To call this week "PS3 Week" is no exaggeration. The PS3 Slim, a US$ 100 price cut across the board, a new firmware, another Home update -- they may not have all been surprises, but Sony had a lot of announcements at GamesCom for the PlayStation faithful. devs didn't fall behind, either. PS3 headliners such as Gran Turismo 5 and God of War III also got on the frontpage with some beefy updates this week, leaving us with a rather lengthy PS3 Weekend Warrior.

It's for real, guys! the next upgrade for the PlayStation Home is coming, and it's gonna be huge! From a Sony press release, and as posted on the PlayStation Blog, we receive details as to what's gonna be included in the swell package.

Thanks to naroon201 for the tip!

Sony has announced a lot of new stuff for PlayStation Network during the first part of their GamesCom conference in Cologne. There's a new video download service, more Home spaces, and yes, Firmware 3.0.

Starting today for this week only, PlayStation Home will play host to Criss Angel: Mindfreak, the hit program from A&E starring the multi-talented illusionist, magician, and what-have-you, Criss Angel. He's pulled a few clips out of his hat and they'll be broadcasting all the magic starting today.

Have you heard? The PS3's manufacturing costs are now down by around 70%. Will Sony be able to parlay it into a price cut? Nobody knows except for the company's bigwigs, and they aren't telling us anything. Not yet anyway. Hey, at least we know that there'll be new controller colors come October. That, and the fact that there are still loads of great PS3 titles lined up, some of which made waves on the PS3 blog this week. Read all about 'em in the PS3 Weekend Warrior after the jump.

You might not like the game, you might not be too keen to watch the movie, but you might think differently about the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, DS, PSP, Wii) content that hit the European PlayStation Home. For starters, you get to dress your avatars up as Duke, The Baroness, or better yet, Snake Eyes, or Storm Shadow - all for free. You can't go wrong with a free Snake Eyes costume. Really. Read up and learn more.

Another big PlayStation Home update coming up, starting with a massive ten-screen movie theater, a MotorStorm game, and a cake-filled event for the latest PSN release, Fat Princess. Read up and find out more.

Seven million in seven months. Seven looks to be a lucky number for Sony as it presents the data for the PlayStation Home users in its young existence. Peter Edward, director of the PlayStation Home platform group, took to the Develop Conference stage in Brighton to spell out the numbers for their online gaming service.

There's no place like home, as the saying goes, and with the upcoming updates, you might agree that the same goes for PlayStation Home. Let's see: Fight Night and Buzz! get their respective spaces, plus Namco Bandai is brewing something in there that you just might find interesting. Hit the link and find out more.

We didn't see any announcements for new PS3 exclusives this week, but we did get more than enough updates for both upcoming and already-released PS3 titles. Sony CEO Howard Stringer and PSN main man Eric Lempel also said their piece on some of the pressing issues dogging the PS3 and the PSN. Heartbreak also reared its disappointing head this week as we finally heard back about the long-rumored Syphon Filter 5 listing at mo-cap studio PCB's site. Long story short, it was just a typo. Awww.