PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Message Board

PlayStation All-Stars fans, the ultimate balance update is here. With more than 100 balance adjustments combined across all characters, and a wave of additional improvements, this update creates a new playing field for all challengers. Click here to see the full changelist in this patch.

Click here to get the Graveyard Pack

This update also unlocks the previously promised third costumes for both Zeus and Isaac characters in-game, for all players that currently own them. If you don’t have these bonus characters in your roster, we’re happy to inform you of a significant DLC price drop on The Graveyard Pack to $1.99 — which includes both Zeus and Isaac, as well as a stage based on MediEvil’s Graveyard mashed with hidden elements from the world of The Unfinished Swan. This DLC sale will last until April 22nd.

Finally, we’ve partnered with fighting game community powerhouse Level-Up Series for a Spring Tournament at The Runback. This is a 10-week, offline tournament at Super Arcade here in Southern California, and will be live streamed weekly on twitch.tv/leveluplive on the road to the finale. The season grand prize is a PS4, and awesome PlayStation All-Stars community notoriety.

Even if you can’t make it, you can still win weekly mystery prizes just by tuning in to the livestream every Thursday starting this week at 9:30PM PT.

Watch the tournament live

PlayStation All-Stars fans, we cannot thank you enough for your patience and continued passion throughout the community, and especially on our message boards. Over the past months we’ve read every word, clicked every thread, assessed the game balance inside and out, to ensure that this balance update would not only bring a superior new challenge to the game, but also feel heavily impacted by your voice. Thank you, and our hats off to SuperBot Entertainment for creating an incredible fighting game for PlayStation fans worldwide.

To download the PlayStation All-Stars update, just boot up the game, ensure you are connected to the internet, and you’ll be automatically prompted to download.

Follow us at @SonySantaMonica and visit our official studio website.

Dry those tears, PlayStation All-Stars fans. Your beloved game isn't quite dead yet. It managed to makes its way to PlayStation All-Stars Island, where Sony and Coke Zero are... oh god, what are they doing to it? Look away, baby. Just look away. Read more...

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale fans, I am here to crush your dreams. There is no hope of additional DLC. There will be no more stages. Sony's Santa Monica Studio, the studio in charge of the game (for as long as it continues), flat-out shut the door. But free costumes!Read more...

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale at one point had plans for a Gravity Rush/Journey crossover stage, according to images leaked by one of the game's artists. Whether it was meant to be DLC is kind of a moot point, as the only post-release support the game is now getting is online match-making.Read more...

Just stopping by today with a quick reminder that Zeus and Isaac Clarke are live today for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, along with our new stage “Graveyard”!

Graveyard mashes up MediEvil’s zombies, mausoleums, and gargoyles with elements from The Unfinished Swan, revealed via ink splats after a mid-game whiteout. It looks great and keeps the fighting honest, with a medium-width playfield and zombies that will earn you AP when destroyed.

Zeus plays as a legendary heavyweight, making each strike feel epic. He’s got limited range, but with the ability to power up every attack merely by holding down the button, he can crush a cowardly opponent’s guard and build AP faster than anyone. Many of his triangle lightning attacks are also excellent at catching multiple opponents for an even faster ride towards his truly Olympian level 3 super.

Isaac Clarke is at his best harassing opponents from mid-range, with a wide variety of projectiles powered up by his unique Stasis and Kinesis powers. He’s no slouch at close range either, with some mighty melee attacks and the short-range force gun, but he shines brightest harassing more distant opponents with the grenade launcher, bouncing bola, and his Plasma Cutter.

Both characters come with full single-player story modes, including intros, outros, and rival scenes, as well as exclusive unlockable minions, a second unlockable costume, and all the unique customizable taunts, themes, etc. you’ve come to expect.

In addition to today’s launch of Zeus and Isaac, we’ve also done a new balance patch, which modifies every existing character in some way (and fixes some pesky glitches), as well as adding some new bells and whistles to familiar items. The hardcore players can check out the details here [include link] in the official PlayStation All-Stars forums.

Isaac and Zeus both come free for anyone that purchased a retail copy of God of War: Ascension (it’ll be in your box as a pack-in code). For anyone else, you can pick them up on PSN for $4.99 each. The Graveyard stage is available for free in online ranked matches and is $1.99 to own it. Both of these new All-Stars add some very unique angles to the game. I’ll see you online.

God of War: Ascension adds a voucher for two PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale characters with pre-orders from GameStop. The dueling duo is Zeus from the God of War series and Isaac Clarke of Dead Space fame, both of whom we met in February for PS All-Stars. The characters will unlock on March 19.

This DLC joins the previous Ascension pre-order perk at GameStop, the Champions Pack that includes a skin of King Leonidas from 300, a 48-hour multiplayer XP boost and the Mythological Heroes Multiplayer Pack. The Champions Pack also includes a poster, but that's less "DLC" and more "reality."

[Thanks, Bradley!]

Hey everyone,

We’re happy to follow up PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale‘s win for “Best Fighting Game” at the DICE Awards (the awards where all of the voting is done by other games industry pros), with a gift to all the players that have supported the project from the start.

I hear from a lot of you guys, and I know you’ve been waiting patiently… but that wait ends today! We’ve got two new PlayStation All-Stars joining the Battle Royale: Kat from Gravity Rush, and Emmett Graves from Starhawk. Any fighting fan will tell you how much it means to have new characters joining a game, but it’s even better because — as promised — these DLC characters are totally free for two weeks!

