183w ago - Today Sony Executive Vice President Kazuo Hirai announced that an 'iTunes' style online entertainment service will be coming in early 2010.

Sony plans to launch the new online service to distribute movies, music, books and other content to the PS3, network-capable Bravia TVs, Blu-ray players, ebooks and others in a bid to add value to its hardware.

To quote: "Sony Computer Entertainment chairman Kaz Hirai has revealed the firm has pencllled in an early 2010 launch date for its new iTunes-rivalling online service.

"[A launch] earlier in the year would be preferable," Hirai told Business Week in an interview after the announcement."

183w ago - Update: According to Examiner.com God of War 3 will not feature online co-op after all, per Eric Levine of Sony's Product Public Relations who simply stated: "This news is false."

This weekend a Sony employee questionnaire has leaked God of War 3 details of upcoming PS3 online co-op modes.

According to a quiz on the Sony Retail Loyalty Site module (which educates retail workers about upcoming Sony products), God of War III will indeed include online co-op modes when it is available in March, 2010.

As the quiz comes from an official Sony-funded Web site, it's safe to assume this is valid, although no official comment has been made from the company as of yet.

To quote: "You read it right! God of War III will feature online cooperative modes.

There have been rumors flying across the Web regarding cooperative modes for God of War III, but I am here to confirm it to all. March 2010 just cannot come soon enough!"

185w ago - Just over a week ago it was reported that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for XBox 360 was leaked early to the Internet.

Since then, a pirate who advertised his services of Modern Warfare 2 and an XBox 360 before the street launch of the game has been busted by Activision with the help of an online detective they hired.

Apparently the whole process took less than a week for him to be located and busted, according to Rob Holmes, owner of IPCybercrime.

To quote from VentureBeat.com (linked above): "This kid was in a position to sell thousands of these," Holmes said.

Police interrogated the runner, who led them to Christian Del Amo's home. They then arrested Del Amo yesterday. Del Amo's attorney has not returned a call for comment.

The whole process, from finding the first tip to the bust, took less than a week. While the operation snagged a perpetrator, it didn't move fast enough to prevent the massive copying of the game on the torrents on the Internet.

"Hopefully it is a lesson," said Holmes. "If you try to do piracy on a large scale, you will get caught. When you use the Internet, you always leave tracks somewhere."

185w ago - Today Namco Bandai has confirmed that a Tekken 6 PS3 online patch is in the works and coming soon.

The patch is expected to remedy issues including that when trying to compete online in any sort of meaningful way, you're met with acute, game-ending connectivity issues.

To quote: Namco recognized that today and issued a statement stating, "To improve the online game experience for players ... Namco Bandai games is developing a downloadable update which will be available as soon as it has passed rigorous testing procedures."

Unfortunately, no date for the patch has been given, though the publisher does add, "This is separate from the online co-op Scenario Campaign mode update."

We've pestered Namco for more details on exactly what the patch will aim to fix and when we might hear more about it but, until that time, know this: something is being fixed at some point.

189w ago - Today PR Manager Jill Webber has announced that they are seeking players for the Uncharted 2 PS3 online demo, and from Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 12:01 AM PST through Monday, October 12, 2009 at 11:59 PM PST they will be giving away ten Fortune Hunter Editions randomly to players each day!

To quote: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Fortune Hunter Edition Giveaway

Log on and play the UNCHARTED 2 online Multiplayer Demo from Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 12:01 AM PST through Monday, October 12, 2009 at 11:59 PM PST. We will be giving away 10 Fortune Hunter Editions randomly (not based on stats) each day.

That's 30 total FHEs being given away over three days. Just launch the Demo, go to the online lobby, select the Matchmaking icon and join any open match. Once joining a match, you will be entered into the promotion for that day.

We'll be randomly drawing 10 entrants each day. We'll post winners' PSN IDs on www.naughtydog.com and the PlayStation.Blog on October 19, 2009. We'll also notify winners via the email address associated with each entrant's PSN account between October 15, 2009 and October 30, 2009. Must be 18+ to be eligible. Good luck this weekend!

And don't forget UNCHARTED 2 is only four days out from launch! And on launch day we'll be...