The new PS3 firmware 1.9 update just hit in Japan. Sony seems to improve the PS3 day by day and that could one day make the PS3 a great multimedia gaming system. Here is the complete list of changes.

• Ability to rearrange games on the XMB • Option menu now includes "eject disk"
• Press triangle to eject games/CDs/movies in the XMB • XMB backgrounds
• Change the folder classification • Emoticons • Add bookmarks
• Change CD output to 44.1/88.2/176.4kHz • Force 24Hz output for Blu-ray over HDMI
• Change PS3 video settings in-game • "Bit Mapping" in the "Music Setting"
• Save AVCHD type animations from a Memory Stick • Change settings like upscaling while playing PS and PS2 games
• Web browser security function in the browser's tool section • Avatar moves during audio visual chat

Lately, it seems as if all we've heard about the PS3 is bad news. Sony has some good news for us regarding their latest console. In Japan, they sold their millionth console on July 15th. In Japan, Nintendo sold 2.9 million Wiis, and Microsoft sold 421,000 Xbox 360s.

Sony Europe president David Reeves has hinted at the possibility of a new PlayStation 3 in Europe, which will accommodate a hard drive capacity of 120GB. Reeves stated that the leap from 60GB to 80GB would not be significant enough to pursue.

The difference between 60 and 80GB is very small, we just feel that going up 20GB is not worth it, if you go to double it, it's worth it , so maybe you'll see something a little bit later.

Although there are no plans for an 80GB version of the PS3 or a price cut anytime soon in Europe, gamers may be happy to hear that Sony is set to offer a new 'starter pack' as a consolation. For an unchanged price of £425, Sony is offering a bundle consisting of the standard 60GB PS3 console, two SIXAXIS controllers and two free games from a choice of Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm, Genji: Days of the Blade, Formula One Championship Edition and Ridge Racer 7. Sony, which announced this new deal at this year's E3, says it is offering £115 of extras for with no increase in price, although European gamers may still be displeased to hear they won't be getting the 80GB version of the console after the initial launch was so delayed. Compared to similar deals in the UK, this price is still £125 more expensive than the Xbox 360 with games and £225 more expensive than the Wii with two games.

Konami's Hideo Kojima told everyone at an E3 SONY press conference that the new Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will be a PlayStation 3 Exclusive and so far there are no plans for its transfer to other Media.

Yesterday, we pointed out that Circuit City might be planning to cut the PS3 price by $100 USD. Unfortunately, if this price cut actually happens, it's only temporary. The president of Sony Corporate Entertainment America (SCEA) has formally/officially announced that Sony plans no world-wide price cut of this sort. While Sony was considering a price cut to help bolster sales, which developers have been calling for for quite some time, Sony is stone-walled on this issue.

The Circuit City advertisement may yet be legitimate. We'll keep you posted as to whether or not the PS3 will really be $500 USD on the week of July 15th at Circuit City.

Ever since the PS3 price of $600 USD was announced, critics have felt that a price drop was all but necessary. There is a pre-release flyer circling the bowels of the internet with an interesting rumor: a $500 PS3 the week of July 15th. At first, Sony merely scoffed at the $500 PS3, putting it down as just another rumor. However, once this "rumor" became pixelated, Sony was caught flat-footed, and did not have any comment on this situation.

Even if this price drop is legitimate, it could just be a simple Circuit City exclusive sale, and will end the following Sunday. The only thing we can really do is wait until July 15th for the $500 PS3. Regardless of whether or not the flyer is legitimate, you can read it below.

The Nintendo Wii seems to just keep getting more popular in Japan. While some people in America (including SCEA) feel that the Wii is just a passing fad, the Japanese will not hear any of this. Nintendo is selling six Wii's for every Sony PS3 sold in Japan. Nintendo sold 270,974 Wii consoles during June, while Sony sold 41,628 PS3s. Microsoft's Xbox 360, which is very unpopular in Japan, got 17,616 sales.

An update to the PS3 system software was released on June 28, 2007. If you update your PS3 system, the system software will be version 1.82. The update adds support for playback of AVC High Profile (H.264/MPEG-4) format video. The free 1.82 firmware download and the full list of new or revised features can be accessed here.

News is coming out that the PS3 killer app Killzone 2 is set to be shown at E3.

The game is going to be shown to the gaming world during an invite-only pre E3 event.

The event is expected to have about 150 invited guests attending to see the game in action. The expectation at this point is that Killzone 2 is going to be shown in a playable form.

What this form is going to be is not yet known because it is not known whether it will be a single-player demo, multiplayer, etc.

Also it is not known what the game will look like as it has not yet been shown in any form since E3 2005 when the game was unveiled in a video-form showcasing amazing photo-realistic visuals which many stated could not actually be achieved in playable gameplay.

Sony has the invite-only event going against the Microsoft keynote event as well in an attempt to steal thunder from the Xbox 360 and Microsoft. It seems that Killzone 2 will be ready to try and steal the show at E3 2007.

