During the National Finals Event in Orlando, the contestants will be divided into groups of four and will race in a series of live head-to-head races in Gran Turismo 5. Racing select Nissan vehicles, contestants with the fewest points at the end of each round will be eliminated until only the fastest 16 remain. The 16 finalists will advance to Phase Two of GT Academy, where they will compete against each other in a series of challenges, including going behind-the-wheel of real Nissan race cars, for a chance to become a professional race car driver and the official GT Academy winner for the U.S. The winner will then have the opportunity to train with an elite racing team and will work towards a debut as part of a professional team in a major endurance race.

In no particular order, the 32 finalists heading to Orlando are Carl Posey, Christopher Morton, Emerson Trimble, Ryan Gordon, Damian Gosztyla, Sean Johnston, Steve Driscoll, Brian Rice, Tom Carstensen, Kris Norris, Nick Fontana, Iliya Bridan, Connor Clifford, Kyong Oh, Gregory Russell, Darryl Sutherland, Christopher Roberts, Jason Miller, Matthew Wright, Phillip Arscott, Landon Harrison, Brett Jones, Glenn McGee Howle, John Wilding, Nick Tenhulzen, Jose Sebastian Cedeno, Andre Gomes, Rich Pratt, James Edwards, Bryan Heitkotter, Derek Dalton, and Brock Harrison.

Congratulations from Sony, Polyphony Digital, and Nissan North America to all 32 of these amazing individuals. The stakes are high. The competition will be fierce. Good luck to all of them.

Continue to check back here on the PlayStation Blog and the official GT Academy Facebook page for updates on GT Academy and the National Finals. For more information on GT Academy, please visit: http://us.gran-turismo.com/us/.

We’ve rented out a building on the corner of 2nd and Trinity, and we’re converting it to the PlayStation Lounge for SXSW Interactive. We’ll be bringing a lot of unreleased games to show to media during the day. But why let them have all the fun?

So, because sources tell me that things are, indeed, bigger in Texas – we’re holding not one, but two meetups this weekend!

So don’t make any plans for this Friday or Sunday evening, as we’re dying to give you a chance to play Ratchet & Clank All 4 One & Resistance 3, and SOCOM 4, respectively. We’ll also be bringing some great prizes to give out. Attendance is free, as are the refreshments, and you *don’t* need a SXSW badge to join us.

Here’s everything you need to know:

When:
Friday, March 11th 5-8pm (Ratchet & Clank All 4 One and Resistance 3)
Sunday, March 13th 4-7pm (SOCOM 4)

Where:
PlayStation Lounge
333 East 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701

Who:
You, as long as you’re 18 or older. Bring your ID!

RSVP here (must be 18+) for Ratchet & Clank All 4 One / Resistance 3 and RSVP here for SOCOM 4; you’re welcome to attend both.

We expect big things from our first Texas meetup, and we hope to see you there!
Holler below with any questions.

As you probably know, March 1st marks the release date of Q-Games’ delightfully addictive PSN physics smorgasbord PixelJunk Shooter 2. We’re going to celebrate this momentous occasion the only way we know how: with a gigantic PlayStation community meetup and gaming session starring PixelJunk Shooter 2 and Patapon 3! (Protip: Quick, RSVP!)

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday, February 28th, come say hi! We’ll have open gameplay for PixelJunk Shooter 2 AND Patapon 3, and Ariel from Q-Games will be meeting and greeting fans at the event — you might know her from the PixelJunk Radio podcast. We’ll also be holding a PixelJunk Shooter 2 Online Battle tournament with fabulous prizes…but you’ll have to show up to see what they are!

Oh, and one more thing: The first 100 gamers to arrive at Mighty on February 28th will get a free copy of PixelJunk Shooter 2, just for being awesome. Mighty can hold hundreds of people, though, so don’t feel discouraged — though you will need to be 21 or older. Here are the full details:

Location: Mighty, 119 Utah St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2011
Time: 6:30pm to 9:30pm
Note: You must be at least 21 years old — ID *will* be checked!
RSVP: Sign up to the event on our Facebook Page

Hope to see you there.

The lounge provided a great opportunity to give players and their families a chance to relax, get some food and drink, and play some of the latest PlayStation 3 games including MLB 11 The Show, inFAMOUS 2, Killzone 3,MotorStorm: Apocalypse, Gran Turismo 5, NBA 2K11, Buzz! Quiz World, and Sports Champions. To up the ante, we provided players with a one of a kind gift bag that included an NBA All-Star LA themed PS3 painted in blue or red, a pair of Nike Air Force 1 kicks, and a Nike travel bag to carry everything. To make each item a bit more personalized, we brought back the laser etching machine which allowed us to customize the PS3s, sneaks, and bags with a logo or name of their choice.