Wait, “free for two weeks” sounds funny… Does that mean if I download them, after two weeks is up I have to pay? Nope. You have a two week window to download the DLC. If you do, the characters are yours free, forever and ever. You can play them online, offline, upside down, or however you want.

After the two week window ends, the characters will still be available on PSN, but as paid DLC. Latecomers can still get Kat and Emmett for $4.99 each, but if you download them in the next two weeks, they are yours free forever. The only way you would have to pay is if you missed this free offer, but you’re reading this now, so you won’t have to be that person.

Okay, so free is cool, but what are these characters are all about anyway?

Just like he did on out on the frontier on Dust, Emmett Graves depends on his tools to survive. Easily one of the most unique additions to the cast, Emmett brings Starhawk’s “Build & Battle” style to the fight, dropping down weapons and structures to help him out. He can drop shotguns, rocket launchers, new grenades, an AP-building Rift Extractor, or even an automated turret that tracks and blasts at opponents. If he powers up for a level 3 super, Emmett pilots a deadly Hawk mech, blasting opponents with machine guns, planting aerial mines, or crushing opponents under the Hawk’s feet, all leading up to a super-ending flying strafe run that lays waste to the entire stage and sends everyone running desperately for cover.

Kat is great for combos and prefers close combat, with more inspired ways to zip around the arenas than anyone in the cast. In addition to the kicks you’ll remember from Gravity Rush, she also has some crazy gravity attacks, like creating a small black hole to draw in opponents, or a burst to push everyone away, and of course one of the deadliest level 3s in the game. Kat teams up with her mysterious feline companion Dusty, uniting their powers to attack with frenzied claw slashes, a deadly lunge you can aim in different directions, and a massive black hole that kills anyone unlucky enough to touch its center.

Both characters come with everything that was included with the original launch characters, including a full arcade mode with intro, ending, and rival scenes, a second unlockable costume, an unlockable minion, custom backings and icons, taunts, intro/outros, theme music, and more.

In addition to the characters, there is also a new stage called “Fearless.” The fight begins atop a giant rock spire you’ll remember from Heavenly Sword, before crashing down into the second part of our mashup, where it literally collides with an electrified track from Wipeout. Keep your eyes peeled for cameo character appearances in Heavenly Sword’s scaffolding, as well as for the Wipeout racers that will send you flying on impact. You can play this stage for free in ranked online matches, but to play it offline or in player matches, it’s $1.99.

Coinciding with these new characters, we’re also proud to announce the PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale $6,000 tournament powered by Major League Gaming. For more information on how to enter the tournament, please visit the tournament site.

So, to sum up:

Characters? Free, and yours forever! But only if you hurry and get them before the two-week window (that starts today) expires.

Upcoming DLC for PlayStation All-Stars includes Kat from Gravity Rush for the Vita.

SuperBot Entertainment is no longer working with Sony.

The developer was responsible for last year’s PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale in partnership with Sony, but future downloadable content will be created internally at Sony Santa Monica.

“Sony Computer Entertainment can confirm that the working agreement with developer SuperBot Entertainment has amicably ended,” said Sony in a statement. “We have had a positive working relationship with this talented studio, and wish them the best of success in their next endeavor.”

It’s unclear what the next step forward for SuperBot is, but the studio isn’t calling it quits just yet.

"We don't have a reduction plan as of yet, however it is unlikely we can continue with our current work force for an extended period of time," said SuperBot director of operations David Yang to Kotaku. "We are still working things out and hope to continue on with as many of us as possible."

Sony has broken off relationships with a number of developers in the past few years. Most recently, it ended its relationship with Starhawk developer Lightbox Interactive just a few months after the game launched. Lightbox laid off a chunk of employees, and is now focused on iOS development.

#superbot Sony has cut ties with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale creator SuperBot Entertainment, just days after the development studio laid off a number of its staff. More »

It’s been a couple of weeks since Seth let the Kat (and the Emmett!) out of the bag, so I thought I’d stop in and give you guys some insight into the philosophy behind putting these two great characters into PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. The team and I attended an event at the Santa Monica Studios last night where we gave media attendees the first hands-on look at our new DLC, including the unveil of a brand new level, so I wanted to give you all a sneak peek at some of their moves and show off our newest level, Fearless! It’s all exciting stuff that I’m eager to tell you all about, so let’s get started.

Gravity Rush landed on PlayStation Vita earlier this year, introducing us to Kat. Her tremendous gravity powers, combined with a really charming personality made her an instant fan favorite, and thus an obvious candidate for PlayStation All-Stars. When looking at Kat’s play style in Gravity Rush two things immediately stood out to us: her reliance on aerial mobility and her arsenal of powerful kick-based attacks. We felt it was important to use these two elements as the cornerstone of Kat’s play style, and as such, her move set in PlayStation All-Stars makes liberal use of both.

For example, Kat doesn’t have a double jump! Instead, she relies on her Gravity Dash, an eight-direction mini-flight mode to move through the air. This cancellable move affords Kat an unprecedented degree of air mobility and attack potential.

