II seemingly did. At the very least, we're glad to see great games like Super Stardust HD and Everyday Shooter make the list as well.



The top downloaded demos also include:

* Gran Turismo HD Concept
* Uncharted
* Ninja Gaiden Sigma
* Heavenly Sword
* The Simpsons Game
* Need for Speed ProStreet
* Ratchet and Clank
* Burnout Paradise
* Motorstorm
* Turok

We're not surprised by the popularity of Gran Turismo HD Concept. As the first taste of the new generation of GT games, it earned quite a bit of attention when it was released more than a year ago.



Finally, the top PSN downloads from Europe include:

* Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
* Warhawk
* flOw
* LocoRoco Cocoreccho!
* Mortal Kombat II
* Super Rub a Dub
* Calling All Cars
* Gripshift
* Lemmings
* Super Stardust HD

Isn't it interesting to note the huge disparity between American and European tastes? (Besides Mortal Kombat II ... for some strange reason.)

Here a user posts a picture of him getting a Warhawk Accomplishment, like the Achivements on Xbox Live, this will give a new thrill to gamer's by allowing them to gain point's from every accomplishment they may come by. Also in the picture it reveals In Game XMB, a well waited for feature for Playstation/Sony fans. Real or fake?

With backwards compatibility unceremoniously dropped from the PS3 with the introduction of the 40GB console, in the latest issue of EGM, Playstation Network director Eric Lempell admitted that there are "possibilities" that Sony will allow gamers to purchase and download PS2 titles via the PSN.

Lempel said "We haven't talked about that yet, but there are possibilities through technology and software emulation to make that possibles," when asked about the possibility by the American magazine, obviously stoking the fires, and letting rumours run free.

As an idea - obviously nabbed from Microsoft and their Xbox Classics - it makes perfect sense. Allow PS3 owners to download the best that the PS2 had to offer for a few quid each, and we'll all be nice and a happy folks.

But, how keen will people be to download versions of games that they already own physical copies of, and shelled out big bucks for not so long ago? Are we expected to purchase all our favourites yet again if we haven't the space to keep the PS2 sat under the TV? Sounds like a nice way to extract some extra cash to me.

Ready to download some games to your PSP? The PC-based PS Store is open for business, and reader Matt G. noticed the virtual marketplace's first price drops

Gangs of London is $12.99 (was $19.99)

SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo is $10.99 (was $14.99)

Wipeout Pure is $10.99 (was $14.99)

Wipeout Pure is a great deal at that price, especially for those of you that are a bit too broke to afford next month's Wipeout Pulse. And remember, no matter what -- stay away from Gangs of London.

"Why isn't the PS3 broken already?" We hear this every day. Someone somewhere thinks they can write a better media player with HD support. A guy wants to release his game but needs the RSX for the amazing graphics it can generate. Why can't we just tear open the PS3 solder a few wires and be done with it? The answer is both simpler and more complicated than you might expect.

The PSP, the Wii, even the Xbox 360 have all been hacked and can run homebrew applications so everybody thinks "the PS3 should be just as easy." The PS3 in some ways is as easy, in fact easier. No other console let you install Linux and run anything you want to. Sure Linux on the PS3 is great. You can write your own code and use it. You have the largest collection of applications anywhere (thats right, WAY more than Windows). It's all free (or at a very low cost).

But it's limited. You can't touch the RSX (The very powerful graphics chip in the PS3), you can't use the full hard drive, and nothing is really optimized for the PS3's fantastic Cell processor, this means that what should be fast and easy tends to be slow and cumbersome. In fact, DVD playing which can be done on any modern computer is a monumental task in PS3 Linux.

The major problem is that the PS3 isn't any other console. The PS3 is different in many huge and terrifying ways. First, lets compare the PS3. I know you may think "Why compare the PS3 to the PSP? Why not the 360 or the Wii? The answer is simple, the PSP is another Sony product and if we can break one Sony product why not another? The PSP is hacked, it's true. In fact, it was hacked almost as soon as it was released!

Why? Because the PSP didn't have any security protections in the first version: Thats right! It essentially ran anything that you put on it. You could install any program from day 1 (Mind you, no programs existed at the outset, but in time they became common.)

Now you may say "But they added security in the next version and that was hacked very quickly". I agree with you here, the PSP now has a very powerful security system, but like the Greeks, we had people inside. Once a system is hacked and understood, very little can be used to continue to protect it. In other words, the moment the PSP was uncovered and investigated any future security measures would be trivial to remove and disarm. This proved true and to this day we have each version of the PSP firmware hacked and able to run homebrew within a few weeks.

Now, the Wii, homebrew for the Wii has been slower than expected, not because it's incredibly difficult to do, but because most developers don't see a reason. The Wii has been hacked, but it's almost exclusively used to play copied games.

Most homebrew, in fact, runs in the gamecube emulator built into the Wii. The only reason that developers were interested ing the Wii at all is the controller. Once the controller was found to be connectible to any computer (and even to the PS3) developers lost interest.

