At their E3 press conference today, Sony announced a new hardware bundle for their still-running-strong PS2 system. The package will come with a copy of Lego Batman and a DVD of the Justice League animated movie, all for $149. Not a bad deal, especially considering the system alone costs $129 these days. Sony also stressed the strength of the still-growing PS2 library at the conference, mentioned 130 games coming to the system in 2008, including Yakuza 2, Force Unleashed, NCAA Football, Tiger Woods, Warriors Orochi 2, Singstar Pop vol. 2, Madden, and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Sony has announced that, as predicted, they'll be introducing a Greatest Hits program for some of their best-selling titles. The listed games include:

• Motorstorm
• Resistance
• Warhawk
• Call of Duty 3
• Fight Night
• Need for Speed: Carbon
• Assassin's Creed
• Rainbow Six Vegas
• Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls
• Ninja Gaiden

All the Greatest Hits games will sell for the MSRP of $29.99. No word on timing yet, but retail stores will likely list the new prices as soon as possible.

The PS2 and PSP versions of The Force Unleashed are close siblings, and I recently enjoyed playing nearly-finished editions of both. Each follows the same bounty-hunting apprentice story and settings as the 360/PS3 game, although specific level design occasionally differs. Unlike 360/PS3 game, the PSP version gets two-player duel-mode fights against a local gamer, and it also includes five "historical missions" pulled from the movies. The PS2 version includes the full camera control of the 360/PS3, but not those extras.

The PS2 and PSP games felt slightly scaled back from the 360/PS3, with fewer destructible objects or enemies in any one moment. But both maintained a fluid sense of battle, maintaining the visceral thrill of the Force powers. With the game's September 16 release, PS2 and PSP gamers will find a kinetic action title suited to their systems.

Sony America bigwig Patrick Seybold tells GamePro that he's "not sure" where the image of PS2 games available on the PSN came from and "at this point" there are no announcements or plans of PS2 games for download on the PS3.

The user who originally posted the image on N4G said he received the pic from a Sony Europe insider and that the PS2 DLC will be unveiled at E3 in a couple weeks.

College game design courses are great for learning how to program games on a PC, but for the most part, getting access to console development tools has meant going to work for a licensed console developer. Sony is looking to change that with it's new PlayStation-edu program, which provides PS2 and PSP development kits for
"computer science and engineering students who want to understand how the hardware works in the PlayStation consoles."

The program isn't a charity -- schools will have to purchase the dev kits from Sony -- but the package comes with demo code, samples, documentation, and access to a support web site and forums. Seems like a good way for Sony to divert student developers' attentions towards their products and away from Nintendo-affiliated Digipen or Microsoft's XNA development tools.

Like an enormous -- and enormously spoiled -- child whose tantrums can shake the entire planet, Japan gets all the cool stuff, all the time. The latest, albeit limited-edition, gifts bestowed upon it are a Metallic Blue PlayStation Portable and a Cinnabar Red PlayStation 2. The portable system will be available in a standard Value Pack (complete with cloth, pouch, D Terminal AV cable and, don't laugh, a 32MB Memory Stick), as well as a 1 Seg Pack which includes a 1GB memory stick, carrying case and 1 Seg tuner. They'll be out on July 17th for ¥23,800 ($231) and ¥29,800 ($289), respectively.

The Cinnabar Red PlayStation 2, slated to become available on July 3rd, will fetch a price of ¥16,000 ($155). And in case you were wondering, Cinnabar is actually some kind of red-tinted rock. We were under the impression that you could toss back shooters and eat delicious cinnamon rolls in there.

[Via Engadget]

Source -- Blue!
Source -- No, Rehhhhhhd!

To give some perspective on the relative age of Sony's second console, think about this: if the PlayStation 2 were a human being, it would be a third-grader right about now, and would probably know more about long division than we do. While most eight-year-old consoles generally go the way of the Jaguar, Sony seems dedicated to the continued growth of their popular (though fairly aged) home console -- for example, in an attempt to extend their already impressive multinational reach, Sony recently hired 13 Indian game developers to create domestically-themed games and improve sales in India and the Middle East.

Though nearly 3.3 million Indians already own PS2s, Sony is confident that creating games based on "Bollywood, mythology and culture" and featuring motion-sensing gameplay using the fairly neglected Eye Toy peripheral will further increase their dominance in the Indian market. Could these rupee-garnering efforts prolong the system's life until middle school, and the associated joys of puberty? Only time can tell.

One year after EGM's infamous BattleStation cover feature on the PS3's problems, the latest issue has a feature that's quite a bit more bullish about the system's chances in the coming year. Included in that feature is an interesting interview with two PlayStation executives that reveals some interesting thoughts on the future of backward compatibility on the PS3.