Another example sees Kat using her powers of gravity manipulation directly against her rivals. Kat creates gravity wells, which draw in nearby players via her Gravity Attraction attack. Kat’s playstyle is such that she’s most effective when close to her opponents, and while her air mobility and varying kicks allow her to get in close pretty well, Gravity Attraction lets her pull her opponents directly to her. Success with Kat will require players to use all of Kat’s abilities in harmony, and Gravity Attraction plays a key role in accomplishing that.

I also want to give you guys a look at one of Kat’s Supers. Kat’s Level 1 Super, Gravity Squeeze, is based on her finishing attack so often used to dispatch the bosses in Gravity Rush. Kat leaps at her foe, stealing a giant orb of energy. As she destroys the orb, her victim explodes. If anyone is caught within the resulting blast of energy, they explode too! This is a very powerful Super, but one that will require Kat players to be clever in order to score maximum points.

This year also saw the release of Starhawk, a game set in the wild galactic frontier where the quest for Rift Energy comes with a terrible human cost. Starhawk’s main protagonist, Emmett Graves, is a man all too familiar with that cost, his body forever transformed by exposure to the toxic Rift Energy. Emmett makes wide use of varying weapons based on advanced technology, most notably through Starhawk’s Build & Battle system. It’s this particular mechanic that made Emmett such a compelling character to the PlayStation All-Stars Team.

The first of Emmett’s two most important Build & Battle moves is his Aerial M.A.W Rocket Launcher and Tetranite Grenade Bunker move. This allows Emmett to call down a bunker that when used, completely changes his weapon loadout. The Rocket Launcher gives Emmett access to a long range, powerful, aimable projectile. The grenade launcher provides an equally devastating attack, both in terms of AP generation and versatility, and is used primarily to stop the advancement of opponents in front of Emmett. Both weapons are somewhat slow moving, but more than make up for it in terms of sheer firepower.

The second, but equally important Build & Battle move that I want to tell you about is the Union Shotgun and R-Secs Proximity Mine Bunker move. Like the previous Build & Battle move, a separate bunker is brought in from low orbit, this time with ample shotgun and mine ammunition. Choosing this loadout supplies Emmett with devastatingly quick-hitting, short-range firepower via the shotgun as well as excellent space control through persistent mines. Neither weapon offers the range of the rocket launcher or grenade, so good Emmett players will need to be able to master alternating between both loadouts depending on the situation.

What better piece of anti-personnel weaponry is there in the Starhawk universe than the amazingly versatile Hawk? As the ultimate Level 3 Super, Emmett takes control of a Hawk in mech configuration, and is able to chase down his opponents with terrifying machine gun fire and tricky floating mines. And when all else fails, Emmett can transform the Hawk into flight mode and rain down a final hail of bullets that’s tough to survive. It’s an impressive Super, befitting of a universe filled with amazing technology.

Before I go, I want to give you all a look at what we have planned for our newest level, which during development has earned the codename Fearless. Fearless is a mash-up level that sees the fantasy world of Heavenly Sword meet the futuristic race tracks of Wipeout. In the short time we’ve been working on it, Fearless has become one of the team’s favorite levels, and we think you’ll see why.

The action in Fearless starts out atop a high column supported by gigantic ropes, creating a scene pulled straight from the world of Heavenly Sword. Our players will battle it out on this high column under the watchful eye of the forces of Bohan. It’s a medium-sized space, free of any platforms, and offers some of the most uninterrupted calm you can find in PlayStation All-Stars.

In the distance though, the hum of anti-gravity racing can be heard, and over the course of the match, a familiar floating race materializes. Soon, the battle is interrupted as stray fire from the famous racing ships of Wipeout hits the fighting column, and our fighters come crashing down into a new, more vertical part of the level, the race track cutting straight through the fight space! Any fighter unlucky enough to get knocked into the track or in the way of one of these terrific ships will pay the cost – literally – by receiving a hefty AP penalty. Knowing how to best leverage your character’s moves while avoiding the dangers of the race track are key tools to mastering your fear, and mastering Fearless.

We’ve still got a long way to go to complete Kat, Emmett, and our new level Fearless, but I hope you enjoyed this early look into where things are going. We think these new characters and level fit well into the gameplay already established in PlayStation All-Stars, while at the same time expanding the notions of what’s possible within our fight system. We can’t wait for you guys to get your hands on this stuff early next year, but there’s still quite a bit of work left to do before we can call anything finished. With that said, I’ll get back to work.

#bestofmetacritic Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic. More »

#watchthis About a week ago we all got the opportunity to get our hands on Sony's brawler, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. More »

PaRappa is one of the older (and better) characters on the roster.

I don't know that I'd call PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale an ambitious game. Its developers surely must have sat down at some point early in development and said "let's make a Smash Bros. game but with Sony characters in it." And that's precisely what they did. It carves out its own fighting style in the margins, but make no mistake--this is a highly derivative game. That's not necessarily a bad thing, of course, though PlayStation All-Stars makes a couple of design decisions that make the whole thing feel a little more awkward than it should. Also, for a game that's supposed to bring together the greatest heroes of the PlayStation platforms, it's missing too many key figures.

