Julie Han of Sony's Corporate Communications Division told Gamasutra that while MS will see a lift in sales due to the Xbox360 price cuts, Sony is unconcerned because it is not sustainable in the long term. She maintains that consumers will realize that even though the PS3 is more expensive, it offers a much better value in the long view.

"We'll obviously see the natural lift [in sales] with the price cut -- but how sustainable is that in the long term? We're really confident that consumers are making choices driven by value," she says, "and we know PS3 offers that value across the board, with the built-in Blu-ray player the broadest and deepest software lineup in the industry, with LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Motorstorm [Pacific Rift]... we're quite confident our holiday sales will be good."

Last week we told you that the new Sony PSP 3000 model, due out in a month or so, would have a new, brighter, easier to use outdoors, LCD screen. We also told you that Sony said the battery life would be cut by around 15% because of this. Well, apparently, that was an erroneous statement. Today, SCEA Marketing Exec John Koller said that the new PSP 3000 would have the same battery life as the PSP Slim.

"I'd like to make a correction and clarify that the new PSP will have equivalent battery life to the current PSP, about 4 to 6 hours for games and about 4 to 5 hours for UMD videos," said Koller on the official PS blog.

Our PSPs only get about 3 hours of straight gaming, but then again, we don't wear watches either.

The WiFi PSP Store will be launching this Fall alongside a nice firmware update that is going to bring a slew of new features to tie in with it. The content available through the PC PSP store will be available via WiFi on the actual PSP, of course, as well as some new features like ad-hoc tunneling to the PS3 for online play, although Monster Hunter is the only title with support for this announced at the moment. Great news though, now, as we always say, all we need are the games Sony!

Just an FYI, folks, people are getting their HOME beta acceptance emails today, they started about 30 mins ago or so. We dare say that most of the people we know who got accepted, also subscribe to the PSN Qore magazine. Coincidence? You decide. The download is 85mb, small. Check your email if you applied, and good luck!

Thank you for downloading the PLAYSTATION®Home Theme! You have been selected to help beta test the next phase of PlayStation®Home's evolution.

According to a Sony rep that CVG spoke wit, the new model PSP-3000 will feature a 20-30 minute reduced battery life, to pay for the new enhanced LCD screen. Also, there is a rumor that the unit will feature Dual Shock 3 compatibility via the USB port. That is unconfirmed as of now, though. More info when we have it.

Sony has revealed that along with a closed beta that starts next month, Sony will launch the HOME PSN service in Asia this Fall. No word on North America or Europe, but we assume the non-mention means no dice for US just yet.

The Warhawk servers just came back online with patch 1.5. The bulk of this update are the Trophies. 56 total are available, with only 40 (from the game itself - no expansion packs) needed to get the Platinum Trophy. Therefore the remaining 16 are award for play within the expansion packs. More details on the trophies themselves after the jump.

CVG has some of the first details on the new PS3 2.5 firmware. It will apparently include an option for screengrabs, which is great for websites like us. No word on exactly how this will work, but we assume it will be saved to the PS3 HDD and accessable via the network or XMB menu. Rumor mill for now since Sony has not even announced this update yet, but it sounds legit.

SCEE President David Reeves has stated to GI that he believes that deals to make certain games exclusive to one platform with publishers is probably a 'thing of the past." He does state that working directly with a developer "works," though, so it may not be the end of Sony exclusives just yet.

"It does, and I put it this way: we believe that investment in our own intellectual properties - as particularly Phil Harrison and I tried to do in the last five years with SingStar, or with The Getaway, or with Buzz! - these are ours, we can put them in our cupboard," he said. "It's like a patent. We can take them forward.

Sony Japan has announced a partnership with the FON WiFi community to bring a new service, PSPxFON, to the Sony handheld, free! The two companies plan to roll out FON access points all over Japan for free browsing services on the PSP. No word on a USA equivalent, but let's hope Sony cooks up something for us North Americans!