Posted on 4 March by Mike Kebby – PlayStation Store Team, SCEE

‘Heads-Up’ PlayStation Store Update (4th March 2010)

I’m back, hope you didn’t miss me too much (I know that you were left in the more than capable hands of Ross last week anyway, so thanks for playing nice; he doesn’t seem too emotionally scarred by the experience)

This week I’m pleased to say we have Vandal Hearts Flames of Judgement available, and not only is this a great game for existing fans of the series, those of you not familiar with this great RPG should get great enjoyment from it too, so give it a whirl.

We also have the demo for Just Cause 2 available, and once you throw yourself off that first cliff you’ll have thirty minutes to exact as much mayhem as you can in the luscious tropical setting of Panau. Prepare yourself for some truly action-packed sandbox fun.

Throw into the mix a brand new batch of Special Offers, new content for Resident Evil 5, Operation Flashpoint, Dante’s Inferno, LittleBigPlanet (PSP), Echoshift and more, and that’s another week in the life of PlayStation Store.

I’ll be around as usual, so hit me up in the comments. Next week I’ll be out of the office mixing it up with high society (okay, that’s a lie, I’ll be working off site), but Ross will be back to look after you all…just don’t start liking him more than me, I get possessive of you lot.

Have a great week!

At this moment in time, gamers are limited to a handful of major high street retailers where they can trade-in old games for store credit or cash. This could be about to change. Already Tesco and Asda have been trialling trade-in deals at a few of their stores in the UK, and has been running for quite some time now, with a view to push the scheme out to more stores in the not to distant future. Now it turns out that Argos are looking to join in on the trade-in deals. I have personally known this a while, but have been told to keep it quiet as nothing has been set in concrete yet. Today though, I noticed a thread on the OPC, whereby PS3trophies.org have put up a news piece, found via gamesindustry.biz, releasing a bit more detail about a trial they are running in 27 of it's 735 stores.

With these 3 massive UK retailers looking to join in on the trade-in market, I can see this as being a good thing. It is a typical move of the likes of Asda and Tesco, as both companies seem to like having their fingers in as many pies as possible. It is a good sign of Argos' intention to become more prevalent in the gaming market, this is added to the move they made a while back to offer pre-orders via their online site, and their more competitive pricing structure of games.

The major plus side for gamers is that a healthier market produces better prices. Therefore we can expect to see more competitive trade-in values for games. Another benefit will be when getting store credit, we will get a wider choice of what to spend that credit on. Maybe you don't want another game, but fancy picking up a DVD or CD. Maybe that credit could go towards a new TV or stereo. Maybe even a new kettle if you want!

What are your thoughts on this? Check out our trade-in discussion thread on the forums here --> The Trade-in Market Discussion

The trophies for God of War 3 have been released, probably from some lucky schmuck playing a review copy! Anyway this is the list.

Heavy Rain is due for UK release 26/02/2010, which is this Friday, and Sony have unveiled the TV advert that is gearing up for the games release. It's a pretty good advert, and runs along the same theme and style as Sony's recent adverts for games such as Uncharted 2 and EyePet. It does a good job on encompassing the feel of the game and is definitely geared well towards Heavy Rain's dramatic story line. It certainly has the potential to make people sit up and think "Hmmm, that looks interesting I may have to find out more about it".