Crash Bandicoot. Let's just get it out of the way up front, OK? I'm certainly not privy to whatever backdoor dealings went into securing (or not securing) characters for this game's roster, but if you're making a game that attempts to bring together the classic PlayStation players and you don't have the system's first big mascot, someone has already screwed up. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those weirdo Crash Bandicoot fiends or anything, and I'm well aware that Sony doesn't actually control the rights to the Crash Bandicoot property (through a series of mergers and sales, he belongs to Activision these days), but it's an embarrassing omission. While we're at it--and I'm sure those of you at home have already played along by filling out your own dream roster--it's difficult to talk about stand-out characters from the PlayStation era without bringing up Cloud Strife and Lara Croft. These three characters typify the early days of Sony's console business. Even though they aren't Sony characters, they're the characters that brought Sony to the dance and helped make the PlayStation the must-own platform through the back half of the '90s. If you catch me on the right day, I might even go so far as to say that if you can't lock down those three characters for your Sony fighting game, you probably shouldn't make your Sony fighting game.

The roster isn't all bad, though. The Sony-controlled standards from the modern era are present, like Ratchet (with Clank in tow), Jak (with Daxter, natch), Kratos, Nathan Drake, and not one, but two version of Cole from Infamous. That he gets two squares on the select screen instead of a "press triangle to select Evil Cole" treatment says to me that the developers were struggling to fill out that roster, but perhaps I'm projecting. PaRappa is in, and he's maybe the perfect mix of a known character that's still worth getting nostalgic about. You also get a set of also-rans that are too new and underused to feel classic, like Nariko from Heavenly Sword and Col. Radec from Killzone 2. These aren't franchise players, and while it's cool to dig deep, these guys aren't distinguished enough to feel like meaningful inclusions. Instead they feel like warm bodies, there to pad out Sony's end of the roster.

Each background busts apart at a set interval to reveal parts of another game.

The game feels a little heavy on third-party characters, which is entirely sensible. Sony has always enjoyed firm support from third-party developers, and many of the best PS1 and PS2 games don't have SCEA's name on the box. But instead of focusing on the greatest names from PlayStation history (see above!), the inclusions here feel like a bunch of co-marketing deals masquerading as guests in a fighting game. Dante from Devil May Cry is here, but it's the new Dante. Say what you will about that redesign, but of the two Dante designs that are out there, only one of them could safely be referred to as an "All-Star" right now. Raiden from Metal Gear Rising is here. There are two BioShock Infinite-themed backgrounds, and Big Daddy appears on the roster. You know, Big Daddy from BioShock, that huge PlayStation 3 hit... that shipped like a year later than the PS3 and 360 versions? Instead of leveraging its past, the roster keeps an eye toward future releases. It makes a sizable chunk of the game feel like a series of ads instead of a love letter to the PlayStation brand.

It's a shame that this aspect of PlayStation All-Stars sticks out so much, because once you get past the roster and its lackluster story cutscenes, Battle Royale is a fun little game. It's a chunk of frantic action that blends button mashing with meaningful strategy, even if that strategy comes from a slightly strange set of systems. All-Stars is all about your three-level super meter, and your sole goal is to build that meter up and unleash it at the appropriate times. Landing a super on an opponent is the sole way to kill that opponent and earn points. By default, your overall total at the end of a match is kills versus deaths, with two points earned for earn time you kill an opponent and one subtracted each time you fall to an opposing super. So, in a sense, waling away on another fighter has no direct impact on that fighter. But indirectly, it's key, because while you're landing attacks you're earning more meter and your victim, who's just standing there and taking your attacks, isn't. Throws and a couple of other attacks give you an opportunity to steal some of another player's super meter, too.

This means that the game really comes down to your knowledge of a character's super attacks and how best to land (or avoid) those attacks. So what the game lacks in moment-to-moment monitoring a damage meter it makes up for in a multiple of "on snap!" moments when the supers start popping off. Some of these attacks, particularly the low-level ones, feel like they come out of nowhere, so when Parappa runs up behind the other three fighters and busts out a flash kick that kills all three players, it's rad. When Raiden does a breakdancey little spin kick that takes out foes on either side of him before you can figure out what was happening, it's the sort of thing that makes a couch full of players start shouting up a storm. It's chaotic fun. The higher level supers get flashier and are more in line with a character's unique style, so Sly Cooper gets a little sniping sequence that feels like it fell out of one of the Sly Cooper games. Sweet Tooth turns into a giant robot. Kratos goes nuts and starts swinging a sword that kills in one-hit. The bigger attacks are more stylish and pretty interesting, but I always felt like I was doing better when I was slipping into range and busting out my low level supers on unsuspecting players.

The differences between the PS3 and VIta versions are minimal.

For a game that should be bursting at the seams with personality and charm, PlayStation All-Stars sure has some drab, plain menus. Once you're actually inside the game and fighting, things look fine but a little basic. The flashy super combos are certainly over-the-top, but the baseline action looks like a bunch of tiny dudes scurrying around and a bunch of little hit flashes. This ends up being worse on the Vita, since it's a smaller screen to begin with, but even on the PS3 I was picking myself out on-screen by the big player number text that floats above each character's head. All of this action is set on a series of mash-up backgrounds that start out based on one game, but transition into another. These transitions are the same every time, though, so seeing Chop Chop Master Onion's dojo bust apart so a Killzone robot can invade the stage is surprising and cool precisely once. More randomness in the stages would have made this stuff way cooler.

