Like many of you, we assumed the UMD-less PSPgo meant that popular new PSP titles would be released for download on the same day the retail version went on sale for older PSP systems. According to Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications and Social Media for SCEA, that is indeed the goal, but in this instance it wasn’t the case.

“The goal is to have the titles available on the same day, and that is usually the case. We’re aware LBP isn’t on the PlayStation Store just yet, and are working on solving that as we speak. We appreciate your patience.”

We recommend that PSPgo owners dejectedly slide their handheld open and closed until the situation is resolved.

The nature of Alexander Stern’s visual impairment isn’t clear from the report, whether that is total blindness or partial blindness, or some other form of sight disability. But his suit, filed in federal court in California, claims that Sony has ignored repeated requests to modify its games – the suit seems to focus on SOE’s MMOs – and that the realms Sony maintains here are essentially public accommodations as defined by the ADA.

Stern repeatedly asked Sony for the addition of visual cues to point out destinations for gamers with “disability impaired visual processing.” The suit mentions World of Warcraft and another game that, through the allowance of third-party modifications or other features, make their games more accessible to the visually impaired.

There’s also a claim that by not making accommodations for the visually impaired, Sony essentially deprives Stern and others of fair participation in selling off in-game items over SOE’s official auction site.

Sony told GameSpot it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Whatever the merits of the suit, and I’m sure our team of lawyers will robustly discuss them in the comments below, the action is intriguing to me in that it seems to depend on finding a virtual environment is a public accommodation. I can’t even begin to argue coherently that it is or isn’t or should or should not be. A judge could find that an MMO is a public accommodation and Stern could still lose, but such a ruling could have larger ramifications that outlive this case, for more than just Sony.

Visually Impaired Gamer Sues Sony Online [GameSpot, thanks Roberto E.]

“There was a tester we had who came in and was constantly describing Drake as going into ‘beast mode,’” said Minkoff, a designer on Uncharted 2. “Like, ‘Man, I went into beast mode and merced those fools!’ And I said, ‘We need a beast mode medal.’ It had to happen.”

But what you do to get the “Beast Mode” medal is the larger part of why Minkoff talked with me earlier this week about designing for trophy support on the PS3. Beast Mode isn’t a difficult challenge, you just pet every yak you encounter in the Tibetan Village level, and the instructions for getting it are there in the game. But at this stage of the game, Naughty Dog wanted to encourage players to interact more with those they encounter, outside of doing so to advance the story.

It’s part of how developers are using things like trophies – which have been mandatory on all PlayStation 3 games for nearly a year now – and internally built medal systems to condition player behaviour, and steer them to aspects of gameplay that they might not seek out, whether from habit or not knowing it’s possible.

And, of course, it supports replay value. Which is why I was interested in Uncharted 2 as an example of developing for trophy support. Its strong, linear narrative forms the bulk of its experience, but that doesn’t exempt Naughty Dog from the obligation to invite gamers back for more after they finish the last chapter.

“I think the virtue of making a really good game with a story that really satisfies people, is that it’s not something people are going to put down and never pick back up,” Minkoff said. “We find that people who complete a normal playthrough, they go back and instantly start on hard. They look at the trophies. They look for more things to do in the game, and trophies help to add that value.”

Development for trophy support necessarily comes toward the end of a project, Minkoff said. The team doesn’t reinvent the wheel figuring out what to award – Uncharted 2’s trophy list mirrors in large part that of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. But they do consider what their players will be looking forward to doing, and want to reward them when they pull it off.

“Being that Uncharted 2 is an action-adventure game, we wanted people to have an incentive to explore these worlds and see them from a different perspective, and use all the skills we’ve taught them,” Minkoff said. “Our combat related trophies are in there to help people learn advanced tactics. People might not know about Steel Fist [finishing off a foe with one punch] or shield takedowns until they go in and read the trophy list.”

The treasures and the kills, carried over in large part from Uncharted 1, condition a completionist mindset of seeing every inch of the world Naughty Dog created, and using all of the weapons placed in the game rather than relying solely on a trusted favourite.

Just as important is how difficult the trophies are to earn. “There were big arguments over here about how to handle that,” Minkoff said. “We don’t want somebody to come out of a game and feel like they accomplished nothing, and they only got two trophies because the others were so esoteric, weird or difficult to find. It’s like a slap in the face, to say, ‘You thought you played Uncharted, but you really haven’t.’ ”

The way Naughty Dog built their trophy structure “people should get about a third to a half of them on their first playthrough,” Minkoff said. “It’ll be on the lower end if they’re just rushing through and killing everyone, on the higher end if they’re finding, maybe, half the treasure and doing exploration.”