Can you guess who this PS3 was lasered for?

Ok, I know T.O. isn’t a hoopster, but he stopped by so we hooked him up…

In addition to the players, we also had a few celebs attend the lounge—not a surprise since we were in LA. Actor Liam Hemsworth, most recently know for his role in the 2010 movie The Last Song opposite Miley Cyrus, dropped by to check out the latest PS3 games and took a liking to the PlayStation Move sharp shooter, as you can see here…

Some of the current and former NBA (and NFL) players who stopped by the lounge included:

• Rajon Rondo (Boston Celtics)
• Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics)
• John Wall (Washington Wizards)
• Joe Johnson (Atlanta Hawks)
• Russell Westbrook (Oklahoma City Thunder)
• Eric Gordon (Los Angeles Clippers)
• DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings)
• Tyreke Evans (Sacramento Kings)
• Wesley Johnson (Minnesota Timberwolves)
• Dikembe Mutombo (Former NBA center)
• Ryan Hollins (Cleveland Cavaliers)
• Wesley Matthews (Portland Trail Blazers)
• Greg Monroe (Detroit Pistons)
• JaVale McGee (Washington Wizards)
• Terrell Owens (Cincinnati Bengals)
• Eric Bledsoe (Los Angeles Clippers)
• Da’Quan Bowers (Clemson DE, #1 NFL Draft prospect)
• Kenyon Martin (Denver Nuggets)
• Shelden Williams (New York Knicks)

You can see all the pictures of the players on Flickr, but for I’ll leave you with one last shot of the custom sneakers we gave out—pretty cool!!

Now we didn’t forget about you: our loyal, if slightly less famous fans. Stay tuned to the Blog in the coming weeks for an opportunity to win an NBA All-Star PS3 prize package!

As most of you know, the Sundance Film Festival is the premiere showcase for independent films. At the PlayStation Green Room, Sundance attendees were able to get their hands on AAA titles such as Killzone 3, inFAMOUS 2, and MLB 11: The Show, to name a few. We had a number of your favorite stars come by and found some unlikely fanboys/girls among them. Terrence Howard, Susan Sarandon, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, Zooey Deschanel and more were spotted at the PlayStation Green Room. We even had a chance to meet Kratos himself – Brandon Molale, who did the motion capture for Kratos in the original God of War. We thought we’d share a few pics, so be sure to check them out below — and see more pics on our Flickr account.

Is there a Doctor in the house? Jesse Williams (“Grey’s Anatomy”) played Killzone 3 like a pro using the PlayStation Move sharp shooter.

Terrence Howard (“Iron Man”) checking out MLB 11: The Show in stereoscopic 3D.

Susan Sarandon (“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”) at the PlayStation Green Room

Bobby Cannavale (“Win Win”) tries out the Killzone 3 and PlayStation Move sharp shooter

Actor Brandon Molale (“True Blood”), and Abby, at the PlayStation Green Room

With NGP, new PlayStation Move experiences, stereoscopic 3D games, and a slew of AAA titles coming this year, we’re sure to be on the road again soon. We love hearing from all of you so feel free to stop by and say hello if we’re in your area!

When PSP first launched in 2005 in North America it changed the way people thought of portable gaming and raised expectations in regards to the variety and quality of games users expected to access while on the go. It has since become the go-to handheld entertainment system for more than 64 million users who seek home entertainment quality games along with access to their music, movies, photos and more.

With NGP we carry on this rich history of redefining industry standards and raising the bar for consumer expectations for what portable gaming can deliver. Designed to blur the lines between interactive entertainment and reality, the NGP will offer Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity. The 5-inch OLED front multi-touch display will bring brilliant images to life and the multi-touch pad on the rear will allow users to engage with the game and characters with a simple movement of their fingertips. Additionally, services created specifically for NGP will be available on PlayStation Network. These services are designed help users take their gameplay, as well as interaction with other gamers, to new levels.

While we here at PlayStation are thrilled to bring this cutting-edge technology to your fingertips, we all know that content is critical to the success for all of our platforms. I’m pleased to share that your favorite franchises will be coming to NGP, including Uncharted and Call of Duty. We are working with our extensive network of 3rd party developers and publishers as well as SCE Worldwide Studios to create experiences unlike anything else on the market.