The single-player side of All-Stars is very slim, but a lot of what's there seems to be focused on getting you to understand the game's fighting style and, ideally, train you up to be a better online fighter. The online works great on both the PS3 and Vita, with a ranked mode that's broken up into "seasons," giving players multiple chances to be at the top of a season's leaderboard. And, if you buy the game on the PlayStation 3, you get access to the Vita version for no extra charge. I ended up preferring the default control scheme on the Vita over the PS3, even though the Vita version awkwardly requires you to tap the screen to pick up items during a fight. It's also worth noting that if you know that you only want a portable version of the game, you can get that on its own for $20 less than the console/handheld bundle.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is an interesting first attempt at bringing Sony's characters, stages, and items together in the traditional Smash Bros. style, but it fails to carve out enough style of its own along the way. It ends up being an interesting, if occasionally awkward "party" style fighting game that works a little better than you might think. But it also feels like a proof-of-concept that misses too many classic PlayStation figures and moments to truly earn the title "All-Star."

#ps3 Robot Chicken's brand of geek humor gets a lot of mileage from imagining the messed-up stuff fictional characters get up to when they're not busy being all heroic or villainous. So, yeah, a breakroom filled with the cast of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale would be boiling over with all of the shame and neediness you see in the clip above. Oh, Nariko, will Sony ever bring you back? More »

We are all gamers. It’s that simple. A crossover appeared.

When PlayStation asked us at Robot Chicken to literally “play” with their all-star line-up of characters, we were not about to say no. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale gave us an opportunity in the writers’ room to have the geek discussions we all love to have. Who would destroy who in a fight to the death, or wherever they end up going after being defeated. To make this animated short, we got one of our Head Writers Douglas Goldstein and our super gamer writers Mike Fasolo and Rachel Bloom (check out her geek videos on YouTube) to create this fun off-hours scenario for all our favorite PlayStation characters. Then we got our super geek director/writer Zeb Wells (who y’all may know from his comic book writing history) to dive in and direct. Magic in a bottle.

What is that “before” or “after” location like where all these characters hang out? What voices could we give to these iconic characters when turned on their side 90 degrees? Part of what our Robot Chicken crew does best. Take the absurd and make it mundane. Check out the clip above, and tune in for the full spot tonight at 10:00pm Eastern/Pacific Time.

Check out Robot Chicken’s interpretation of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale tonight, November 26th on Adult Swim at 10:00pm (Eastern/Pacific Time).

#review If you think about every major video game publisher whose games you ever played, certain staple characters may come to mind. Recalling those characters might even bring a smile to your face, and remind you of the fond memories you had playing as each of them. More »

Throughout its almost 20-year history, PlayStation has allowed us as players to explore new worlds, triumph over adversaries, and realize our dreams of rapping superstardom. Three years ago, SuperBot Entertainment, BluePoint Games, and Sony Santa Monica Studio set out to create a game that pays tribute to the amazing memories we as PlayStation fans have all experienced together. Today is the day that we’re able to share that game with you. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has arrived!

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a celebration of the PlayStation history: its characters, its universes, and most importantly, its fans. And what better way to celebrate that with some good old-fashioned butt-kicking! In PlayStation All-Stars, up to four players can simultaneously control any of the 20 great PlayStation characters featured on our roster, including Kratos from God of War, Nathan Drake from UNCHARTED, Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet, Big Daddy from BioShock, and Dante from DmC Devil May Cry, and fight it out brawler-style on one of our 14 levels, each one created by mashing up two PlayStation worlds — like the topsy-turvy world of LocoRoco mixed with the war-torn battlefields of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

While our Versus Mode, which pits player against player (against player, against player) will undoubtedly provide endless memorable experiences, venture into Arcade Mode to find out what brings all of these great characters together into one crazy world. And if you’re strong enough, discover what it’s like to face the oldest and most powerful PlayStation All-Star, Polygon Man. Or, head over into the Combat Trials Mode to learn the ins and outs of the Battle Royale combat system. Insight into the various fight mechanics and individual character instructions come together in the form of a fun yet educational mode. And when you’re ready, jump online to challenge the world in either our Tournament or Quick Match Modes, which offer what we feel is an online multiplayer experience virtually indistinguishable from offline play.

Available on both PS3 and PS Vita (digital and retail), PlayStation All-Stars takes full advantage of the interconnectivity between the two platforms via Cross Play, allowing players to battle it out against one another on either device. Owners of both a PS3 and PS Vita can even transfer their saves from one machine to the other, allowing PlayStation All-Stars to be played wherever the fans want to play it. And best of all, if you purchase the PS3 version of the game, you get the PS Vita version at no extra cost! There’s no reason not to take advantage of such a great deal. As a friendly reminder, in order to redeem your digital PS Vita copy form the PS3 on-disc benefit, you’ll need to ensure your PS3 system is updated to the latest firmware, version 4.31.

Today marks the start of a great adventure for us – one in which we as developers get to celebrate with you as the fans. We couldn’t have made this game without you, and I hope you all enjoy playing the game as much as we enjoyed making it. See you online!

Jeff and the crew duke it out with PlayStation stars of old, new, and from out of town.

Hey PlayStation Nation! A couple of weeks ago we released “The All-Star” for all of the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale fans out there. From the more than five million views it got in two days, we’re guessing that you liked it. For the hardcore PlayStation fans, we layered in more than 30 Easter eggs referencing the playable characters, levels, and some classic PlayStation heritage.

