Ron Festejo, Home’s creative director, has confirmed that Home will enter its open beta phase in November this year.

“Home is currently in a closed beta phase,” he said, speaking at last week’s SCEE PlayStation Day in London. “We have between 8,000 and 10,000 users in this closed beta phase. Around July we’re going to be expanding on the closed beta phase and allowing more people to gradually come in, and then in November this year we’ll be going to the open beta.”

He added: “The extension to the closed beta allows us to have more conversations with our community. We’re very much in close conversations with them. A lot of the changes we’ve done have been the result of feedback. We’ve asked the community a lot of questions, they’ve given us a lot of feedback as to what they think needs improving, and we’re doing that, so it’s managing expectations.”

There’s more in this Eurogamer TV report, mainly about game-launching in Home, how to set up sessions, and so on. Take a look.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz earlier this week, SCEE president David Reeves has admitted that the firm would like the PSP games roster to be larger.

“Hand on heart, would we like more PSP games? Yes, we would. We really would,” he said.

Reeves did add, however, that more games were on the way to Europe from Japan.

“We’ve seen in the last six months that because of the success of the PSP in Japan many Japanese developers have got some absolutely phenomenal games,” he said. @They’re not Monster Hunter 2G or things like that, but they are in development and we’ll see them over here.”

The SCEE PlayStation Day earlier this week carried a grand total of no PSP games.

“We’ve realised that maybe we were too ambitious with the non-gaming applications within Home, getting sponsors and stuff like that,” he said, speaking at this week’s SCEE PlayStation Day.

“In that sense we were deserting gamers. So, we’re concentrating on the gaming by launching games in Home, and attracting people who are into gaming in first – instead of the Nike people, or Adidas people who are into fashion and not necessarily into gaming.”

Never fear, though. No more slips, Reeves promised.

“It is definitely coming out in autumn,” he added. “Whether that’s October or November, I don’t precisely know, but it is an open beta.”

Playable content

• Race Driver GRID demo (free)

Add-on content

• Guitar Hero III “Def Leppard” track pack (£3.99/€4.99)
• Guitar Hero III “Muse” track pack (£3.99/€4.99)
• Army of Two “SSC Challenge” game pack (£3.99/€4.99)

Trailers

• Mirror’s Edge Gameplay trailer (free)
• PlayStation Day “Introduction: Kaz Hirai” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play has no limitations” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is hiding and waiting” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is full throttle” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is a thousand stories” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play brings us together” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is moving hips, lips” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Play is unexplored” video (free)
• PlayStation Day “Summary: Play” video (free)
• PlayStation Day Compilation Trailer (free)

“I am very confident that after the 10-year lifecycle we will have the install base that we are looking for and that is obviously to be in the leadership position,” he said.

The SCE president added: “”We’ve only really begun to scratch the surface with PlayStation 3 but I am confident that given the long life-cycle we have planned for the machine we are going to have a very good install base in all of the major territories.”

There’s a video of the man himself speaking through the link.

Hirai was in London this week for the SCEE PlayStation Day. Read our interview with the Sony boss here.

According to PS3F, SingStar producer Paulina Bozek confirmed at the SCEE PlayStation Day last night that a web version of My SingStar Online will launch this year.

The site will allow internet users to see uploaded videos from the game. Apparently SingStar players will be able to say whether or not they want their videos to be viewed by the general public or held within the current, PS3-only system.

More through the link.

Speaking to GamesIndustry, SCEE president David Reeves said at the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday that he hoped LittleBigPlanet sales would be higher than those for GT5: Prologue last month.

“We’re hoping sales will be higher than GT5: Prologue,” he said.

SCE boss Kaz Hirai added: “These are genre-defining titles, something we’re very proud of, and just one facet of the rapidly growing world of PlayStation.

“[LittleBigPlanet] will completely revolutionize the way gamers interact with their games, especially through the community functions and the ability to interact with LittleBigPlanet lovers around the globe.”

“Well I think you probably will see it, it’s just that a deal obviously was struck between Microsoft and Take-Two to do that, and if that’s what they want to do, I think that’s the last shot they have,” he said.

