194w ago - Today Quantic Dream co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere confirmed to CVG (linked above) that Heavy Rain will be delayed in its release until early next year, as the developers feel that the title needs to have its own release window away from the busy Christmas period.

To quote: "A game like Heavy Rain needs space, needs to be explained and shown. At the end of the year, people can't afford to buy all those games so we wanted to give Heavy Rain the chance to have its own release window, and for us to really talk about it so people really understand it.

Fondaumiere believes that HR will be a test bed for how ready the industry is for this sort of innovation."

In related news, IGN has made available a Heavy Rain PS3 Gameplay 'Coming Home' video today... check it out below!

196w ago - At GamesCom today, Sony's Kaz Hirai has confirmed the PS3 is getting a new model. That's right, the PS3 Slim! It will be available in stores during the first week of September and include the same features and functionality.

A 120GB hard drive is also included, and it will be 33 percent smaller and 36 percent lighter than the original PS3 console.

The cost? It will be 299. That's $299, 299 euros and 29980 yen. That will also be the price for the current PS3 starting tomorrow.

The PS3 Slim (below) looks like the leaked box model rumored from several months ago.

Finally, a release date for the PS3 Slim will vary by region but it will be available everywhere by September 1, 2009.

197w ago - Today's PS3 Slim update is another unofficial 'confirmation', this time stating the PlayStation 3 Slim will open GamesCom next week.

VG247.com has also confirmed that Sony's press conference is set to last "just over an hour" and the extra time around it is "for people to sit down", not the three hours as previously reported, and will begin around 7:00pm CET.

To quote from Pocket-Lint.com (linked above): "Sources close to the product have told us that Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai, head of Sony's console division, will announce the new hardware version of the PS3 at it's Tuesday evening press conference at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany next week.

The console, which has been rumored to be coming for some time, will land in shops in time for Christmas in both the UK and the US, and follow the company's history for creating slimmer versions of the console."

199w ago - A few days ago the EyePet Fact Sheet for PlayStation 3 was released, and today Sony has confirmed to JoyStiq (linked above) the US release will arrive in time for the holidays.

To quote: Sony has confirmed to us at a holiday showcase event in New York City tonight that the PlayStation Eye game, EyePet, will definitely be heading to the US in time for the holidays.

Our roving reporter, Andrew Yoon, says that the game will be available standalone as well as bundled with the PlayStation Eye camera.

Previously, the game was only announced for a European release after it was first revealed at Leipzig GC last year.

We're happy to see the adorable simian-dog-thing will be making the jump across the Atlantic and won't be suffering from the chronic case of Q1-2010 flu that's making the rounds.

201w ago - Just a week ago it was reported that new 3D technology may put your face in Sony's PlayStation Home.

Today, it has been confirmed at Develop '09 that Sony is developing PSEye facial recognition software.

To quote: Some of the advantages boasted by Microsoft's Natal controller are already in the PSEye, Sony said today.

The firm has developed new facial recognition software for the PSEye camera which has been put together after many experiments by both the excellent SCEE R&D team and work with other developers.

"We've got a wealth of libraries available," explained head of developer services Kish Hirani.

He admitted that "it's a lot of fun in the office" and has been tested extensively.

The facial tech can see the position and direction of a player's head and can work out the gender and age of the face, and detects different parts of the face including nose, mouth, eyes, eyebrows, shape of the mouth - and even glasses.