PlayStation Home will be offline from 8AM BST on Wednesday 16th May for routine maintenance. Here is what to expect after the update…

The Midway 3 is a collection of crazy carnival midway games and excitement! Buy a green ticket, play some games, win a hundred wacky prizes! This is the best place to play all day! Green tickets can be used in all three Midway spaces, and we give you Darla’s Den, a free personal space, just for showing up!

The Hot Zone is a smokin’ space that serves as a hub for all three Midway mini-game collections and hosts a bunch of Hot Streak Air Hockey tables (2-player real-time games). You will also find a Tele-Port-A-Potty leading to Darla’s Den, a Mass Media Store ticket booth, and the Lots O’ Junk Redemption Centre.

Two of Novus Prime’s most popular items are on sale this week only! Save 40% on the mysterious Obsidian Pilot outfit & ultra-fast Blade fighter ship bundle, and take futuristic fashion to the next level with the Nebulon-Interweave Power Suit for 50% off. And don’t forget, owners of the Obsidian Pilot outfit save 20% on the new Obsidian Bladewalker suit!

Visit the Novus Prime space station today, and act fast – this sale ends Tuesday 22nd May! (more…)

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Hello Everybody

The year is 2012 (gentle reminder!) It is told that this year brings forth the end of the world or so the interesting people tell me. So I thought it would be a good idea to bring you some awesome games with an apocalyptic theme to get you in training for our impending doom.

One of the best ways to get a crash course into surviving a nuclear fallout would be the legendary games Fallout3 and Fallout: New Vegas. There will be a 30% discount on all Fallout3 and Fallout: New Vegas individual add-on packs, and a 50% discount for fans buying all add-ons as a bundle (with extra discounts for PlayStation Plus members).

How about living in an underwater city? Or on a strange, distant planet which looks surprisingly like the Arizona desert? You can expect titles such as Bioshock 2 and Borderlands from just £9.69/€11.99 with extra discounts for the DLC.

Of course, no ‘end of the world’ scenario would be complete without a zombie biting at your ankles here and there, so for this we have Resident Evil 4 and Code Veronica: X, as well as Amy, Burn Zombies Burn and All Zombies Must Die.

What better way to spend your last moments on Earth than playing games where the world hasn’t quite ended? So check out these great offers and more available on the PlayStation Store from Wednesday 16th May to Wednesday 30th May.

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Exciting news for lovers of all things sports! Together with the BBC, we’re bringing a new application to your PlayStation 3. The BBC Sports app.

The BBC Sports app will sit on your XMB, feeding you with highlights of key sporting events during the summer and beyond. Throughout the London 2012 Olympics alone, the app will deliver 2,500 hours of content and up to 24 simultaneous events, all in glorious HD and all at the touch of the X button.

Plus catch other sporting highlights, like Wimbledon and Formula One™, where you’ll be able to take command of your viewing experience with an array of camera angles and interactive experiences.

The best bit? It’s completely free and it’s coming to your PlayStation 3 this summer, before Wimbledon 2012 kicks off in June.

We’ll have more news really soon! For now, post your questions and comments below and I’ll do my best to get them answered for you.

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Derrick the Deathfin is the world’s very first underwater papercraft game. The action – of which there is plenty – takes place in an irreverent aquatic world full of paper, goofy fish, paper, arcade action, paper, wanton destruction, and paper*.

After Derrick’s parents are brutally turned into soup he sets forth on a worldwide rampage of destruction in order to make himself feel a bit better. On his travels he eats all manner of dopey delights for dinner, duels with paper enemies and decimates manmade cardboard monstrosities. Derrick also has a distinct fondness for picking up diamonds and jumping through burning tyres in the sky. Just like a real shark.

Derrick journeys through 32 beautiful, vibrant levels set across 11 environments and 4 continents. He is in a constant battle against his metabolism, needing to constantly eat to stay alive. He must move, groove, jump, race and puzzle his way through increasingly crazy challenges to attain paper-shark certified glory.

You could describe the gameplay of Derrick the Deathfin as the illegitimate lovechild of Ecco the Dolphin and Sonic the Hedgehog. Possibly with Joe Danger filming in the background during conception.

Indeed the idea for Derrick came from a mildly confrontational and slightly inebriated argument one evening about the relative merits of Sonic and Ecco. Clearly the only logical next step was to try to combine the two game styles and frame it all in an underwater papercraft world. So that is what we set about doing.

The unique, vibrant art style of the game has been masterminded by street artist and all-round superstar Ronzo. All of the characters and environments in the game are based on real papercraft, often being modelled in paper before being photographed and recreated as 3D models, then imported into the game. This process and Ronzo’s uniquely goofy character designs give the game an original look and charm.

Derrick the Deathfin’s distinct styling and accessible yet frantic arcade action gameplay is designed to appeal to anybody with a PS3 and a bit of sense.

Derrick will be shredding his way onto PSN this summer.

* There is also a bit of cardboard for those that way inclined.

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Dear Community,

I am posting this short note to let you know that this will be my last post as PlayStation.Blog Manager, as I am moving on from SCEE to have a go at some opportunities elsewhere.

“OK…so what’s the bad news?” I can hear you type in the comments.

That’s a bit of a joke, but the truth is that there isn’t really any bad news – my leaving opens the door for someone to come in with fresh ideas, different opinions and enthusiasm abound. I’m proud to have helped create a social platform that isn’t about individuals, but about bringing PlayStation customers closer to the professionals who make the games they love; hopefully the next in line will take this small idea even further.

However, I would ask you to be patient while my colleagues work through the transition. The department is working very hard to get the right person as quickly as possible, and recruiting good people can sometimes take time. In the interim, we have organised for some contributing editors to steer the ship and, when the next full-time Blog Manager has been appointed, you will be the first to know.

Well…they’ll probably let the successful candidate know first, but you’ll be informed pretty soon afterwards.

All that’s left from me is to say goodbye, thank you for sticking with us through thick and thin, and keep on enjoying your games.

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