However, the studio has no way of knowing if its expectations are borne out by the statistics. Plenty of minute details and gamer behaviours are measured, but nothing comes back to Naughty Dog regarding trophy collection, Minkoff said.

“We track tons of stuff – where people die, how many weapons are used, what’s the most used weapon in a particular area, what’s the longest playthrough for a checkpoint,” Minkoff said. “But we don’t track trophies. [That analysis] is done by gut. We do tons and tons of playtesting, so we get a feeling for what players do, what they don’t do, what they like to do and what we should encourage them to do. But we develop that from playtesting.”

Sony Computer Entertainment caps the number of trophies and points a game can award. Increasingly, you’re seeing developers turn to internal reward systems to extend the payoffs to gamers; Naughty Dog is no different, engineering a medal system that’s familiar to what multiplayer fps gamers have seen elsewhere. Its intent is still the same as the trophies – get players to wring every last drop of value out of the game. Motivating the in-game medal system is the virtual money one earns, which can be redeemed for in-game unlockables.

It also allowed Naughty Dog to offer two types of rewards and make the game more accessible to gamers of varying levels of skill – or time to commit to it. “We didn’t wat people playing through the game and feeling there was no way to ever get the platinum trophy, that there was no way to get all the trophies because it was so super-complex,” Minkoff said. “We decided, if it’s core to gameplay, it gets a trophy. If it’s a skill-based honour, like a ‘Hey man, look what I can do,’ thing, then it’s a medal.”

Ultimately, it all presents a fuller picture of the gamer – not just for others, but also something he or she can reflect on, and remember the time spent in a rewarding game.

“One of the wonderful things it does is give you a constant reaffirmation that you’re doing the right thing and playing the game the right way,” Minkoff said. “There’s nothing like sneaking up, and taking down a guy, and getting that notice that you have the Master Ninja trophy. It means you have improved, you are continuing to master the game, and we are recognising that. It’s not just ‘Oh, here’s another guy to kill.’ It’s ‘Here’s a guy who matters in a larger context. And when I defeat him, that will be recognised.’ It’s a solid way of rewarding and reinforcing a game’s action.”

From CydoniaX:

Allow me to put your minds at ease about this recent press. The coverage of what Pete Edwards said at the London Games Conference was not only a misquote, it was a misreprentation of what he actually said.

Edwards was saying that monetizing Home was not as big a priority as building a great platform, with a compelling environment and a strong community. Home is still a top priority for Sony and will continue to release quality content and provide a positive experience to our users.

And yes, we will continue working on fixing bugs, login problems, and other user issues.

Additionally, Michael French, the editor-in-chief of Develop Magazine, which hosted the event in question, tweeted to Stephen Totilo this afternoon that Edwards was in fact misquoted: “Edwards was definitely misquoted at our event. His point was that Home is a community platform first, and ‘a business’ second”

So this should all make Sony’s position on Home crystal clear. It’s not dead, it’s not going away, it’s still a priority and it continues to have the full support of the company.

PlayStation.com Forums [via VG247]

Estavillo first filed suit against SCEA in July, alleging the company’s total ban of Estavillo from the PlayStation Network constituted theft and caused him pain and suffering. He wanted $US55,000 in punitive damages and an injunction against all further banning. In September, a judge told Estavillo—who was representing himsel— to pretty much take a hike and tossed out his case.

Now, GamePolitics reports that Estavillo is at it again — this time with an appeal of his tossed lawsuit and a civil suit against SCEA to the tune of $US180,000. And he’s still representing himself.

GamePolitics further reports:

Estavillo tells GP he is representing himself in these cases and, in light of his PSN ban, is playing the Wii (Metroid Trilogy) and Xbox 360 (Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe). Estavillo said that he loves playing as The Joker in the latter title and may be “a bit obsessed” with the character, adding, “I plan to wear a purple suit during my court trials. No joke!”

Banned Resistance Gamer Appeals Verdict [GamePolitics]

Last week I checked in with Sony Computer Entertainment of America to ask how the PSPgo was impacting hardware sales and what sort of impact they were seeing on the Playstation Network.

