PlayStation Vita Message Board older than one year ago

#kotakutravelsection I went to Paris last weekend, which is an extravagant thing to do if you live in New York and should probably be making shorter weekend commutes. But I had a rare chance to go and so off I went, out Thursday overnight, back Monday afternoon. More »

Team up and get blasting this week with Awesomenauts ...

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Sonic and friends are officially heading back to the track later this year with Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. As the title implies, the cast of Sega characters drive transforming vehicles this time around, with screenshots showing off planes, boats and, of course, cars. The roster now includes more favorite Sega characters, including Vyse from Skies of Arcadia and Gilius Thunderhead (A.K.A. "the dwarf") from Golden Axe.

The game also promises dynamic tracks and a "fair weapon system" that allows players to block or evade incoming attacks. One of those tracks is based on Panzer Dragoon, which makes this racing sequel the closest thing to a new Panzer Dragoon game in a long time (well, almost).

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will make its way to Xbox, PS3, Vita, 3DS and PC this holiday.

#theweekingames Sniper Elite V2 leads the hit list of retail releases for this week. Assuming all is well with the publisher, Awesomenauts is due on PSN and XBLA this week, too. More »

#rumor We've heard rumors before that Konami would be releasing Metal Gear: Rising on the PlayStation Vita handheld in addition to home consoles. This page from the Vita presentation during the AT&T Developer Summit looks to reveal that in addition to the other franchises we already knew about (including Bioshock and Call of Duty), Metal Gear Solid: Rising will also be coming to the Vita. More »

#sony So PS Vita sales are nosediving. And Sony must be worried, because these are dark times for the Vita. Dark times. More »

#dragonscrown The upcoming, and very lovely-looking Dragon's Crown, has two websites, one for Japan, one for the US. Both are almost identical in design except for one thing: character art. More »

#psvita A classic PlayStation title appeared in the PS Vita store overnight, kindling hopes that players would now be able to enjoy their classic games on the go. Alas, the game is not actually playable, but its appearance does indicate that perhaps the anticipated feature is nearly ready for prime time. More »

#mortalkombat Remember the ill-fitting costume that the Kitana model wore to promote Mortal Kombat on the Vita? And the model who had to brave fields of gravel in heels as Mileena? More »

#phantasystaronline In March, Sega announced that their upcoming MMORPG, Phantasy Star Online 2 will be smart phone compatible and free to play. In a recent interview with Weekly Famitsu, Phantasy Star series producer, Satoshi Sakai, talked about Sega's somewhat ballsy decision. More »

#spinoff Even though the PS Vita could really use a Monster Hunter game, the next spin-off installment in Capcom's monster hit series is PSP bound. More »

As promised, Skype arrives on the Vita today in a free download. Tell your friends ... to download Skype so you can tell your friends. Other new PSN content arriving today includes Bejeweled 3, The Walking Dead, and retail-to-PSN releases Battlefield 3 and The Cursed Crusade, all on PS3. Demos are available for Ninja Gaiden 3, Dragon's Dogma, and The Walking Dead.

Old games available once again include PS2 Classic Red Faction (the first one) and Darkstalkers 3, and Future Cop LAPD on PSOne Classics. Find the full menu of downloadable PlayStation stuff on the PlayStation Blog.

PlayStation Plus members are going to be busy in May, frantically trying to play all of the free content that is being dumped on them. Awesomenauts, which hits PSN on May 1, will be free to PS+ users right away. It's accompanied by Trine 2 and Rock of Ages.

Two of the best PSOne Classics are being thrown in as well on May 1: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania Chronicles, a remake of the original 'Vania. Saints Row: The Third ... isn't free, but it is 20% off for Plus users when it comes to PSN May 15.

For more, including free Minis and discounts on more upcoming PSN games, check the PlayStation Blog. For the answer to the tough question of whether relatively cheap access to all these games is worth an ongoing subscription, when you know you'll lose them when your subscription lapses, check your heart.

#gravityrush As if we needed more incentive to get our hands on one of the most anticipated PlayStation Vita games, players that preorder Gravity Rush will score a code for the Military DLC Pack, giving Kat a sharp new look to carry here through new missions and challenges. More »

The voice and video chatting service Skype will be available on PlayStation Vita later today. You'll be able to use the chatting app on both the 3G and WiFi models. [PlayStation Blog] More »

Revenge is a dish best served ... mutated?

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A survey from marketing firm Arkenford - which has Ubisoft as one of its clients - is apparently shopping around the concept of a Rayman Origins sequel. According to some images grabbed from a survey and sent to Kotaku, a potential sequel could feature dragons, ghosts and gods from Greek mythology - that and the same four-player drop-in/drop-out co-op gameplay.

Of course, a survey is hardly a confirmation that something is in the works. Best to keep expectations low. We've inquired with Ubisoft, but received the usual "Ubisoft doesn't comment on rumors" boilerplate.

It's no secret that we love Rayman Origins. We'd love to play a sequel, and the first game was profitable for Ubisoft. A Rayman Origins sequel doesn't seem like such an impossibility.

A survey from marketing firm Arkenford - Ubisoft is one of its clients - is apparently shopping the idea around. According to some images grabbed from a survey and sent to Kotaku, a potential sequel could feature dragons, ghosts and gods from Greek mythology - that and the same four-player drop-in/drop-out co-op gameplay. Of course, a survey is hardly a confirmation that something is in the works. Best to keep expectations low.

We've inquired with Ubisoft and will let you know if we hear anything back.

