At long last, the very first title for the new Wonderbook peripheral, Wonderbook: Book of Spells, officially launches today in North America! The team at SCE London Studios worked hard to conjure up a truly amazing experience using the latest in augmented reality technology that combines Wonderbook with the PlayStation Eye camera. Starting today, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in the world of Harry Potter and begin learning the art of spell-casting while using your PlayStation Move motion controller as your magic wand. The book features new and original writing from J.K. Rowling, and will allow you to learn about the histories of some of the well-known spells from the Harry Potter series, as well as other interesting insights.

Over the past few months, we’ve shared that Wonderbook: Book of Spells unlocks the secrets of casting your favorite spells like Incendio, Wingardium Leviosa and Expelliarmus. Today, I’m excited to share that the book will also teach you a very powerful spell – Expecto Patronum! With this incantation, you’ll have the chance to discover the animal form of your very own Patronus, the manifestation of your positive thoughts and your best weapon to drive away attacks from Dementors. That’s just a small taste of the magic that we have in store for you!

To help celebrate the launch of Wonderbook: Book of Spells, we’re excited to give you a glimpse of the spellbinding experience in action in the new TV commercial (seen at the top of this post). Thanks for watching, and we hope that you enjoy checking out Wonderbook: Book of Spells with your families this festive season!

I wanted to give you an update on a project that we are incredibly excited about here at PlayStation: Wonderbook. Although we only announced it a few months ago, our team at London Studio has been working hard on the technology behind Wonderbook for years.

We recently sat down with the team to create a series of “making of” diaries that give you a closer look at the development of Wonderbook. To kick off these developer diaries, the team focused on the core technology that helped form the foundation of the project.

The first game to use this new technology is the product of our collaboration with J.K. Rowling, Wonderbook: Book of Spells. By taking PlayStation Move’s augmented reality capabilities and pairing them with the Wonderbook peripheral, we were able to create a truly immersive, magical world in which you’ll be able to learn how to cast many spells including: Incendio, Wingardium Leviosa and Expelliarmus, with your very own spell book and wand.

Wonderbook: Book of Spells will launch in the U.S. on November 13th, 2012. For those of you who are ready to get your wizard training started, we’ll be offering two cool ways for you to pick it up.

First, there’s the Wonderbook: Book of Spells Move Bundle that comes with everything you need to start practicing spells on your PS3 system including the Book of Spells game, Wonderbook peripheral, PlayStation Eye camera and a PlayStation Move motion controller – all for just $79.99.

If you already have a PlayStation Eye camera and a PlayStation Move motion controller, we’re also offering a Wonderbook: Book of Spells standalone for $39.99 that comes with the Book of Spells game and Wonderbook peripheral.

I hope you’re excited to check out Wonderbook when it hits stores this November! Stay tuned to PlayStation.Blog for the latest information on Wonderbook: Book of Spells and additional Wonderbook titles for 2013 including Diggs: Nightcrawler, BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs and experiences from Disney.

As you may have heard, PlayStation had some exciting news to reveal tonight.

For some time now, we have been working on a project called Wonderbook – an interactive book that uses Augmented Reality technology and PlayStation Move products to bring stories to life before your eyes. The AR in Wonderbook has been developed by London Studio – the team behind EyeToy and EyePet. We believe that this is the most advanced AR out there, not least because it utilizes brand new technology which enables enhanced fidelity.

Wonderbook is a physical book that will act as a platform for a range of different titles that the whole family will enjoy. Games, reading experiences, adventures – the possibilities are endless for Wonderbook, and we can’t wait to tell you more about the exciting things you can look forward to on this peripheral. It truly is one book, with a thousand stories. In North America, Wonderbook will be available for $39.99 for both the book and Blu-ray game.

The first story is one we are extremely proud to announce. Wonderbook: Book of Spells is a title developed by London Studio, with brand new writing from one of the world’s most popular authors – J.K. Rowling.

From the world of Harry Potter, Book of Spells is an enchanted textbook written over 200 years ago by Miranda Goshawk. Open the book and you are immediately transported to the Hogwarts library, where your lessons will begin. Chapter by chapter, you will be able to read about and practice 20 spells, picking up valuable experiences and lessons along the way – as well as house points – just like a student at Hogwarts.

