Sony had a big month in September, with the PlayStation 3 claiming the top spot in console hardware sales for the first time, according to NPD's US sales data.

"Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year's sales," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70% over the prior month."

The PlayStation 3 Slim was announced in late August, dropping the price of the console to $300. Microsoft followed suit with its own Xbox 360 price cut to $300, while Nintendo lowered the price of the Wii to $200 in late September.

Check out the final numbers below:... Read more

Sony's patching up PlayStation Home on Thursday, adding a few features that will elate the teeming masses populating the virtual playscape.

Universal game launching, a feature that allows you launch a game inside PlayStation Home, is the headline feature of version 1.3. The rest of the bullets consist of in-store item previewing, new emotes, more item types and "other."

For the full patch notes, click through:... Read more

Update: Co-publishers Eidos and Warner Bros. have just announced that The Joker is "an exclusive playable character" for the PlayStation 3 edition. Playable in Challenge Maps, The Joker will arrive as free downloadable content "upon release."

Original: The PS3 version of Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylym will let you "play as The Joker in the exclusive Joker challenge maps," going by a PlayStation Home ad.

A representative for the title was reportedly surprised that the ads were already up when contacted by Kotaku, which originally broke the story. However, he could offer no further details on the maps or possible exclusives for the PC and Xbox 360 editions.

All three versions of the action-detective game are slated to arrive in June.

EA announced today that it would be opening an "EA Sports Complex" inside the virtual world of PlayStation Home, and now we have video of the thing.

The complex is slated to arrive this spring, bringing poker, racing, and other games to the service--along with a giant EA Sports video ad.

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Publisher Electronic Arts today announced its plans to support Sony's PlayStation 3 "social gaming community" PlayStation Home, beginning with an EA Sports Complex.

Slated to arrive in the ever-evolving service this spring, the EA Sports complex will feature "exclusive new EA Sports multiplayer games" along with the ability to interact with other gamers and watch trailers "and other content" from EA Sports titles.

The company also noted that it is "working with Sony Computer Entertainment on further label support of PlayStation Home Beta, and will announce plans in the near future." Last fall, publisher Ubisoft debuted a dedicated Far Cry 2-themed area.

"We're proud to support the PlayStation Home Beta with a very robust offering from EA Sports," said EA Sports president Peter Moore. "The EA Sports Complex is a rich new online environment that presents a compelling and immersive social gaming experience for the global sports audience."

The PlayStation 3's free "3D social gaming community" service PlayStation Home will retain its "open beta" label for quite a while, according to Home director Jack Buser.

"We quite like the name 'open beta,' so you can expect us to stay in open beta for some time," the Sony employee said in a Kotaku video podcast. "Whether we ever exit out of that into some other phase of our existence, that's [to be determined]."

Buser explained that "open beta" is "sort of synonymous with our idea of launch, in that we really want to emphasize that what you see in Home on any particular day is subject to change. Home is a living, breathing, evolving, growing platform."

"You're gonna see this world rapidly scale with new stuff to do, new spaces, new virtual items, new content, all the time and it's just going to grow rapidly," he vowed.

The director was also extremely optimistic about the service's reception. "We're all so happy," he said. "I think it's even superseded everyone's expectations. People are not only coming in and using the service, but they're coming back."

PlayStation Home's extremely restrictive text chat filter, which reportedly blocks everything from "hello" to "lesbian," has earned the ire of some in the gay rights community.

Michael Marsh discovered the restrictions after trying to create a "gay/straight alliance club," reports SFGate. Along with "lesbian," the gay rights activist was unable to use "gay" or "bisexual" in describing his club.

"By blocking a word like 'gay,' which is a preferred term by the gay community, you're encouraging it as a bad word," explained Marsh. "I can understand if they're filtering out profanity, but if feel like it's discrimination."

Other blocked words apparently include "Jew" and "Christ."

In response, Sony claimed that the filter was instituted during an earlier... Read more

After losing voice chat capabilities a few days back, Sony's "3D social gaming community" PlayStation Home will regain the functionality, but with new restrictions.

