92w ago - Similar to what was done with District 9, today Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's Worldwide Publicity Director Jason Allen has announced that the Priest Blu-ray disc will also contain both a PlayStation game demo and 3D trailer video.

To quote: As many of you may already know, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has partnered with SCEA to offer some incredible content from their upcoming first-party lineup of games on some of our studio's recent Blu-ray releases.

No doubt you remember the God of War III demo on District 9, and the Resistance 3 demo on Battle Los Angeles...

Well, coming to retail stores today in the U.S. and Latin America (excluding Brazil) is our Priest Unrated Blu-ray (and Blu-ray 3D) with a demo of Twisted Metal on the 2D version and a 3D trailer from UNCHARTED 3: Drake's Deception on the 3D edition.

This 3D Sci-Fi/action film stars Paul Bettany and Maggie Q and is based on the acclaimed graphic novel series.

Go here to learn more about this action-and-feature-packed Blu-ray release.

122w ago - Previously we reported on a PSN ban rumor which was followed by speculation on preventing bans, and today Dutch site PS3-Sense (linked above) claims that according to SKFU Sony plans to combat PS3 piracy with Blu-ray disc serial keys.

Similar to what's been done with PC games in the past, when you buy a PS3 or PSN game you'll get a serial key with it which you can use up to 5 times.

This gives Sony a signal that you are authorized to play the game and that you have a legal copy of the game, and the serial key only works with the same Blu-ray disc with the same serial number.

To quote, roughly translated: "From a very reliable source (SKFU) we have heard a striking new feature of the PS3. The feature would be present even at the PlayStation Network but is currently still hidden.

It is a serial system which Sony will soon start working on. Since the root keys are on the street you can see every homebrew tool (including backup...

139w ago - Sony's Network Operations Americas VP Eric Lempel has announced that PS3 Firmware 3.50 is released, and as expected it includes Blu-ray 3D disc playback.

Download: PS3 Firmware 3.50 Update (US) / PS3 Firmware 3.50 Update (EU)

To quote: Additional new features in the 3.50 update include:

• Facebook Integration: Developers will be able to create PS3 games that have more interaction with Facebook. Once compatible PS3 titles are available, PS3 users can choose to access public information on Facebook - including user name, profile, uploaded photos and friends list - to enhance their gameplay experience.

• Grief Reporting Function: Users can send claim reports directly from the XMB for any inappropriate messages they receive from other PlayStation Network users. This feature is accessible from the option menu of the messages list in the FRIENDS category.

For more details and instructions...

176w ago - Sony and Panasonic have developed a new technology that will allow the layer capacity of Blu-ray disc to be increased from 25GB to 33.4GB per layer.

Apparently, exisiting devices would just need a simple upgrade to read all 33.4GB or 66.8GB per disc.

To quote: "Sony and Panasonic have announced that they have developed a new optical disc evaluation technology that will allow the layer capacity of Blu-ray media to increase from 25GB to 33.4GB using existing Blu-ray laser diodes.

This would presumably allow existing Blu-ray hardware - including Blu-ray Disc players and burners - to play the proposed discs with a simple firmware upgrade.

Currently, disc evaluation is accomplished by analyzing disc jitter, but at higher capacity, that technique becomes unreliable. Sony and Panasonic resolved this by developing i-MLSE (Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation) evaluation index, which can perform the same function as jitter but at higher capacities."

186w ago - Included on the District 9 Blu-ray disc available on December 29th, Sony has added a PS3 demo for God of War III for those who don't plan to check out the God of War III PS3 Demo on PSN.

Also included on the Blu-ray disc is a "Making of God of War III" video that becomes available once gamers complete the demo in its entirety.

To quote: "The Blu-Ray release of District 9, due December 29 (a bit later than the God of War Collection), will include a playable demo of God of War 3. Once you've played through the demo, a making-of featurette will be unlocked (for the game, not the movie).

While District 9 and God of War 3 are united in that they're both things that people presumably want to see, it strikes us as odd that this rather random collection is the first Blu-ray/game demo pairing for SCEA. The Watchmen movie and game actually related to one another in some way, and they came on separate discs."