Uncharted: Drake's Fortune developer Naughty Dog tells us that a patch to add PlayStation Trophy support to the game will be available by mid-August. Company co-president Evan Wells says that the update has already been submitted for quality assurance testing and could hit sooner.

According to Wells, the patch was "incredibly easy" to implement because the game already contains preliminary support for Trophies via its Medals reward system. He further revealed that these hooks were actually included because Naughty Dog thought Sony would roll out Trophies before Uncharted's November 2007 launch.

As with other PS3 titles getting retroactive Trophy support, Uncharted will require those who've already completed the game to play through again in order to unlock Trophies, even if they had previously earned every Medal. Wells says this is primarily to prevent people from simply using someone else's save data to artificially bolster their Trophy collection. Shame on you for even thinking about it.

PSN director of operations, Eric Lampel, has confirmed that Naughty Dog's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune will receive a Trophy update "at some point in the foreseeable future." In fact, Lampel told GameSpy, "Ultimately, we'll have trophies for every game." But ultimately is without a deadline currently, suggesting Trophy patches will be trickling out for the, um, foreseeable future.

Still, we imagine Sony is leaning on certain studios to allocate resources to Trophy building asap. Certainly there's a greater demand for Trophy support in Uncharted than in, let's say, Genji: Days of the Blade. Then again, an actual, historically accurate award for sticking the giant crab's weak point might be reason enough to procure Genji from a dusty bargain bin and suffer through the ill-fated launch title. Massive Damage Trophy? We so want that one.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

It's time for another installment of Anonymous Hollywood Insider Reports, here on Joystiq. Last time we caught wind of some Hollywood fat cats eying up the BioShock license like a so many pounds of plasmid-injected steak (Take-Two's chairman later listed a cinematic adaptation of the property under "potential opportunities"). This time, a well-placed source close to the deal tells us that the movie rights to Naughty Dog's highly cinematic action-adventure game, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, have been optioned by Atlas Entertainment. There isn't much else to go on besides that; the project has yet to be formally announced and is still in the earliest stages (that is to say: being written). When asked for comment, an SCEA spokesperson told us, "We have not made any announcements regarding movie options."

With the original tomb raider hitting theaters again this year, and a sequel to the well-received game all but confirmed, a Hollywood tie-in seems like a perfect fit (and by perfect fit, we mean half-tucked). The real debate will be over who plays dashing (yet pirate-murdering) hero, Nathan Drake. Our lunch money is on that guy from Firefly ... he's perfect, right? And get this: his name is already Nathan. Talk about kismet.

It's been said that the ultimate user interface would be "a little box with a single red button; when pushed it would give you exactly what you need exactly when you need it." We'd like to think that this was the inspiration that led two ex-Naughty Dog staffers to create game studio Big Red Button Entertainment. Or maybe their inspiration was a little less high-minded. We don't know.

Anyway, the new studio has vowed to become the "United Artists of games" (much like EA) by creating "original character based intellectual properties for cross platform and cross media development." OK, so that doesn't really mean anything, but with titles like Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune to the creators' credit, we're still excited about the possibilities. Hey, maybe they should design some games for the Buzz controller. Y'know ... because it has a big red button ...? No? Not funny? FINE! WHO ASKED YOU?!

Ex-Naughty Dog developers John Hughes and Andrew Gilmour have announced the first title from their new studio, Steel Penny Games. Bruiser and Scratch in the Case of the Puzzling Paw is said to "blend a challenging puzzle game with dramatic fantasy environments and appealing characters for an exceptionally satisfying experience." That's a similar description we'd give to critical darlings Zack & Wiki and Sam & Max. Here's hoping Bruiser enjoys the latter's commercial success (and not, unfortunately, the former's dearth in sales).

In addition to WiiWare, Steel Penny Games is also reportedly certified for Xbox Live Arcade titles. Bruiser and Scratch is reportedly scheduled for a mid-2008 release. Nintendo's WiiWare service is rumored to have a March launch.

[Via VideoGamer]

Bravely venturing into the comments section on the official PlayStation Blog, Naughty Dog's Christian Gyrling has stated that development on shooter slash spelunker Uncharted: Drake's Fortune has come to an end. "We went 'gold' last week," says the game's AI and animation programmer. "Right now the game is in other words 100% done and is currently going through the approval process." But sir, we're sure there's no need for that -- we already approve.

Gyrling also comments on the previously mentioned PSN demo and expects it to be available for download in mid-November. That should give you a fair taste of all the jeep-driving, pirate-shooting, treasure-grabbing and occasionally-falling-to-your-deathing action promised for the game's November 20th release.

Over at Sony's developer and corporate soapbox Official PlayStation.Blog, Naughty Dog's Co-President Evans Wells scribed up an update on the PlayStation 3 exclusive, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. He stated that they hit beta back in mid-September, and they "received the data [they] need to make sure the gameplay is finely tuned for [their] final release" from last week's focus testing. However, the more important bits of information came from Wells' comments to the initial post.

Wells stated that they're working on a demo for the PlayStation Network, and it "will be up before [its] release date." After treading the waters, he addressed letters – consonants and vowels – in a Sesame Street fashion, specifically I, P, and HDTV. The game supports 720p, and after many people requested via the comments for 1080 support, Wells filled the community in: 1080i won't a problem, 1080p will be scaled from 1080i via software. Now you can experience the game as it was meant to be, according to Wells, "in glorious high definition." Yay?