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Who won what and when!

Ultimate Ninja Storm goes multiplatform for sequel.

Bats raised the bar for comic games; here's how Spidey can step it up.

In short: stop screwing around, Sony.

Social games not a main focus for the publisher.

While most people recognize Square Enix as the company that gave us the Final Fantasy series, there are some who remember the company differently. Some remember Square as the benevolent force that gave Vagrant Story to the world back in the PSOne era. A truly unique action RPG, Vagrant Story brought together a great story and a one of a kind battle system. As such, many gamers (including Joystiq editors) have been slavering for the game to hit PSN. Japan received it earlier this year and now it looks like Europe is next in line. Square Enix has announced that Vagrant Story will hit the PSN in PAL territories starting December 22. The game will be sold for €5.99, an absolute pittance. Let's hope the North American release isn't far behind. Considering the bizarre gaps between regional PSN releases though, we're not holding our breath.

PM Studios is bringing yet another retro arcade shooter to PSP via the PlayStation Network in 2010. Gunbird 2 Remix is true to its name and promises "all new 3D/2D hybrid graphics." According to the press release, there will be six different characters to choose from, each with different attacks and storylines, and multiple endings for each. Gunbird 2 Remix should be available on the PlayStation Store in both America and Europe next February. For a video of the original arcade game, head past the break.

IGN's 2009 PlayStation Predictions come to fruition... or do they?

Welcome to Joystiq's "Naughty or Nice" holiday giveaway extravaganza! It's simple: Just follow the instructions below to enter for your chance to win. Ah, but to win what? There's always a catch, isn't there? Each "Naughty or Nice" giveaway features two prizes: a totally sweet bundle of holiday cheer and, um, a lump of coal. Winners are selected randomly, we assure you. Of course, who's to say luck isn't dependent on virtue ... Have you been naughty? Or nice? To enter this giveaway: Leave a comment on this post telling us if you've been "naughty" or "nice" this year. (Note: Your response will not affect your chance of winning any of the prizes in this giveaway.) You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec). Limit 1 entry per person per calendar day. This entry period ends at 12:00 pm ET on Tuesday, December 22. We'll randomly select one grand prize winner at that time to receive "Piano Black" PSPgo (Total ARV: $250); and one first prize winner to receive Sega Genesis Firecore Classic Console (ARV: $50) -- please check your emails! For a list of complete rules, click here. Two pint-sized feats of technology: Sony's PSP Go and the Firecore console -- who could have imaged the Genesis squeezed down to such proportions? Marvelous. What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.

Company alleging fraud and breach of contract.

This Christmas, settle down with some much-loved characters in an irresistible collection of comic favourites on your PSP.

Welcome to Joystiq's "Naughty or Nice" holiday giveaway extravaganza! It's simple: Just follow the instructions below to enter for your chance to win. Ah, but to win what? There's always a catch, isn't there? Each "Naughty or Nice" giveaway features two prizes: a totally sweet bundle of holiday cheer and, um, a lump of coal. Winners are selected randomly, we assure you. Of course, who's to say luck isn't dependent on virtue ... Have you been naughty? Or nice? To enter this giveaway: Leave a comment on this post telling us if you've been "naughty" or "nice" this year. (Note: Your response will not affect your chance of winning any of the prizes in this giveaway.) You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec). Limit 1 entry per person per calendar day. This entry period ends at 12:00 pm ET on Tuesday, December 22. We'll randomly select one grand prize winner at that time to receive one Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: Fortune Hunter Edition, Assassin's Creed II, Demon's Souls: Deluxe Edition, God of War Collection, Modern Warfare 2, and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time for PlayStation 3 (Total ARV: $590); and one first prize winner to receive Tony Hawk: Ride Skateboard Bundle (ARV: $90) -- please check your emails! For a list of complete rules, click here. Here's a good question: What's more functional? The Tony Hawk: Ride board or the replica Phurba Dagger Artifact included in the extremely rare Uncharted 2: Among Thieves: Fortune Hunter Edition? What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.

