Hi Everyone,

Thanks to everyone in the PlayStation community who has contacted us regarding an issue with the Creator’s Edition of LittleBigPlanet. We wanted to let you know that we are aware of this problem, and I would first like to apologize, and also explain what has happened.

The content of the LittleBigPlanet Creator’s Edition has not yet gone live, and all of you who bought the Creator’s Edition have been unable to redeem your voucher codes. We know you’re probably itching to use Create mode with many of the assets you were familiar with in the PS3 edition of the game.

Unfortunately we’ve hit a couple of last minute technical hurdles that have forced us to refine and re-master the additional downloadable content in the Creator’s Edition. We need to ensure that these issues are resolved properly so that you have the best possible experience with the game when you download the content. The content is now going through a rigorous quality assurance (QA) process with our internal teams, and once they are satisfied, it will be sent to our Format QA teams (FQA) in Europe and America for final sign off, which takes approximately 10 working days. After FQA approval is granted, the content will be uploaded to the servers, which takes a day or two, and then it will be ready for you to download. This gives us a target release date of Monday 7th December (as always, there could be a delay of a few days if FQA find any issues, but we will keep you updated).

We realize that this is far from ideal, and to help make up for it, we’ll make sure we include a few extra items, above and beyond the content you’re expecting, as a way of saying sorry for our mistake.

Once again, please accept our sincere apologies for the delay. We can only hope that you’re enjoying LittleBigPlanet on PSP, and that the wealth of new themes, materials, stickers and other items will allow you to build your dream creations until the DLC is ready.

Yours apologetically,

Mark Green
Senior Producer

Rate: (Average: 3.73 out of 5)

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Hi everyone, how you guys doing?

What started for us as an idea almost 3 years ago is now about to invade your lives. On Tuesday, 24 November Gravity Crash for PlayStation3 will launch on not only the North American PlayStation Store but also on the European PlayStation Store, two days ahead of the normal store update on Thursday.

When we started working with Sony on this project towards the end of last year we knew little of how encompassing or indeed how much we’d achieve, and I have to say we are incredibly proud of what we’ve created these past 12 months.

The game is being launched as Trial & Key type. When you download the Trial edition you will get access to 4 of the levels of the full games 35 single player planets and 12 multiplayer maps. You will also get full access to the editor, where you will be able to create your own levels straight away, however only when you buy the game will you be able to Publish them to the PlayStation Network for anyone and everyone to enjoy.

Actually, I’d like to geek out for a moment. All of us at Just Add Water are complete geeks, so one of the little things we included in the Trial edition, which as far as we are aware no one else has done before: on our Sell screen (All demos/trials have these) we have a dynamic “Published Levels” line that tells you how many custom made levels have been published to the PlayStation Network. Personally I can’t wait to watch that number getting bigger and bigger over the coming months!

Which brings me to the subject of price …

£6.29 / €7.99 / $9.99 US of your earth money, will buy you …

• 35 Single player levels, including hidden and boss levels.
• 12 Multiplayer levels.
• 3 Multiplayer modes.
• Different player ships.
• Special weapons.
• Weapon power-ups.
• 20 devious Trophies.
• Leaderboards.
• Over 200 editor items.

Talking of the editor, just to reiterate what I said in the previous blog update, EVERY level in the game has been built with the editor you get in the game. To give an example of the editor here’s a little development diary from us along with a bit of editor action!

And finally, during December we will be releasing a few extras via the PlayStation Store, like wallpapers and themes. So all I’ve got left to say is thanks for your support since the game was announced, and we hope you enjoy it when it’s released on Tuesday, and we can’t wait to see what you guys can create with the Editor!

Slainte

Rate: (Average: 4.69 out of 5)

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As you no doubt know, the PlayStation Network Video Store is now live in the UK, France, Germany and Spain – I’m watching Dumb and Dumber on my PS3 as I write this.