It’s had a very positive impact, Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications and Social Media for SCEA, told Kotaku today.

The launch of the download-only device has “generated strong consumer interest in the overall PSP platform and the PlayStation Network’s digital content offering,” he said.

In the three days following the launch of the PSPgo Seybold says that their “top retail partners” saw a 300% lift in PSP hardware sales compared to the same period the prior week. Seybold says that the launch also generated a “significant increase in revenue for PlayStation Network, driven by a 200 percent lift in PSP game downloads purchased from PlayStation Store”.

And the platform owner says that they think that’s just the beginning.

“With several blockbuster games launching digitally and on UMD in the coming weeks — from LittleBigPlanet to Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines,” Seybold said, “we expect this momentum to continue and look forward to a strong holiday season for both the PSPgo and PSP-3000.”

Seybold’s comments echo what officials in the UK have said, pointing to a jump in sales the week of release. Sony declined to give any specific sales numbers for this story.

To use a sports metaphor, we hear the same thing every time the Lakers, the Yankees, and the University of North Carolina suffer a couple years of disappointment and then come back to contention, as if their rising tide really lifts all boats. But in this case, while Sony might be an overdog brand, the PS3 Slim has definitely provoked a price drop on the other two consoles, and that is objectively a good thing for the video game consumer.

Tretton then gets a little punchy and positions Sony as out-monied by Nintendo – but only because it’s the people’s choice. “We don’t have unlimited money, we cater to a more mass market audience,” he says. “I think we’re willing to take a little bit more risk than a competitor like Nintendo is and ultimately we deliver to the masses on a worldwide basis and that’s what we’ve done for the last 15 years.”

We’ll go with Tretton as far as the PS3 Slim – or at least its price – driving competition to the benefit of the gamer. Portraying Nintendo as a risk-averse console without a mass market, no.

Watch the entire video here.

Sony Winning is Best for the Industry [Destructoid]

John Kennedy filed his complaint against Sony Computer Entertainment America on October 3 in, where else, federal court for the Northern District of California. That would be San Francisco.

The suit’s complaint mentions two things: one, “that as a general rule, Sony ‘encourages’ PS3 owners to install the latest version of system software, Sony required users to install the Firmware 3.0 update”, and two: a Sony forum featured enough complaints about the Firmware causing console failures that Sony responded with a firmware FAQ.

At this point we put on our hushed baritone court-reporter fine-print voice: Class members demand declaratory relief, compensation and restitution for breach of implied warranty, negligence and unjust enrichment.

Firmware Update Borks PS3, Man Sues SCEA [Game Politics]

We checked with four online retailers and online shopping services to see how their prices compared to the ones found in the online Playstation Store. The results? A little surprising.

With only half of the top-rated Playstation Portable games (shown in order of ranking) currently available online, it’s hard to do a meaningful comparison. It is interesting that the inability to find a particular used title can drive up the price in a store, but doesn’t seem to impact its price online.

While the difference for many of the available games online often isn’t substantial, the Playstation Store’s relatively high price for a game like Wipeout Pure, which has been around for awhile and will run you nearly half the price in a store, is troubling.

Methodology: We used Gamerankings.com to find the 10 highest-rated games on the Playstation Portable. Prices were checked Sunday night. For used games we used the “like new” condition prices when available or “very good” condition when the service didn’t include like new as an option. In the case of Google, we used Google Shopping to find the best price of a used title from a retailer.

The original Naughty Dog-developed third-person shooter was one of the crown jewels of the Playstation 3 launch, its critical success highlighting the technical prowess of Sony’s new console and the storytelling chops of the game’s creators.

Now nearly two years later, Uncharted 2 has not only to live up to the game’s growing expectation but to improve upon those few areas in which reviewers found fault in the original.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves puts players back in control of Nathan Drake a few years after the events of the original game. This time around Drake is on the hunt for Marco Polo’s lost ships and the treasure they may hide. The story eventually leads Drake on a search for Shangri-La somewhere in the Himalayas.

Loved
Page Turner: There really aren’t many surprises tucked away in Uncharted 2’s workable plot. But the delivery and character development help make the story something worth reliving. The strongest element is how the writers managed to create a story that has you pushing through the game at an unforgiving pace. Like a good book, each chapter ends in a way that makes you want to continue playing to see what happens next. Before you know it, the story comes to a perfectly-proportioned ending.

