Category Archives: SingStore

You can hear the entire presentation from SCEE’s PlayStation Day in London by hitting the play button below. Included is a speech from Kaz Hirai and a massive show-off from SCEE boss David Reeves bearing a ton of info you can read in text form here and here. Watch your ears: a lot of the game demos were super-loud.

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Note to self: get bigger battery. You’ll be able to hear the entire press conference from the SCEE PlayStation Day in about 20 minutes. It ran to around 1 hour 20 mins, and we’re afraid our poor old laptop couldn’t handle it. Here’s what happened after it died:

• MGS 40 Gb bundle confirmed for Europe
• MotorStorm 2 presentation
• Mirror’s Edge presentation and news that new trailer will be up on PSN on Thursday
• News of a GT Academy competition, which is Europe-wide
• Stuff about sponsorship of the FIFA Interactive World Cup
• Blu-ray presentation (dull)
• Stuff about GoView
• 2.7 million people in the UK own a PSP
• “Watch this space” on GoView for PS3
• PS3 as a media server presentation
• EyeToy Play Hero announcement
• Pom Pom Party announcement
• Echochrome section (nothing new)
• SingStar demo (loads of figures)
• “Movement” project across Europe, a TV show to find unsigned music talent
• PlayTV demo – it’s launching in September for 99 euros
• GoExplore
• UMD PSP games going to be made available for download via PC Store this summer
• SCEE’s beaten 4 million PS3 sales target it set at Leipzig, has sold 5 million in Europe
• 3.2 million have now signed up to European PSN, 57 million pieces of content downloaded

OK, here we go. We’re in and we’re waiting to for the presentation to start at the SCEE PlayStation Day at the O2 in London. The most recent updates are at the top.

Hit the link to read the news live.

Update: You can read everything that happened after our battery died here. You can hear the entire conference in audio form here.

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It’s on the back of the registration card. Killzone 2, Resistance 2, Home, yada, yada. Image after the break.

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Keep your eyes open this afternoon, PlayStation fans, as SCEE will hold its 2008 PlayStation Day press conference at 4pm: it’s gearing up to be a whopper.

In the absence of E3, companies are now trending towards showing their end-of-year line-ups to the trade in April and May at their own events, and from what we’ve been told in private you can expect today’s reveals to be significant.

Details:

• 15.30 – Venue open
• 16:00 – Press conference
• 17:30 – Play time with games

We can’t tell you where it’s going to be held, but it’s a huge London venue and the guest list is described as “substantial”. We know a good portion of what’s going to be shown and all we can say is that it will be worth your while to keep watching for updates.

Kaz Hirai and European boss David Reeves will both be giving talks at the event, and there’s a heap of rumours circulating about what’s going to be shown. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that you’re about to hear pretty much everything about Sony’s 2008, so make sure you’re paying close attention at 4pm BST, when – God willing – we’ll be bringing you live updates from the venue.

It’ll probably just be Kaz talking about “brand equity”, a few PSPs and some warm beer, in reality. Don’t let us down, SCEE.

Another 23 tracks added to the SingStore this week and, again, it’s full of tat. No disrespect, or anything, but if the lists was any more middle of the road it’d be a white line, daddio. Full thing after the link.

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As previously rumoured, Kaz Hirai will be giving a talk at the SCEE PlayStation Day, as a rep has just confirmed.

“Yes he is,” a SCEE spokesperson told videogaming247 this morning when asked if the Sony super-boss was going to be at the event. “He’s going to be doing a talk.”

David Reeves will also be at the event, said the rep.

SCEE doesn’t want to reveal what’s going to be shown at the event in terms of software and services just yet, so you’ll have to wait for that, but if Hirai’s going to make the journey you can expect fireworks.

The SCEE PlayStation Day is being held in London on the evening of Tuesday, May 6.

A chap posting on the US PlayStation blog has unearthed what looks to be the first proper details of the SCEE May 6 event in London.

As you can see here, it would appear that Secret Agent Clank, SingStar Vol.2, Resistance 2 and Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII will be shown.

