Among a slew of much-touted fiscal strategies revolving around improving the PS3's technology and firmware, Sony Executive VP Kaz Hirai has said that he is "confident" the PS3 will climb to over 13 million units sold by March 2010, the end of Sony's fiscal year.

Hirai certainly appears to have some solid numbers backing up his statement; a total of 4.3 million units have been sold within the first and second quarter of the year, which lends some crucial momentum for the game console to remain a strong contender for the upcoming holiday season.

With the imminent launch of Final Fantasy XIII nearing the horizon, Sony will probably see increased PS3 purchases within the Japanese and worldwide market to accompany the highly-anticipated title.

Sony has also laid the groundwork for a new online media and network service that will be slated for launch next year. Dubbed the "Sony Online Service"--a work-in-progress title--the new network promises to comprise elements of the PlayStation Network coupled with ease of access in downloading movies, TV shows, music and other forms of media to network-ready Sony devices.

It appears that every retailer is getting their Black Friday advertisements leaked before the dark shopping day arrives. GameStop has become the most recent store to have its deals leaked to the masses, featuring juicy console bundle deals and reduced prices on a few big titles.

Here are some of the top deals in the advertisement:

- Xbox 360 Elite w/ LEGO Batman, Pure, & Choice of Call of Duty 4 OR Spider-Man: Web of Shadows - $299

- PlayStation 3 120GB w/ LittleBigPlanet GOTY & God of War Collection - $299

- Call of Duty: World at War (360/PS3) - $39.99

- Batman: Arkham Asylum (360/PS3) - $39.99

- Forza Motorsport 3, Left 4 Dead 2, Halo 3: ODST - $39.99 each

- Wii Sports Resort w/ Extra Wii MotionPlus - $49.99

- Metallic Blue Nintendo DSi w/ Mario vs. DK: Mini's March Again, WarioWare Snapped, Dr. Mario Express, Mario Clock, Mario Calculator - $169.99

- White Nintendo DSi w/ Clubhouse Games Express Card Classics, Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, Brain Age Express: Sudoku, Brain Age Express: Math, Photo Clock - $169.99

To view the flyer in full, go to the source link and download it from the retailer listing.

[Black Friday Ads]

With the family friendly LEGO Rock Band now released and joining its non-blocky counterparts, names like Kelly Clarkson are going to be seen a lot more often on the Rock Band and LEGO Rock Band stores for DLC. Clarkson will join Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in next week's Rock Band DLC releases in two separate track packs.

Coinciding with the release of their new live album, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will have a six-track DLC pack available next week that includes master recorded tracks from the album. The pack is titled "Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers Live Anthology Pack 01".

Clarkson will have her song "Miss Independent" featured along with "Our Lips Are Sealed" by the Go-Go's and "Who Knew" from P!nk in a three-track "Girls Who Rock!" pack.

Here is the full list of tracks for next week.

"Girls Who Rock!":

Go-Go's - "Our Lips Are Sealed"
Kelly Clarkson - "Miss Independent"
P!nk - "Who Knew"

"Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers Live Anthology Pack 01":

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "A Thing About You (live)" +
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "American Girl (live)"
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "Even the Losers (live)"
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "Here Comes My Girl (live)" +
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "Mary Jane's Last Dance (live)"
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "Refugee (live)"

Players itching to get personal payback against the darkspawn in Dragon Age: Origins will get their chance on all three platforms. BioWare has announced Return to Ostagar, the newest DLC for the game that will surface this holiday season.

The site of the darkest hour for the Grey Wardens, Ostagar is the site of a huge battle between King Cailan and the Grey Wardens against the evil darkspawn. The battle goes horribly wrong as the Grey Wardens are nearly rendered extinct and King Cailan himself is squished like a tomato.

In Return to Ostagar, players will be able to return to the now darkspawn infested fortress to take revenge upon those that slaughtered your friends. Players will also uncover secrets and seek out the arms and armor of King Cailan himself.

"We are very proud of the phenomenal launch of Dragon Age: Origins and we're pleased to announce the next installment of downloadable content that will be available to fans of the game," stated Ray Muzyka, Group General Manager, RPG/MMO Group of EA, and Co-Founder, BioWare. "The Return to Ostagar DLC pack is a prime example of BioWare's commitment to give fans a game that continuously offers new experiences and further enriches a storyline that has already received critical acclaim and positive feedback from the players."

Return to Ostagar will become available to PS3, Xbox 360, and PC owners sometime this holiday season. The price is estimated to be at around $4.99.

