Greetings!

Just a quick reminder that the Starhawk beta kicks off tomorrow for PS+ subscribers!

Soooo…it’s time to get online, join the fun and get busy playing!!! If you were in the Private Beta you know what to expect, plus some key things listed below. For those of you new to Starhawk and the Public Beta, “Welcome!” You’ll get to try out a truly unique (and damn fun) multiplayer experience. Here’s a quick primer video to get your feet wet…

Make sure you keep your eyes peeled for further info on Starhawk either through the blog or starhawkthegame.com

Here are some helpful pieces of info for you:

Who gets in and when?
As we move forward we’ll invite more and more players into the mix.

• January 18: All PlayStation Plus subscribers and all Private Beta participants (who haven’t erased their original Beta files)

• February 1st: UNCHARTED 3 guys, you will receive an email on how to access the beta. In order to get this email you’ll have had to redeemed your Online Network Pass found inside the boxed copy and made sure you’ve opted into receiving marketing emails.

• February 22: Everyone with a PlayStation Network account…in other words, everyone who wants in, gets in!

What is a Beta?
For all you newcomers, a Beta is a real world “in the wild” test of the core game systems and gameplay. It is NOT a demo. Most of the final game features are not included. You can, however, expect to have loads of fun.

What’s in the Public Beta?
Everything mentioned in the video with a ton of fixes, updates, etc. At the start we’re adding the following content on top of Private Beta content…

Classic Arcade Flight-Mode: Private Beta players asked for it and we’re happy to include the classic arcade flight from Warhawk.

Host Migration: When the host leaves the game, the hosting duties transfer to another player and gameplay will continue, provided the option is checked.

Language Support: European and Japanese languages are included. Korea, China, Latin America and Brazil will be in English…but these will include the appropriate languages for the full game.

Skills: Players will be able to collect unique Skills to use in gameplay based on their performance.

Playstation Network Friend Integration: Friends status, messages, and friend requests.

Bug Fixes: Lots and lots of bugs have been addressed.

You can expect continued updates throughout the Public Beta so stay tuned for more information. (“Yes,” Private Beta players, we know you want more, more, more. Remember, this is a test and we need to continue to take prudent, methodical steps. We appreciate your understanding.)

Where do you report feedback?
You can visit www.StarhawkTheGame.com and have discussions or head to the official forums:

• EN – http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Starhawk/bd-p/608
• FR – http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Starhawk/bd-p/bFR_Starhawk
• IT – http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Starhawk/bd-p/642
• DE – http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Starhawk/bd-p/693
• ES – http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Starhawk/bd-p/602

What about other Beta details?
Check out our blog post from last week for additional info.

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This past November/December we conducted the Private Beta for Starhawk. It has incredibly valuable to the team at LightBox and SCEA Santa Monica. We really appreciate all of the time that players spent finding bugs and glitches; we would have never been able to find many of them without real world gameplay. The Beta effort has been a true partnership with our community so we humbly thank you all. Without your help, we wouldn’t be able to progress to the next chapter in the development of the game, the Starhawk Public Beta!

We’re now happy to announce that the Starhawk Public Beta begins this coming Wednesday, January 18th for PlayStation Plus Subscribers in Europe. This is a crucial step for us as we’ll be testing all sorts of things, including game balance, server traffic, and general bugs. This is also a chance for more players to finally see what we’ve been working so hard on. As we’ve been getting so much support and encouragement from fans and press alike, we’re excited to spread the love and get more input to make the best game possible.

So the Public Beta schedule is as follows:

Who gets in and when?

January 18: All PlayStation Plus subscribers and all Private Beta participants (who haven’t erased their original Beta files).

February 1st: Uncharted 3 guys, you will receive an email on how to access the beta. In order to get this email you’ll have had to redeemed your Online Network Pass found inside the boxed copy and made sure you’ve opted into receiving marketing emails.

February 22: Everyone with a PlayStation Network account… in other words, everyone who wants in, gets in!

Make sure you keep a look out for other ways to access the Public Beta and remember to stay tuned to the blog and starhawkthegame.com for the very latest updates on Starhawk!

Beta FAQ

If I was in the Private Beta, am I in the Public Beta?
If you were in the Private Beta, you are in the Public Beta for the duration. DO NOT delete the Private Beta file from your PS3 or else you won’t have access. Worse…you will be…unhappy.

Is this a demo?
This is NOT a demo. You can expect to find bugs and the vast majority of the game features planned for the final game will not be implemented. Of course, many of you will not read this sentence and will expect the Beta to be final quality. We ask that the community help itself and remind players that this is a test. It happens to be a pretty fun test, but it is a test regardless. Keep an open mind and we’ll continue to regularly update the Beta with changes based directly on your feedback. Remember when you were a kid and you wanted to help make games? This is your chance!!!

When does the Public Beta end?
When the game is good and ready! Honestly, when we’ve learned all we can and feel we can deliver the best product to you. BUT it’s our recommendation that you do not delay joining or you might find your window of opportunity passing you by.

What’s different from the Private Beta?
We’re going to reveal more about the content updates soon enough. Patience, Padawan…

Will you test out the solo campaign?
Nope! The Public Beta is solely based around the multiplayer experience. While we have a robust solo story campaign in the final game, we can get our testing done elsewhere for that.

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Starhawk Fans!