So last night, in true SCEE tradition, we had a launch party to celebrate this fantastic addition to PlayStation Store and allow journalists and people from the film industry to try it out. We were lucky enough to have a fantastic venue in London’s House of St. Barnabas, and our events team decked the place out in its own inimitable style. Hopefully, these pictures give you an idea of their fine work.

Once the space filled up we had Mark Hardy, European Product Marketing Director, announce that the Video Store contains more than 2000 films, both HD and SD at launch and that weekly updates will contain at least 50 titles.

With the announcements out of the way, Little Boots arrived and gave a tiny, packed room a lovely acoustic performance on the grand piano. After that, Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac kept the music going until midnight when I got turfed out and a horde of people appeared out of nowhere and started dismantling the party.

I’ve been putting my feet up and watching some films. I’m thinking of watching 300… I mean the film 300, not 300 films. Is it any good?

I’m really sorry, but I won’t be around to answer any of your questions or comments, but I hope this post gives you a good idea of what a PlayStation house party looks like.

James.

Rate: (Average: 3.49 out of 5)

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Hi everyone! Guerrilla art director Jan-Bart van Beek here, with an interesting bit of news for the hardcore Killzone fans among you.

I was recently asked to contribute to a new volume in Ballistic Publishing’s line of digital artist master class books, titled d’artiste: Character Modeling 3. The request surprised me a little at first, because I’m not a character artist myself; I’m a director of character artists. As my job title implies, I direct other artists in the creation of assets for the Killzone franchise, making sure their output is consistent with the gritty, ‘hard sci-fi’ look for which our games are known.

However, I soon realized this would be a good opportunity to share my unique vantage point overlooking the entire character creation pipeline at Guerrilla. The resulting chapter has become a rather comprehensive overview of the character creation process used for Killzone 2. Taking Rico Velasquez and the Helghast Sniper as examples, the book walks the reader through every step of their development – starting with the rough initial ideas, and ending with their finalized in-game models. Along the way, various tools and techniques used at Guerrilla are explained in detail.

In addition to the chapter on Killzone 2, d’artiste: Character Modeling 3 also covers the works of Giovanni Nakpil and Cesar Dacol Jr., both renowned character modelers for major Hollywood productions such as Pirates of the Caribbean and 300. Their contributions to the book are nothing short of breathtaking, and I was extremely honored to see my name featured on the cover alongside theirs.

In short, if you’re a budding character artist or just a hardcore Killzone fan who’d like to know how characters are created at Guerrilla, d’artiste: Character Modeling 3 is a book worth tracking down. It’s the sort of resource I wish I’d had when I just started my career in the games industry. You can preview the entire book on the Ballistic Publishing website, or purchase it from their store in both limited and slipcased editions.

Publishing Information
ISBN #: Limited Edition: 978-1-921002-66-3 / Slip cased: 978-1-921002-67-0
Pages: 208 pages (Slipcased) / 208 pages (Limited Edition)
Authors: Cesar Dacol Jr, Jan-Bart van Beek, Giovanni Nakpil
Publishers: Daniel Wade, Mark Snoswell

Rate: (Average: 4.31 out of 5)

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Big news, guys: we have a brand-new, exclusive, (SCEE-only!) gig coming your way very soon – VidZone presents Groove Armada – in a completely re-decked and re-themed, Presentation Podium space.

To celebrate the launch of Groove Armada’s fantastic new Blacklight album, the Presentation Podium will be re-opened (at dusk) with a brand-new mini-game, new (exclusive) rewards and of course, exclusive music and interview footage from one of the world’s biggest music acts. Check out the trailer and screenshots below:

We’ll update very soon with the live date, so watch this space for more information…. Completely free and completely awesome – this simply isn’t one you want to miss!

iELL / Elliott

For more information on Groove Armada go to: www.groovearmada.com/ps3. I Won’t Kneel single released 23.11.2009. Blacklight Album released 22.02.2010.

Rate: (Average: 4.03 out of 5)

35 Comments 4 Replies