Obviously, this is going set the cat among the pigeons somewhat, given that Microsoft’s spent a reported $50 million on exclusive DLC for the game later this year.

Speaking to videogaming247 at the SCEE PlayStation Day in London yesterday, SCEE president David Reeves said that PS3′s hard drive is staying at 40Gb in Europe for the foreseeable future.

“I don’t know that any other hard drive configuration is even planned,” he said when asked when an 80Gb SKU – so popular in the US – would release in Europe.

Continuing on the topic of PS3 hard drives, Reeves went on to indicate that those looking to get involved with PlayTV in September are likely going to have to buy a new one.

“I think eventually, yes, it will be,” Reeves said when asked if hard drive size was significant to the consumer SCEE’s trying to reach in Europe.

“I think the person that wants to be multimedia – and when we bring out PlayTV, they’re going to find that 40Gb is too small. But it’s not proprietary. You can go out and you can just buy another hard drive and just plug it in.

“You know, hard drives are a commodity. Sony says, ‘OK, we’ll go with 40, we’ll go with 60, we’ll go with 80,’ but Seagate, who produces hard drives, they might find that next year, for example, the cheapest hard drive is 120Gb. I’m not saying we’re launching it, but they might say, ‘We’re putting a zillion 120Gb hard drives into Vaio and Toshiba laptops,’ right? And they say, ‘That’s the cheapest one. But if you want a 40, that’s prehistoric and you’ll pay twice as much.’

“That’s honestly how it is. It’s a commodity.”

SCEE announced a new MGS4 bundle last night, which includes the 40Gb machines. Now you know why.

Read our full coverage of the SCEE PlayStation Day, including all the announcements, media and impressions so far from around the web, here.

“The DualShock 3 launch is imminent,” he told us in answer to a remark we made on the fact a Sixaxis is included in the newly-announced European MGS4 bundle.

The Euro boss gave no other hint as to when we’re specifically going to see the controller over here, or whether or not we’ve going to see it release before Metal Gear’s launch on June 12.

DualShock 3 has already launched in both America and Japan.

“I think the fact that [Microsoft] launched 18 months before… It is significant for us because we get so many things thrown at us, because we were too expensive, we came too late, we didn’t launch early enough in Europe, and Xbox have been saying, ‘Well, we’re doing well and we’re the best the console,’ so we thought, for once we will say, actually, very quietly, ‘We’ve passed them,’” he said.

Reeves announced in the press conference that PS3 sales in Europe are now higher than Xbox 360′s will 5 million units sold.

Read our full coverage of the SCEE PlayStation Day, including all the announcements, media and impressions so far from around the web, here.

“Just as when you see two top football teams playing, the margin of error [is so small], the difference between Xbox and ourselves and Wii is so little, that you’ve got to have these little things like PlayTV on PS3 or GoExplore on PSP to make the difference, so the consumer says, ‘I’ll have that one, please,’” he said.

Software’s still the focus, though, as SCE boss Kaz Hirai labored in our chat last night.

“The number one priority is still having the great games every month,” said Reeves. “We know that that’s what fundamentally drives the business. Some consumers, though, look a little bit to the right, a little bit to the left, and say, ‘Well, interesting: it’s got a hard drive, and there’s PlayTV as well. That means I can get digital terrestrial TV.’

“It’s still 90 percent games, though.”

Read our full coverage of the SCEE PlayStation Day, including all the announcements, media and impressions so far from around the web, here.

Just to add to this lot of screens and movies, here are the last shots we missed from the asset disc handed out at the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday.

• MotorStorm Pacific Rift shots
• Siren: Blood Curse shots
• SingStar Vol. 2 shots
• SingStar PS3 shots
• PlayTV shots
• Elefunk shots
• PixelJunk Eden shots

As long as you have a game installed on the hard drive or in the disc tray, you can jump straight into an online lobby from within Home. This means that you skip any of the game’s introductions, and in the case of MotorStorm, you even get a custom loading screen that features the Home logo in the corner. Using the PSP interface, you can customise all of the game rules that you’d expect from an online game, including the number of players, private slots, and laps and tracks. Once you’re ready to go, a small PlayStation control pad icon appears above your head. This indicates to other Home users that you’re ready to play, and they can come over, chat to you, or just join you if they’re interested. The demo that we played was running over the Internet, and even in its beta form, moving between Home and a game of MotorStorm was a completely seamless experience.

