Crispy Gamer News

Sony has denied reports that it was considering additional restructuring actions beyond what it had announced in December. The speculation came from  a report over the weekend that said the company planned a big corporate upheaval. This might include more job cuts, dramatic changes to management and manufacturing processes, according to UK-based paper, the Times of London. If true, the restructuring would probably be announced after the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Naturally Sony flatly denies the report saying that it has no further beyond the job cuts and plant closures it unveiled in December. 

“We announced the restructuring of the electronics business last month,” said Sony spokesman Atsuo Omagari, speaking to Bloomberg. “We are not planning to announce further restructuring at this time.”

Ho! Ho! Ho! Here is the latest news off the wires and from around the world. Happy Holidays!

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SCEA director of hardware marketing John Koller, in a follow-up to a report on Edge-Online about the decline of third-part support for the PSP, said that the company expects broader support in 2009. The first report revealed that third-party support for Sony hand-held had been steadily declining since 2006.

Koller acknowledges the facts on the ground: there were not very many third-party PSP software titles in 2008 and chalked it up to declining sales of the system in 2006 - based on executive decision made on that data 22 months ago.

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The wait is over. Sackboy will make his debut on the PS3 on Octo. 21 In North America and Latin America, according to Media Molecule and Sony Computer Entertainment America. During the week of Oct. 21 LittleBigPlanet will also be released in Europe. There’s been a lot of positive press about this game, so it will be interesting to see if it can live up to all the hype. I think Gus Mastrapa described the game best in his preview when he noted that “LittleBigPlanet is a game design tool, a social network and a traditional platforming game in one big, beautiful package.”

Look for the game to hit next month and be sure to check out our LittleBigPlanet Preview to get more details on this interesting PS3 exclusive.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Sony Computer Entertainment America and Eat, Sleep, Play founder David Jaffe are apparently being sued for God of War. A copyright infringement lawsuit was quietly filed in February of this year in the U.S. District Court in California by Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and Jennifer Barrette-Herzog who claim that the popular PS2 and PSP games infringe on their works. That work includes The Adventures of Own: Owen’s Olympic Adventure, a screenplay by Bissoon-Dath; and Island at the Edge of the Living World - a map that was submitted with Bissoon-Dath’s screenplay created by Jennifer Barrette-Herzog.

The plaintiffs are alleging that these works were sent to Sony Pictures and agents who did business with SCEA sometime in 2002. Somehow, the plaintiffs made some sort of connection between their properties being used by David Jaffe to create God of War.

Having not read the works in question its tough to judge if there are any discernable similarities. The plaintiffs claim that God of War shares a number of similar plot elements, characters, themes, settings, mood, pacing and dialogue with their works. Of course because both works are heavily based on Greek mythology it is not surprising that there are tons of similarities.

SCEA, in an August 29 response to the court,  denied the plaintiffs’ claims and asked the court to be reimbursed for its legal costs. We’ll keep you posted on how this all goes, buy my guess is that it won’t go much farther than it already has…

Source: Game Politics

Sony Online Entertainment’s latest downloadable content for the PlayStation Network is the popular television game show JEOPARDY!. Now available on the PLAYSTATION Network for around $15 USD, brings the popular game of knowledge to the PS3 with more than 2500 clues from the show, high definition photo-realistic graphics, local multiplayer games for up to 3 people and multiplayer online, character creation and customization and the promise of regular updates to the game.

If you love the long-running game show then you’ll probably eat this one up. Log on to the PlayStation Store and buy it now.

If you live in San Francisco and find yourself madly in love with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, then you might be interested to hear that Sony Computer Entertainment America, LucasArts and Best Buy are teaming up to deliver a launch event in the area.

The trio will commemorate the release of the upcoming videogame with an exclusive launch party, offering gamers a chance to get their hands on the first copies of the game.

The party, which will be held at the Best Buy store at 1717 Harrison St. in San Francisco on Monday, Sept. 15, will run from 7pm until midnight and will feature appearances by several very special guests including Sam Witwer (who plays Darth Vader’s Secret Apprentice in the game) Executive Producer Haden Blackman, Art Director Matt Omernick, Lead Engineer Cedrick Collomb, Lead Content Designer John Stafford, Lead Systems Designer Rich Davis, and dozens of other members of The Force Unleashed development team at LucasArts.

Attendees will also get a chance to play the full version of the game in advance and be able to get their photo taken with some of their favorite Star Wars characters.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be released on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 later this month.