It's a holiday miracle! Though there are a few intriguing items in this week's PSN update (such as the long overdue release of Braid, a demo for Army of Two: The 40th Day and Beatles: Rock Band's "Rubber Soul" DLC), the highlight of this latest update is the delectable set of discounts. Some games have had their prices temporarily reduced, such as Battlefield 1943 and Burnout Paradise. Others, such as Puzzle Quest and The Cube, have been permanently encheapened. Click past the jump to see the full list of additions and discounts! Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)

Where does Mega Man go from here?

PSN vs. Xbox Live Arcade vs. WiiWare. Which will come out on top this year?

In a survey of (presumably) eBay prices for rare and collectible games, MTV Multiplayer's Jason Cipriani illustrates what re-releases of these games do to their resale value -- and, by association, to the people who hoard these game for profit. As it turns out, re-releasing rarities like Dracula X affects game collectors negatively in the same way it affects normal people positively -- by making the games more easily available, thus driving down the cost of copies in the original format. Won't someone please think of the jerks trying to make a profit from their rare games? To use another Castlevania example, Castlevania Chronicles: Cipriani found a three-year high price of $70 for the 2001 PlayStation release in 2007. Two years later, after the game's release on PlayStation Network, physical copies dropped to a low price of $26.93. The people who just wanted to play the game could now get it for six bucks, leaving the PS1 discs for collectors only. It's not as simple as a re-release dropping the value globally, however: the data shows some weirdly fluctuating prices, like Persona 2: Eternal Punishment on PlayStation, which seems to have gone up in price significantly following a reissue. Perhaps interest rose when buyers got the idea that it was even possible to buy an old Atlus game.

Use your game console to read.

Stuff every genre into one game and you get a masterpiece. Or a mess.

This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and - before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside - we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. Here's what we learned from Naughty Dog's Evan Wells about Uncharted 2. Are we going to see any campaign DLC? Well, that certainly is a possibility but right now we're focusing on multiplayer. We're working on some new maps, we have a couple of new game modes in the works, and a lot of skins. So we're going to focus on that right now. Has anything surprised you since launch? Oh, completely. We've been updating our online functionality constantly. We have a new patch coming out later this month, we're improving the load times, we've added leaderboards, we've added clan tags. So really, we're continuing to expand on the online functionality.

We play Darksiders live and answer your questions.

Though Japan finds itself awash in Square Enix RPGs in the PSOne Originals channel of the PlayStation Store, the American PSN is suffering from an inexplicable drought. Fortunately, that situation will be rectified shortly -- according to a recent email bulletin sent out to its customers, Sony revealed Final Fantasy VIII will be coming to the U.S. PlayStation Store. No exact timeframe was given for the game's arrival, but it's listed under a section of the newsletter titled "Coming Soon." We've contacted Sony to try and get something more concrete than that. [Thanks, Solace.]

The PSP Digital Comics store will launch in several countries today. According to a PSNComics tweet, the US will receive access at noon Pacific time (3PM EST). The European PlayStation Blog states the comics store will open at 5PM GMT in the UK, Ireland (technical issue), Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The system will supposedly launch with hundreds of comics from Marvel, IDW, Titan, iVerse and 2000AD. Everything that's available should be listed on playstationcomics.com after launch. We're definitely looking forward to taking the service for a test drive with that "free comics" button.

Do you love the Dead or Alive franchise? Do you wish Tecmo would just get rid of all that pesky fighting and volleyball gameplay and give fans what they really want out of the franchise: quality alone time with the DoA girls? Thankfully, Tecmo has answered that call. Seriously. The latest issue of Famitsu reveals a new Dead or Alive game for PSP called Dead or Alive Paradise. However, this isn't a new game in Tecmo's franchise. In fact, it's barely a game at all. The Examiner notes that this is a port of a mobile game, one which lets you play mini games with the girls, as you continue to purchase skimpier and skimpier outfits for them. Classy. Paradise is scheduled for a Spring 2010 release in Japan and, thankfully, it's a single-player only experience. We'd hate to think what kind of terrible multiplayer modes Tecmo would imagine for a game like this.