So there we are. No date was given for Home yesterday.

IGN’s posted what appears to be the first hands-on with Killzone 2 from the SCEE PlayStation Day yesterday. From the piece:

Some of the game’s appropriations were sadly wide of the mark – when one of the grunts exclaims he feels ‘like a spare prick at a gang bang’ we couldn’t help but squirm at the forced machismo of it all. None of this is to say that the game doesn’t hold together – but when other offerings at Sony’s PlayStation Day, such as LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, look to create more boxes to tick, it’s a shame to see such a highly anticipated title do little more than is expected of it.

More through the link.

According to this PS3F story, Siren Blood Curse will release in Europe this summer is 12 downloadable parts.

The news came from an asset disc from the SCEE PlayStation Day in London yesterday.

There was no mention of Siren at all in the keynote at the event, but the game was playable on the showfloor. Very grainy it looked too.

Apparently Siren sets you “in the Japanese village of Hanuda, where a TV crew from America arrive to research the legend of the ‘Vanished Village’ where human sacrifice is said to have taken place thirty years ago.”

No word on a US release as yet.

Here’s all the shots and video we can see from this afternoon’s SCEE PlayStation Day so far. You can find all the rest of our coverage here.

• Stardust HD Team mode screens
• WipEout HD screens
• Killzone 2 shots
• LittleBigPlanet screens
• Resistance 2 screens
• Mirror’s Edge movie
• Resistance 2 movie

We also asked him what keeps him awake at night. See if you can guess the answer.

VG247: When was the last time you spoke in Europe?

Kaz Hirai: Actually, I think that was the first time I’ve ever given a presentation in Europe.

Does that signal anything to do with the importance of Europe to Sony at all, or is this just part of your tenure?

Well, it’s part of my tenure and basically just trying to map out my schedule. Unfortunately it took a while before I could actually block out a good four to five days to come to the European territory, check out the market and meet a lot of people. And basically [this] coincided very well with PlayStation Day, so I thought, ‘Hey, if I’m going to block out five or six days let’s do it [for] an event like this so I can meet as many people as possible, see what the market is like and get some feedback.’

An event like this pretty much replaces E3 as the main event for Sony. Would you agree with that?

Well, I think that E3 is going through some changes, and they’re trying to find the right formula. I understand that they’re going to change the formula again this year. They’re going to tweak it a bit more. But we’ve always had in the US what we call “Destination PlayStation”, and that’s an event we do usually in February, and we invite all the retailers, and all the third-party publishing partners, and we talk about the business and we recap the holiday season from the year past, and we talk about the business for this year. And that’s where a lot of the business gets done.

E3 is an event to kind of confirm the things we talked about at DPS, and at the same time it’s also an industry statement as well. So it’s not just a PlayStation event for PlayStation messaging: there’s a part of that, but I think it’s also an industry event for industry messaging as well. And I think, as I said, that they’re trying to tweak the formula to get it just right.

It was interesting what you were saying in the presentation about PS3 having a ten-year lifespan, and also the fact that David said you’ve now accelerated past Xbox 360 in Europe. Do you think that the acceleration of PS3 sales and a dropping off of Xbox 360 sales is a trend? Do you expect it to continue?

I think it’s basically going to be up to software titles that we’re going to be able to offer to the PS3 consumers, or potential PS3 consumers. Whether it’s from first-party or from third-party, and so long as we can keep the consumers excited and engaged, I think we’re going to have a good run.

Do you think you have the line-up this year to keep consumers excited and engaged?

I think if you just look at the titles we can talk about today, between third- and first-party I think we have a pretty compelling line-up. Obviously there are some titles that we didn’t talk about today that I’m sure we’ll be sharing information on as the months go along, but I think one of the first things I did when I came on board last year, was to reposition the PlayStation 3 as being first and foremost a videogames console. If it’s a videogames console, you’ve got to have a lot of titles. That’s why I put in some initiatives to make sure that we get a good line-up of titles, both from our internal studios and from third-parties, and we’re starting to see the fruits of their labour come to the forefront.

