Sony announced today that a new PlayStation 3 will launch next week, offering 500GB of storage and a super-slim case design that promises a 25 percent reduction in size and lower weight than the current model. The hardware comes with a sliding disk cover and will be available in black (and white in Japan), due for release September 28 in the UK.

We're not sure if Sony approves of this or not (we're going to guess "not"), but YouTube user FistFullofPotions has created a video showing how to transfer PSOne Classics to PlayStation Vita via PlayStation 3 - including games not included in Sony's list of the nine games "officially" available in North America.

Usually it's Xbox 360 players who get premium content first for Battlefield 3, but Premium subscribers that bought a subscription on PlayStation 3 will be delighted to hear that they will get to play the latest expansion, Armored Kill, before anyone else on September 4. Xbox 360 and PC owners will have to wait until September 11, while those who don't have a Premium subscription will have to wait until September 18.

Sony is doing all it can this week at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany to breathe new life into its latest hand-held, the PlayStation Vita. Earlier in the week it announced that it would give consumers a free copy of a Vita game when they purchased a select PS3 game, and announced that an upcoming firmware update would make PlayStation Classic games compatible on the hand-held.

At Gamescom in Cologne, Germany today Sony announced a new initiative that will give PS3 players an incentive to buy: free games for the Vita. Dubbed the "Cross Buy initiative," players who buy a PS3 game in this program will get the PS Vita counterpart game for free.

For example, gamers who buy the PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale will get the PlayStation Vita version free. Sony also announced that Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault will be part of the initiative.

Sony Computer Entertainment will shut down some old servers that provide multiplayer for several PSP and PS3 games, the company announced this morning. SCE will start by shutting down the servers for MotorStorm Pacific Rift for the PlayStation 3, and the PSP titles MotorStorm Arctic Edge and SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 on October 1.

Of course all of these games will still be available for offline play.

According to Sony Online Entertainment CEO John Smedley, 70 percent of DC Universe Online players prefer the game on the PlayStation 3. Speaking to GamesIndustry International, Smedley says that his company has proven that free-to-play gaming on Sony's console is a viable market, and one that's supported well. Smedley makes a good point considering that there are more MMO's on the PS3 than there are on any other console and the PS3 is the only console system that has successfully supported the free-to-play model in games like DC Universe Online and Free Realms.

One of the reasons that the game cheat industry collapsed was because Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft created systems that had varying degrees of connectivity to online, achievements, and multiplayer. That's why products like the original Game Geneie from Galoob and the GameShark have long since died. But Hyperkin is jumping headfirst into the abandoned space with a brand new Game Genie. You may fondly remember the Game Genie as a popular cheat device for such consoles as the Sega Genesis and the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Square Enix’s worldwide technology director Julien Merceron says that Microsoft’s and Sony's insistence on extending the lifecycle of their respective consoles has ultimately hurt the industry. In a recent interview with GamesIndustry International he called this protracted life cycle the "biggest mistake ever made" and claimed that this move has ultimately damaged the overall console market. Those are fighting words.

According to a Dealnews survey (accompanied by a handy dandy infographic) that polled 1,551 Dealnews readers the Xbox 360 is the gaming console of choice according to 38 percent of respondents. PC gaming comes in at second with 27 percent of those surveyed, followed by 20 percent who said they use the PS3, and 6 percent said they play exclusively on their smartphones.

According to several published reports, Sony will bring backwards compatibility back to the PlayStation 3 via a new partnership with cloud-based game streaming company Gaikai. Using the company's game-streaming technology PlayStation 3 owners will be able to play first- and third-party classic PlayStation One and PlayStation 2 titles through the service. Sony is expected to make some sort of announcement related to cloud-based gaming next week during its E3 Expo press event in Los Angeles.

Atlus USA delivered some great news to fans of its ultra popular online-focused RPG, Demon's Souls: the game's servers will not go offline. On April 12 Atlus had announced that it would be shutting the online servers down for the PS3 game on May 31.

But today a tweet from the company's official Twitter account, @AtlusUSA, revealed some great news:

This week on the podcast we talk with Ben Sawyer, Project Director for Games for Health. Ben gives us a preview of what the event will offer next month and even talks a little bit about the impact of gamification on our privacy.

Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight delve into the fine print of Microsoft's recently announced $99 Xbox 360 and detail why it's not really a good deal for anyone. They also discuss the sorry state of the big three console makers.

Sony reported less than stellar results for Fiscal Year 2011 today. Sony posted revenues of 6.5 trillion yen ($81.5 billion), down 9.6 percent from 7.2 trillion yen ($90.1 billion) from the same period a year ago. The company also posted losses of 456.7 billion yen ($5.7 billion), compared to losses of 259.6 billion yen ($3.3 billion) from the same period a year ago.

A new profile of George "Geohot" Hotz, the guy who jailbroke the iPhone and then the PlayStation 3, went live today in The New Yorker Magazine. 