[Kotaku]

These special editions are becoming more and more awesome, as developers create more game paraphernalia that fans just can't live without. Bioshock brought a Big Daddy figurine that was perfect for desktops all over and it looks like Bioshock 2 won't be outdone. 2K Games has detailed the special edition of Bioshock 2 and if you're serious about your Bioshock love, then this set is for you. 

For $99, you get quite a few goodies:

-Vintage posters from Rapture

-A CD with the orchestral score from the game

-A 164 page art book in the style of books from Rapture

-A vinyl 180g LP that features the soundtrack as well.

That last one makes me faint from happiness. Vinyls are the best way to listen to music and I can just geek out placing it on my record player to listen to some quiet and sinister music. Good stuff.

[MTV Multiplayer Blog]

The latest issue of Famitsu has revealed that the first three Phoenix Wright games will be coming to Nintendo's WiiWare service. Capcom then confirmed that they would also be coming to US gamers starting in January. Starting with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the games will be released every other month, March and May, for $10 a piece(1000 Wii Points for those who only think in fake money). The extra case added to the DS version of Ace Attorney will also be released as DLC for $1 in May.

Each game will be a direct port from their original platform releases, so Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney will be a direct port of the GBA version, explaining the absence of the DLC case from the port. Each game will be unchanged from their original releases and be presented in widescreen, but with the actual gameplay only in 4:3 on top of animated backgrounds.  The games will also use the Wiimote for the objection mannerisms, so you can swing it towards the screen to perform your objections. Screaming it is not needed, but you can do it anyway.

[Joystiq]

It appears that Sony had inadvertently (advertently?) overlooked a particular country during the worldwide release of one of their consoles. Thankfully, the mistake has been corrected and the fine denizens of Brazil can enjoy the latest cutting-edge games on their brand new...PS2?

Serving as either an intentional slap in the face or haughty indifference, the PS2 system appears along with a gamut of games on the Brazilian Sony Style store for an inflated $800. What the advertisement fails to list, however, are the obligatory platinum-encrusted laser discs and gem-studded controller to accompany such a price.

The icing on the cake? Plenty of PS3 games are available to buy in the store, with the console to play said games but a glimmer in many Brazilian eyes. No word yet from Sony as to when the PS3 will be available for the Brazilian market.

[Gizmodo.br (Google Translated)]

Make no mistake, Atlus has certainly made a name for itself by developing well-known titles such as the Persona and Trauma Center series. Of course, getting your hands on an Atlus game is a feat in of itself; after initial sales, the games seem to mysteriously vanish from the shelves and remain extremely hard to find. Is this some sort of nefarious scheme at creating false demand? According to Atlus, certainly not.

Responding to a comment left at the PlayStation Blog, Atlus PR & Sales Manager Aram Jabbari explains that the scarceness of Atlus games is simply market play.

"As a smaller publisher, we usually don't manufacture much surplus inventory, but we will never intentionally undersupply the market. We build to launch demand, which is most often dictated by pre-order trends, so if you'd like to make sure you can easily snag a copy (and of course, we understand there are always plenty of games to choose from and that it's not always as easy to pick up day one), it usually helps to pre-order.

That tells the retailers there is demand for the title, and it better educates what we produce."

Apart from having the coolest-sounding name this side of Dune, Jabbari appears to re-iterate standard gaming law that deals with purchases; do your research, pre-order early and hope for the best. With the recent success of Demon's Souls for the PS3, Atlus should look at bolstering its production numbers for an increasingly receptive audience.

Geoff Keighley of GameTrailers TV has announced that the world premiere of Halo: Reach will air on Spike TV's 2009 Video Game Awards (VGAs). Keighley made the announcement through his Twitter account. This premiere will be the first showing of Halo: Reach since the vague teaser trailer for the game back at E3 2009.

Voting for the fans' choice VGAs is now open. There are 28 total categories for people to cast their vote on, from Best Voice and Best DLC, to Best Soundtrack and Game of the Year. Spike's 2009 awards show will air live at 8pm on December 12th.

 [Twitter] 

Not ready to rest on their laurels, Sony has announced that they too will be adding Facebook to their console. The update will come as part of the PS3 firmware 3.10, allowing users to log into Facebook straight from the XMB. The integration will allow users to update their status, see friends' status, upload their trophy stats, and display games they have recently purchased in the PSN Store. Developers will also be able to get in on the fun by allowing updates to be sent from games to your feed.

Other additions include an updated Photo category to make photo viewing easier, and a redesigned friends list that reduces the clutter of the previous version. The new firmware is coming soon, but no release date has been set. 

[Playstation.Blog]