Talking of PS3 as a games machine, how significant was Grand Theft Auto for you as a launch? I mean, you can’t buy it here. It’s completely sold out. There’s been a lot of talk of it driving the PS3 platform because people associate the brand with Sony. Would you agree with that?

I think Grand Theft Auto, the franchise, has always been associated with the PlayStation platform first and foremost, and so I think consumers are coming back again. They had previous versions of Grand Theft Auto on previous platforms, so it’s always good to come home to PlayStation 3 as well, I think. But between Grand Theft Auto and Gran Turismo, and all those compelling titles that are coming out on PS3, again from first- and third-party, that’s what’s really driving the excitement for the PS3 users.

Do you think Microsoft wasted its money by buying that downloadable content? Do you think it’ll make a difference to the way GTA is actually perceived on Xbox 360?

Well, it’s really up to the consumers to decide. In my opinion, I’m hoping that, as I said before, it’s been on PlayStation, you know, it’s a franchise that’s associated with PlayStation for the longest time, and I think that based on the numbers I’m seeing right now, I think the consumers feel that way as well.

As an event [today], what would you be pushing journalists to be looking at? The multimedia message was very heavy in [the press conference], there’s an awful lot of product on the floor, ranging from kids titles to adult titles; which do you think specifically is the driver for the back half of this year?

Well, I think if you’re talking about the real important message points, first is that we’re not deviating from the basic strategy that I put forward last year, that it’s first and foremost a videogames console. That’s where the core, fundamental foundation of our business is going to be.

But we want to build on top of that, because the PS3, technologically, can do a lot more, because it’s networked, it’s got a hard drive, it’s got a Blu-ray drive in there, so we want to start seeding that message as well. Again, to talk about the ten-year lifecycle, there’s a lot more that PS3 can do, so we need to take it in baby steps so we don’t confuse the consumers, or the press for that matter.

And I think that now that we’ve gotten that basic message across, we can now branch out into other entertainment content as well. Because we’re increasing installed base, we want to have games that really are none core gamer titles, like for example Buzz, like for example SingStar on PS3, and that will allow us to expand the demographics a bit more as we increase the installed base. They kind of go hand in hand.

In terms of competition, what actually keeps you awake at night? What’s worrying you? Are you worried by Microsoft, are you worried by Nintendo, or are you just happy with the way things are going?

What keeps me up at night, quite honestly, is the competition for the consumer’s mind-share, time-share I guess, and also financially – dollar-share, euro-share, pound share – in terms of just wanting entertainment. That could range from videogaming all the way to, you know, bowling with your friends on a Saturday night. That’s entertainment as well. If they’re bowling with their friends on a Saturday night, they’re not playing PlayStation 3. That’s an extreme example, obviously, but what keeps me up at night is, ‘What can we do to make sure that the consumers see the PlayStation 3 as being the premier device or platform to enjoy obviously their videogame content, but also other entertainment content as well?’ And I think really proving that point with additional services, additional content, is going to be the key.

That’s the sort of thing that keeps me up at night number one, number two quite honestly – again, this is a bigger industry picture issue – is that there’s still a lot of rampant piracy going on, and that’s not good for anybody, whether it’s us, or Microsoft, or Nintendo, or EA, or anybody else. How we combat that issue in all the markets, not just the emerging markets, is something that really keeps me up at night, because that could really do a lot of damage to our business.

“I think Grand Theft Auto, the franchise, has always been associated with the PlayStation platform first and foremost, and so I think consumers are coming back again,” he said.

“They had previous versions of Grand Theft Auto on previous platforms, so it’s always good to come home to PlayStation 3 as well, I think.”

Hirai refused to be drawn on whether or not Microsoft had wasted it’s money by paying a reported $50 million for exclusive DLC for GTA IV, saying that punters will vote with their feet.

“Well, it’s really up to the consumers to decide,” he said. “As I said before… it’s a franchise that’s associated with PlayStation for the longest time, and I think that based on the numbers I’m seeing right now, I think the consumers feel that way as well.”

We’re going to post the full interview with Kaz in a second.

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.

• 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.

