8w ago - Sony Community Strategist Aaron Kaufman of Santa Monica Studio announced that the God of War: Ascension PS3 update 1.03 deploys today with details below.

To quote: Champions! With God of War: Ascension out in the wild for two weeks now, we're seeing our ever-growing community becoming a legion of champions in multiplayer and thousands conquering Kratos' latest single-player journey.

We've been listening to every bit of constructive feedback on our boards, Twitter, Facebook, here on PlayStation.Blog, and around the internet stratosphere. Rest assured that our development team at Sony Santa Monica is committed to supporting you.

FACTOID: Ares is the most popular God allegiance thus far, but also has players with the lowest overall skill rating. Hades is the second most popular, and the highest skill rated players, evil incarnate FTW!

We're pleased to announce the release of our latest 1.03 update, deploying today. Though this update may be small, it throws an added support line at the Trial of Archimedes, and enhances multiplayer customization with a new appearance feature for your Champion - we call them "Marks".

We received extensive feedback from the community that the "Trial of Archimedes" section (Chapter 28) near the end of the game was excessively challenging....

9w ago - Following up on the PS3 Firmware v4.31 update, today Sony has officially released PlayStation 3 System Software update v4.40 with details below.

Download: PS3 Firmware 4.40 Update (US) / PS3 Firmware 4.40 Update (EU) / Extracted PUP by MorozzNL / PS3 4.40 CoreOS.rar by hellsing9

While there is no official changelog available yet, it is a required (mandatory) update although nothing appears to be different from the previous firmware revision on the surface.

However, Sony's Japanese site notes new support for a particular NFC reader, the Sony RC-S380 card reader device, has been added alongside improved...

9w ago - Following up on their Rebug 4.30.2 REX Edition / Toolbox 02.01.02 and the XMB Mod v02.01.00 Ice Edition, today Sony PlayStation 3 hackers Cyberskunk and evilsperm of Team Rebug have released Rebug Update Package v0.1 (4.30.x and 4.21.x) which allows Custom Firmware (CFW) users to connect to PSN.

Download: Rebug_Update_Package_0.1_4.30.x.pkg / Rebug_Update_Package_0.1_4.30.x.pkg (Mirror) / Rebug_Update_Package_0.1_4.21.x.pkg / Rebug_Update_Package_0.1_4.21.x.pkg (Mirror)

To quote: Rebug Update Package 0.1 (4.30.x and 4.21.x)

THIS ALLOWS PSN ACCESS - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK - FOR REBUG 4.30.x / 4.21.x ONLY - FOR REBUG 4.30.x / 4.21.x ONLY - YOU MUST BE IN REBUG MODE TO ACCESS PSN

This will update...

10w ago - Today Mark Rabo of the Sound Shapes Team has announced that the latest Sound Shapes update adds new free features and DLC alongside a video of it in action below.

To quote: Hey everyone! We've been working hard on our next update (our biggest one yet!) and it's finally ready.

With new levels, vehicles, creator content, offline play, and more musical/visual goodies than we can list, there's something for everyone here. Hope you like it!

Car Mini-Album & Creator Pack ($1.99)

Put on your driving gloves, there's a new vehicle in Sound Shapes and it changes everything! Speed, flip, loop, and jump your way through the levels and experience Sound Shapes like never before. We set out to make a platformer and created a trials game by accident. Yeah!

This pack includes new Campaign levels, a full Sound Pack, brand new editor entities (like loop-de-loops, speed boosts, and more), Beat School lessons, and trophies too.

The Community Milkcrate & Six New Albums (free update)

Perfectly sized to fit a record, the trusty milkcrate has been holding music collections for a long time and with the Community Milkcrate we're continuing that tradition. We've hand-picked eclectic and creative levels from the Community and arranged them into...

10w ago - Following up on PS Vita Firmware v2.05, today Sony has officially announced that mandatory PlayStation Vita System Software update v2.06 is incoming.

Download: PS Vita Firmware 2.06 Update (USA) / PS Vita Firmware 2.06 Update (EUR) / PS Vita Firmware 2.06 Update (JPN)

Below is what Sony stated on the incremental update via Twitter today, to quote:

"Heads up - PS Vita v2.06 software update coming soon, will improve system software stability for some features."

Changelog (via Au.PlayStation.com) to quote: "Download this system software update for general bug fixes. An update to the PS Vita system...