You'll Get This Bogey Themed PSP As Part Of An MGS: Peace Walker Bundle.

Looks like SCEA are going to give Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker a pretty ample push, announcing that the PSP title will get a special bundle.

The bundle is set to include a Green PSP-3000, the game on UMD, a Playstation Network movie voucher, and a 2GB pro-duo memory stick for $199.99. Sounds like an excellent deal.

Peace Walker will also release for PSPgo. Worry not!

There's Plenty Of Unannounced Content Headed To The PSP This Year.

Remember the PSP? Yeah, there’s not been so much great content on the system early this year, but it had a rip-roaring lineup in 2009. Sony’s Rob Dyer reckons players shouldn’t worry, as the PSP will be getting a pretty “robust” lineup in 2010.

He told IndustryGamers:

“I think we had a great lineup last year,” said Dyer. “The biggest problem that plagued PSP was piracy; we have not been able to slow that down. We think we have some answers going forward, but we’re not ready to talk about that publicly at this point.

“So we’re working on fixing that, because that’s been a big problem.

“That said, we still have a very robust lineup this year from third parties on the PSP, starting with Metal Gear Peace Walker.

“I won’t go through the whole lineup because I want our third-party partners to make those announcements, but there are some big, big titles coming out this year and you’ll see those announcements at GDC, DPS or E3.”

Of course, one such title that’s been announced but not detailed is Resident Evil PSP, and we still wouldn’t count out an Uncharted PSP title.

Industry rumours bubbling around right now hint at a PSP2 announcement on the horizon also. It’s certainly going to be an interesting year for the PSP.

SCEA's Rob Dyer Reckons The Wii Honeymoon Is Over As Publishers Return To PS3.

Sony’s Rob Dyer has told IndustryGamers that third-party publishers are “coming back” to the Playstation 3 after they’ve seen a string of Wii titles fail. He added that he believes publishers no longer see the Wii as the “hot” thing on the market, and are not putting the resources into the platform they once were.

“What publishers have said is they’re not going to spend the resources on Wii,” he explained. “In my job, we compete against Microsoft and Nintendo, and we’re competing for resources. So when I walk into a publisher, I ask, ‘Where are you guys pushing your resources?’ In the past, it was ‘Look how hot the Wii is,’ or ‘Look how hot the DS is,’ and ‘We should put resources there.’

“They did that and realized, ‘You know what, third-party product just doesn’t sell on that platform.’ So now they’re taking those resources, coming back to us and saying, ‘Sony we’re going to be able to provide you with that exclusive content,’ or ‘We’re going to put more engineers on it and figure out to maximize the Blu-ray and get more out of PS3.’

“That’s what we’re seeing now, and I don’t even have to fight for their hearts and minds; I just show them the TRST data with regards to how many top 10 titles are third-party titles on the Wii, or how many top 10 titles are third-party titles on the DS. Not many. It’s not a hard story to sell, and they get that.

“Unless they’ve got a particular franchise that’s worked well on the Wii, you don’t see a lot of innovative new IP coming out on that platform.”

Seriously, we weren’t familiar with Rob Dyer ahead of this interview, but now we want to hear much more from the SCEA man. If you didn’t make the connection, this is the same dude that totally dissed the XBOX 360 yesterday.

Fancy Dressing Up As A Storm Trooper? Of Course You Do.

… Finally our wish has come true, as SCEA and LucasArts has announced a bunch of Star Wars themed content is coming to Playstation Home. In fact, you won’t just be getting Star Wars content, LucasArts has also pledged Indiana Jones goodies via a new themed store front in the Home mall.

There are a ton of screens over at Kotaku. Check them out if this takes your fancy.

Finally, The Console War Actually Starts.

After a successful six months or so for Playstation 3, Sony are feeling pretty buoyant. It’s a mood emphasised by Sony’s VP of Publisher Relations Rob Dyer, as he talks 360 in a recent interview with IndustryGamers.

“We do better for our publishing community than 360 does,” the SCEA man said. “As our installed base starts catching up and gaining on 360, you’re going to see the publisher side much quicker get to par than even if we had the same number of [360 hardware] units.”“So for instance, with a title like Madden, I think the index was 1.4 to 1.0, which meant we way oversold on PS3 versus 360, given the installed base. That’s only going to get better and better as the installed base continues to grow.”

Rob also had a thing or two to say about Microsoft’s first-party development studios.

“They have very few first-party studios at Microsoft. Bungie’s next Halo is the last one, Rare rarely puts out anything, you’ve got Peter Molyneux with his Fable stuff… but they don’t have first-party development studios inside at Redmond or anywhere for that matter. We do. So rather than putting their money behind that, they’ve been going to Epic or Valve or BioWare to do what they did with Mass Effect, and that’s where they throw their dollars.

“Candidly, we’re not going to compete with Microsoft on that front, but what we have is a global business here. Our global business is bigger than 360’s and will continue to get bigger than 360, and people are seeing that. We passed them in Europe and they don’t even exist in Japan, and we’re going to catch them and pass them here in the U.S. as well.”

Oh snap. The console war just got proper real folks. Proper real.

Playstation 3 Hardware May Be Flying Off The Shelves A Little Too Quickly.

Sony’s warned that Playstation 3 stock will be tight over the coming months. SCEA’s director of communications, Patrick Seybold explained the company are working hard to ensure stock is available for everyone. “We’re working very hard with our retail partners to meet consumer interest, but the demand is tremendously high for the PS3 and we expect tight inventory in the coming months,” Seybold noted in a statement.

Seybold told Joystiq that the tight stock situation may have been a reason for the slightly lower NPD sales this month. “Yes. The strong demand carrying through the holidays was evident and early in the month we [knew] there was going to be limited supply of the PS3 at retail in January. We’re working closely with the retail channel to meet this demand, but expect tight supply for the coming months.”

We’ve heard a few rumblings regarding stock situation. Hopefully Sony can sort that out as they’re on the verge of releasing arguably two of the biggest titles in the Playstation’s history, Heavy Rain and God Of War III.

Jack Tretton Is The Best Exec In Corporate History. Fact.

SCEA’s head Jack Tretton has written a buoying rally on the US Playstation Blog, declaring ‘09 a great year for Playstation, thanking fans especially for all their support. The post came hours after the NPD report, which saw solid figures for Playstation 3, but the XBOX 360 and Wii still some way in front.

Despite that, Tretton was quick to point out the positives: PS3 saw a 33% growth year on year this month, as well as pushing nearly 3 million sales for Naughty Dog’s excellent Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

“According to NPD’s recent Top Global Markets report, PlayStation was the only company to see consumers in three territories (UK, US and Japan) spending 15% more on PS3 software in 2009 than they did in 2008 – this is while the category as a whole experienced a 9% decline in software sales,” said Tretton.

“The PS3 was also the only console in the U.S. to see double-digit growth in sales this past quarter. December also marked the best sales month in the platform’s history, breaking one million hardware units and 7.3 million software units.

“We’re nowhere near slowing down in the new year as today’s NPD numbers show a 36% sales increase on PS3 hardware when compared to last January. This is truly remarkable given the tight inventory we’ve been experiencing as a result of high consumer demand since last Fall.

“Games like UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves are surpassing our lofty expectations as it outsold the franchise’s first PS3 game and is now closing in on three million copies sold worldwide. Over half a million of you have already chosen your allegiance in MAG, and have played over 270,000 games in the Shadow War.”

It’s obviously all corporate spin, but it’s worth remembering there are positives for Playstation right now, especially after a blazing year which saw Sony effectively relaunch the Playstation platform. Things can only get better.