• Guy says we’re staring in the next few minutes.
• Still not started. Watching pretty patterns on a big screen. It’s a thriller. Matt GamesIndustry’s front of me, keeping it very real.
• We’re off. Movie playing of LBP, PSP, Play TV, Buzz…
• Singstore, Home, Motorstorm 2…
• SOCOM, Resistance 2…
• Reeves on stage.
• General intro. Wants to broaden your mind as to the wealth of entertainment that is PlayStation.
• Hirai on stage.
• He’s talking about various European PS projects like LBP and Killzone.
• End of 2007 10.5 PS3 around the world.
• Full hardware figures in fiscal results next week.
• PS3 has “multi-faceted entertainment credentials”, apparently.
• He’s talking about the “long-term play” of PS3. He’s just said that PS3 wil have at least a ten year lifespan.
• Key titles for year ahead: LBP, Resistance 2, Buzz, MGS4, Haze.
• He’s talking about Home now, and the recent delay. He’s apologised.
• Home is playable on the showfloor.
• He’s banging on about brands and passion. And richness.
• Reeves back on stage.
• 5 million PS3s sold in Europe.
• They’ve sold more PS3s throughout Europe than 360, says Reeves.
• He wants to talk about “creation” and “empowering individuals.”
• XMB themes.
• SingStar and Buzz. Woman singing on screen and a big “User Created Content” next to it. He’s talking about uploading videos.
• Clips of uploaded songs
• Now Buzz.
• Buzz Quiz TV, all the network stuff, and the chance to create your own questions and share them with the PS “community”.
• LBP.
• Sackboy’s up there. 50 environments, all the tools to create your own content. Didn’t know anything about this, David.
• Video of Media Molecule levels.
• Little Killzone men in LBP. Windmills, trees, wheels. Woot.
• Battery’s looking fucking sketchy. Only 13 mins left. Sorry.
• Killzone 2 and Resistance 2. Killzone 2 will be out in Feb.
• Killzone 2 vid. Paint flaking off metal, “our war”, bullets hitting metal, looks fucking amazing, grenades, all in-game, shooting, cover, done.
• Resistance 2. Over a million have played Resistance online (missed exact figure). Ted Price from Insomniac on stage. Community, Campaign… Two more C’s to come, apparently.
• Competitive. New video showing redwood level. In-game, Mass multiplayer. Sniping. Red vs Blue. Done.

We’ve just registered at the O2 for the SCEE PlayStation Day, and we’re practically crapping ourselves with excitement.

We’ve been told that press will be allowed to take seats at 3.30pm and that Paul Oakenfold’s DJ’ing later. We won’t be listening to Paul’s “rinsin’” turnes: we’ll be updated as much as possible. Kick off for the press conference is at 4pm BST, remember, and all seems well with the connection so we’ll be live blogging for the win.

All being well we’ll have text, audio and video updates for you as we go into the evening, so don’t go changing. All the news will be right here. All of it. If it isn’t you can be rest assured we died trying.

Speaking in this this official US PLayStation blog post, Echochrome producer Kumi Yuasa has promised that user-created puzzles will be available to download for the puzzler, for free, on a regular basis. From Eurogamer:

The developers will hand-pick each batch, and they will be playable for as long as it takes the team to select and release a subsequent compilation.

To have your creation included, simply select “Canvas” from the main menu and tinker until you can play and complete your puzzle.

Once finished, pop to the portfolio menu and either “send” it to a friend or “upload” it to the developers. In the PSP version you can only “send” your levels Ad Hoc to friends.

More through the link. No release date for the Escher-inspired oddity as yet, but we’re hoping to hear something on a European release from the SCEE PlayStation Day in London later today.

New footage of the game is to be shown today.

Apparently the information came from a PSN update list for today, which also shows that a new Motorstorm 2 trailer’s going to be released.

All this is to coincide with the SCEE PlayStation Day in London, which kicks off at 4pm BST.

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.

Here. They’re good quality scans and perfectly readable. There’s a lot of new art in the feature, a few new screens and a full interview, so fill your boots. We wouldn’t be amazingly surprised if this showed up in the SCEE PlayStation Day tomorrow.