Sports fans –

Baseball’s Fall Classic may be over, but that doesn’t mean the action on the virtual diamond has to slow down. Last month on the PlayStation.Blog we announced that Boston Red Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez will be our cover athlete for MLB 12 The Show. Now, I’m thrilled to show you our first MLB 12 in-game screenshots. These images feature the newly unveiled uniforms that fans can expect the Orioles, Blue Jays, Padres, and Marlins to sport next season. Players seen here include: Adam Jones (Orioles outfielder), Mark Reynolds (Orioles third baseman), José Bautista (Blue Jays outfielder), Chase Headley (Padres third baseman), Mat Latos (Padres starting pitcher), and Hanley Ramirez (Marlins shortstop). Our good friends at ESPN.com just recently posted up the screens as well. Have a look below.

Details on MLB 12 The Show’s new features (PS3 & Vita) will be coming very soon so keep an eye on the PlayStation.Blog and TheShowNation.

Welcome to The Show!

Today it’s my pleasure to announce that Boston Red Sox All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez will be the cover athlete for MLB 12 The Show, which will hit store shelves on March 6, 2012 for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, just in time for Spring Training. A candidate for this year’s America League Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, Gonzalez is a four-time All-Star (2008-2011), three-time Rawlings Gold Glove winner (2008, 2009, 2011), and 2011 Silver Slugger Award winner. The Show has been and continues to be the market leading and highest ranked officially licensed baseball title of this console generation and the number-one rated sports video game over the past four years, so we’re psyched to have one the best all-around players in baseball representing MLB 12!

The first overall pick by the Florida Marlins in the 2000 MLB Draft, Gonzalez has really come in his own, both on the field and at the plate. A little history on him…in 2010 while playing for the San Diego Padres, he was named team MVP for the third consecutive year and fourth time overall. Then after the blockbuster trade that sent him to the Boston Red Sox last offseason, he enjoyed one of his best professional seasons to date, which included his 1,000 career hit, fourth consecutive All-Star selection, third Gold Glove, first Silver Slugger Award, and a top five finish in batting average (.338) and RBI (117) in all of baseball—not too bad!

I also want to stress that MLB 12 The Show will be coming to PlayStation Vita and will utilize all of the core gameplay features found in the PS3 version. So, players will be able to take the same big league baseball experience on the road with them, anytime, anywhere. We’ll have more info to share soon, but trust me when I tell you that MLB 12 will have a ton of new features (PS3 & Vita) that we’ll be detailing over the course of the campaign so keep an eye on the PlayStation.Blog, TheShowNation, and our MLB The Show Facebook page for more info as we get closer to launch.

Welcome to The Show!

Hey baseball fans!

The 2011 World Series is about to get underway so we’re here to predict the winner of this year’s Fall Classic using the most realistic sports game around, MLB 11 The Show. We recently simulated the matchup between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals and judging by the results, you may want to fasten your seatbelts because it’s going to be a wild ride. Here’s a quick video rundown of the series:

As you can see, the Cards took the early series advantage, winning Game 1 behind the arm of their ace, Chris Carpenter, but the Rangers took back the momentum, and home field advantage, with an important win in Game 2. With the series back in Texas, the Cardinals fought hard behind their big bats, Matt Holiday and Lance Berkman, and retook the lead in the series with a surprising Game 3 victory. There was no panic in Texas, however, as Nelson Cruz continued his red hot postseason with home runs in Games 4 and 5 that propelled the Rangers to back-to-back victories and a 3-2 series lead as both teams returned to St. Louis. With their backs to the wall, the redbirds gave it there all in Game 6, but pitching and defense turned out to play the biggest part as neither team could break through offensively keeping the game scoreless into the late innings. Finally, a clutch, two-out hit by Josh Hamilton gave Texas the lead late in the game, and that was all the Rangers’ stellar bullpen would need, as they nailed down the victory and a World Series title.

A year ago the Rangers came up short in 2010 MLB finale, losing to the San Francisco Giants in five games, but this time around they would not be denied. With 2 home runs and 8 RBIs, Nelson Cruz was named the World Series MVP, helping the Texas Rangers bring home their first World Series crown in franchise history.