#sony Once upon a time, Sony ruled Japan. Those days are over. Don't believe me? Just look at how the Japanese media keeps turning the Tokyo-based electronics maker into a punching bag. More »

#theweekingames The Prototype narrative picks up with James Heller in the lead role of Prototype 2 this week, smashing, slashing, and beating ass galore in New York Zero. Other highlights include the Euro 2012 mode for FIFA 12 and Xbox Live Arcade title Bloodforge. More »

GameStop currently has the 160GB version of the PlayStation 3 listed for $199.99, which is $50 off the retail price. Hardware doesn't frequently go on sale, so this is either a sign of things to come or simply a random promotion. No other major retailers have shifted the price of the console.

GameStop is also currently running a bundle deal on the PS Vita, offering a free game and case with purchase of the system.

We've contacted the company to find out if the sale is a one-off deal or it's here to stay. You know, E3 is only a little over a month away.

#blip Dragon's Crown, an action-RPG from boutique Japanese developers Vanillaware (Odin Sphere), has been missing in action since its E3 debut last year. If you were thinking that meant the game was dead, though, you're wrong! Atlus just signed on to publish it on both PS3 and Vita, and it'll be out next year. More »

Dragon's Crown, the 2D, Tower of Doom-inspired PS3/Vita action game by Vanillaware, no longer rests upon Ignition Entertainment - but, true to Vanillaware's word, it still exists. In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Atlus PR manager Aram Jabbari revealed that his company has taken over publishing duties, and now plans to release it in 2013 (Ignition made its own announcement, after the break). This is a reversal of the fate of Muramasa: The Demon Blade, another Vanillaware game, which Ignition acquired from another company (XSEED) in 2009.

Atlus is not only publishing it in North America and Japan, internal Atlus staff members are now assisting with the production. The downside to this announcement is that, in Atlus's estimation, "the game simply cannot retail for $29.99." The upside is that, being an Atlus game, it's much more likely to ship with a soundtrack disc now.

Capcom is pretty bad at planning surprise parties. The first rule it's broken is "Don't put your plans on a big-time gaming blog" and the second is "Don't spoil the theme." Ryu is going to be so suspicious. Regardless, Capcom is celebrating Street Fighter's 25th anniversary - which lands on August 30 - with a call for fan art and remixes, to potentially be used in some sort of official capacity.

Capcom urges submissions to include the "anniversary" theme in a recognizable way, with "reflection and nostalgia" as main points, community manager Brett Elston writes on the Capcom-Unity blog. The full rules for art submissions are here, and the musical notes can be found here. The deadline for both contests is May 4, 11:59 p.m. PST.

#mortalkombat The UK's live-action Mortal Kombat Vita ad campaign continues, swapping out Kitana for another of the game's femme fatales and making a poor model navigate treacherous terrain in the least-sensible shoes imaginable. More »

Not only is the PlayStation Suite still totally a thing that exists, but it looks like it's actually making progress towards life as a bona fide platform/ecosystem for game and app distribution. The service has moved into an open beta phase - developers are now able to download the PlayStation Suite SDK, which includes an "integrated development environment" (IDE) and device simulator for PCs.

No actual game/app distribution will begin until the beta ends "later this year," at which point developers using the SDK will need to contract up, to the tune of $99 a year. The SDK is free until then.

Thanks to the beta's FAQ, we also now know that completely free/ad-supported apps will not be allowed on the service, and that "development will be limited to paid (including freemiun [sic]) content." In-game/in-app microtransaction functionality will be added to the SDK at a later date during the beta.

As far as PlayStation Suite's actual app pricing structure is concerned, both in terms of its consuming-facing strategy and its back-end developer percentages, Sony hasn't quite ironed that out: "We can't provide detailed information at this stage, but we are considering a pricing structure based on current market conditions."

[Thanks, Alec!]

HumaNature Studios, the creator of ToeJam & Earl, appears to be working on a Sony-exclusive title, posts on Tech-Artists and the Gamasutra jobs board suggest. HumaNature is working on a title "directly for Sony," studio co-founder Greg Johnson writes in a head-hunting post on Tech-Artists.

Johnson describes the title as "cute and filled with quirky personality. It's also super innovative in the area of emotional AI and personality simulation. It's designed for both male and female players, and will be marketed in the US and in Japan." Whew -- finally a video game for male and female players. We were getting tired of all these games marketed to "people."

The Gamasutra job listing doesn't mention Sony specifically, but does provide more context for the game itself: "You should love games that create charming and believable, emotionally compelling simulated worlds; games like ICO, Beyond Good and Evil, Animal Crossing, Scribblenauts, LittleBigPlanet, and others."

HumaNature stresses the importance of creativity and innovation with this title, and we can't help but picture a Vita game coming out of all this creative ... stuff.

[Thanks, Jonah.]ToeJam & Earl dev hiring for new Sony game

#soulsacrifice Leaked scans from the upcoming issue of Japanese game magazine Famitsu reveal a brand new game for the PS Vita. It's called Soul Sacrifice. More »

There's some fair-to-decent stuff to be found this week on the PlayStation Store, several involving zombies. Find the full list over at the PlayStation blog. More »

#persona Yeah, sure, fine, there are a lot of great new games out right now. But for some reason, Persona 3 has captured the hearts and minds of not one but two Kotaku editors: Me (Kirk) and our resident JRPG expert Jason Schreier. We've been talking about the game pretty much every day, most likely to the detriment of our other work. So, we decided that we'd do a 2-player chat about what we've seen so far and open up the discussion. More »