The forum post reckons that SCEE President David Reeves and – the man himself – SCEI President Kaz Hirai will both be speaking.

We’ll know soon enough.

According to a SCEE press release, SingStar has now sold more than 12 million units in PAL regions.

Launched in 2004 for PS2, the franchise has moved more than 5 million copies alone in fiscal 2007.

SCEE’s also confirmed that over 1 million tracks have been downloaded from the SingStore to date.

“SingStar’s success is built upon simple and entertaining game play,” said dev head Paulina Bozek. “Historically we have added new music tracks to keep the experience fresh but the arrival of PS3 has allowed us to think differently.

“We can now take advantage of the next-generation features to take the next step forward in the SingStar experience. The launch of SingStore and My SingStar Online is the realisation of this and the experience is now more user-focused, personalised and interactive.”

Read the full thing after the link.

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SingStar dev head Paulina Bozek has confirmed that the harmony mode announced for SingStar Vol. 2 earlier this week will be made available for Vol. 1 owners. Phew.

“The new Harmony mode will be available as a free upgrade via the PlayStation Network,” she said in this Q&A. “It will be compatible with the specially selected duet tracks. Once the upgrade goes out, we’ll be making more of these songs available in the SingStore, and there is a great selection on the vol. 2 disc.”

Plenty more through the link.

SCEE’s announced a sizeable addition list to the European SingStore for this Friday. We’re not sure how we got this far without being able to sing along to Morgen Wordt Het Beter by De Kast, but we’re thankful we did. Full list after the link.

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SCEE’s announced SingStar Vol. 2, and it sounds like a substantial update.

The next disc-based instalment in the karaoke franchise will include Remote Play functionality, 30 new tracks on the disc – including music from The Killers, Eminem and Gorillaz – and a new harmony duet mode.

Press release after the link. There doesn’t look to be a date in there, unfortunately.

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Not sure about you, but we can think of nothing better than singing along to Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince on Good Friday, and we are therefore in all kinds of luck. SingStar’s SingStore will be updated with the following tomorrow. SCEE really does have a hard-on for A-ha, doesn’t it?

• Duran Duran: Union Of The Snake
• A-ha: Hunting High & Low
• Ash: Shining Light
• Ash: Girl From Mars
• Ash: Kung Fu
• Bananarama: Venus
• Billy Joel: We Didn’t Start The Fire
• Daniel Lindstrom: Coming True
• Darin: Money For Nothing
• Divinyls: I Touch Myself
• DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince: Summertime
• Don Mclean: American Pie
• Duran Duran: Is There Something I Should Know
• Faith No More: Easy
• Kine: In The Air Tonight
• Maximo Park: The Coast Is Always Changing
• Maximo Park: I Want You To Stay
• Mel & Kim: Respectable
• Mr Big: To Be With You
• Placebo: Pure Morning
• Robyn: Show Me Love
• Scouting For Girls: She’s So Lovely
• Scounting For Girls: Elvis Ain’t Dead
• The Creeps: Ooh I Like It

According to this, the name “SingStar Vol. 2″ has popped up on an Australian retail list, reportedly down for a June launch. No one seems to know what’s going on with this at the moment, but we’ll give SCEE a shout on Monday.

According to this, Sony’s SingStore – home to tracks for SingStar PS3 – is going to receive 48 new tracks on March 7. And here they are.