Life With PlayStation, Sony's updated Folding@Home app just got a cool new expansion today. With update 1.20, cancer-stopping PS3 owners will be able to watch streaming full-screen game trailers while the PS3 chugs away, unfolding proteins. The experience is rather sleek and videos load almost instantly, taking advantage of the same streaming player that "What's New" and the PlayStation Store both use. It appears the content is automatically gathered from the PlayStation Store, and it allows you to watch all the available content in a single continuous stream. While we don't see this feature being used too often, it's perfect for those GameStop employees that want to have video looping on their PS3 kiosks. [Thanks, marcus]

A look back at the year's cruelest and bloodiest games.

According to a tweet by comic publisher IDW, we won't just read comics on the PSP, we'll hear them as well. At least we'll hear people talking about them. "Editing more audio tracks from @Templesmith (Ben Templesmith) for Wormwood on the PSP," one tweet noted. A subsequent message clarified the nature of the audio: "Recording more @Templesmith commentaries tonight." The official PlayStation Digital Comics Twitter account (yes, we're sourcing another tweet) pointed out the note, saying "I'm so pleased IDW are taking advantage of the optional audio sound track(s) available to publishers." We agree -- it's nice to know that the PSP Digital Comics service will add something to the medium beyond a different interface. [Via QTE Gamers]

It seems Sony is attempting to drum up interest in Team Ico's upcoming, Griffin-infused adventure, The Last Guardian, by showcasing its earlier opus to poor, unenlightened folks who missed it the first time around. The opus in question is Shadow of the Colossus, which, according to a Team ICO fan site, has been listed by a number of Japanese retailers to be reprinted and sold on February 4. Sadly, it didn't get the God of War Collection treatment -- the game's still on its original platform, the PlayStation 2. If you were the speculatin' type, you might think that The Last Guardian would be released not too much later than this reprint, ensuring that the warm, Team ICO-esque feeling would still be fresh in everyone's minds. We're more the wait-and-see types, so we plan on waiting and, shortly after that, seeing. [Via CVG]

Though SingStar may not possess the massive community base of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Sony recently unveiled a PS3 application which offers a great deal of social networking capabilities to the karaoke game's players. Titled SingStar Viewer, the app (which appears under the Games folder of the XMB) allows users to browse and purchase songs from the SingStore, as well as view and vote on videos, photos and profiles uploaded by members of the MySingStarOnline community. This impressive functionality is totally free, and accessible even when the SingStar disc is absent from the PS3's drive. The PlayStation.Blog post, which announced the software, didn't give a firm release date for the app, but suggested you "check the PlayStation Store over the coming weeks." Check out the video after the jump to get a brief demo of the services offered by the application. Then wonder if you're confident enough in your karaoke chops to place videos of you and your friends singing in front of the cruel, cruel internet.

We know there's a temptation to freak out, but just stick with us until the second graph, okay? When asked by Nikkei Japan how the company managed the cost of maintaining the free PlayStation Network, Sony Computer Entertainment executive VP Masayuki Chatani highlighted the possibility of new revenue streams, saying, "In addition to single-payment packaged software, there are also schemes like monthly fees or per-item charges." As GameIndustry.biz points out, Chatani could be talking about any number of different items and monthly-charged services delivered via PSN -- as was vaguely referenced in a presentation last month. Viewed together, the comments may seem troubling, but additional services don't necessarily equate to PSN itself becoming a subscription service. If Sony wanted to lose the biggest advantage of its online service just as the PS3 builds up a good head of steam, a funeral service might become more appropriate.

Sony Computer Entertainment America has laid off 30 full-time members of the company's Quality Assurance department. SCEA explained to Gamasutra that its San Francisco-based first-party QA group had been consolidated and moved to San Diego. The company would not comment on the 100 or so contract positions reportedly affected by the reorganization, as noted by Kotaku. Sony is currently on the long road back to profitability -- expect some unfortunate bumps along the way. Source -- SCEA Consolidating First-Party Quality Assurance [Gamasutra] Source -- Dozens of Tester Jobs Affected in Sony QA Consolidation [Kotaku]