People have been decoding Easter eggs in the comments, and our friends over at IGN recently filmed a Rewind Theater of “The All-Star” the same day it came out. IGN did a great job finding a handful of our Easter eggs — but they didn’t find all of them! So we’re turning to our fans to help uncover more, as well as relive some key moments in PlayStation history, with a Trivia tweet up.

Here are the deets: Starting today and progressing through the next few days, we’ll be tweeting trivia questions from @PlayStation to find out who can answer tough questions about the game, the film, the characters, and general PlayStation history. Along the way, we’ll be flagging random US participants to score one of 500 digital copies of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale on both PS3 and PS Vita. Just be sure to mark your response tweets with #PlayStationAllStars!

We’ll pick 20 random winners in the US region for each trivia question, two per day. When the contest is complete, we’ll Direct Message out the codes to the winners on or before November 20th — launch day!

Time to put your PlayStation cred to the test. Are you in?

Stretching back from my roots as a tournament player to my current gig as lead game designer for Sony’s Santa Monica Studio, I’ve spent over two decades in fighting games, and have been thrilled to revisit so many great memories from my own PlayStation history with the characters and stages of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

I’m here today on behalf of SuperBot Entertainment, Bluepoint Games, and Santa Monica Studio to announce that PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has gone gold on PS3 and PS Vita! All of us are extremely grateful for the help from our beta players in testing our networking, and thrilled to see the amazing response from all of you that played the beta, which is just a small slice of the full game.

In celebration of this milestone, we wanted to share something special as a small “thank you!” to all the amazing PlayStation fans who have helped us come so far. Today we’re officially unveiling the opening cinematic sequence to the game. We’ve been pretty tight-lipped about our final boss, but if you hang in until the end you’ll get a glimpse of the villainous mastermind that’s returned from the depths of PlayStation history to pull the strings in All-Stars.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and if your interest is piqued, remember to pre-order All-Stars today! Pre-ordering scores you an exclusive costume for every character in the game, and with Cross-Buy, every PS3 copy comes with a download code for the PS Vita version at the low, low cost of zero!

Thanks again to PlayStation fans around the world for your incredible support, and come November 20th, I’ll see you online — just look for the unbeatable Drake player at the top of the leaderboards. :P

#ps3 With two days to go in the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale beta the game's developer, SuperBot Entertainment, has released this video covering the basics of the game. It's an attempt to answer a lot of the questions the studio has been fielding since the beta opened Oct. 16, but it also functions as a video tutorial for the main game. More »

Over the past few days we’ve released three short teasers filled with clues and a suspicious 10/23/12 date. As expected, nothing gets past the faithful members of the PlayStation Nation, as you quickly pieced together that these teasers are about PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale.

Last year, we released “Michael,” a campaign which paid homage to you, the gamer. We like to think of PlayStation All-Stars as a continuation of that as it was made as a tribute to gamers, tapping into PlayStation’s legendary history and featuring some of the your most beloved franchises in our first ever cross-over fighting game.

We’ve created this short live-action film called “The All-Star” to celebrate PlayStation All-Stars’ upcoming launch. The film will debut tonight on YouTube at Midnight EST (9:00PM PST), but we wanted to give the PlayStation Nation an advanced screening. Check it out below:

“The All-Star” contains an epic battle with four of the most iconic PlayStation characters, but the real star of the film is you, the gamer. We’ve hidden references from each of the storied franchises featured in the game — and a few extras to keep you on your toes. Take to the comments to share your favorites!

Be sure to pre-order your copy of PlayStation All-Stars, which launches for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita on November 20th. If you can’t wait until then, put your skills to the test in the PlayStation All-Stars public beta, which is available now for PS Plus members and opens to all PSN users tomorrow.

We hope you’ve been keeping track of all the recent updates on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale news, from an in-depth update on the PS Vita version to our behind-the-scenes look at mashing up different worlds, we’ve shown you what this game is shaping up to be…and we think it’s high time you try it out for yourselves!

Today, we’re happy to announce that the PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Beta will kick off for PlayStation Plus members on PS3 tomorrow, October 16th and expand to everyone October 23rd through PlayStation Store! What’s more, as a special treat, PS Vita users will be able dive right into the multiplayer beta starting tomorrow – no Plus subscription required. The Beta will support Cross-Play, so PS3 and PS Vita owners will be able to fight with and against each other.

So what will be in this limited Beta?

• You’ll be able to play as Kratos, Sweet Tooth, Colonel Radec, Sly Cooper, PaRappa, and Fat Princess.
• You’ll be able to play in both the Metropolis and Hades stages.
• You’ll be able to try out four-player online tournaments and 2 v 2 online tournaments. For the 2 v 2 games we’ll be supporting friend invites, so you and a friend can fight another team online.

This, of course, is only a tiny fraction of what PlayStation All-Stars has to offer, but we thought you’d love the chance to try it early and see what all the buzz is about. Be sure to hop on quickly as we’ll be ending the Beta on October 30th!

But that’s not all. As you know, we have a pre-order program [blog link] running right now that unlocks a set of exclusive costumes in the game. Today we’re happy to unveil the rest of the costumes you’ll be getting with your pre-order of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Unlocked with your pre-order at participating retailers, these costumes will work for both the PS3 and PS Vita when it releases on November 20th, so be sure to reserve your copy today. And don’t forget: PlayStation All-Stars features Cross-Buy support, so if you purchase the PS3 version, you’ll get a downloadable PS Vita version for no extra cost.