"But the Wii has still been hacked, lack of interest isn't an excuse for the PS3 being difficult". That's true, it isn't, but there is a valid excuse. The Wii isn't a full upgrade of all the technologies in the GameCube, in fact, it's almost identical except for a few upgrades. The GameCube has been hacked for a long time and with the Wii being so similar it was a trivial matter to map out the exact differences.

"The 360" some may cry out "it's on par with the PS3 and has been hacked as well." It's true, several hacks for the 360 exist, and some of them are actually monumentally difficult and fascinating. The first hack is rather simple actually. The 360 uses standard DVD disks for it's games. This means that duplicators exist widely for the 360s media, it also meant that people understand it very well. Sadly, the 360 was broken first by simply fooling the DVD drive to bypass all checks to ensure that a game wasn't copied.

Again it came from lack of security on the original version of the console. The DVD drive was easily put into "debug" mode and forced to reveal all it's secrets. Later versions of the console have rectified this with a newer drive. This hack is simply not possible for the PS3 because it's not using a DVD drive it's using a custom Blu-ray drive, we can't simply copy the disks, and we don't know enough about the firmware on the drive to accomplish a "debug mode" even if it's on there.

This wasn't the only hack to hit the 360. Momentarily vulnerable kernels have happened twice, where a bug in the firmware enabled homebrew to be run, each time, though, Microsoft closed the hole in the next version (which was usually released before the hack was really publicized). This is possible for the PS3, but we haven't yet found one of those bugs.

Remember: Only 2 of all the updates the 360 has had have been broken, all the others are still secure.

Only recently has the "timing" or "ultimate" attack on the 360 come to fruition. By counting the time it takes for the 360 to crash when confronted with code which is not valid the "hash" of a particular set of data can be found. This enables you to move back to one of the older firmwares and hack your 360. However, you are still unable to access the xbox live service until you return to a higher version.

Mind you, this hack is INCREDIBLY difficult to do and requires a specially designed mod-chip and several hours for your 360 to reset repeatedly until you can downgrade putting this hack well above the average user. (To the 360 hackers, I am sorry for simplifying your brilliant hack so much, but this article isn't just to sceners, it's to everyone.)

"It's still a hack." Well thats true, the 360 IS hacked. And it will probably only get further hacked as time goes on. But you must remember, the 360 was out for a full year longer than the PS3 and it has less security than the PS3 (which actually has a special "police" program running constantly to ensure that the PS3 remains secure). More time and less security mean that it's easier to break open.

"Well, fine then, when can we expect a PS3 hack?" Thats a good question but it's very hard to answer. You see, we have many expert hackers trying to break open the PS3 and eventually they will, the problem is that there are many groups of hackers who aren't communicating or sharing information. This means that many hackers are repeating work that another hacker has already done, or that may be useless due to information that another group may have discovered.

While many groups have claimed hacks, none have actually provided any proof, instead we get videos like the recent ICE video and we get excuses. They may very well have incredibly valuable information, but none of it is shared so it's hard to get anything out of it. Paradox may have a loader but no way of running it on the latest PS3 firmware, while another group may have a hack enabling code to be run on the latest firmware, but nothing to run on it.

"Why aren't they sharing?" Typically, the reason they don't want to share is glory. They want to be "first" they want to be "best" they want to be the Dark Alex or DVD Jon or Arnezami of the PS3. They want first dibs and for that, we all suffer. While each group has different skills, I don't think that any scene group is really better than any other.

I think that any group stands an equal chance of finding that hole, because like stumbling around blindly after a treasure, someone is bound to stub their toe on it eventually. But if all groups were to work together, we could pinpoint the treasure, and the beauty of this treasure, is that every PS3 owner wins.

According the Latest Issue of PSW magazine, The MGS4 Demo is Coming to PSN Next Month.

In last week's Kojima Productions Report, host Ryan Payton, also assistant producer for Metal Gear Solid 4, wagered that if the Packers won the NFC Divisional Playoff game last weekend, he would announce something new in the Kojima world. The Packers won and Payton keeps his end of the bargain in this weeks podcast.

Right at the end of the podcast, Ryan announces a set of announcements that are to come. Announcing announcements is not that exciting, aye? Perhaps not - but he does say that Kojima are working on three other projects to hit the US this summer.

Ryan wanted permission from Konami to announce at least one of three products, but he was turned down. For now the only news we have that there are these three products (interestingly not all digital content) that Metal Gear fans can get excited about.

I thought a Kojima hibernation was about to begin, but it seems that the veils are going to be taken off in the coming weeks. Ryan reveals that a train is about to start chugging along with announcement after announcement, trailers and screenshots, MGS4's release date and other new information.

The details are coming week on week, so keep your ears and eyes open (well your ears don't close…but you know what I mean).

"Achievements" have become a major part of the Xbox 360 experience, with many games applauded purely because of how the system was implemented. Sony has seemingly taken due notice of the successful system and is currently adapting it for the PlayStation 3 and then some.

