Japan’s PSP Video on Demand service, P-TV, for the PSP and PlayStation 3 is about to end, according to a statement found on the company’s official site. The reason for stopping the service was not mentioned, however, it is likely that the service suffered from poor subscription rates. The service has been around since July 2005 and allowed users to download videos for their PSP.

In related news, Sony isn’t abandoning the idea of VOD services. Last week, we reported that SCEE and Sky are teaming up to bring VOD services to UK and Ireland consumers, and will later be made available to Europe. The P-TV service will end on August 30th 2007 at 5 PM.

Grand Theft Auto IV for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 is being delayed until April 2008. According to Take Two, the delay is necessary in order to complete development for the title. The title is now planned for release in the Company’s second quarter of fiscal 2008. Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two, stated, “Certain elements of development proved to be more time-intensive than expected, especially given the commitment for a simultaneous release on two very different platforms”.

Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar Games, added, “The new consoles are allowing us to create the Grand Theft Auto game we always dreamed about. Every aspect of the game and its design has been completely transformed. The game is huge and is pushing the hardware platforms to their absolute limits. The top engineers from Sony and Microsoft are working closely with the team in Edinburgh right now, helping us to fully leverage the power of both platforms. As always, our goal is to surpass even the wildest expectations of the game’s fans, and to create the ultimate high definition video game experience.”

[Via: Take-Two Games]

The US PlayStation Store has been updated with new content, thought, a lot more content has been added compared to the UK PlayStation Store update. The US update includes the Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 demo seen in the UK Store update, but also includes a number of movie trailers and the Advanced Research expansion pack for Blast Factor. See below for a full list of new content.

• Games
  • Blast Factor: Advanced Research (Add-On)
  • Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Playable Demo)
  • The Darkness (Playable Demo)
• Movie Trailers
• Michael Clayton
• Get Smart
• The Game Plan

The UK PlayStation Store has been updated with a few new items, including a playable demo of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 and a few new game trailers. The full list of additions can be found below. This time around, there wasn’t much content added to the PSN Store, however, we should soon see the Home Public Beta appear on the PSN Store.

• Playable Demos
  • Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
• Game Trailers
  • Lair Trailer 2
  • Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights Trailer

If you hate sweaty, greasy hands on your precious SIXAXIS controllers, then the SIXAXIS body glove is the ideal accessory for you. Officially endorsed by Sony, the body glove is heat sensitive and changes colour depending on body heat. The glove retail for just over $10 and are available in a range of colours. The SIXAXIS body glove is the ideal in preventing grease and dirt from getting into the gaps of the controller, plus, it also acts as a grip, keeping the controller firmly in your hands.

The body glove comes with at 10ft USB cable. The body glove retails for between $10 and $15. Everyone knows that grease and dirt accumulates over time in between the hard-to-clean places, so this is perfect for keeping the pad nice and clean. The skin can be a pain to get on but its worth it in the end. One problem to note is that pressing the “START” and “SELECT” are slightly harder to press, since the skin covers the sides of the buttons.

[Via: PS3 FanBoy]

Sony has developed a prototype computer board based on the Cell processor, the same high-power chip used in the PlayStation 3 (PS3), and will be revealed at a conference in the US next week. The ‘Cell Computing Board’ prototype, which is small enough to be mounted into a 1U-size server for a 19in rack mount, combines the Cell Broadband Engine microprocessor and RSX graphics processor. This pairing results in a high-power computing platform that goes beyond the power of the Cell chip alone, said Sony. The company did not disclose precise performance data for the board.

It will be unveiled at the SIGGRAPH show that will take place from August 7 to 9 at the San Diego Convention Center. The event is focused on the computer graphics industry and Sony will make a number of related demonstrations, it said. These will include real-time processing of ‘4K images’, which are digital cinema pictures with a resolution of four times that of HDTV, computer graphics rendering and a multi-threaded physics simulation.

[Via: PC Advisor]

Several new bits of information about the rumble enabled SIXAXIS controller have emerged, according to Inner Bits. Inner Bits states that prototypes of the new SIXAXIS controller with rumble have made their way into the hands of various Sony developers, however, there is still no official announcement from Sony. An official announcement is expected within the next two to three months.

“We can confirm that prototypes of the new rumble-enabled controllers have made their way to various Sony developers. Information on these controllers is still closely held by Sony and their partners, but an official announcement and unveiling is expected in the next two to three months.”

Also, new SIXAXIS controllers are quitely replacing the original controllers launched with the console. Hardware changes occur regularly, and so far, Sony has improved the fidelity of motion sensing in the controller.

UPDATE (4th August 2007 at 16:50):

Sony denied recent reports in speaking to GamePro that rumble-enabled PS3 controllers are on the way. Sony did, however, acknowledge motion-sensing enhancements for the SIXAXIS controller.

“We have not added rumble [to PS3], and have no announcements regarding this feature,” said Dave Karraker, Sony’s Cirector of Corporate Communications.

Karraker did confirm that developers are receiving better motion-sensing controllers, though he downplayed the news.

Sony is planning to release a digital tuner for the PlayStation 3 in 2008 turning it into a programmable TV recorder, according to Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand boss Warwick Light. The device is scheduled for release in March 2008. The information was revealed at a interview with The Press. It is currently unclear exactly how the functionality will work and whether it will be available outside of New Zealand.

“We’re also hoping next year – about the same time that Freeview launches its terrestrial broadcasting service (expected to be in March) – to release a digital tuner for the PS3, turning it into a programmable TV recorder.”

Our guess is a USB device similar to the PSP TV Tuner will be use along with a firmware update. The hard drive will be used to allow digital recording. Freeview is already available in the UK, so it is likely to reach there.

Team M33 has updated their Custom Firmware 3.52 to version 2. This update addresses some major issues in the firmware and fixes several bugs in the software. The previous versions did not support both Chinese and Korean languages in XMB and caused the both the homebrew and recovery to crash, this issue has now been resolved. In addition, the no-umd driver has been updated once again to offer better compatibility and the recovery menu has been updated. See below for a full list of changes.

General Changes:

• Document.dat files from PSX games were broken due to some important changes in popsman.prx and is now fixed.
• Now document.dat does not need the same gameid as game which is being played.
• The compatibility issue with IRShell loading PSX games in USBHost/NetHost has been solved.

Changes in recovery:

• Removed the advanced config option “use isofs on UMD inserted”.
• Added “Format flash1 and restore settings” in Advanced.
• Added speeds 20 and 100.
• When in USB mode inside recovery, it is impossible to turn PSP off.
• M33 driver: improved compatibility.

[Download Custom Firmware 3.52 M33-2]

The Blast Factor expansion pack, Advanced Research, will be available to download from the PlayStation Network Store soon, along with a playable demo for those who want to try before they buy. A lot of additions have been made to the game including new enemies, new modes and new music. The game is said to run at 60fps at 1080p. See below for a full list of additions to the game.

• 7 new specimens
• 11 new types of enemy
• 2 new bosses
• monthly online high score tables
• new practice mode
• remixed sound effects
• 8 new music tracks
• dynamic lighting

The gameplay has also been improved taking the enemy and player interactions to a whole new level. There are new enemies that suppress chaining and enemies that create huge explosions for big combo scores. Check out the PlayStation Blog post.

Check out the gameplay video here.