With Beta access beginning tomorrow, we look forward to getting your feedback on the game and seeing what you think of this highly anticipated title. Spread the word and we’ll see you online!

Drawing upon nearly two decades of PlayStation lore, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale assembles a dream roster of legendary fighters plucked from the annals of PlayStation history. But the characters are only half the story: Developer SuperBot Entertainment has invested much blood, sweat, and tears into the game’s elaborate fighting stages, each of which fuses two classic PlayStation brands into a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

“We have a huge team of designers, artists, and programmers working on the characters, but we have a team that’s at least equally large working on the levels,” Game Director Omar Kendall told PlayStation.Blog in a revealing new interview. “It’s a huge undertaking in a game like this, because the levels have such a loud voice.”

The inspiration to fuse two seemingly unrelated game worlds came early in the game’s development, with the now-familiar Hades level serving as the germ of the concept. “We had this idea of a giant Hades wreaking havoc on the playspace, when suddenly this happy-go-lucky music kicks in and the Patapons come over the hill to overthrow him,” Kendall remembered. “Once that came together, we knew we were onto something.”

Gameplay rests firmly at the heart of each stage’s design. “We start by sitting around a table, a bunch of designers and artists, trying to figure out an interesting combat space to fight in,” Kendall said. Sometimes that manifests itself as a specific gameplay interaction, whether it’s Dreamscape’s ever-growing level architecture (a nod to LittleBigPlanet’s level creator) or the vertical scrolling in Alden’s Tower (a homage to inFAMOUS’s final stage).

“Some characters excel against enemies that are in front of them, others directly above and below them,” Kendall explained, “so we create playspaces that leverage those advantages and disadvantages.” Case in point: Chop-Chop Master Onion’s tiny dojo is designed to create a uniquely claustrophobic play style, while Metropolis is wide-open and favors longer-range strategies.

“Technically, the process can be extremely complicated based on the ideas we’re introducing,” Kendall admitted. “So many of the levels in the game are essentially one-offs. We’ll create a lot of technology to construct a specific type of encounter, and then toss it and build a totally different experience for the next level.”

Though inefficient, that approach is yielding some dazzling results. Such is the case with the game’s exhilarating mashup between UNCHARTED 3 and 2013’s BioShock Infinite. “When we first watched the demonstration of Columbia, it left a strong and lasting impact,” Kendall remembered. “We knew we wanted to incorporate that world and those characters into one of our levels.” Then UNCHARTED 3’s famous cargo plane sequence entered the picture, and the rest is history.

Other times, an interesting visual contrast might spark the inspiration for a mashup. Time Station begins firmly rooted in the whimsical Ape Escape universe. Halfway through the match, a teleportation error sees the Resistance 3 universe bleed into the environment — including a monstrous, rampaging Widowmaker.

It’s important to note that these stage evolutions are no mere cosmetic flourish: new hazards, new level layouts, and new strategies develop organically as the stages bleed from one universe to the next, creating a truly dynamic combat arena.

Be sure to watch our new video documentary to get an inside look at SuperBot’s process for constructing stages in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Which stage mashup are you most interested in playing so far?

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PlayStation Blogcast regulars Nick, Sid, and Rey have all flown the coop, and wouldn’t you know it — they left me with a heaping pile of New Releases to tell you all about. Fortunately, I was able to draft in new recruits in the form of community assassin Kristine Steimer and behind-the-scenes Blogman Justin Massongill. After we share the heaping helping of upcoming PSN titles (there are a *lot*), Sony Santa Monica’s Seth Killian drops by to dish details on PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale’s single-player modes and super-secret easter eggs.

As per usual, we’ll share listener tips for hotel travelers and Borderlands 2 players, and answer queries focused on PlayStation Plus on PS Vita. Download, play, and meet the new team – while they last.

Stuff We Talked About

Child’s Play Faery: Legends of Avalon PULSE wireless stereo headset – Elite Edition Seth POMERANIANS

The Cast

• Jeff Rubenstein – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Manager
• Kristine Steimer – PlayStation Senior Online Community Specialist
• Justin Massongill – PlayStation Social Media Specialist

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

Hello PlayStation fans! My name is Daryl Allison, Sr. Producer at Bluepoint Games, developers of the PlayStation Vita version of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Since Sony’s announcement at Gamescom of their awesome promotion pricing program for PlayStation All-Stars – where gamers who purchase the PlayStation 3 version also get to download the PS Vita version at no additional cost – it has been great to see gamers getting excited for the PS Vita version, so it’s time Bluepoint gets into the blogging ring.

As fans of Bluepoint know, the studio has worked hard over the years to give gamers the highest quality remasters for classic titles God of War, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, and Metal Gear Solid. Now, for PlayStation All-Stars, we’ve taken our passion to the next level. Our mission: To create the full PS3 experience of PlayStation All-Stars on PS Vita.

By that, we don’t mean a game with similar features carrying the same name. PlayStation All-Stars is about showcasing the possibility of true Cross-Play between PS3 and PS Vita. The feature richness of the PS3 version’s arcade mode, online modes, player progression system and its unlockables and customization, etc… it’s all here on PS Vita. The connectivity and gameplay is a frame-perfect, seamless experience.

