We here on the PlayStation Home team are pleased to announce that we are kicking off the holiday season in a big way come this Thursday, December 10th. We have quite a few surprises lined up for you, and I don’t want to give away too much too soon, but it’s safe to say that this year’s festivities will run for the remainder of the month and will include some very surprising developments.

That is, of course, assuming the entire community works together to solve the puzzles (and collect the rewards) associated with the huge Festive Tree, coming to Central Plaza this week. Peep the picture below (smuggled out of the developers’ offices by yours truly) for a sneak peek of what’s in store for you. And make sure you log in every day throughout the holiday season to solve puzzles, unlock rewards, and help transform PlayStation Home into the premier party destination for the New Year.

In other holiday-related news: We are releasing a ton of additional festive items that will help you celebrate the holidays properly in PlayStation Home, no matter what your personal style may be. Included in this new batch of items is a free menorah, for all of our community members that want to celebrate Chanukah in-world (free items for those of you who want to celebrate Christmas, Xmas, Kwanzaa, and even that holiday “for the rest of us” are currently available in the Mall). You’ll also find the Dead Space 2 Miner outfit (for guys and gals) in the Costumes store, along with a heap of other costumes bundled at prices that simply can’t be beat.

MotorStorm fanatics will find yet another addition to their collection awaiting them in the Estates store this week. The MotorStorm: Pacific Rift personal space is a perfect retreat for you and your friends after a day (or night) or racing around the 16 destructible tracks that make up the off-road mayhem of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. Show the world that you are a true road warrior by customizing this unique beachfront locale with the MotorStorm-themed virtual items available in the Furniture store, and then invite your friends over to launch into multiplayer matches of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. Check out this hot new personal space in the pics below.

This Friday, December 11th, we will be throwing a scavenger hunt event to celebrate the release of Hudson Entertainment’s Diner Dash. Those of you that log in between the hours of 12:00pm and 5:00pm PST (3:00pm and 8:00pm EST) will find segments of a voucher code scattered throughout PlayStation Home. The first 50 users that assemble and redeem the code will receive one free download of Diner Dash on the PlayStation Network. So if you’re reading this now, it’s time you get into PlayStation Home and start searching high and low. These codes are guaranteed to go fast!

Last but certainly not least, our development team has managed to resolve the Z(7,-104) error that a small number of users had been encountering when logging in to PlayStation Home. In order to resolve this problem we will be rolling back the last reward item received on all affected accounts. This will fix will be deployed during this week’s regularly scheduled downtime (please note that due to the extra work required this week, the maintenance period will be extended).

Once this rollback is complete, users previously affected will once again be able to log into PlayStation Home with all of their other rewards and items intact. Of those previously affected, a very small number of users may find that their rewards have been rolled back further than the previous item in order to permanently fix this issue. This was done on a case-by-case basis, to ensure that all of you could get back into Home.

As always, stay tuned to this blog for more info about the season’s upcoming content and events (including another chance to win the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Fortune Hunter Edition. There’s so much cool stuff set to release over the coming weeks and months that we are sure you will keep coming Home time and time again.

“I’m the producer for Diner Dash on the PlayStation Network.”

(Single clap, a cough, possibly someone farting)

“Oh come on, man.”

Seriously though, thanks for letting me take some of your time to talk about Diner Dash. For the uninitiated, Diner Dash was originally a PC game release in the early 2000’s. Remember that time? People were into Napster; oh the world was so naïve. Ahem, sorry this old man does tend to ramble on a bit. Anywhoozers, Diner Dash followed the story of Flo, an office worker who was just gosh darn tired of working on spreadsheets and TPS reports that she quit. While wandering the streets, deciding what to do next, Flo stumbles upon a diner for sale. [Warning: spoiler alert. Just kidding] A light bulb flashes in her head and she decides to buy the diner, and become her own boss! OK, this is where you guys step in.

With your help, you and Flo will manage the daily crowds of customers who need to be seated, fed and billed throughout each shift. The better you do at managing their happiness the more cash you will rake in and the better your diner will improve as you build of Flo’s franchise from one to four diners!

Ok, so you got the same career mode as in the PC version, I get it you want more, right? I would. Let me tell you; this ain’t your grandmother’s Diner Dash. We’ve worked really hard to give the game a facelift as well as add a whole slew of new features so you can serve up some new excitement with the PSN version of Diner Dash.

First things first: why play alone when you can play with friends, enemies and frenemies, right? Of course you do, I knew you were a smart bunch. For the first time on a console, Diner Dash will support local and online multiplayer! We’ve got Co-op and Competitive modes, as well as Head to Head and team matches. Let me break it down for you even more:

Game Types:

• Co-op: Work together with another player local or online to earn as much money as possible.
• Head to Head: this mode is pretty self explanatory – a simple 1v1 match with two players in one diner.
• Team Dash: This is probably the shining gem in our multiplayer feature set. Two players team up in a diner to compete against other teams in other diners. We are supporting up to 4 teams (8 players). So you can imagine the hectic game play as you rush around racing for the highest score possible.

Whew, that’s a lot to digest! I know there are some loose ends in this post, but don’t worry, I got itchy typing fingers so keep a lookout for more to come! In the mean time, get the game today in the PlayStation Store!