You may remember that a couple of weeks ago we put out a call to the creatively-inclined to submit a piece of art directly influenced by video games. 10 finalists would then be selected by the members of our gamescom ‘games as art’ panel, mounted on canvas, signed and shown during our livestream of the event.

The panel – which was held immediately after our gamescom press conference – has of course now been and gone. So, for the benefit of those who didn’t manage to catch a glimpse of the winning images in the background, here are the 10 victors, complete with a description by the artist.

Nills van Dammen: This piece of art is a combination from two of my favorite games: Patapon and God of War. If a (new) Patapon game came with a God of War DLC pack, this would be the result. A perfect combination of violence and cuteness. I really love the whole composition of the battle against the Basilisk.

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Yes, it might seem like E3 was only yesterday, but the next major event in the video game calendar is now nearly upon us. From 15th to 19th August, hundreds of thousands of gamers will be descending on the cavernous Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany to check out the very latest in video game entertainment. And naturally, PlayStation will have a major presence.

First and foremost is the Sony press conference, which kicks off at 7.00pm CET/6.00pm BST on 14th August. The whole show will be streamed live from the PlayStation Blog so please mark your diaries! You’ll also be able to watch on Home, the PlayStation Official App for iPhone and Android, and on the PlayStation Facebook page.

I’ll be live-Tweeting the whole event too, with some help from the eu.playstation.com team, so keep half an eye on @PlayStationEU as well.

Then immediately after that we’re hosting a panel discussion, which will see the following industry luminaries chewing over that age-old ‘games as art’ debate:

• Shuhei Yoshida, President, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios
• Ian Dallas, Co-founder and Creative Director, Giant Sparrow (The Unfinished Swan)
• Kellee Santiago, Co-founder, thatgamecompany (Journey, Flower)
• Alex Evans, Co-founder, Media Molecule (LittleBigPlanet)
• Adam Volker, Moonbot Studio (Wonderbook: Diggs Nightcrawler)
• …and a special guest working on a currently unannounced project

Again, this will all be streamed live right here on the blog. Eurogamer and BBC man Johnny Minkley will be serving as compere and will be putting your questions to our experts. If you want to get involved please Tweet your query using the #PSGC hash tag. We’ll go through the suggestions on the day of the show and pick out the best.

You may remember that last week we put out a request for your artwork to serve as a backdrop for the panel. We’ll have more to say on the finalists next week – stay tuned.

Then, once all that is out the way, you can expect a steady stream of posts throughout the week offering a closer look at all the various titles on show. In short, we’ll be your one-stop shop for all things gamescom.

In the meantime, feel free to wildly speculate below over what might be making an appearance on the 14th. And if you’re planning on attending, please do make yourself known! I’ll be in and around the Sony booth all week and it would be lovely to say hi.

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Hi PlayStation Nation. I’m Anna Ritchie, writing to you all from the Sony headquarters in New York. Back in March, you may have heard about our Uncharted 3 make.believe contest where we invited Uncharted fans to participate in a contest to win the opportunity of a lifetime – the chance to become their very own character in Uncharted 3. Well, today I’m here to share with you the winner and his incredible journey.

Sony make.believe is all about fans using their creativity and imagination to do something amazing, and bringing their dreams to life. Earlier this year Sony gave fans the opportunity to become immortalised in the blockbuster game, Uncharted 3, by sending them to ‘training camp’ to compete in a series of three online challenges, held in the US and Europe. The winners from these challenges were flown to LA and treated in true VIP style, to compete in a live multi-player tournament event.
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Tomorrow we will be releasing a new system software update (v4.20) for PlayStation 3 which will include a few minor updates in order to strengthen functionality and improve your overall experience.

Firstly, we have revised specifications for the power-save mode in compliance with SCEE regulations. This means that the system will now, as default, be set to automatically turn off after 1 hour of no use.

These settings can, however, be manually adjusted via ‘System Auto-Off’ in the Settings on the XMB.

Also, as mentioned in our previous blog post, system software update (v4.10) added a feature that enabled you to hear your own voice through the “Wireless Stereo Headset” when playing multiplayer modes. This type of audio feedback is known as “sidetone”. Based on your comments, system software update (v4.20) will improve “sidetone” audio performance by giving you the option to select one out of five levels for microphone audio or give you the option to turn this feature off completely.

For those of you who use the “Wireless Stereo Headset “to watch Blu-ray or DVD movies on your PS3 system, this system software update will also enable virtual surround sound functionality giving you a superior audio experience.

We have also improved saved data management. You will now be able to select multiple saved data items and delete them or copy them as a group.

Additional details will be available here tomorrow once the system software update is live.

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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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