Sony’s Playstation Home is constantly getting updates and support from both Sony and third party developers even though the general population share mixed feelings about the service. Despite its shortcomings, Playstation Home is technically a success story for Sony and it is bringing a similar experience to the PSP in Japan this Winter called Room for PSP.

Room (aka “R∞M”) is a free service that will be included in a firmware update before the end of 2009. Premium paid services will be introduced at a later date

It looks to have a more cartoony and friendly take on PS Home…

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) used the 2009 Tokyo Game Show to make two big announcements concerning the PS3 and PSPgo. First, the SCEE announced a new version of the PS3 Slim that has a 250GB hard drive which everyone is excited about. The second announcement was the PSPgo Rewards program, which will reward existing PSP owners who purchase a PSPgo with three downloadable PSP games.

The PSPgo announcement is an attempt to get current PSP owners to upgrade to the PSPgo. When the system debuts October 1, 2009, the PSPgo Rewards program will launch as well. Users with both systems can then log into the PlayStation Network with both systems to unlock three free game downloads. There are some catches though. First, you have to claim your three free games before March 31, 2010. Second, You have to have a UMD in the old PSP unit. Third, you can only choose from 17 PSP games.

Here are the 17 PSP games you can choose from, in alphabetical order…

Fans of the Yakuza series (me among them) were seriously bummed that Sega hadn’t announced any plans to localize the third installment. Now, 1UP, citing sources close to the project, reports that Yakuza 3 is being localized for the US and European markets.

It’s possible an announcement about the Playstation 3 exclusive game could come at the Tokyo Game Show, September 24 through 27, 2009. There’s a precedent here as the US localization of Yakuza 2 was one of Sega’s announcements at TGS 2007. Yakuza has been termed the “spiritual successor” to Dreamcast classic Shenmue thanks to its vivid depiction of Japanese culture.

The Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Associaton and Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. will be holding the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) beginning September 24 (Thursday) and concluding on September 27 (Sunday).

If you could only ever attend at least one video game convention in your life, the Tokyo Game Show would definitely be that one. Since the Electronic Entertainment Expo has been diminished into a measly press event without all the flash and fervor of its previous fame, TGS easily picks up the slack…