The only separation between the versions is where players choose to play, not which platform. Four friends can get together with four PS Vitas and battle via an ad hoc connection. You and a friend can grab your PS Vitas, team up online and compete against everyone else playing from their PS3s or PS Vitas. Or bring your PS Vita over to a friend’s house, and while three of them elbow each other and mess with each other’s controllers on the couch, you can lounge anywhere you want, playing against them with a handheld screen all your own. SuperBot serves up PlayStation All-Stars on the PS3 and Bluepoint makes it feel like the PS Vita was always its home. You’ll set down your Dual Shock, pick up your PS Vita, wonder how the PS3 squeezed into it, and continue your progression up the leaderboards.

It’s been awesome watching the R&D behind recreating the PS3 version’s high-quality graphics on the PS Vita. We could not settle for a reduced graphical experience – no one should! – so we set off on a journey of crazy problem solving for each character, environment and effect. Bringing the very best out of this portable platform has led our team at Bluepoint to hit back with a combo of high-end math and old-school dev tricks. It hasn’t been easy, but we’re doing it, and all with the game blazing at 60 frames per second. PlayStation All-Stars makes you believe that with PS Vita you have a PS3 in the palm of your hand.

It’s one thing for the graphics to impress. It’s another to ensure the PS Vita provides the genuine experience for fighting game fans. We regularly grab raw HD data and 240 FPS video to check that input latency, rendering fidelity and “the awesome” remains tight. Running at 60 FPS is as much for the smoothness of the graphics as for the controls. It’s important that there are no advantages (or disadvantages) due to the different hardware – no network lag, no input lag, so PlayStation All-Stars on PS Vita must be — and is — tuned to have the same tight gameplay responsiveness. From button press to character action, the quality of fighting is upheld to PS3 standards. We also take advantage of both SuperBot and PlayStation being in California – Bluepoint is in Austin, Texas – working with them to tune network code and optimize bandwidth, to deliver the best possible online experience.

There’s much more cool stuff to talk about, but for now, get ready to take the PS3 PlayStation All-Stars experience on the road. As we do not endorse driving while brawling, we recommend you find yourself a designated driver… then have them find the nearest gaming retailer, insist they buy a PS Vita, and kick their butt.

#playstationallstarsbattleroyale Oh my beloved Nariko, I shall not let any of those unworthy ruffians touch an oddly-rendered hair on your beauteous head when you make your grande return in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. More »

Nariko and Sir Daniel were revealed yesterday for PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale, but here are their standalone videos announcing their inclusion in teh brawler. The drip continues on the announcements, confirming what's been already leaked.

The doors to the PAX convention center are officially open here in Seattle. The show is now in full swing, and so are our character reveals! We already unveiled Evil Cole and Raiden this week, and now we have two more characters that we’re announcing at the show today.

Heavenly Sword’s Nariko has joined the cast of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale! Heavenly Sword’s cinematic experience and engaging gameplay dazzled gamers in 2007, an experience we wish to re-create for those playing as Nariko in PlayStation All-Stars. Nariko has proven to be a strong female lead, and was a prime candidate for inclusion in the roster.

During Nariko’s combo attacks, players can trigger different actions during key poses within her offense. This opens up defensive options such as dodging, jumping, or parrying mid-combo, or offensive options such as continued combo attacks or juggle starters. She also has several projectile attacks to harass opponents with from a distance. During her level 3 super, Nariko uses the full power of the Goddess to devastate the battlefield with attacks inspired from her Level 3 Super Style attacks from Heavenly Sword.

For all the old-school PlayStation fans out there, we’ve included Sir Daniel Fortesque in our roster! The older crowd might remember this skeletal knight from SCE Cambridge Studios’ MediEvil series, widely regarded as a PlayStation classic and praised for its quirky style and fun gameplay. It’s been 14 years since Sir Daniel’s video game debut, and he’s ready to shake the rust off his armor to do battle with the rest of the PlayStation All-Stars cast.

Sir Daniel is a crowd-control character who is able to build heavy amounts of AP while in the middle of the action. He brings several weapons to the battle including his axe, chicken drumstick, crossbow, and even his various skeletal appendages, all taken directly from the MediEvil series. He also has his trusty broadsword and shield, the latter which can be equipped during battle to absorb damage and strengthen his charge attacks. His super attacks are more magical in nature, summoning the power of his lightning orb, Golden Chalice, and even Zarok’s Anubis Stone to KO opponents.

We invite you all to stop by the PlayStation booth over the next few days to go hands-on with all four of our new characters. They will all be playable at the booth for the very first time. We’ll also have some cross-play PS3 / PS Vita matches happening, so you’ll want to check those out as well! SuperBot’s Creative Director, Omar Kendall, will be at PAX this weekend too, so if you see him around the show floor let him know what you think of the game! We always look forward to meeting you and hearing your feedback. Enjoy the show!

Two more characters have been announced as members of the PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale roster, both of which attach firmly to either side of the "deep cut" spectrum: Nariko of Heavenly Sword fame, and MediEvil's Sir Daniel Fortesque.

As has been the case with the last few All-Stars character reveals, both Nariko and Fortesque were originally rumored a few weeks ago when files pulled from the beta found their way to neoGAF. Nariko's fighting style is described as "high risk, high reward" by designer Seth Killian in the video above, while Fortesque is said to be much slower and more methodical. Both characters, however, use weapons culled from the annals of their respective series' history.