After many, many months of hard work we are happy to announce that the Starhawk Private Beta will be going live Tuesday, November 22nd! As you may have read in Dylan’s last PS blog post, a selected a number of loyal Warhawk players will be emailed Beta code so if you played Warhawk there’s a chance that you’ll have a voucher invitation in your email in the upcoming weeks! If you don’t get on day 1, don’t get discouraged, our Private Beta will be “slow rolled.” That means that we’ll slowly add more fans and features as the Private Beta progresses.

Making a game is hard work, but it’s also a lot of fun! To show you what I mean, check out this new Behind the Scenes video to give you an inside look at the SCEA Santa Monica/LightBox Interactive working life! We really, really appreciate the Warhawk faithful joining us in our Beta efforts. Hopefully this video will give you all some insight into our day to day lives.  You Warheads are always at the forefront of our thoughts, as you will see.

For those of you that get in very early, you can expect to play Capture the Flag on a couple of maps to your heart’s content.

You’ll be able to find games via our Matchmaker system or choose your own game server via our Game Lists. We’ve kept the initial roll out pretty tight as we exercise the systems, but we’ll open the kimono inch by inch so keep playing to see what we have in store for you.

How Else Can You Get a Private Beta Code?

A very limited numbers of beta codes will be available. However, one person that will have a few to share will be blog manager James Gallagher, so make sure you lookout for his posts and tweets!

So congratulations to those of you fans that got (or will get) an invite, we really appreciate your enthusiasm and loyalty. We don’t think of a Beta as a privilege for you. You’re doing us a favour and helping to create Starhawk…and we thank you.

Warheads….have fun! Everyone else, stay tuned to the blog and starhawkthegame.com! We’ve got a lot more in our bag o’ tricks!

Public Beta

As we’ve previously mentioned for PAL Uncharted 3 purchasers you will receive an email with your public beta code in early 2012. We’ll have even more features, game modes, guns, weapons, and general goodness to show during that next Beta phase.

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PSP owners: get ready to have that tune swimming around your head again – there’s a Patapon 3 demo coming to PlayStation Store on Wednesday 7 July. I’ll leave Chris Hinojosa-Miranda from SCEA to describe what’s in Store…

I have been having a strange urge to walk around with one eyed covered, humming hyper-addictive chants looking to impale anything (or anyone) looking to start something… especially two-dimensional-tribal-mask-wearing enemies.

Why the hyper-aggressive musically induced comic mischief rage? Probably from the days I’m spending rocking out the new (very, very new) Patapon 3 Multiplayer Demo (now with more multiplayer!).

So you say, “What’s so special? Patapon 2 also had multiplayer?”

Well let me enlighten you with a few cool single-eyed-facts (to keep it in theme, I’ll limit them to three):

1. Patapon 3 is a whole new chapter in the Patapon saga.
2. There are some really cool new characters, including the Superhero Patapon.
3. To experience the awesome multiplayer adventures that lay beyond Patapolis, you’ll have to go through a strange portal called “the internet.”

That’s right. Patapon 3 has entered the interwebz (so to speak), with exciting new adventures that you can play with your friends via a wi-fi connection… and this demo is but a peep-hole glimpse into an entire new world, full of larger-than-eye enemies, super stylized eye-water graphics, and eye-popping excitement.

Should I tell you more? Ok, fine. Patapon 3, the Multiplayer Demo adventure can be downloaded for FREE on Wednesday, 7 July from PlayStation Store… exclusively for your PlayStation Portable.

If you are looking extremely confused asking yourself, “what is a Patapon?” No worries, here’s a quick recap of the story so far (now I am making squiggly motions with my arms taking you back in time).

The Patapons are an extremely ferocious war mongering tribe, whose only passion is to dance, sing, and pillage their way through the countryside in search of their beloved Earthend. Their adventure is a musical one, where you, as their leader, must lead them into battle with a series of timed-specific commands (attack, move forward, defend, retreat). Each command has a unique sequence (i.e. Circle, Circle, Square, Circle = attack), and each sequence must be entered in-time to the Rhythm of the Earth (an infectious 4/4 beat).

Why not give it a try?

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Get ready for another head-to-head tournament this 4 July weekend. This time around, test your skills on the expansion pack map ‘Fallen Star’ and in the free update mode ‘Collection’ (see rules below). Ten Grand Prizes will be chosen between SCEE and SCEA. These top Warheads will receive a 90 day Subscription Voucher for PlayStation Plus* and a Warhawk Champion’s Blade.

*Voucher can be used to extend your current service or to create a new one.

This tournament is short so be ready to go!

And for those of you that don’t already have Fallen Star, from 23 June to 5 July you can pick up this explosive expansion pack for €1.99 (original price: € 5.99).

• When: 1 July at 5am PST until 5 July, 5am PST.
  Where: Warhawk Fallen Star, Collection Tourney servers (look for the blue Tourny-FallenStar # servers).
• Modes: 32 player Fallen Star, Collection Mode, Team Game only
• What you need to win: be a part of your match’s winning team and you will get one point. You get zero points for losses and draws.
• Where to find your rank: just like last time, your stats will be posted on warhawk.com, in the Leaderboard area.
• What you can win: the top 10 players from North America and Europe will all win the fabled Champion’s Blade. Also, they’ll win a 90 day subscription to PlayStation Plus.

(more…)

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