We are proud to have the support and involvement from J.K. Rowling herself, who described the experience in her own words: “Wonderbook: Book of Spells is the closest a Muggle can come to a real spellbook. I’ve loved working with Sony’s creative team to bring my spells, and some of the history behind them, to life. This is an extraordinary device that offers a reading experience like no other.”

From interactive reading experiences to dueling, spell-casting, and exciting new content, there’s so much to discover. We’re particularly proud of the Augmented Reality technology, and how we have used it to take storytelling to a whole new level. Over the coming months we’ll be bringing you dev diaries, behind the scenes previews, and much more – so watch this space. We can’t wait to tell you all about it – from what the artists have been working on, to how we brought J.K. Rowling’s background stories of the spells to life, so stay tuned for more on one of our most exciting titles this year.

I’m happy to tell you that starting today you’ll be able to expand your SingStar track library by purchasing a great selection of downloadable SingStar Song Packs that were previously only available on the SingStore via the PlayStation Store as well in the U.S. and Canada.

To start, you’ll be able to choose from 49 packs including party-starting essentials like the Britney Spears, Bon Jovi: Rock, The Jackson 5 and Alternative 80s Song Packs. Each pack has five songs and will be available for download via PSN for $6.99. Additional SingStore Song Packs will be coming to PSN soon; but for now, check out the full list of packs that will be available today!

Once you’ve purchased your Song Packs on the PlayStation Store, just pop in your favorite SingStar disc and you’ll be given the option to start downloading your songs. Then your SingStar carousel will be instantly updated to include your new tunes and you’ll be ready to start hitting the high notes alongside your favorite artists and music videos.

So head over to the PlayStation Store or the SingStore to stock up on SingStar Song Packs. The choice is yours!

The best part about BUZZ!: Quiz Player is that for the first time ever, anyone can get in on the quiz action by using either BUZZ! Buzzers or DualShock 3 wireless controllers to answer questions. Just download BUZZ!: Quiz Player from PSN and you’ll have everything that you need to challenge your quiz skills in the single player mode or square off against up to four of your friends in local multiplayer BUZZ! showdowns. For added fun, you can even use BUZZ!: Quiz Player’s Facebook integration feature to publish the details of your games online for all of your friends to see.

PlayStation Network continues to be the premiere entertainment hub for the entire family and with new content added every week, there’s never been a better time to login and discover the latest and greatest in games, movies, TV shows and sports programming. While you’re exploring PSN’s growing library, be sure to check out the BUZZ!: Quiz Player and enjoy a few free rounds of trivia with your friends and family when you’re celebrating this holiday season!

Hello Gods of Destruction! “No Heroes Allowed!” is all ready for its PSN release tomorrow, Tuesday, November 2nd. Who better than the game’s director, Haruyuki Ohashi, to let you know all about the game’s cool features as well as thoughts that went into its creation?

Haruyuki Ohashi, director, No Heroes Allowed!

With the third game in the ‘Badman’ trilogy we had two goals. Firstly, we wanted to add new features to make the game more fun. Secondly, we wanted to make the game more accessible to a larger number of players. On the gameplay side, we added water and water-based life forms. We’ve also added a bunch of new pickaxes to choose from, from the Snoozerator to the Snacker Whacker – each with its own weird and wonderful special power. These new features add a new strategic dimension to the game and allow you to come up with your own unique play style.

Something else we’ve worked on is the difficulty level. We had mixed feedback from fans regarding the difficulty of the last two games – some relished the challenge of the fiendish difficulty, while others found it a bit too intense. This time we have three difficulty levels (n00b, Meh and l33t) so there’s a level of challenge for everyone.

Oh, and I nearly forgot the two-player mode! For the first time in the series you can team up and go dungeoneering with a friend using ad-hoc mode. It’s a whole new twist on the gameplay.

Now, it may seem at first glance that the main aim of the game is to defeat the pesky heroes who try to invade your dungeon. But actually, the underlying concept is about creating a “biotope.” To succeed, you need to create a healthy ecosystem by maintaining the right balance of monsters to support the dungeon food chain. Once you’ve done that, you have to make sure the delicate ecological balance isn’t disrupted by those annoying heroes.

