Heads up to all European PlayStation gamers! The latest PSN update is now available. Included in this week's lineup are two new PS3 game demos, a classic PSOne game Lilo and Stitch: Trouble in Paradise,  more downloadable games, new Minis and the usual game add-on content

Downloading torrents is one thing, but attacking merchant ships with guns at the ready and stealing their goods is quite another. I'm talking real maritime pirates here.

Attacks from pirates off Somalia have been increasing recently, which might force merchant ships to take different trade routes. This could potentially cause shipments of various goods, including video game hardware and software, to get seriously messed up.

No one likes to be overcharged. Unfortunately, that's what one customer of Sony's PlayStation Store has reported regarding the service. According to a certain Davin Warner, the difference in prices between the South African branch and the US branch just doesn't cut it. More overpricing woes follow after the jump.

South African authorities have recently barred Sony PlayStation 3 advertisers from exhibiting an ad that has a couple of PS3 units tagged with a line that reads "Stocks are limited. Things could get ugly."

The authorities reasoned that the ad is a reference to past violent incidents related to gaming console launches in the US and Europe where muggings have led to injuries and fatalities.

Fans of the console and some blogs, however, argued that such incidents aren't likely to happen because of the slow sales and relatively low demand of the product in the region.

This ban follows a long list of other game related bans, such as that of the public transportation ban on advertisements for the game Grand Theft Auto IV.

 

While the folks at London enjoyed HDTV screens, people in Paris, France got a good glimpse of the Xbox hearts you riverboat, and folks at Durban, South Africa got their midnight launch cancelled because retailer's orders didn't make it to the store (thank god for the demo units at the launch), and various folks around the world bought beer, the folks of Malta were a bit more appreciative and direct.

Games Radar writes: "PlayStation 3 sold out in Malta, and was the fasting-selling gaming brand in the country's history, with all 250 of the consoles sent to the small island snapped up almost immediately. Can Xbox 360 make the same boast?"

If we can now somehow trade Malta's interest with Australia's. Hmm...

The games industry continues to concentrate on dominating the European, North American, and Japanese market, but Chris Stanton-Jones, VP of distributor markets at SCEE is indeed thinking out of the box. Why is that? Recently, the SCEE honcho told publishers that if they do not take advantage of territories like Russia, India, the Middle East and South Africa, then they would miss out on a potential fortune.

He mentions that these territories could represent a market far bigger than expected. He continued by saying:

Think emerging markets, think big numbers. With the right channelled effort you can literally double your business in a year, something that you could only dream of in the more mature Western European markets.

Well, he has a point there. But he is also aware that some of these "emerging" markets that he is talking about has also became a hotbed of piracy. In spite of that, he remains optimistic in his statements:

The first wrong perception is that piracy means it is impossible to have a legitimate software business in these markets. Take Dubai for example – rife with piracy ten years ago and now completely clean...Where there is money, nice air-conditioned shops, anti-piracy support and some reasonably priced software, you will have a good software market. In most markets, however, piracy directly affects software business, which we have to respond to.

South Africa is one one of those places that usually don't pop up in our heads unless we're thinking of Charlize Theron or diamonds. But if you're in the business of tracking PS3 news wherever they may come from, there's a third reason why South Africa is back on the map. An online store called Take 2 has boldly announced that it will be hawking the PS3 for 6,399 South African Rands. If that sounds pricey in rands it is equally pricey in greenback - around $900! But in a country whose natural resources include diamonds and Theron, perhaps that's not a bad price. The PS3 is expected to hit the land of Nelson Mandela this December.