After Microsoft showed off its holidays hard/software sales numbers, Sony put its cards on the table revealing that hardware retail sales across its three platforms reached more than 3.9 million units in North America from Nov. 23, 2007 to Dec. 31, 2007.

Late last night, there was a little bit of a stir when Reuters ran a story based on an article that appeared in the Indian edition of the Economic Times newspaper stating that India's Zapak Digital Entertainment, part of the Anil Ambani-led ADAG group, was about to acquire Sony Online Entertainment for $300 million. Shortly thereafter, SOE CEO John Smedley strongly denied the rumor, "No idea who made this up. We are in discussions with various companies in India about bringing our games to this growing market but that's it. We aren't for sale."

Devil May Cry 4 is the 4th installment in Capcom's series starring Dante, the gunslinging demon hunter, and introducing a new hero, Nero, who possesses a demonic arm that can pull in enemies or use them as projectiles. Sony revealed a DMC 4 special edition PS3 will be released in Japan, for US$422 (47,800yen), which includes the game and a ceramic white or clear black console.

Sony has released a new v2.10 edition of its PS3 system software adding the ability to change the tone of a voice during video/chat, adding the previously announced DivX/WMV support, and adding Blu-ray Disc Profile 1.1 support. The update is currently available in North America, and later today in Europe.

Director of PlayStation Network Operations Eric Lempel revealed that, at the request of the PS3 community, Sony is working on issueing PlayStation Network Cards, and should start appearing at retailers in early ‘08. The cards will be redeemable via the PlayStation Store for PC, and on the PS3 to supply the wallet with funds to spend on games, add-ons, and other paid content.

EverQuest II players will enjoy yet another year of the Frostfell celebration while the EverQuest online trading card game, Legends of Norrath, will start a new tradition. Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is celebrating the holiday season in Telon, and in a galaxy far, far away; Star Wars Galaxies players will enjoy the experience of Wookiee Life Day.

Sony has released yet another new PSP firmware update, officially bringing it to v3.73. With this update, operation of the UMD (Universal Media Disc) drive has been improved to address cases in which the UMD drive occasionally suspends and fails to reload data.

Sony Online Entertainment plans to set up a development studio in India for online games that would have local content, such as Ramayan 3329, a comic book written by self-help guru Deepak Chopra and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur that was inspired by a famous Indian epic about a battle against demons.

After numerous complains from people experiencing problems with the v2.0 firmware update, Sony has released a new v2.1 edition of its PS3 system software improving not only stability of the system, but also PS3 and PS2 titles, and the Internet browser. There was also a problem with unintended power on through the Remote Start feature, which let you turn on the PS3 remotely using the PSP, which has now been disabled.

DivX announced that its video technology will be integrated into Sony's PS3, allowing it to play video files encoded with the popular video codec.

As promised, SCEA has released the latest v2.0 edition of its PS3 system software, featuring the ability to turn a PS3 system on and off remotely, using a PSP system via the Remote Play1 function, allowing for a truly mobile partnership between the two systems.

Sony Europe announced the availability of the latest version of the PS3 system software. Version 2.00 features the ability to turn a PS3 system on and off remotely, using a PSP system via the Remote Play1 function, allowing for a truly mobile partnership between the two systems.

Sony has quietly released a new v3.72 PSP firmware update, addressing only one issue, "Support for PlayStation Network titles has been expanded."

Back in early 1998 SCEA released a game on the original PlayStation under the name of Blasto. Voiced by Phil Hartman, known for The Simpsons' Troy McClure, and Saturday Night Live cast member, Blasto was a cartoonish 3D platformer where you blast loads of aliens and save babes across the universe. Sony registered the name Captain Blasto in 1997, only to abandon it several years later, but last week's registration might indicated Sony reviving The Incredibles look-alike dimwitted hero.

Sony Corp just released its 2nd quarter 2007 financial results, and while there is an overall upward trend mainly due to last year's battery pack fiasco, the gaming division is getting hit hard. Sales are up 42.9%, primarily because of PS3, but the hardware division itself is bleeding money, as operating loss increased ($867 million) due to the strategic pricing of PS3 at points lower than its production cost.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced the formation of Sony Computer Entertainment Polska, a new, wholly owned subsidiary of SCEE to further develop the PlayStation business in the growing Polish market, effective April 1, 2008.

Sony Europe announced details of its new 40GB PS3 model that will launch throughout Europe on Oct. 10, 2007, at the attractive price of €399/£299. While most specs are identical to other models, this 40GB version no longer offers backward compatibility with older PlayStation titles, only 2 (instead of 4) USB ports and no multi-memory card port.

After Future US recently took over Nintendo Power, it has now signed an agreement with SCEA to publish PlayStation: The Official Magazine, with the first full Future US-published issue, the Holiday 2007 edition, to go on sale in late November.

Sony Computer Entertainment today announced that it had acquired UK developer Evolution Studios and its subsidiary Bigbig Studios Ltd to further expand its game development capability as part of Sony Computer Entertainment's Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS).

Hot on the heels of he previous update, Sony has released a new v3.71 PSP firmware update, addressing a minor issue with the icons, while the PS3 also gets a v1.93 update, fixing minor PlayStation Network bugs/stability from the previous v1.92 patch (said to particularly make the Warhawk experience smoother).

Sony has released a new v3.70 PSP firmware update, adding new features such as adding custom theme settings, viewing a slideshow while listening to music, better scene search functionality, improved sequential playback of videos, and assign buttons added to the remote play menu

Sony announced its Tokyo Game Show lineup, where it will show off a multitude of titles, such as echochrome, Go! Sports Ski, Heavenly Sword, LittleBigPlanet, Lair, Warhawk, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Mainichi Issho, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, and White Knight Story. SCEJ will display 40 titles in total at its booth, read more for the list ...

While so far there is no official announcement yet, Sony has released the new v1.92 system software update for the PS3, adding plenty of new features and adjustments to its latest console, such as the ability to add flash wallpapers, faster XMB load times, PS1/PS2 compatibility update, controllers auto-power-off, internet browser improvements, and more ...

Sony Europe has released new material for the following of its upcoming titles:

• 'Heavenly Sword' (PS3) - 8 New Screens & Trailer
• 'Gran Turismo 5 Prologue' (PS3) - Screens & Trailer
• 'Folklore' (PS3) - Screens
• 'Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction' (PS3) - Screens
• 'Killzone 2' (PS3) - Screens
• 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune' (PS3) - Screens
• 'Lair' (PS3) - 11 New Screens
• 'LittleBigPlanet' (PS3) - 13 New Screens
• 'Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror' (PSP) - 15 New Screens
• 'Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow' (PSP) - 18 New Screens
• 'Warhawk' (PS3) - 30 New Screens
• 'WipEout Pulse' (PSP) - 24 New Screens
• 'WipeOut HD' (PS3) - 4 New Screens

Jus when you though things were look up a bit for Sony, they get sued.. again. After the rumble debacle last year, Sony was recently taken to court for the PS3s Blu-ray discs digital security technology, and on July 26 a Californian company going by the name of Parallel Processing Corporation claims Sony is infringing on its 1991 patent for "synchronized parallel processing with shared memory," and is requesting the impounding and destruction of all Sony products that infringe on the patent