First off, VP of Marketing Peter Dille said point blank that backward compatibility was "important" to Sony, and stressed that there's still a model on the market that offers the features (for $100 extra, of course). What's more, according to PSN Operation Director Eric Lempel, downloadable PS2 title might be possible even on versions of the system that don't support disc-based backward compatibility at all. "There are possibilities through technology and software emulation to make that possible," Lempel said, intriguingly.

The entire interview is a must-read for anyone interested in a somewhat defensive take on everything from PS3 motion sensitivity to hard drive sizes and system pricing. Well worth wading into the tree-killing magazine racks of your local newsstand.

[Thanks Dan]

It's probably news to nobody at this point that during this past year, Nintendo fever swept through Japan like the Great Chicago Fire. Just by looking at a handful of recent hardware sales charts, the Big N's dominance over the land of the rising sun is explicitly clear -- the Wii always sold like hotcakes, and the DS Lite consistently took the top spot on the list. Over the holiday sales season, however, the DS earned its most notable bragging right to date, breaking the PS2 Japanese lifetime sales record by the skin of its teeth.

According to recent Media Create sales numbers (as crunched and compiled by NeoGAF), the DS has sold 20,954,157 units to date in Japan, compared to the PS2's 20,901,468. Though Nintendo's touchable handheld hasn't yet approached the worldwide console sales record (an honor which the PS2 still holds by a considerable margin), being the highest selling console in one of the most-gaming centric nations in the world is still a pretty sizable victory. Grats, little guy.

[Via DS Fanboy]

With everyone compiling their best-of-the-last-365-days lists just in time for a near year, let's not forget the one console from generations past who still packs a punch, the Sony PlayStation 2. (Remember, it's still reportedly the top-played system and manages to outsell its new brother.)

Our brothers and sisters at PS3 Fanboy are highlighting ten games that exemplify why Grandfather Emotion Engine still has a kick in his step. So long as still have your PS2 is plugged in (or your PS3 is backwards compatible), consider checking these games out - not only do they come with recommendations, but they're much cheaper than next-gen titles.

We all expected certain elements of Rock Band to take a hit when it made the jump from this-gen to last-gen, but we expected the brunt of those differences to fall in the graphical department. However, as you can tell from the footage above, the visuals for the PS2 version aren't too dumbed down -- instead, the game lacks a number of gameplay features that we've come to know and love in our Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game.

So get this: Konami made a (by most accounts) pretty good game called Silent Hill Origins for the PSP, and according to a Kotaku tipster, the company will be moving the game to the PS2 in March 2008! Making a port of a decent game from a well-regarded franchise for a system with 120 million units sold worldwide, can you believe it? ... Yes, so can we.

As we said, this hasn't been confirmed by Konami, but it seems like one of two things would be happening right now. Either they are porting SHO to the PS2, or they've seen this story on the internet, fired the guy in charge of thinking of things like this and are in the preliminary stages of porting SHO to the PS2. Either way, we'd bet that you'll hear more about it soon.

We've just got to say it: Watching a trailer for a new Twisted Metal game makes us feel downright nostalgic. It doesn't hurt that this trailer for the upcoming PSP-to-PS2 port of Twisted Metal: Head On (now subtitled the Extra Twisted Edition) makes no efforts to seem hip or modern, sticking to the edgy, dark, metal-inspired pastiche that's been a series hallmark since its inception more than a decade ago.

If you're old enough to remember Sweet Tooth and the rest of the upwardly mobile monsters he associated with (or just like making cars explode) this new offering seems to be a pretty solid deal, jam-packed with new levels, updated graphics and a bevy of bonus features. As a coming-out party for David Jaffe's Eat Sleep Play, this "everything old is new again" approach seems like a good choice. It's one he explained further today on Sony's official blog where he wrote that working on a new Twisted Metal game was "like coming home." We know exactly what you mean, Dave. We know exactly what you mean.

Those hoping that the PS2 port of the Sega Saturn classic NiGHTS would be released outside of Japan may be out of luck. Takashi Iizuka -- producer, director, and lead game designer on the Wii-sclusive NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams -- recently spoke with Sega Nerds about all things NiGHTS.

When asked about the PS2 enhanced port of the original NiGHTS Into Dreams, Iizuka commented that at present, the title is only scheduled for release in Japan, and that there are no plans to bring the title to other regions, or, for that matter, to the Nintendo Wii.

Iizuka also commented that the PS2 port was the direct result of a high demand for the game in Japan. Given that, it's still possible that solid sales of the NiGHTS sequel might inspire releases of the original in more regions. Let's keep the hope alive.