Following the recent announcement regarding the PS3 price drop in North America, Sony has revealed to CVG that it will be making a price related announcement for Europe this Thursday at E3, but didn’t got go into specifics. This announcement may not be related to a price drop according to sources, but will instead involve added value – implying some kind of bundle deal.

It is unlikely that the announcment will relate to the 80GB PS3 model. The 80GB console in US will be bundled with Motorstorm, so maybe in Europe and the UK we’ll see MotorStorm bundled with the 60GB model. We will bring you an update on Thursday.

[Via: CVG]

After the announcement of the 80GB PS3, a lot of people noticed something strange on the box. If you take a look, you will see the SIXAXIS controller with the PS button glowing red. Many people are speculating that this could be the new SIXAXIS controller with rumble. Let’s wait to see what Sony announces this week at E3 before we jump to any conclusions. Have a look at the photo yourself below:

SCEA has announced that it will be releasing a new PS3 model in North America that comes with a 80GB hard drive and a free copy of MotorStorm, retailing at $599. The new model will on sale from August. In addition, the price for the 60GB version is being cut by $100, to $499 effective immediately, as we reported earlier. Finally, the rumors have been confirmed by Sony and only a few days before E3 kicks off.

In other news, Sony mentioned a forthcoming download service which will include videos, movies and other entertainment content for the PS3. And, Sony is planning to stream a live version of the E3 SCEA press conference this Wednesday, July 11th, starting around 11:30 A.M. pacific time.

[Via: PlayStation.Blog]

The 12th Issue of PSP M4M: Magazine 4 Men is now available to download. This time round, DK Jr. did a good job of keeping on schedule and released the mag on time. Issue 12 is dedicated to Wimbledon and has over 150 pages of content including various articles and plenty of babe photos. See the content summary below.

Issue 12 contains:

• Dangers of Flying
• A few Jokes
• Bar Phrases and their Meanings
• Paying for Online Porn
• High Definition vs Standard Definition
• Wimbledon Summary
• Wimbledon Babes
• Collection of PSP Wallpapers

Enjoy reading. Issue 13 should be available to download early next month.

[Download PSP M4M Issue 12]

Sony has revealed its plans to offer PlayStation Network coverage of E3. Sony states that consumers will be able to download E3 content onto their PS3 consoles directly from the PlayStation Store, including the entire SCEA press conference to be held on July 11th. A variety of game trailers, videos, and other editorial content from the show will also be made available.

In addition to the downloadable content available through the PlayStation Network, consumers can follow E3 2007 through daily content on Playstation.com and the official PlayStation Blog.

Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions will finally be released in Europe this October. War of the Lions is a update of the original Final Fantasy Tactics which was released on the PlayStation (PSOne). The game revolves around two characters, Duke Goltanna who fights under the banner of the Black Lion and Duke Larg who battles under the White Lion.

Although the game plays similar to the original, fans will be pleased to know that certain changes have been implemented to improve gameplay and deliver a better overall experience as compared to previous iterations in the series. The game should hit stores on October 26th 2007.

The rumors about the PS3 and XBox 360 price drop have spread across the Internet like wildfire. Information about the price drop has popped up on several websites claiming that the price drop has been confirmed. Circuit City is said to be dropping the price of the PS3 to $499 from July 15th. However, according to Reuters, Sony has no to cut the price of the PS3 at present to pep up demand and counter surging sales of Nintendo’s rival game console Wii.

“At present we have no plans [to cut the PS3 price]”, Ryoji Chubachi told Reuters in an interview.

The higher price tag has been cited as one of the main reasons the PS3 has been trailing the Wii in sales, and analysts have been widely expecting Sony to soon slash the price to increase demand.

[Via: Reuters UK]

UPDATE (6th July 2007, at 19:14):

Once again, further confirmations of the PS3 price drop are surfacing despite Ryoji Chubachi’s earlier statement. GameDaily has confirmed with “a merchandising manager at one of the world’s biggest retailers” that the price drop was true. Also, moles at both Best Buy and Target state that they too have word of a price drop. The Target mole reports that the retail chain’s inventory tracking program is listing retail for the 60GB PS3 at $499.99. And a mole at Best Buy tells us they just received their upcoming ads and that they all list the PS3 price at $499.99 as well.

Sony is obviously trying to keep the rumors under wraps to avoid loosing hardware sales. If indeed the rumors are true, we should hear from Sony next week at E3. Until then, we will keep you updated on any other developements.

The X360 and PlayStation 3 both have a hefty price tag, and that’s one of the reasons stopping gamers from purchasing them, but that could all soon change. Recent rumors suggest that some kind of price drop will be revealed at this years E3 for both consoles. The Xbox 360, currently priced at $299 (core model) and $399 (premium model) could both see a drop of $50 in price come September, during the same month that the mega-hits Project Gotham Racing 4, Mass Effect and Halo 3 debut. The PlayStation 3 on the otherhand may recieve a $100 drop in price, bringing the price of the 60GB version to $499.

There are only rumors, so lets wait and see what announcements are made next week. As for Nintendo, well, don’t expect any kind of price drop, since it is already much cheaper than the competition. We will bring you an update on this story next week.

[Via: GameDaily]

The UMD format has received a lot of criticism from both the games industry and movie industry, however, Sony isn’t going to adandon the format so easily. This stand was recently echoed by PlayStation Portable Senior Marketing Manager John Koller as he reiterated the different strengths (and weaknesses) of the format.

“UMD possesses many strengths, from size to form factor to portability. Duplication of UMDs is much easier, cheaper than cartridges. We’ve really optimized time and cost by going with a disc-based format. UMD is a unique medium to create games and developers need to understand that when tackling the system.”

He added, “There’s no question the biggest weakness is related to porting games from other platforms. Publishers are concerned about the size of UMD because they can’t cram a DVD game on to it”.

Given all these, the marketing manager explained that Sony really believes in the format and is not going to drop it. Koller shared, “We’ll never walk away from our base. Whether it’s movies or game content, third parties have an incredible opportunity to utilize it. The future of UMD is bright”.