Interview: Adri Haik – Producer, PlayStation Home, SCEA

GamingAngels: What type of education did you need to have a job in the games industry? Adri Haik: I studied Computer Science for about two years at college, but most of my education comes from on-the-job training and playing a lot of games. I came to the game industry by way of virtual worlds and serious/training games, and I got into that because I saw a need and knew I could do the work. I started a company with a great group of partners and did that for several years before making the transition to the game industry proper. Many of my colleagues have degrees in computer science, art, and liberal arts. In your bio it says that you have two aunts who were coders, what kinds of projects did they work on? One of my aunts was an engineer for oil companies before making training software for big companies. The

Read more →

Playstation CEO Jack Tretton makes a visit to UA

Jack Tretton is not only the CEO of Playstation but also a parent to a University of Arizona student! My alma mater! I’m a proud Wildcat and it’s great to see Playstation give UofA some love! Jack’s son John, is currently a UofA undergrad. Jack Tretton will be visiting University of Arizona campus on October 6th to talk at the Eller College of Management’s Distinguished Speaker Series. His speech will be “Charting Success: A Discussion About Vision, Customer Loyalty and Building Amazing Products,” in Eller’s Berger Auditorium, is Thursday, Oct. 6, at 5:15 p.m., followed by a reception in the McClelland Hall Atrium. What a great opportunity for Arizona students to network and to hear about what Tretton has learned through his experiences at Playstation. For students not interested in the talk, Playstation will be on campus all day! They are bringing the PlayStation Experience truck to the UA Mall

Read more →

Sony announces PS Vita release date and launch titles for Japan

For a press conference about a gaming device, there wasn’t really a lot of game playing. Or…any. At Sony’s TGS conference last night, we got to see the process of a Vita starting up, and also a few menus on the system of someone who really, really likes Welsh corgis. The corgis alone got my heart, but if you need more than that, here’s the bulleted recap: Sony’s bringing red and blue PS3s to Japan. That was really the extent of PS3-related anything. PlayStation Vita launches in Japan on Dec. 17. Preorders (Japan handles them a little differently — people will line up to preorder something) start Oct. 15. So, we should probably expect a January or February launch. NTT DoCoMo is handling the data plans for the 3G model. Rather than buying data amounts, you buy hours, with some very, very odd contract proceedings. No way that’s happening in

Read more →

PAX Preview: All Zombies Must Die

As we gamers are all aware, the zombie apocalypse is coming – and soon. So who’s better to handle it than us gamers, right? All Zombies Must Die is a RPG and weapons-based arena combat game developed by doublesix, the same guys who brought us the highly flammable game, Burn, Zombie, Burn! Though AZMD and BZB have some similarities in terms of fighting hordes of brain-craving zombies, AZMD offers uniquely different gameplay strategies then its previous successor. Who knew gaming addictions could be so helpful? In All Zombies Must Die, you first play as Jack, a gaming fanatic who believes that he’s the badass hero in a zombie video game (and not that he’s actually in any – you know – real danger). The first character I met in the demo was Rachel, an extremely pissed ex-girlfriend of Jack. Though it seems she would rather see her ex be ripped

Read more →

Sony goes serious in its choice for a security officer

I remember our PSN-less month not-so-fondly. I’m pretty sure Sony feels the same way, because they’ve just hired someone who is pretty serious about security for their “chief information security officer.” Philip Reitinger, who previously served with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is Sony’s new hire. See, “security” was in the name! He previously directed the U.S. National Cyber Security Center. (Is anyone else surprised that we still use “cyber” to describe anything?) He’ll report to general counsel Nicole Seligman. “Certainly the network issue was a catalyst for the appointment,” a spokesman for Sony told Reuters. “We are looking to bolster our network security even further.” We can only hope that Reitinger does a good job.

Read more →

Blow up your significant other next Valentine’s Day

Before keynoting PAX Prime tomorrow, David Jaffe had an announcement to make about Twisted Metal — it’s coming out on Valentine’s Day 2012. This year, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 came out on February 15 (so you midnight preorder people had to spend Valentine’s Night, if that’s a thing, in line), now it’s Twisted Metal making the debut during the most romantic part of the month. Looks like gamers are pretty much destined to digitally fight their lovers every year. Watch this video for the announcement as well as a sneak peek at Dollface.

Read more →

Sony making price cuts, a new PSP

At Gamescom yesterday, Sony announced a new pricing structure for the PlayStation 3. Effective immediately, the 160 GB and 320 GB consoles will be available at the lower prices of $249 and $299. An inFamous 2 bundle will also be available for $299, and it’ll include a 320 GB console along with a copy of inFamous 2. That’s actually a pretty good deal. (And that’s a good enough game to start on.) So — now the full console’s the same price as a Vita will be (speaking of Vita, apparently its RAM sits pretty at 512 MB after all). That might affect purchasing, but who really knows until they’re both out in the wild? Speaking of a handheld, it looks as though the PSP’s gotten a bit of a redesign before Vita’s pushed out into the world. Well, in Europe, anyway. The new “E-1000″ version of the handheld is sleek,

Read more →

Rent movies for $.99 from Sony

Those upset by Netflix raising their rates, might be interested to see that Sony is making it cheaper to rent movies. The $.99 movie rental program is coming back to the Playstation Store for US and Canada. No need to wait because the program starts today. Movies and tv shows will be $.99 for SD and $1.99 for (HD) with new titles available every Tuesday. The movies are only discounted for the week they are available. Which means you may want to check every Tuesday to see if there is something you would want. This week the following movies are available: August 16 – August 22: · Sicko · The Longshots · Salvage · Tony · Shank · Bonded By Blood · JFK: Reckless Youth (Part 1) · JFK: Reckless Youth (Part 2) · Deadly Blessing (Directed by Wes Craven) · Carver · Devil in the Flesh 2 (aka Teacher’s

Read more →

Time for your Sackboy to transform into Sackiroth

Sony announced yesterday via PlayStation.Blog that the long-awaited Final Fantasy VII-themed costume DLC for LittleBigPlanet 2 is arriving later this month! July 13, to be exact. You’ll have access to four costumes for $1.99 a piece — Aeris, Tifa, Cloud and Sephiroth. However, buy the full bundle for $5.99, and you’ll get Vincent Valentine added to the mix. He’s not available to buy individually, so think of him as a bonus to your party. I’m trying to think of proper Sacknames for each character. So far I’ve only got Tifa Sackheart, Cloud Strack, Sackiroth (obviously), Aeris Sackborough and Vinsack Valentine. Can you think of any more? Also, the PlayStation folks also announced an inFAMOUS 2 costume pack, a Killzone 3 set, one for Toy Story that also includes a level pack and some sort of MotorStorm: Apocalypse set. The PlayStation Move-related level packs are also on the way soon. Here’s

Read more →

Sony announces official extension of Welcome Back program for those who were a little too slow

Apparently people thought that “through July 3″ meant until midnight when it came to downloading their PlayStation “Welcome Back” package. Not so, my friends! Though I could totally understand why you’d think that. Sony has officially extended the free download campaign until 9 a.m. Pacific on July 5. Not so much confusion there, right? Well, I hope not, anyway. So if you haven’t downloaded your games yet, you’ve still got another shot. Start the downloads before you head out to any super-patriotic barbeques and you might be playing as soon as you come home. (Note that I said “maybe.” Some of these games are on the huge side.) Everything related to the offer is still the same as before, except the end time, and the download process itself is easy enough. The store might be slammed with last-minute redemptions, though, so don’t get too frustrated by a few errors.  

Read more →