SingStar developer Paulina Bozek mentioned during the Atari Live event in London that she's currently working on something "brand new" and cross platform.

SCEE is surely singing all the way to the bank with SingStar's success the past fiscal year. It has now been reported that the karaoke videogame has sold another five million units along with one million downloads, raking up their profits to 12 million in sales. To read more, head over to the full article.

SingStar was one of the games highlighted by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe during the recently-concluded GC 2007 in Germany. Executive Producer Paulina Bozek of SingStar was interviewed by Gamespot about the game and this is what she had to say and show:

As you can see, the karaoke game is all set for the PlayStation 3 and has some very nice features like downloadable tracks, streaming music, and of course, the game's core mechanic that allows players to belt out tunes using a USB microphone and sing to their hearts' desire.

This title is one of the many casual games that Sony is planning to launch to capitalize on the expanded market that Nintendo initiated with its easy-to-use games which anyone can pick up. SingStar launches exclusively for the PS3 in the last quarter of this year.

Paulina Bozek is pretty. She's also responsible for helping to create Sony London's SingStar for the PS3. The exceedingly male population of our readers may want to read on to know what we have to say about her.

If you want to hear more about her, or if you just feel like listening to a 30-second snippet of her voice, then you'll definitely want to listen in on this minute-long promotional spot for SingStar. In it she talks about the nature of SingStar, what else the game has to offer, as well as a description that defies explanation: that SingStar is "iTunes meets MySpace".

iTunes and MySpace indeed. To hear what else she has to say about this competitive singing game, you'll definitely want to check this video out. Enjoy!

Paulina Bozek, executive producer of the SingStar franchise at Sony's London Studio says that SingStar is the future. Kikizo expounds that this is because even drunk girls can play Sony London's SingStar.

Okay, their report was a lot more in-depth than that. They did say things about the game combining elements from YouTube, Karaoke, and making good use of the PlayStation Eye, but for some reason, this blogger just finds the bit on drunken ladies a bit too hard to ignore. Blame the testosterone.

Kidding aside, here's what to expect from SingStar:

• You'll get HD music videos to sing along to if available (since, as Ms. Bozek notes, music industry is only just getting into HD).
• You won't need to exit the game to buy songs on SingStore.
• You'll be able to download songs in the background. The average download is 40MB. Pricing is still TBA.
• It's like YouTube because you'll be able to share your SingStar home videos with the rest of the game's community.
• There'll be around 350 songs available to buy in the game. That may seem like a small number but they do say that they "always work with all the music labels" so there may be more in the future.

Basically the essence of these features is that SingStar's supposed to be easy to use, and easy to get into. You'll be able to download songs in the background while you go off to party, and when the download's done (kikizo claims they download rather fast), people can move from drinking and partying to singing their hearts out on the PS3. If the singing ends up quite good, then use the Eye Toy to be able to share videos with the rest of the community online.

Hopefully, Sony London will somehow find a way to integrate this with PlayStation Home, Sony's other attempt at implementing web 2.0 in the console space. SingStar is karaoke crossed with web 2.0, user-generated, community-oriented principles. If iTunes, MySpace, and YouTube, is the future, then so is SingStar, or so Sony London claims.

Yes folks, bad singing in 1080p. Will we troll the network looking for videos of drunken girls singing Pussycat Dolls songs when the game's out? And then replay the videos on mute? You bet.

For Paulina Bozek's complete explanation on why SingStar - or iTunes meets MySpace meets YouTube - is the future, feel free to scan through the kikizo's report using our "read" link below.

In a similar vein to Phil Harrison's Game 3.0 speech back in GDC 2007, SingStar producer Paulina Bozek talked about "mass customization," "consumer participation," and "explosion of choice and creativity" - as well as SingStar - in the Nordic Game Conference, reports GamesIndustry.

And when she says mass, she means mass. The PlayStation 3 SingStar will launch with 350 songs (not mentioned if in-disc or available in the SingStore), with more than 100 songs to be added every month... that is a lot of songs. Bozek demoed the in-game SingStore as part of her presentation on that "new era of consumer participation."

Bozek also presented My SingStar Online, the SingStar community (and roasting) platform, as part of making her point about the importance of choice in gaming. After all, "There have been some big media shifts recently and the landscape of entertainment has changed. MySpace is really the new MTV. TV is online, music is digital, products are tools and players are becoming creators."

It should be remembered that video game director Paulina Bozek recently blogged about SingStar and its development status. According to her, it's funny how a developer will never know the outcome of a title until it's finished. So, it is only logical that Sony is still to confirm whether the PlayStation 3 (PS3) title has some sort of connectivity with the PlayStation Portable (PSP).