Here are the game-by-game scores:

• Game 1: St. Louis 2, Texas 1
• Game 2: Texas 5, St. Louis 2
• Game 3: St. Louis 7, Texas 5
• Game 4: Texas 8, St. Louis 4
• Game 5: Texas 4, St. Louis 3
• Game 6: Texas 1, St. Louis 0

Here are some of the top performers:

Texas Rangers:

• Nelson Cruz: 7-21, 2 HR, 2 2B, 8 RBI (World Series MVP)
• Josh Hamilton: 7-24, 1 HR, GW hit in Game 6
• Michael Young: 6-22, 3 2B, 5 RBI
• Mike Adams: 3 G, 4.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 K

St. Louis Cardinals:

• Lance Berkman: 5-20, 2 HR, 5 RBI
• Matt Holliday: 6-21, 1 HR, 1 3B, 1 2B, 4 RBI
• Chris Carpenter: 2 G, 15 IP, 3 ER, 12 K

How accurate is MLB 11 The Show? The World Series starts today — we’ll know soon!

Welcome to The Show!

Fellow Spartans -

The wait is over! Kratos storms store shelves everywhere in the form God of War: Origins Collection—the compilation of God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta on a single Blu-ray Disc, available today! Now fans and newcomers to the franchise can complete the God of War experience on their PS3 for the first time. And so far, members of the media have given God of War: Origins Collection a strong thumbs up. GameTrailers.com called the game “a gift worthy of Olympus,” while MTV.com said “God of War: Origins Collection is an absolute steal.” Other early reviews include IGN.com (9/10), GamesRadar.com (9/10), GamePro (4/5), Game Informer (9.5/10), 1UP.com (A-), Machinima.com (9/10), Complex.com (8/10), DigitalTrends.com (9/10), DualShockers.com (9/10), PlayStationLifestyle.com (9/10), CraveOnline.com, and the Arizona Republic—just to name a few.

In case you forgot, here’s a quick refresher on what this package includes:

-Two award-winning PSP classics (Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta) on PS3 for the first time
-Both games running in high-definition 1080p resolution with full stereoscopic 3D support
-Only $39.99, and just in time for the holidays making it a great gift option
-PSN Trophy support that will challenge even the best players
-Dolby 5.1 / DTS surround sound
-Full DualShock 3 Wireless Controller compatibility with rumble support

Bonus content includes the God of War Game Directors Live round table video, Legionnaire Kratos skin, and the Forest of the Forgotten combat arena—all on the same Blu-ray Disc

Last, but certainly not least, in honor of today’s God of War: Origins Collection release, we’re releasing a new launch trailer; Watch it above and let us know what you think!

Fellow Spartans! We are now just over two weeks away from the September 13th launch of God of War: Origins Collection—an epic compilation of two of the most critically acclaimed PSP titles of all time, God of War: Chains of Olympus and God of War: Ghost of Sparta. Since I know many of you can’t wait to get your hands on this package, we’re going to sweeten the deal a bit and let you play God of War: Ghost of Sparta early. PlayStation Plus members will have access to the our demo starting tomorrow, August 30th, allowing you to play Ghost of Sparta on PlayStation 3 in HD and stereoscopic 3D for the very first time. This demo will then be available to the general public next week on September 6th. It’s a treat playing both games with the DualShock controller, and they look and feel like they were always intended for the big screen. If you missed our PSP vs PS3 comparison video, watch it now for a deeper look at how we’ve enhance the visuals.

I’d also like to take a moment to thank all of our friends in the media for their flattering impression thus far. If you pick up the September issue of Game Informer, there’s a great preview calling God of War: Origins Collection “a visual treat.” Here are links to a few other recent write ups and mentions about the collection: Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! News, Playboy.com, USA Today, CNET, IGN, Joystiq, Kotaku, Games Radar, and Game Informer.

Thanks, as always, for everyone’s support. Don’t forget: the war begins on September 13th!

Hey guys! Comic-Con 2011 just wrapped up this past weekend so for those of you couldn’t make it to the show, I wanted to share a highlight reel from our Starhawk panel discussion, which took place on Sunday in San Diego. The panel, titled…”The Evolution from Warhawk to Starhawk: The New Universe that is Starhawk and the Characters Behind the Conflict,” detailed the creative process that LightBox Interactive and SCEA’s Santa Monica Studio have gone through to make Starhawk a reality, including the development of an all-new story and the establishment of main character, Emmett Graves.