Whereas users could previously broadcast their voices at any location in the virtual world, including the virtual theater, voice chat will now only be possible within personal spaces and clubhouses, both of which require invitations to enter.

The update, which brings the freely downloadable PlayStation 3 software up to version 1.05, is slated to be released later today, according to the official PlayStation.Blog.

The latest update to Sony's PS3 "3D social gaming community" PlayStation Home removes voice chat, but adds new customization options, such as beards.

The v1.04 patch follows a few hours of system maintenance, which, according to the official PlayStation.Blog, should "ease the difficulty some people are having accessing PlayStation Home due to the high demand for the service."

No explanation was given for the temporary suspension of voice chat, though users were reminded that they can still communicate via text through the in-game keyboard or a keyboard connected to the console via USB or Bluetooth.

Oddly, Sony made no mention of the new customization options in the post, leading Kotaku to break the news that the oft-requested beards have been implemented.

Connection issues have plagued users of the PlayStation Home open beta since its release yesterday, with many being unable to use the software due to "overwhelming demand."

Now Sony communications director Patrick Seybold has acknowledged the problems in a blog post, and says that Sony is working on solutions:

We are aware that some people may be experiencing difficulty in accessing the PlayStation Home beta at present. This is due to overwhelming demand for the service as people access Home for the very first time since it became Open Beta and appeared on the XMB.

While we prepare solutions to ease the problem, you may continue to experience difficulties accessing Home. We kindly ask for your patience as we work to meet the incredible demand for this revolutionary service.

After more than a year and a half of closed public beta testing, Sony has announced that it is finally ready to open the floodgates and launch PlayStation Home tomorrow.

Available as a free download from the online PlayStation Store, the long-promised PS3 social interaction software will be classified as "open beta."

The announcement also detailed a number of "respected lifestyle brands" that will appear within Home, including Diesel clothing, Ligne Roset furniture, a Red Bull-specific mini-game, and video from Paramount, Hexust TV, and Eurogamer.

Prices on in-game Diesel clothing will range from free to 1.50 euro (roughly $2).

Though it will be available "around the world," Sony cautioned that "PlayStation Home will not be available in some regions." No further details were provided on the subject.

Only those that have previously purchased a $24.99 annual subscription to Sony's downloadable PS3 video magazine Qore will receive an invite to the closed beta for SCE London's PS3 social networking application Home, the company has clarified.

Sony had previously suggested that anyone who spent $2.99 on Episode 6 of Qore, due out in early November, would be able to access the beta. However, the company today sent out the following clarification to PlayStation Underground members:

As an update to the PLAYSTATION(R)3 News email sent on Friday, October 24th, the special invitation to PlayStation(R)Home's closed beta is available only to Qore annual subscribers who purchased subscriptions by 10/29. Qore Episode 06 purchasers will not be eligible for the special PlayStation(R)Home beta invitation at this time. We apologize for the miscommunication.

PlayStation Home has been in an ever-expanding closed public beta test since the summer of 2007, with a general open beta slated to launch by this December.

Various opportunities to gain beta access have been offered since the beta began, though an annual Qore subscription purchased before 10/29 is currently the only surefire way to land a beta invite at this time.

PlayStation Home, the interactive social network and ad space for the PlayStation 3, is about open up to beta participants for the low, low price of $2.99.

That price will buy Episode 6 of Qore, Sony's downloadable video magazine, which will pack access to the Second Life-inspired virtual space for virtual lifestyles, according to PS3 Fanboy. Annual subscribers will also get access to Home.

The Home open beta is the latest promotion to entice users into buying into Qore. In the past, games like Resistance 2 and MotorStorm Pacific Rift have opened up betas and demos early for those who shell out the cash for Sony's video content.

Episode 6 of Qore will land in early November.

Ubisoft has released the first screenshots from the Far Cry 2 area of Home, the PlayStation 3's Second Life-ish virtual space and promotional platform.