Aha “The Sun Always Shines On TV”
Alice Cooper “Poison ”
Big Brovaz “Nu-Flow”
Bill Joel “Uptown Girl”
Blu Cantrell “Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)”
Blur “End of a Century”
Britney Spears “Baby One More Time”
Coldplay “Speed Of Sound”
Crash Test Dummies “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”
David Bowie “Heroes”
Dragon “April Sun In Cuba”
Elvira Nickolaisen “Egypt Song”
End Of Fashion “Oh Yeah ”
Fairground Attraction “Perfect”
Feeder “Buck Rogers”
Five “Keep On Movin’”
Jamelia “Superstar”
Jamelia “Stop”
Joy Division “Love Will Tear Us Apart”
Lemar “It’s Not That Easy”
Lordi “Hard Rock Hallelujah”
Maria Mena “My Lullaby”
Maxïmo Park “Graffiti”
Maxïmo Park “Going Missing”
Natalie Imbruglia “Torn”
opus X “loving you girl”
Paddy Casey “Saints and Sinners”
Paddy Casey “Whatever Gets You True”
Reamonn “Supergirl”
Roachford “Only To Be With You”
Rooster “Come Get Some”
Roxy Music “Love Is The Drug”
Shannon Noll “What About Me”
Spice Girls “Wannabe ”
Spice Girls “Who Do You Think You Are? ”
Steps “Deeper Shade of Blue”
Stereophonics “Dakota”
Stereophonics “The Bartender And The Thief”
The Darkness “I Believe In A Thing Called Love”
The Hoosiers “Goodbye Mr A”
The Screaming Jets “Better”
The Thrills “One Horse Town”
The Thrills “Santa Cruz (You’re Not That Far)”
The Undertones “Teenage Kicks”
Trio Rio “New York, Rio, Tokyo”
Whitney Houston “I Want To Dance With Somebody”

According to this, Sony’s planning to make a graphical update to PlayStation Store on April 15, to coincide with the release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.

Apparently, the update to going to make the store look something like SingStore, the shop-front used for downloading tracks for SingStar PS3.

The news came out of the Destination PlayStation conference in the US yesterday, which also saw announcements of MGS4 and God of War PSP bundles.

Expect this to be the first of several editorials on the departure of SCEE front-man Phil Harrison throughout today and this week. It’s essentially Colin Campbell’s take on the resignation (derived, it seems from a recent and “agreeable” lunch).

“He’s done launching consoles; so he won’t hop over to a direct Sony competitor; nor, I think, will he join an established third party publisher a la Peter Moore,” said Campbell, a view in contradiction to a just-published GI story that says he’s off to Atari.

There’s stuff in there on what Colin thinks Phil’s departure from Sony means to the company as well. Take a look.

Just in from Sony. Phil Harrison – president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, to give him his full job title – has resigned. Kaz Hirai, president of SCEI, is to take control of Sony worldwide studios, Harrison’s job up to this point.

“The past 15 years at Sony Computer Entertainment has been the defining journey of my life so far,” said Phil Harrison. “I am grateful to all the PlayStation family for their incredible support, guidance and friendship. It has been a privilege to serve as part of the team and be inspired by them on a daily basis. I am so proud of everything PlayStation has achieved and will continue to support its future in every way I can.”

No reason has been given for the departure and SCEE has said that it will be making no further comment on the situation. Full press release after the link.

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New tracks for European karaoke-lovers in the crowd, as SCEE promised, have hit SingStore. For SingStar owners it’s like Christmas come early. Here’s what’s new:

Editors: Munich
Doves: Black & White Town
MC Hammer: U Can’t Touch This
Bryan Ferry: Let’s Stick Together
Whitney Houston: Greatest Love of All
Marillion: Incommunicado
UB40: Red Red Wine

According to this lot, these are the songs Singstar owners will be able to grab on February 6 along with |”paradise beach wallpaper”. Hot stuff.

In English:
Bryan Ferry “Let’s Stick Together”
Doves “Black And White Town”
Editors “Munich”
Marillion “Incommunicado”
MC Hammer “U Can’t Touch This”
UB40 “Red Red Wine”
Whitney Houston “The Greatest Love Of All”

In German:
Wir Sind Helden “Nur ein Wort”
Wir Sind Helden “Von hier an blind”
Wir Sind Helden “Denkmal”

In Spanish:
Amistades Peligrosas “Estoy Por Ti”
Ejecutivos Agresivos “Mari Pili”
Gabinete Caligari “La Culpa Fue Del Cha-Cha-Cha”
Loquillo Y Trogloditas “Cadillac Solitario”
Los Ronaldos “Adiós papa”

Not sure about the Italian and Spanish stuff, but “Let’s Stick Together” is proper awesome. Such a shame you can’t just listen to it instead of “singing” like a dying cat in front of people that will never respect you in the morning.