Under the expert moderation of IGN.com’s Greg Miller, the panelists included: Starhawk’s Creative Director — Lars DeVore (LightBox Interactive), Senior Producer — Harvard Bonin (SCEA Santa Monica Studio), Studio Director — John Hight (SCEA Santa Monica Studio), and Starhawk’s Writer — Koen Wooten. You can watch the video of the full panel – nearly 50 minutes long – courtesy of GameSpot.com. Here’s also a great write up by Kevin Kelly of G4 who was on-site with us.

Thanks again to everyone who attended the panel, we really appreciate your support! Stay tuned for more Starhawk updates as we get closer to Gamescom and PAX.

It’s that time of year again…Major League Baseball’s Midsummer Classic, where the best and brightest stars will battle it out for bragging rights and home-field advantage in the World Series. For this year’s prediction, we’ve tapped the top-rated, most authentic resource available – MLB 11 The Show. What did we find out? After simulating tonight’s 2011 All-Star Game, the win will go to the National League All-Stars, who will make it two in a row after a 13-year winless streak, hanging on to beat the American League by a score of 5-3 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.

Here’s a look at some highlights from the game. A sneak peak was also posted on ESPN.com yesterday…

As you can see, Boston’s Adrian Gonzalez opened the scoring with an RBI single, but the National League wasted little time in re-taking the lead behind an RBI single from Matt Kemp and Ryan Braun’s solo homer. Pitching on both sides dominated the middle innings, until the bottom of the sixth when the NL loaded the bases, and Colorado’s Troy Tulowitski cleared them with a booming double. Still, the 5-1 lead was far from secure. The AL chipped away behind RBIs from reserves Asdrubal Cabrera and Michael Young. Though the AL would bring the tying run to the plate in both the eighth and ninth innings, the National League’s bullpen would hold fast, with Atlanta’s Jonny Venters nailing down the final out for the victory.

With two hits and three RBIs, Tulowitski took home MVP honors. Justin Upton, the D’backs lone representative, made his hometown fans proud with a single and a nice running catch late in the game.

This was the ninth time in the last ten years that the All-Star game was decided by two runs or less, and this time, the National League had just enough to win the battle of baseball’s best.

MLB 11 The Show is the top-rated, most authentic baseball game available. Find out tonight if our prediction was accurate.

Enjoy the game!

First of all, LittleBigPlanet fans – a congratulations is in order. Thanks to all of you, we recently hit a very cool milestone – more than FOUR MILLION LittleBigPlanet levels (LBP1 & LBP2) have now been shared online by players around the world.

Four million – or to be exact, 4,141,742! To give you a sense of how big that number is, if you played LBP straight for 12 hours a day and only played each level for 5 minutes, it would take you more than 78 years to play through all of them. WOW!

Here’s a message of appreciation to all of you from the folks over at Media Molecule…

“For us the most exciting thing has always been seeing what the community does with a LittleBigPlanet game when they get their hands on the new features and tools. We’re constantly delighted – and amazed – by their ingenuity and creativity, and it’s so inspiring to see the level of affection that exists for LittleBigPlanet amongst fans around the world.”

Contraption Challenge 13

Next up – the LittleBigPlanet Contraption Challenge has returned! If you have no idea what I’m talking about the Contraption Challenge is a series of tasks to test and reward the creativity of the LBP nation, coordinated by community members Nuclearfish, Chimpanzee, and other members of the PlayStation Community Team.

This specific challenge is to construct a working submarine – see full details on our European team’s forum here. The closing date for the contest is this Sunday, April 17th so feel free to check check out some of the great submissions on lbp.me using this handy link.

If you only look at one thing this week, check out the teaser trailer for the new series of Contraption Challenges, in case you didn’t see it a couple of weeks ago – it’s pretty awesome.

Upcoming Downloadable Costumes
Finally, an update on some of the imminent downloadable goodness coming to LittleBigPlanet 2. Our next release on the PlayStation Store will be the Tron: Evolution Minipack, which will be released on April 26th for $2.99. In the pack you’ll get two brand new costumes, plus a batch of handy new stickers – here’s some shiny neon pics…

May will see the release of the Killzone 3 Minipack and I couldn’t resist giving you a sneak peak at one of the two costumes from the pack, probably one of the coolest LBP costumes I’ve seen. Behold, the Hazmat Trooper…

Combine this together with the original Killzone costume kit (which is fully compatible with LittleBigPlanet 2, remember) and you’ll have all the tools to recreate the battle for Helghan down to the finest detail. What could be better than that?