In other words, it’s much like the real-life struggle between nature and human advancement – how we as humans are damaging the environment we live in. If everyone who plays our game reflects a little on this, the world will become a better place to live in. Well, that was our hope when we created this game!

So it’s nearly time for Badman to be unleashed on the world yet again. It’s up to you to use your judgment and skill to carve out a dungeon and help Badman and his minions in their goal of world domination. Consider it your duty!

As Badman would say, “May the world know no peace!!!!”.

With all the cool new features mentioned by Haruyuki as well as Dungeon-A-Day Mode, Story Mode, Badman’s Chamber, and the ever-charming Badman himself, this is an awesome game for $9.99. So pull out your PSP and be sure to grab “No Heroes Allowed!” tomorrow on PSN and beat back those pesky do-gooder heroes!!

Also be sure to check out the sweet No Heroes Allowed!” Theme and Wallpapers for your PSP available on the PSN on Tuesday, November 2nd.

If you have played What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? and What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord 2!? then you are already aware of all the ‘dungeoneering’ fun this game brings, and will truly “dig” the new features such as strategically utilizing water in your dungeons to create pools that spawn new monsters and disrupt the heroes!

And that is just the beginning! No Heroes Allowed! not only has your main story mode where you help Badman conquer a brand new world across 33 stages, but additionally Dungeon-A-Day mode will offer you 100 daily challenges to hone your dungeoneering skills. Also for the first time in the Badman series, players will have the opportunity to experience multiplayer! The new Co-Op mode, Badman & Badmella allows you to join forces with one of your friends to create a dastardly dungeon full of monsters ready to take out those pesky heroes! Who is Badmella? you ask, she is none other than Badman’s daughter and heir to his evil empire.

This is just a taste of all the great dungeon digging, world dominating, and hero thwarting that is to come. Hit us up below for questions, we look forward to bringing you more news soon!

The new BUZZ!: The 90’s Quiz downloadable quiz pack boosts your question bank with over 500 new questions on the movies, music and events that shaped the decade that brought you Pearl Jam, Pulp Fiction and Party of Five. Prove your 90’s trivia chops with cool questions like these:

WHICH OF THESE TV SHOWS STARTED UP IN THE 90′S?

• STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
• THE X-FILES
• BEVERLEY HILLS 90210
• THE WIRE

WHO DID BILL CLINTON DEFEAT IN THE 1996 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?

• DAN QUAYLE
• GEORGE H. W. BUSH
• WALTER MONDALE
• BOB DOLE

WHO FOUND HIMSELF ‘HOME ALONE’ IN 1990?

• COREY FELDMAN
• MACAULAY CULKIN
• RIVER PHOENIX
• ED FURLONG

WHICH GUNS N’ ROSES TRACK, AT 8 MINUTES, 57 SECONDS, BECAME THE LONGEST TRACK TO ENTER THE U.S. TOP 10 IN 1992?

• PARADISE CITY
• WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE
• NOVEMBER RAIN
• SWEET CHILD O’ MINE

WHICH FILM BECAME THE FIRST TO GROSS $1 BILLION AFTER ITS RELEASE IN 1997?

• TITANIC
• LOTR: RETURN OF THE KING
• STAR WARS EPISODE ONE
• JURASSIC PARK

Once you’ve gotten your 90’s trivia fix, be sure to catch up on recent BUZZ! DLC including the Celebrities downloadable quiz pack for BUZZ! PS3 and the PSP-optimized National Geographic: Prehistoric and BUZZ!: The 00’s Quiz question expansion packs, now available to download on the PlayStation Store. See if you’re a true trivia champ by answering fun questions like these:

Celebrities Quiz Pack for BUZZ! Quiz TV and BUZZ! Quiz World PS3

NICOLAS CAGE CHANGED HIS REAL SURNAME TO BREAK AWAY FROM BEING LINKED TO WHICH FILM-MAKING UNCLE?

• CLINT EASTWOOD
• MARTIN SCORSESE
• FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
• QUENTIN TARANTINO

National Geographic: Prehistoric PSP-Optimized Quiz Pack

WHICH ANIMAL, RELATED TO ELEPHANTS, BECAME EXTINCT TOWARDS THE END OF THE LAST ICE AGE?