While Sony already announced a "Trophy Room" for PlayStation Home last year, what Sony is working on goes much deeper than this. Achievements on the PlayStation platform will not be a mere figure easily displayed on an online card, but will be considerably more indepth and broad in information presented. If Eric Lempel, director of the PlayStation Network is to be believed the PlayStation equivalent of achievements will, "recognise our consumers' gaming skills and loyalty in new ways".

Interpret that as you will, but for the time being the whole concept on the PlayStation is all too vague to come to any clear cut conclusions about the implications of the system.

Sony Corp. Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer plans to connect the company's flagship PlayStation 3 console with its other electronics as part of its growth strategy next year and beyond.

The world's second-largest consumer electronics maker will hook up the PS3 with its PlayStation Portable console online before extending the links to products such as mobile phones, Stringer said in Tokyo today. The current three-year business plan ends on March 31.

The move revives a strategy by Nobuyuki Idei, who was replaced by Stringer in June 2005 amid investor discontent over his failure to meet business targets. Stringer's plan revolves around a games division that has lost money for seven straight quarters because of costs to develop the PlayStation 3 and as sales trailed Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360.

Well, for those of you that have Japanese Yen ready, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is now available for download on the PLAYSTATION Store.

The game is also available in Japan via Blu-Ray Disc. The PLAYSTATION Store download is 4,500 yen, which is approximately $40 US dollars. Expect to see that price upon the US release.

Sony have today announced the imminent release of their PlayStation Network Cards (these are new, not the already-released "tickets"), which will be let loose on Japan on December 13. Arriving in two flavours, one for ¥3000 and one for ¥5000, they'll carry a 12-digit number on the back which users will input into their PSN wallets.

DLB has made some new videos on Home where he explains further on the new functions from the update. He takes viewers on yet another tour of the closed beta version of Home.

When do we get to go Home? Christmas is a time to be at Home with the family, so we can only hope that Sony gives us a present too. Wishful thinking maybe, but Christmas would be the perfect time. What better way to get away from the trials and tribulations of family bother, than to bury your attention into perfectly creating Father Christmas or Gary Glitter in Playstation Home and then making him dance like a numpty!

Well with that in mind, here's a recent tour of Playstation Home, showing off some of the most in depth character customisation outside of Mass Effect.

"The following footages are from the Home Closed Beta for PlayStation 3, via the PlayStation Network. Note that this is not the final product of Home, and is only work in progress; a Beta. Also keep in mind that this is all free, as the final product of Home will be. (Version V.0.7.7)"

7 video segments are included here:
• Virtual PSP Walkthrough (2 min 9 sec)
• Character & Clothing Customization Walkthrough (7 min 26 sec)
• Emotes Walkthrough (3 min 17 sec)
• Home Space Walkthrough (4 min 36 sec)
• Home Square Walkthrough (3 min 18 sec)
• Game Space Walkthrough (4 min 1 sec)
• Home Theatre Walkthrough (2 min 17 sec)

The full video, which combines all 7 segments into a single 25-minute footage without commentary, is available at the PlayStation Home page at Veoh via the source link below. New videos are also being added at Veoh. Be sure to check the source for updates and new videos.

Full In Depth Video Walkthrough

Virtual PSP Walkthrough

Character & Clothing Customization Walkthrough

Emotes Walkthrough

Home Space Walkthrough

Home Square Walkthrough

Game Space Walkthrough

Home Theatre Walkthrough

PSOne Games:
Destruction Derby
Kula World

Demos:
Timeshift

Game Addons:
Resistance Map Pack 2
Motorstorm Vehicle & Skin Pack
Sonic The Hedgehog Addons

Trailers:
Pain
Uncharted Making The Game
Blazing Angels 2
WWE 2008
Assassins Creed
Bee Movie Blu-ray
EU PlayStation 3 Commercials

According to a UK paper, Sony is planning to launch a huge TV push for the PS3 this Christmas. The flagship ad is set to hit UK TV's next month with Sony aiming to promote the Playstation 3 as an 'entertainment super computer'.

The marketing push is critical for the PS3, which is going head to head with the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 at Christmas for the first time.

According to analysts at Screen Digest, almost half of annual software sales are Made in the Christmas period.

The flagship TV ad, developed by TBWA/London, is set to break on British TV next month with supporting ads seeded online in advance from this week.

Sony is aiming to promote the PS3 as more than a games console - it can, for example, play films and store photos and music - with the concept of an "entertainment super computer".

Here's the UK PSN update posted by one of the EU PS Forum Moderators:

[game] G - Police
[demo] Blazing Angels
[demo] Uncharted
[add-on] Folklore - The Alchemist Pack
[add-on] Motorstorm - Rascal & Governor
[video] Ratchet and Clank Launch Trailer
[video] Devil Weekend Trailer
[video] Uncharted Hunting El Dorado
[video] Uncharted Facial Animation
[video] PSN Showcase Trailer
[video] Bad Company Trailer
[video] Beowulf The Game Trailer
[video] Uncharted Introducing Naughty Dog
[wallpaper] Tekken Wood
[wallpaper] Tekken Field
[wallpaper] Tekken Cathedral
[wallpaper] Tekken Atrium