Update: A few commenters have pointed out that this is likely a white world tendency event, much like the black world tendency event that took place on Halloween. That makes much more sense. Feel free to ignore the speculative difficulty rant below.

Sony seems to be planning something for fans of Demon’s Souls, myself included. “Heroes of Boletaria, take heart: rumor has it the Old One’s power will falter in the days following the winter solstice #demonssouls,” reads a Tweet from Sony’s Playstation Twitter account. Blend Games did a quick and dirty analysis of the cryptic message and speculates that the game will get an optional easier difficulty setting, due to fall after December 21 (when the winter solstice begins).

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Prepare to see American Idol’s Simon Cowell talking about venturing into video games without actually discussing anything of substance. In an interview with GQ (via MCV), Cowell said he’s teaming with entrepreneur Philip Green to launch an entertainment empire, part of which will include video games. But when he actually starts talking about the vision, things run off the rails pretty quickly. “[U.K. talent search show] X-Factor should have been the initial vehicle to have Activision come to us and say: ‘You’ve got all the [consumer] traffic. Can you help launch Guitar Hero?’” The interviewer then reminded Cowell that neither X-Factor nor American Idol feature guitars, to which he replied, “I’d put guitars on my show to get Guitar Hero.” Simon Cowell’s Guitar Hero? Glad it didn’t pan out that way.

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Not sure why this is a huge deal, but Yakuza 3 is coming to America, exclusively for the Playstation 3, in March 2010, and gamers are stoked. This is the first Yakuza game for current-generation consoles, and while it’s almost two years old in Japan, North American and European Yakuza fans were left out in the cold. No longer, according to Sony and Sega, who says this was one of the most requested titles for localization among Sega Europe’s online community. Localization will leave the game’s Japanese dialog intact, using English subtitles instead of new voice actors. Makes sense, as the game takes place in Okinawa and Tokyo.

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So you bought the PSP Go, but suddenly you’re wishing you had the PSP-3000, with its glorious optical drive, instead. Logitech may be working on a solution, according to a source speaking to CVG. As you’d expect, the add-on will let you play games on UMD, thanks to an attachable drive, though it’s not clear how the drive would mount onto the device. “The only problem is that it’ll make the PSP a little bulky,” the source said. That suggests the add-on would be something you attach rather than simply plug in by wire, but it’d still have to go through the handheld’s multi-use connector, which sounds a little screwy.

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Next year, Sony will offer a paid, premium version of its online services for the Playstation 3 and PSP. The company revealed its plans in a strategy presentation (PDF) but didn’t elaborate on what services a premium PSN would offer. Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Kaz Hirai confirmed the plans, but in a statement to CVG, suggested that none of the things you already get for free will go behind a paywall. “Especially in the on-line area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services,” he said.

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Sony plans to support 3D gaming on the Playstation 3 by the end of 2010, according to a presentation on the company’s plans for profitability. 3D support coincides with Sony’s desire to push 3D across several of its electronics platforms, starting with Blu-ray players and televisions, then moving on to the Playstation 3. In time, the company even wants live broadcasters to introduce 3D in their television programming. It seems that Sony would be able to build 3D capabilities into existing Playstation 3 consoles, though that point is not entirely clear. In any case, you’ll of course need a 3D television and glasses.

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First the good news – the introduction of the PS3 slim sent unit sales skyward for Sony, increasing second quarter 2009 unit sales to 3.2 million, a %33 jump from 2.4 million units in Q2 2008.  Don’t break out the party poppers yet, though, because the rest of Sony’s quarterly earnings announcements aren’t so rosy.  The company took a ¥63.2 billion ($696 million) shortfall in the quarter, mainly attributed to an appreciating yen, an expensive company restructuring, and declining Sony Ericsson Mobile profitability. The company’s other gaming platforms sagged as well, with quarterly year-on-year numbers falling from 2.5 million to 1.9 million for the PS2, and 3.2 million to 3.0 million for the PSP.  These numbers indicate that consumer sentiment echoes the less-than-favorable reception of the PSP Go from critics.  Perhaps an economic recession is a bad time to introduce a handheld with fewer features, is harder to use, and costs more than a previous model – but I’m no economist. [via Gamespot and Sony Global]

Those bloodthirsty God of War fans will do anything to get an early demo of God of War 3, even if it means buying a totally unrelated movie, right? So goes the promotion Sony is offering, in which you can get the GOW3 demo by purchasing District 9 on Blu-ray. Indeed, the world of cross-promotion is a warped reality, one where a movie about xenophobia and aliens can be paired with a video game about killing mythical creatures in as violent a manner as possible. If there’s one neat thing about this, it’s that the movie and the demo are housed on the same Blu-ray disc, a bit of that synergy we were hearing about earlier this year. [via MTV Multiplayer]

Dear everyone who bought a Playstation 3 but would have liked more storage than 120 GB: You got burned! Sony announced today that it will release a 250 GB Slim on November 3. And it’s priced at $350, which is only $50 more than the existing Slim. So you’re double burned if you bought a $400 160 GB Playstation 3 Fat recently, thinking you’d really need the extra 40 GB. There’s not much more to it than that; Sony says the console will have “the same slim look, feel and features as the 120GB system,” with more room than ever for storing games, photos, music and videos. The rest of us will just have to stream our media from a networked PC instead. [via Playstation.Blog]