43w ago - Sony Blog Manager Fred Dutton has officially announced that PlayStation Network will be down for scheduled maintenance later this week from July 26th to the 27th.

Below are the details, to quote: PlayStation Network is offline for scheduled maintenance from 16:00 on Thursday 26th July 2012 until 08:00 on Friday 27th July 2012, BST.

During the maintenance, you will be unable to access the following services:

• PlayStation Store on PS3, PSP and PS Vita.
• PlayStation Network Account Management.
• PlayStation Network Account Registration.

If you wish to play online during the maintenance, then you may be able to do so if you sign in to PSN before the start of the maintenance window. However, please note that all the services listed above will not be available, even if you are signed into the Network.

During this maintenance, you can continue to collect in-game trophies and these will be updated on your profile once PlayStation Network is back up and running.

If you have any questions about this down time, feel free to visit the official PlayStation Forums at community.eu.playstation.com where you can post your query and a member of the moderation team will get back to you.

For the latest maintenance updates, visit the...

43w ago - Today Mathew Kumar of the Sound Shapes Team has announced that Sound Shapes is getting its Beck on with new tracks via PSN!

To quote: There's just under three weeks until the release of Sound Shapes on PS Vita and PS3 on August 7th, and it's time we sat down and had a serious chat with you.

You see, we've been keeping a secret from you. Yes, here in Queasy Towers, our glittering skyscraper in downtown Toronto, so beloved by the city that they're building us a moat (they claim they're upgrading streetcar lines, but we know what they're really doing), we have been hiding someone from you.

Although to this point we've revealed stars that shine as brightly as Deadmau5, Jim Guthrie, and I Am Robot and Proud, it wasn't until Wednesday that we were able to sneak out the news that Grammy Award-winning musician Beck- mastermind behind Mellow Gold, Odelay and most recently 2008′s Modern Guilt- has been working with us on three brand new tracks for the game.

Beck's more than just familiar with the world of video games. In fact, with his 2005 album Guero he actually snuck out a wee EP, Hell Yes, which remixed tracks from that album...

44w ago - Sony PlayStation Digital Platforms Community Manager Paul Sullivan has announced today for Anime fans that Crunchyroll and Neon Alley are coming to PSN.

To quote: We're always looking for ways to deliver PlayStation gamers the entertainment you crave. Hot off the presses from Comic-Con is news that we will be the exclusive launch partner for VIZ Media's Neon Alley - a 24-hour anime channel - to PlayStation Network in Fall 2012.

Neon Alley will be a subscription-based service available to all PS3 owners in the U.S. and Canada for $6.99 per month. Neon Alley will include a mix of action, adventure, science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, and horror anime, all uncut and dubbed in English, and presented in HD (when available).

Including blockbuster anime titles like Naruto Shippuden, Inuyasha: The Final Act, and Death Note, as well as new titles such as Tiger & Bunny, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc, Zetman, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, plus original content that provides news and behind-the-scenes access for anime and manga fans.

That's not all, though. It was recently unveiled that the Crunchyroll App will be coming to PSN, streaming directly from your PS3 console.

Current subscribers...

45w ago - Sony Assistant Producer Dais Kawaguchi has announced today that Malicious will be awakening on PlayStation Network this July 24th for the PlayStation 3 entertainment system.

To quote: Malicious, a new, original action game for PS3 from Japanese studio Alvion, is coming to PSN July 24th. That's in less than two weeks!

In Malicious, you'll take control of a "Spirit Vessel" awakened by prophets to defeat Holders, evil giants bent on destroying The Kingdom. You're armed with the Mantle of Cinders, a magical artifact that takes the form of weapons or a shield.

Rather than crawling through lengthy dungeons to find and defeat enemies, this game gives you the power to select whichever stage you want and jump directly into epic boss battles in whatever order you please.

Upon defeating each boss, you'll absorb its power to obtain new and unique abilities, so the choice is yours as to how you'll progress. In the end, however, you have one goal -- prepare to face the ultimate evil, Malicious!

Malicious will be available for $9.99 on the PlayStation Network starting July 24. We'll be announcing more information in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

45w ago - Ronimo Games Producer Robin Meijer has announced today news of a new Awesomenauts update, with characters deploying soon on PSN!

To quote: It's been about two months since Awesomenauts launched on PlayStation Network, and we're thrilled to see that the community has grown to be so active and vibrant.

Teaming up with Sony to make Awesomenauts part of May's PlayStation Plus offer has really helped to get our multiplayer platforming-shooter off to a running start. And now, we're almost ready to launch the first big update for our game!

In this update, we've addressed two key concerns that we've heard from the community: balance and content. After two months of solid playing, we can confirm that the balance in the original version is pretty good, but not perfect.

With this patch, we're taking a couple of steps to further improve this balance, and bring it closer to where we want it to be. We've buffed some characters, and nerfed those who deserved it.

This patch doesn't just bring boring stat changes, though. We've got some new characters for you, too! Coco Nebulon and Derpl Zork will join the original six Awesomenauts very, very soon. What we haven't told you yet though, is that they're going to be free!

So, let's talk about Coco...