But if we are to believe the product description of European retailer GAME on its online site, then SingStar can indeed communicate with the handheld. Here are the features of the title as listed by the store (take note of the highlighted entries):

• Your Playlist – Select and sing the songs you want.
• 300+ Songs – Entire SingStar PlayStation 2 catalogue and more available for download on day one.
• Customizable – New skins, new voice effects and artist images from SingStar online.
• My SingStar – All new SingStar online community allows users to upload and share audio feedback, EyeToy performances, EyeToy Snapshots and Scores.
• Connectivity – Transfer your best bits from PLAYSTATION 3 to PSP system and take your performances with you on-the-go.
• New Microphones – Designed exclusively to replicate mics used by artists.
• Suggestions – SingStar makes content suggestions based on users' downloading choices.
• Alerts – When new tracks are available for download.
• Slick New Look – The visual style has evolved with a stylish new look that is true to the SingStar heritage and familiar for SingStar fans.
• PSP Compatibility – Save vocal/ EyeToy performances on memory stick.

Why is this important to PSP owners? If we're not mistaken, the entries refer to saved data that can be played back on the handheld. Well, perhaps some of us prefer to listen to our own voices while on-the-go [insert Twilight Zone intro here].

At any rate, this is really interesting if the retailer's account is accurate. We will wait for further confirmation about this from Sony in the coming days.

The Nordic Game Conference will be held in Malmo, Sweden come May 15 and 16. But even this early, the event is turning out to be star-studded as several speakers have already been named: Sony Producer Paulina Bozek, PaRappa the Rapper Producer Matsuura Masaya, and LocoRoco's Kouno Tsutomu among others.

Finnish game development studio Housemarque will also be attending the conference. Now, who the heck is Housemarque? Remember Atari's Transworld Snowboarding for Xbox back in 2002? That's from Housemarque. Well, we know the company is not well-known to most people, but you will be happy to know that its developers are currently working hard on an undisclosed PlayStation 3 (PS3) exclusive title.

There isn't much known about this video game except that it's going to be a downloadable game developed for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE). Housemarque CEO Ilari Kuittinen will reveal the game during the speech "Adaptation, Opportunities and Survival - Life of a Game Development Studio" during the conference.

According to Kuittinen, "Housemarque is again blazing trails as a game developer in Finland. We are the first company to develop a Playstation 3 game and the first to work for Sony Computer Entertainment as a first party developer."

SingStar - just the sheer mention of it makes your hearts sing with joy. Okay, that's cheesy and we better end it right now. What we really wanted to tell you about this upcoming Karaoke-themed video game is that game director Paulina Bozek recently blogged about its developments.

Bozek said that SingStar is now in its final stages of development and their team is getting this funny feeling that the end could very well be the start of something new. We know that sounded a bit whacked out but the game director explained with clarity,

Now that we have come to the end of the project, I feel like we've got it all figured out and it feels like now we can really start. Like, "Yeah, now we all know what we're doing, let's make this game!" Should this worry me, or maybe my team, or even my boss? I hope not...

Furthermore, Bozek's reflections focused on game development saying that a developer can never really know how things will come together until he/she is finished. And we can't help but agree. We are in the age of dynamic video games, where they constantly evolve and respond to us gamers.

Enough about musings, Paulina Bozek is happy to announce that SingStore is finally up and running in their studio and there are hundreds of songs ready to be downloaded. Bozek said that it's all about variety and choice and they are now on the process of adding lesser known songs that they want to be included. She remarked,

We're also starting to think about all the less known songs that we want to put up there. It's all digital now, so space is no longer at a premium. We no longer have to agonize over the perfect 30 songs on the disc and we're looking forward to having some fun with it.

 

This year's Nordic Game developer's conference is starting off on a warm note, as we pick up word that 40 guest speakers are confirmed to be making it to the event. Aside from previously reported personalities like Paulina Bozek (SingStar) and Matsuura Masaya (LocoRoco), another high-profile speaker expected to visit the event is CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson. MMORPG gamers will recognize CCP as the developer/publisher behind EVE Online. As for the rest of the new faces this time around:

• Michael Khaimzon (Crytek)
• Maurice Suckling (Mustard Corporation)
• Kevin Bruner (Telltale Games)
• Dan Paladin (The Behemoth)
• Matias Myllyrinne (Remedy Entertainment, Alan Wake)
• Christian Seger and Niklas Westberg (Massive Entertainment)
• Ben Cousins (DICE)

DICE's Cousins is expected to give a presentation on how videogames are losing out to digital entertainment, while Mustard's Suckling is expected to give a talk on script-writing for MMOs. Those are the details for the moment, though we advise the readers to keep updated in case more information shows up.

Nordic Game 2007 is expected to take place this May 15 to 16, at the Malmo Exhibition & Convention Center in Malmo, Sweden. Early registrants may also want to hurry, as early-bird registrations are expected to end this March 31.