There is good news for PS3 owners. By March 2008 Sony expects 380 new Playstation 3 games to hit the market which it says should rev up demand for the console that has so far lost out to the Nintendo Wii. 180 of those titles will be launched over the internet. Sony also aims to ship 11 million PS3 units by the year's end as shareholders call for higher dividends.

Nintendo has continued its recent console success throughout May, with the DS taking top spot and the Wii in a comfortable second in terms of sales. The Nintendo DS sold an impressive 423,000 units and the Wii 338,000 units, with the PSP next in line with 221,000 units, ahead of the PlayStation 2's 188,000 units. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are continuing to lag behind, with Sony's latest console on just 82,000 and the Xbox 360 on 155,000 units - the PS3 only beat Game Boy Advance figures by a mere one thousand units. Sales in May totalled $815.5 million, up 49% compared to figures from last year - a strong month for the games industry.

Often labelled as being the 'father of PlayStation', the chief architect of Sony's successful line of consoles has now stepped down from his position as Sony Computer Entertainment's chairman and group chief executive. The job has been passed on to Kazuo Hirai, SCE's former president (who had already relieved Kutaragi of most of his day-to-day responsibilities last year), after Kutaragi announced his intention to retire in April. Kutaragi faced numerous problems during the production of the PS3, including shortages and extremely high manufacturing costs, and once the console was released it faced unexpectedly fierce competition from Nintendo's Wii, resulting in Sony achieving less than 50% of its target for PS3 shipments by March 31st this year. According to SCE, Kutaragi will continue to hold an advisory post for the company's gaming unit, although his involvement will certainly be much less than before.

Sony has updated the firmware for the PlayStation Portable, enabling it to use Remote Play - a new feature which lets PSP owners remotely access media stored on their PlayStation 3 consoles. Users can stream videos, music and pictures from their PS3s directly to the PSP, but they can't play games remotely as some may believe from reading the name. Because the data is transferred via the internet it means users can access media on their PS3 from almost anywhere where they can get online, provided that the bandwidth is adequate. To use remote play, you will need to download the 3.50 firmware update for the PSP using the auto update feature, and you will also need the 1.8 PS3 firmware released just over a week ago. The 3.50 firmware update also provides a new RSS Channel Guide, offering improved support for RSS feeds.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc has announced that it is working on a new Korean version of PlayStation 3 with an 80GB 2.5" SATA hard drive. The new console will be identical to the European model, aside from the 80 GB hard drive and that it will be introduced only in South Korea, with no plans to ship in Europe for now. The 80GB version will launch there on June 16 priced at KRW 518,000 (EUR 412). Currently, the only version of the PS3 game console contains a 60GB hard drive. Read the full story here.

Sony previewed an extensive software line up for its PlayStation platforms for the second half of 2007 and early 2008 at a media event in San Diego yesterday. More than 30 games for PS3 game console, including a strong first-party lineup of over ten announced titles, were shown during the event, along with a full library of games and services for PlayStation Portable handheld entertainment system, PS2 computer entertainment system and PLAYSTATION Network. Some of the key new titles for PS3 include: Warhawk, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Spider-Man 3, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End, NBA'08 and MLB 07 The Show. Additionally sixteen exclusive titles for PSP from first and third parties were also unveiled at the event, ranging from Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow to God of War: Chains of Olympus and SOCOM:U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike. The full list of games and services can be found at PlayStation.com.

Sony has seen its biggest quarterly loss in four years after the release of its new PlayStation 3 console, with the company losing an overall figure of $563 million US, with the games division alone seeing a huge $1.9 billion loss. It's estimated that the company loses $240 on each PS3 console sold ($300 on the 'low-spec' model), and experts predict that this is likely to continue for the rest of the financial year. "In the game segment, there was a significant operating loss as a result of the sale of PS3 at strategic price points lower than its production cost during the introductory period," said the company. Sony isn't the only one making a loss with its consoles - Microsoft is also believed to be selling Xbox 360 consoles for a price lower than production costs, leading to the Zune and 360 losing £315 million between them.

I think many readers will agree that The Inquirer sums up this story quite nicely with the title 'Sony finally goes mad'. At the God of War II launch showcase, Sony has managed to pile yet more controversy onto itself by inviting members of the press to reach inside a warm goat's carcass to eat offal (internal organs) from its stomach (although the offal itself was prepared beforehand). Not only did Sony arrange this grotesque 'sacrifice' for the event, but it then went on to publish it in the Official PlayStation Magazine. Guests were encouraged to compete to see who could eat the most offal, whilst other activities such as topless girls dipping grapes into guests' mouths, throwing knives at targets and pulling live snakes from pits were all on the agenda.

A spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare said "We are always opposed to any senseless killing of an animal and this sounds like a gruesome death. We condemn Sony's actions. It is stupid and completely unjustified." The event was held last month in Athens, and Sony has now commented "It has come to our attention that at the God of War II launch showcase, an element of the event was of an unsuitable nature. We are conducting an internal inquiry into aspects of the event in order to learn from the occurrence and put into place measures to ensure that this does not happen again." The magazine has now been recalled and will not hit UK shelves, but anyone who is subscribed to it will already have been sent a copy. If you wish to see the picture, here is a link to the censored version (the original apparently had the goat's head hanging by a thread of tissue with blood dripping out) - it's still a bit gory so isn't suitable for the main page.

Sony Computer Entertainment today officially revealed the next-generation PlayStation Eye USB 2.0 PS3 camera scheduled for a summer release. The PlayStation Eye is an accessory for voice, video chat and online gaming on the PlayStation Network. Key features of the PlayStation Eye include a new camera capable of a frame rate of 120 frames per second at 320x240, or 60 frames per second at 640x480, even in low-light conditions. The PlayStation Eye features all-new four microphone array, incorporating multidirectional voice location tracking, enhanced echo cancelling and background noise suppression. Bundled with each PlayStation Eye will be the EyeCreate editing software, which allows users to save photos, video and audio clips to the PS3 hard disk drive.

The introduction of the PS3 as a Folding@Home client has now helped the project to reach an impressive 693 teraflops of processing power, with 390 coming from PS3 consoles alone (despite only accounting for 11.4% of active processors). This figure is a significant improvement on the 367 TFLOPS being contributed by Sony's new console last month - the continued support from everyone who participates in the project helps Stanford University research cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, along with many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes. Anyone wishing to become involved in the project should take a look at techPowerUp!'s own F@H team which currently stands in 741st place out of 62360 teams contributing. It is completely free (other than electricity and internet costs) and will put your idle processing power to good use.

It seems at Sony the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. A few days ago Sony's President Ryoji Chubachi told the Financial Times his company is re-examining the pricing and volume distribution of it's gaming console. Today however, Sony released an official statement that says the price will not be cut.

PS3 prices and shipment plans for the future should be determined by market trends and competition. Sony currently doesn't have any specific plan to cut the PlayStation 3's price.

The goal to sell 6 million PS3 consoles until the end of March wasn't reached, analysts say there were only around 4 million sold. Kotaku still think the examination is not finished yet and they are likely to come up with a lower price in order to boost sales.

Sony has updated the firmware for its two most recent consoles, with a few improvements for each. The PS3 firmware has been updated to version 1.70, which will enable gamers to play PS1 software purchased from the PlayStation Store (previously only playable on the PSP) and will allow the use of the vibration function of accessories when playing PlayStation and PlayStation 2 titles (not PS3 games unfortunately, but a step forwards). The PlayStation Store still lists all classic titles as being for the PSP, but this may be changed when it's updated later this week. As for the PSP, the firmware has been updated to version 3.40, with the most noticeable changes being improved support for PlayStation Network titles and a changed method for managing certificates under [Game]. Apparently with the new firmware, gamers can share save data between both consoles allowing PS1 titles to be continued on the move and at home.

Katamari is a series of games with an arcade-like goal of rolling a gigantic ball, trying to attach the most stuff to it. The game was met with so much success, that various sequels, such as Katamari Damacy and We Love Katamari have been released. Namco has announced that they are developing even more sequels. 'Beautiful Katamari' will have over fifty playable characters (which have the same abilities), large-as-globe maps, and network capability (possibility of massive multiplayer Katamari battles?). Namco is 50% done creating an Xbox360 and PS3 version of this game, and we should get a Nintendo Wii and DS version sometime later. The reason for the delay of the development of this game on Nintendo consoles is the uniqueness of the controller. It should not cause too large of a delay, however. There is no word as to when we can expect betas of this game, or when it will be done.

The Sony PlayStation3, along with other Sony electronics, have seen a sharp sales increase. This surge in sales forced a re-calculation of Sony's expected profits. While Sony was expecting "only" 60 billion Yen, new calculations indicate that Sony could stand to make as much as 400 billion Yen ($3.4 billion USD, £1.7 billion) this year. If Sony really does make 400 billion Yen this year, they will more than make up for the little hole the PS3 made in Sony's profits (200 billion Yen). Sony's stock is now selling for 6,510 Yen in the Japanese stock market.

According to Sony's chief technical officer Masa Chatani, the PS3's idle power could soon be put to commercial use in a similar way to the Folding@Home project. Due to its enormous processing power, whilst the console is not in use it can be used to tackle the complex calculations behind the Folding@Home project which simulates protein folding, therefore allowing scientists to better understand many diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as well as a number of cancers. The PS3 has proved very successful in this area, accounting for 367 TFLOPS in the recent Folding@Home statistics. But now, Sony may be about to expand this project to new, more profitable areas. "This kind of computing model could be used in a commercial application...for example, a start-up or a pharmaceutical company that lacks a super-computer could utilise this kind of infrastructure. We are discussing various options with companies and exploring commercial applications," Chatani said. Such a deal could well see businesses either offering free products or subsidising the price of the PS3 in return for the use of PS3 owners' idle processing power, although Sony has not yet revealed which companies having discussions with.