Most of us have already seen the new slimline PSP during E3 last week, however, today was the first time it was unveiled to the Japanese audience, at PlayStation Premiew. The new unit will be released in Japan on September 20th 2007. In addition to the Ceramic White, Piano Black and Ice Silver colors shown at E3, Japan will get 3 extra colors, Rose Pink, Lavender Purple and Felicia Blue.

Furthermore, Japanese gamers can get the slim PSP a week early if they decide to buy the Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII: 10th Anniversary Limited bundle which comes with a special silver PSP slim unit (with translucent buttons), game software (with a variant cover) and strap with Cloud’s signature Buster Sword. Only 77,777 units are produced so importers better keep an eye on this item.

Most people would be happy enough to hear that a Metal Gear Solid game was on the way to the PS3, however, following a short demo play session of MGS4 at PlayStation Premier, Kojima announced that Kojima Productions is currently preparing a PlayStation 3 version of Metal Gear Online, the online battle game that appeared in MGS3 Subsistence. It is currently unclear as to whether

Famitsu.com reports that Kojima will play the game live at next week’s Metal Gear 20th Anniversary Party event in Tokyo and will share specifics on what players can expect.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue may be released a bit earlier than expected. Following an impressive showing at E3 last week, Polyphony flew back to Tokyo in time for today’s PlayStation Premier event where it announced that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be released to the Japanese market in October.
As for the content set to be included in Prologue, according to Sony’s press materials, we can look forward to a variety of cars, including some set to debut at this October’s Tokyo Motor Show. The game will also have online play.

The only question is cost. The game’s pricing is listed as “TBA,” which suggests that it might not end up being the free download that everyone was hoping for following last year’s big demo gift.
More details on content and pricing soon.

[E3 GT 5 Prologue Trailer]
[PlayStation Premiew GT 5 Prologue Trailer]

According to Game Informer, Sony is planning to release 40GB PlayStation 3 in North America retailing for $399, but will have no backward-compatibility. Game Informer was even waiting for the announcement at E3, but the news wasn’t confirmed at the event. As for the PAL market, Sony has hinted that a 120GB model could be in the pipeline.

SCEE President and CEO David Reeves has said the leap of 20GB from 60GB to 80GB which has occurred in the US is too small a jump in capacity, but doubling the capacity would definately be worth it.

“The difference between 60 and 80GB is very small, we just feel that going up 20GB is not worth it,” Reeves told Norwegian website Dagbladet.
However, “If you go to double it, it’s worth it”, he added. “So maybe you’ll see something a little bit later.”

Two new games are headed to the PlayStation Network, Elefunk and Snakeball. Elefunk is a original pizzle game that will play in much the same way as Lemmings. The aim is to save the elephants by building structures using a range of raw materials. The aim in Snakeball is to glide across the floor swallowing balls as you go and ultimately score more points than your opponent, similar to mobile phone game Snake.

Both the games are originals for the PS3. Elefunk will also include online leaderboard and multiplayer options. Snakeball could be one of the first PS3 games to use the PlayStation Eye to map your face onto the in-game characters, depending on the release date. Check out some screenshots below.

Elefunk

Snakeball

Another Custom Firmwarem 3,51 XR, is in development by pj1115. pj1115 states that the new firmware will be “based loosely on [Dark_AleX’s] OE” and promises that this version will be better than the recent 3.51 M33 Custom Firmware. The firmware is still in development and the developer claims that it is currently undergoing beta testing. We have included a proposed feature list below.

• Fixed compatibility issues with modules and resources. M33 has them.
• Bug fixes.
• Added XR recovery menu.
• Increased theme compatibility.
• Replaced network update with my custom firmware updater.
• Load modules and resources from memory stick.
• Config file on the MS for other configuration (spoof version number, recovery theming, etc.)
• Ability to have all 12 BG images as full-res.

pj1115 is also planning to include:

• Play MP3/WAV/OGG on boot instead of opening sound. No length restriction.
• Boot password protection and integrate an adapted HideMedia.
• Ability to edit config file on MS from recovery and add MAC spoofing (only affects XMB – iDstorage is untouched).
• Add super features such as dump/write NAND image, dump/write iDstorage to recovery.
• Increase no-UMD compatibility.

A team of 10 developers, who wish to remain anonymous, are planning to create a new custom firmware using Sony’s 3.51 firmware. The team plan to reverse engineer Dark_AleX’s Custom Firmwares in order to build a similar version. The team claims that, once finished, their custom firmware will surpass Dark_AleX’s custom firmware versions.

At this point no other information is available, but we will bring you an update on this story as soon as more information is available.

For those of you who have installed the new custom firmware 3.51 M33 may have noticed that homebrew applications that use Wi-Fi were not working correctly. As a result, the M33 Team have made a patch to fix the problems. Apparently, the problem was caused by Sony’s 3.51 wlan.prx code and not by M33 code.

The 3.51 wlan.prx reportedly affected the 1.50 wlan.prx, stopping WLAN-based homebrew from working. As proof of this, they pointed out that the 3.40 wlan.prx did not have the same problem.

[Download 3.51 M33 Wi-Fi Fix]

Homebrewers may have a new hero in the mist. Now that Dark_AleX has left the scene, a new team of coders that goes by the name of M33 have taken over his place and have released their own custom firmware utilizing Sony’s firmware 3.51. All of the firmware’s features have been retained, including the PS1 emulator, high video resolution, and MP3 visualizer. You can launch ISO’s and homebrew directly from the XMB, and also play games that require Firmware 3.51.

Other features include:

• CPU speed modification
• Recovery mode
• Multi-region
• Customize all your icons and more.

Please remember that installing a custom firmware is potentially dangerous and could render your PSP useless if the instructions are not followed correctly. XTREME PSP does not take responsibility for your actions, nor does the developers. Use this at your own risk. Please consult the read me file included in the ZIP file for instructions.

[Download Custom Firmware 3.51 M33]

Thanks to Sable for the tip.

In a recent interview, David Reeves mentioned that the 60GB PS3 model will be discontinued in North America, once stock sells out. This move has now been denied by Dave Karraker, SCEA President. Karraker stated that the quotes obtained in the interview in regards to a 60 gigabyte Playstation 3 phase out was “inaccurate”. The claim was backed up by Sony Canada spokesman Kyle Moffatt.

Karraker told Joystiq that “As announced this week, SCEA’s product offering in North America consists of a 80GB PS3 available in August at $599 and a 60GB PS3 available now for $499. We have will have ample supplies of both models to meet the needs of our consumers for the foreseeable future.”

Kaz Hirai however, in a interview, stated that the 60GB PS3 model is no longer in production and will soon be phased out.