• MASTODONS
• SABER-TOOTHED CAT
• MAMMOTHS
• THREE-TOED SLOTH

BUZZ!: The 00’s Quiz PSP-Optimized Quiz Pack

WHICH OF THESE FILMS WERE RELEASED DURING THE 00′S?

• SPIDER-MAN 2
• AMERICAN BEAUTY
• BRAVEHEART
• SHREK

Keep checking in with us at the PlayStation.Blog to stay up-to-date with the latest BUZZ! DLC!

Next month, the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa, and we’ve got you covered with the perfect way to get ready for the tournament and brush up on your soccer trivia: the BUZZ!: World Soccer Quiz question expansion pack, available for BUZZ!: Quiz World PS3 and BUZZ! Quiz TV today on PSN.

Delivering over 500 new questions, the BUZZ!: World Soccer Quiz downloadable quiz pack covers everything from the sport’s most legendary players to their history-making games. Amp up for the world’s biggest soccer event by challenging your friends to a trivia showdown featuring fun questions like these:

WHO FINISHED HIS CAREER WITH AN INFAMOUS HEADBUTT IN THE 2006 WORLD CUP FINAL?

• ZINEDINE ZIDANE
• RONALDO
• DIEGO MARADONA
• PAUL GASCOIGNE

WHICH ENGLISHMAN WAS FAMOUSLY SHOWN A RED CARD FOR KICKING OUT AT DIEGO SIMEONE AT FRANCE ’98?

• DAVID BECKHAM
• TREVOR FRANCIS
• SOL CAMPBELL
• PAUL SCHOLES

WHAT TYPE OF ANIMAL IS ZAKUMI, THE OFFICIAL WORLD CUP MASCOT?

• GIRAFFE
• LEOPARD
• LION
• SPRINGBOK

WHICH CONTINENT WILL PROVIDE THE MOST TEAMS FOR THE 2010 WORLD CUP?

• AFRICA
• ASIA
• SOUTH AMERICA
• EUROPE

WHICH MANUFACTURER WON THE CONTRACT TO MAKE THE OFFICIAL WORLD CUP BALL?

• PUMA
• UMBRO
• NIKE
• ADIDAS

BUZZ! Quiz World PSP also scores this month, adding the National Geographic: Undersea PSP-optimized downloadable quiz pack to PSN. Today you’ll be able to test your trivia talents on-the-go with cool questions like this:

WHICH ANIMAL IS UNAFFECTED BY THE STING OF JELLYFISH AND REGULARLY EATS THEM?

• GREAT WHITE SHARK
• SEA TURTLE
• SEA HORSE
• PENGUIN

Thanks for checking in and until next time, happy quizzing!

WHICH GAME MACHINE WAS FIRST RELEASED IN 2006?

• PLAYSTATION 3
• ATARI ST
• ZX SPECTRUM
• SEGA SATURN

WHO, AFTER 86 YEARS, FINALLY BROKE THE ‘CURSE OF THE BAMBINO’ AND WON THE 2004 WORLD SERIES?

• NEW YORK YANKEES
• BOSTON RED SOX
• CHICAGO WHITE SOX
• ST. LOUIS CARDINALS

WHO RELEASED AN ‘INVINCIBLE’ ALBUM IN 2001?

• U2
• MICHAEL JACKSON
• QUEEN
• BEYONCÉ

WHO RETURNED TO THE SILVER SCREEN IN 2008 TO SEARCH FOR A ‘CRYSTAL SKULL’?

• TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
• WASHINGTON IRVING
• DAKOTA FANNING
• INDIANA JONES

WHICH PART OF THE HOLLYWOOD MACHINE WENT ON STRIKE DURING 2007-08?

• PRODUCERS
• DIRECTORS
• WRITERS
• EDITORS

The BUZZ!: The 00’s Quiz downloadable Quiz Pack is the 15th question expansion pack to be offered for BUZZ!. As you can see, we’ve been hard at work generating new questions to help build out your quiz banks; but we’re not the only ones who have been busy. I just wanted to give a special shout-out to all of the BUZZ! fans from across the country who have helped to create over 40,000 new quizzes and counting on MyBUZZQuiz.com. Thanks for your continued support and keep up the good work!