Dialogue : While the story in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has plenty going for it, the thing that really drives home its strengths is the clever back and forth between the main characters. Unlike a movie, a video game doesn’t tell its story over a few hours. There are, in all video games, hours and hours of trial and error, repeated performances and sudden deaths. This forced repetition is one of the things that handicaps the medium. Naughty Dog does an amazing job of filling that typically bland space with sharp conversations that help to build the rapport between the lead, love interests, friends and enemies.

Amazing Moments: Planted through-out this solid adventure title are the sorts of moments that you’ll want to talk about with your friends. Some involve plot points, others amazing backdrops and still more, cleverly crafted fighting scenes. They come timed to elevate the game’s potentially slow points, ridding it of any valleys and instead making Uncharted 2 an upward journey through a series of peaks.

Camera Framing: More than most games, Uncharted 2 looks like a movie. And I don’t mean that just as a compliment to the graphics, but also because so much care was put into the way we see those colorful pixels.

This is something tricky to do in a third-person shooter when the gamer has almost total control of the camera. But the default view, the place the camera drifts to at the beginning of a scene and as you play, were obviously crafted with care. I found my attention drawn to the game’s beautifully detailed scenery and unusual settings not just because they were so unique, but because of the way the camera framed them.

Ending: My biggest complaint with the first Uncharted was with its ending. After delivering a fairly stunning and rather original journey to gamers, Uncharted fell back onto bad habits, forcing players to confront a final boss that was redundant and anti-climatic.

Lesson learned, it seems, for Naughty Dog because this time around the ending feels like the reward it should be. The conclusion neatly wraps up all of the loose plot lines into a tightly woven climax and then slows down the story just enough to allow the emotional impact of the final scene to wash over gamers.

Free climbing: A bit heavier on the climbing this time around, Uncharted 2 gives Nathan Drake the ability to free climb up and around objects. Not everything is climbable, Drake will still have to hunt out fingerholds, but there’s enough there to give gamers different ways to tackle obstacles, in particular the gun-wielding obstacles.

Melee: Hand-to-hand combat this time around feels much more fleshed out than it did in the original Uncharted. You can perform a number of savage, but silent take-downs on unsuspecting enemies and even slip effortlessly between gunplay and melee without losing the pace of an encounter.

The biggest improvement is the need for gamers to use both melee buttons when facing certain enemies to dodge attacks and perform counters. This relatively simple addition adds a very welcome facet to what had been a borderline mundane mechanic.

Mechanics: The best of games can be brought low but faulty controls. Fortunately for Uncharted 2, the game’s controls are as solid as the rest of the title. The familiar controls make it equally easy to stealth you way through a level, climb up and over enemies or just seek cover and blow everyone away.

Multiplayer: Featuring both cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes, what really sets the online play in Uncharted 2 apart is that much of the single-player mechanics have made their way into the game. That means free climbing, scrambling up to cover and hanging from a wall or railing and plunking enemies.

I’ve only played online with developers on a private network, so I can’t address how stable a loaded and public server will be. But the experience, lag-free, is an amazing multiplayer adaptation of Uncharted 2.

Hated
Twitter: The ability to have Uncharted 2 automatically send out updates about your gameplay to your Twitter account is a neat idea, on paper. But, as Naughty Dog quickly realised, being the recipient of a tidal wave of updates sent from a friend can become old quite quickly. And dread the thought of having several friends play the game.

Naughty Dog realised it was a bad idea and officially disabled it even before the game was released, promising a patch that would entirely rid the game of even a mention of progress updates. While the ability to notify friends of online sessions and awards earned remains, it’s apparent that this wasn’t the best concept for any otherwise nearly flawless title.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves succeeds in as many ways as possible: It had me telling myself “just one more chapter” from the first to the 26th. It made me laugh at jokes and mutter in annoyance at characters. And for a moment at the end, touched me.

I’m not one to say something is the best ever or to dole out perfect scores, and Uncharted 2 does have its share of trivial issues, but to date, Naughty Dog’s second adventure with Nathan Drake appears to be the best experience hitting a console this fall.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the Playstation 3 on October 13 in North America and October 15 in Australia. Retails for US$59.99/AU$109.95. Played entire campaign mode on normal difficulty. Tested hard difficulty. Played several sessions of multiplayer with the game’s developers on a private network.

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