EA, BioWare, and Sony have finally worked out whatever differences they had to allow owners of the PS3 version of Mass Effect 3 to take part in multiplayer online events via PlayStation Network. The first one of these events that includes PS3 owners is Operation EXORCIST, which begins later tonight.

BioWare said in a blog post today: "Good news Spectres! Starting with Operation EXORCIST, N7 Weekend Challenges will extend to the PlayStation 3 platform."

According to the official PlayStation Blog, the PlayStation Network and related services will be down for maintenance for around 13 hours. How will we survive, I wonder? Beginning at approximately 2pm GMT / 6am PDT / 9am EDT various PSN services will go offline as Sony tinkers, tweaks, and upgrades them. The maintenance will last until approximately 3am GMT / 7pm PDT / 10pm EDT.

According to this C&VG report, the reason that owners of Mass Effect 3 on the PlayStation 3 do not have access to the multiplayer challenges that other platforms enjoy is because "Sony won't approve them."

A Federal Court has ruled that Sony has the right to change the terms of service on its PlayStation Network service because it is a "choice" for its users. Sony changed its TOS for the PlayStation Network last year by adding a clause that anyone wanting to sue the company would instead have to go to what some like to call "mandatory arbitration." 

The Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Navy have launched a new research initiative that will find new ways to let the government gain access to information stored on home console systems like the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Adult video streaming company SugarDVD is expanding its service with a new app for the PlayStation 3. The saucy adult video service is already available on ROKU, BOXEE, and Google TV. For around $8 a month adult users can watch unlimited streaming titles divided up amongst various categories (which we're not going to mention here). There are also DVD and streaming combo packages, with the most expensive plan - 8 DVDs out at a time and unlimited streaming - for about $40 a month.

If you are a PlayStation 3 owner and also an Amazon Prime subscriber, you'll be happy to know that you can watch all that unlimited video that Prime offers on your Sony device. Prior to the service being available on the PS3, Amazon Prime video was only available via the Internet, Roku devices, and select smart TVs. Sony has also agreed to feature the app on all PS3 systems sold in the U.S.

A man who stole some items of little value and murdered the man that owned them thought he got away with the crime. After allegedly shooting the man in the head, a Las Vegas man named Patrick Wilcock sold some of the items he stole at a local pawn shop. But police say that the one thing that may have uncovered the crime was a stolen PlayStation 3. The suspect stole it, along with some video games and other items not mentioned in the report.

Sony says that, to-date, it has managed to "move" 10.5 million units of its Move peripheral for the PlayStation 3. The figure was revealed by Sony developer support engineer Gabe Ahn after a Game Developers Conference panel on developing games for the company's motion sensing controller. That figure represent "units shipped to retailers" and not "units sold." Further, Ahn says that the Move attach rate is one for every six PlayStation consoles sold as of December 31, 2011. Further muddling those numbers, it also includes Move and Navigation controllers.

Sony has released an interesting list of the PlayStation 3 games that players have managed to get an elusive Platinum trophy in the most. At the top of this heap is... Assassin's Creed 2. It was followed by Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, God of War 3 and Resident Evil 5. Sony social media manager Jeff Rubenstein, who revealed the top ten list on the PlayStation Blog said that all the games listed below were commercial successes.

Video game console makers Microsoft and Sony are squaring off against enthusiast hackers, academics, and organizations such as the EFF who would like to make the act of jailbreaking legal. There is already an exception in place that allows the iPhone to be jailbroken, so supporters of gaining similar allowances for the Xbox 360 and PS3 are urging the U.S. Copyright Office to make these exceptions. The copyright office is currently accepting public input comments on the subject until Friday, and will likely make a decision soon shortly thereafter.

Earlier in the week Sony announced that it would be doing 14 hours' worth of "routine Maintenance" on PlayStation Network and related services. According to a new post on the official PlayStation Blog, that maintenance will not happen today as planned.

"UPDATE: This maintenance period has been postponed. We will re-post when the date is rescheduled. PSN’s online gaming and services on Thursday, March 1, will be normal."

A message on the Official PlayStation Blog warns PlayStation Network users that the service will shut down for 14 hours for some routine maintenance. You will not be able to sign in to PlayStation Network during that time, and any websites related to it will also go off the grid until the service returns on Friday. Sony did not disclose what it would be changing or if a new update would be applied during this service outage. From the blog:

Sony announced plans to release the multiplayer component of Guerrilla Games' Killzone 3 as a standalone download on the PlayStation Network, but the best part of this news is that it will be free to play. Sony made the announcement during the most recent episode of the Sony Blogcast. The one caveat is that level progression will be capped, though to what extent or exact point we do now know.

A studio formed by five ex-Sony developers last year explained why they ditched the PS3 and the PlayStation Network to develop games for Apple's iOS platform. When asked what drove them into the arms of Sony's competitors, the answer was simple enough: