47w ago - Dust 514 Community Manager Phil Wang has announced that the Mercenary Pack arrives on PSN today and grants Beta Access this Thursday with details below, as follows:

Later this year, there will be an unprecedented level of combat in gaming raging across the entire EVE Universe, from the mighty capsuleers far above in Eve Online, to the relentless onslaught you and your squad will bring to bear against your enemies on countless planets in DUST 514.

The first, harrowing drumbeats of war started not long ago and have been increasing ever since during our beta tests. Until today, this has been of very limited scope while we've introduced some of the EVE Universe's most faithful players to planetary warfare and trickled in some of the earliest of adopters who have picked up their rifles and laid low the opposition.

But that all changes this weekend when we'll be opening the doors to thousands of new combatants through our beta events. There's still time to sign up over at our official Beta Web site to participate in this important, and early, testing period for the game.

Signing up for the beta and playing DUST 514 is completely free! But for those who want to try an assortment of the pay-for items, get guaranteed access to beta weekends,...

59w ago - PlayStation Network Community Manager Morgan Haro has announced today that PS Plus members will be granted first access to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier on April 10, 2012.

To quote: Releasing in May, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier not only promises an engaging single-player campaign, but bone-rattling battlefields to storm in multiplayer.

And now, PlayStation Plus subscribers will have first access to the multiplayer beta come April 17th.

The beta will be published on April 17th in the PlayStation Plus section of the Store. If you've elected for Automatic Downloads as a subscriber, the beta will also be automatically pushed to your PS3 when it's released! Otherwise, you can download it when you're ready and hop in the multiplayer action.

It's important to note that the beta itself starts on the 19th of April. So while you'll be able to download it on 4/17, the action can't be accessed until Thursday, 4/19.

If you're not in on the PlayStation Plus action, click here to snag your subscription, or head to the PlayStation Store to unlock immediate access.

163w ago - Update: Thinq.co.uk now reports that Sony has stated they have no intention of reimbursing retailers if they offer fat PS3 users partial refunds because of the removal of the Install OtherOS function, and as a result retailer GAME is already refusing refunds.

According to PlayStationUniversity.com (linked above), a European law grants a partial refund to PS3 consumers due to the recent removal of the OtherOS feature in the PS3 Firmware v3.21 update.

A PS3 owner (60GB) version has managed to gain a partial refund from Amazon (without returning the system) due to the removal of the OtherOS feature.

The EU citizen cited a European law which states a product must be fit for its purpose which was made known to the seller at the time of purchase, and as a result he managed to receive around 80GBP back!

To quote: "The online retailer's policy was to offer a refund weighing in at approximately 20 per cent of the console's original value. Amazon responds:

We are writing to confirm that we have processed your refund in the amount of £84.00 for your Order 666-5327564-4432412.

197w ago - Today GamesIndustry.biz (linked above) is reporting news that digital developers are being offered the opportunity to compete for grants of 10,000 GBP to create content for Sony's PlayStation Network.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe will host a three-day pitching event in October, in conjunction with Pixel-Lab and Northwest Vision, with successful companies awarded the grant, executive production and mentoring with SCEE, as well as the chance to take the project further and pitch to XDev Studio Europe.

To quote: "It was reassuring to see a commitment of public funding like this from Northwest Vision & Media and it's clearly helped the teams involved strengthen their skills in many areas," offered Phil Gaskell, senior producer at XDev Studio Europe. "I'm confident we'll be taking some of the ideas generated through this initiative to market."

Toby Barnes, managing director of Pixel-Lab added: "We were really pleased with the final quality of the pitches last year, the teams had made huge leaps in terms of understanding the commissioning process, their audiences, and what was expected of them.

We are really looking forward to this year's new entrants and are expecting the bar to be even higher."