A promotion for Ubisoft Montreal's sequel to Crytek's breakout open-world shooter, the space looks like it's taken straight from Far Cry 2's African battlegrounds--but with a few chairs thrown in to help the space's feng shui.

"Among the available activities will be a multiplayer game of Mancala that will use bullets as game pieces, the opportunity to explore in-game environments including a bombed-out train station that has been turned into an ad hoc cafe, as well as the ability to launch the game directly from the PlayStation Home space," reads a press release from Ubisoft.

The real Far Cry 2 lands on October 21 for PC, 360 and PS3, but those with access to the Home closed beta can check out the space now and get a taste of the atmosphere.

Sony announced during the Tokyo Game Show that 24 publishers have signed on to produce content for Home, the Second Life-esque 3D social network for the PS3.

Most of the publishers were big-name Japanese houses like Capcom, SNK Playmore, Q Entertainment, Konami, Koei, Sega, and Tecmo. However, a few larger Western studios--Activision, Ubisoft, and Walt Disney Japan--were also on the list.

Sony provided a few examples of the kinds of content that will be included. IGN highlighted character dolls from Capcom's Street Fighter IV along with content from games like Resident Evil 5 and Hot Shots Golf 5.

The full list of publishers, reproduced from IGN, follows:

• Irem Software Engineering
• Activision
• Acquire... Read more

Sony's oft-delayed, ad-tastic PlayStation 3 3D social network environment Home has suffered another setback: streaming sharing of videos among friends is nowhere to be seen in the game's open beta.

Upon discovering that the promised feature was absent, Wired contacted Sony for comment. PlayStation Home director Jack Buser responded that Sony was "looking into" the feature. He then countered that "Sony's approach to 'user-generated content' was likely to be more of a 'Lego-block' structure, in which Sony gives users the parts and lets them create what they want."

Wired took that answer as a sign that video sharing--a feature that would have been welcomed among friends meeting up online--is all but abandoned. The feature likely would have come with legal complications, but was also one of the program's more highly anticipated.

The latest update to the PlayStation 3's digital storefront sees the debut of the August edition of Sony's digital magazine Qore, along with new details concerning paid access to the upcoming beta program for Insomniac Games' shooter sequel Resistance 2.

Those gamers who buy an annual subscription to the digital magazine will be offered early access to the beta, scheduled to kick off in the near future. Single episode purchasers, meanwhile, will be guaranteed access at an undisclosed later date. Qore is priced at $2.99 per issue, or $24.99 for an annual subscription.

Also on offer is the PlayStation Home theme, which acts as an application into the latest round of beta testing for Sony Studio London's online social networking software when downloaded. As revealed earlier today, the theme is available free of charge.

The entirety of today's PlayStation Store update is viewable below... Read more

As Sony prepares to launch the public Home (PS3) beta this year, the company has revealed plans to ramp up the closed beta test at the end of the month.

To apply for the latest round of testing for Studio London's online social-networking software, North American PlayStation 3 owners simply need to download the free PlayStation Home theme that will be available in the PlayStation Store later today.

"We will be using a variety of criteria including activity on the PlayStation Network to determine eligibility for the Beta community," director Jack Buser wrote on PlayStation.Blog, noting that current beta testers will be included in the rollout, and that SCE Europe will be contacting active PS Network users for beta participation.

The PlayStation 3's free 3D social networking application Home will feature content from Nike, EA, LucasArts, Activision and more when it arrives in open beta this fall.

"I absolutely assure you...your patience will be more than rewarded," SCEA CEO Jack Tretton promised.

Sony Computer Entertainment just sent over some new screenshots and details from PlayStation Home (PS3), revealing a virtual event space and the company's plans for it.

According to Sony, "the online Media & Events Space can be re-dressed and re-branded just like a real-life venue." It was apparently tested last week with a recreation of the PlayStation Day that took place on May 6, complete with streaming video speeches.

Citing the test's success, SCE noted that "Home will now start scheduling more elaborate and exciting productions for the Space, which will be available for use by both first and third parties."

SCE London's oft-delayed social networking software will be a free download for PlayStation 3 owners when it goes into open beta this fall.