Also announced this evening was PlayStation Suite, an entirely new initiative from PlayStation that will provide fans with the opportunity to enjoy PlayStation content on an open operating system for the first time in PlayStation history. PlayStation Suite will work with Android based, “PlayStation Certified” portable devices – including mobile phones, smart-phones, and tablet PCs – to offer “PlayStation quality” content to users worldwide. In addition to providing a selection of PS one Classics, we are also working with developers to create new and exciting content that will be available on both PlayStation Certified devices and the new NGP when it comes to market

I think you will agree that the incredible momentum behind PlayStation continues to grow with each passing year. While 2010 was record breaking thanks to an unsurpassed line-up of award winning AAA software, the introduction of 3D entertainment into millions of homes and the launch of our incredibly successful PlayStation Move motion controller, 2011 is already shaping up to be one of our biggest years yet.

Thanks,
Jack Tretton

We’ll be liveblogging the proceedings starting at 3pm Japan time (10pm Pacific/1am Eastern), so stay tuned below!

We’re almost there! Our courageous participants will set the Guinness World Record mark for our LittleBigPlanet 2 gaming marathon at 6pm (Eastern Time) later today. Join us as we wrap up the past three days and celebrate the momentous occasion of LittleBigPlanet 2’s launch on the PS3!

Here’s a rundown of our favorite moments so far:

• Guest Appearance from Sackboy himself
• All the Media Molecule goodness in the form of interviews, tutorials and Q&A’s
• LittleBigFistPumping with Jwoww and DJ Pauly D
• Playing with the NYC Boys & Girls Club
• All of our super fans making it to the PlayStation Lounge and joining us in the 4th chair
• “Laptop Guy” entertaining the stream in the wee hours of the night
• ALL our @LittleBigPlanet Twitter fans #LBP2record

Of course we couldn’t have done this without our partners:

• PlayStation Lounge at Sony Style (…with Foursquare check-in)
• Subway (…Loved the subs!)
• AstroGaming (…bonus with the LBP2 speaker tags)
• Gunnar Optiks (…sooo helped with the eye strain)
• 7-11 (…Slurpees were officially slurped!)
• Senario (…Plushies were a hit)
• Mezco (…loved all three Sack-tion figures)
• Great Eastern (…keychains: the perfect on-the-go accessory)
• Brady Games (…the book of knowledge!)

And finally, our very special “Thank You” to our hosts:

• Our very own Jeff Rubenstein
• The lovely and techy Veronica Belmont
• Daniel and Austin from the LittleBigPodcast

Yay!

PlayStation Lounge at the Sony Style store
550 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022

The Guinness World Records to be set include:

1. Longest marathon playing LittleBigPlanet 2
2. Longest marathon playing a platform video game
3. Most video game genres played in one video game in 24 hours
4. Most user-generated video game levels played in 24 hours
5. Most user-generated video game levels played in a marathon

LittleBigPlanet 2 will also be recognized for the following records:

1. Most gaming genres in one video game
2. Most player-created levels in one video game

If you can’t make it down, no worries, we’ll be LIVE streaming our World Record Event online right here on the PlayStation.Blog. Stay tuned for our unprecedented schedule of LittleBigPlanet 2 goodness hosted by Veronica Belmont from Qore and our own Jeff Rubenstein. Check in and watch the live action, interviews from anyone and everyone who loves Sackboy, and behind-the-scenes access with Media Molecule, plus tons more. You can even help us decide on which games to play next or tweet in your questions to anyone at the event. Whether it’s watching our fans staying up playing LBP2 into the wee hours of the night, checking out the Subway lunch break, or enjoying the back and forth banter of our LIVE event, we promise a good time. Want more details? Click here.

This record setting event also commemorates the release of the Guinness World Records 2011 Gamer’s Edition, the latest chronicle of video gaming history. LittleBigPlanet looms large in this year’s edition of the book with the game’s main character lovable, stitched-together main character, Sackboy, gracing the book’s cover and a bevy of facts and records cited within its pages. Known as the “Video Game Bible,” the fourth and latest edition of the popular series comes packed with 90% new or updated records and 750 never-before-seen amazing images appealing to everyone from hard-core gaming veterans to first time gamers and families. The Guinness World Records 2011 Gamer’s Edition will be available on January 20th for $14.99.

CES is a huge event for Sony – attendees see new products and services from all branches of the company… and it’s not surprising to see stars from our Music, TV, or Film divisions up on stage as well. I know I’ll be shopping for my next TV to play PS3 on at the booth, and the videos on this site are shot on a Sony HDR cam first unveiled at the last CES.

So, even though PlayStation is merely a part of this Sony-wide event, we thought you might be interested in watching today’s press conference. We’ve embedded it below, and there’s a chat-enabled version available on the Sony Electronics Ustream page, if you’re so inclined to participate. Enjoy!