We’re excited to announce a new program called “Only On PSN,” which features brand new games that are exclusively available on PlayStation Network throughout October. Every week starting tomorrow, October 4, you will find new titles, unique to PSN that are part of this program – games that you’ve likely read about here on the PlayStation Blog, or seen during our showing at E3 2011. You may recall our announcement a few months ago about our Pub Fund – a $20 million investment in exclusive PSN titles, and the Only On PlayStation Network program showcases two titles spawning from this investment: Eufloria and Okabu.

We can’t wait for you to get your hands on the Only On PSN games yourselves, so we’re giving you a few special offers throughout the course of the program. First, to sweeten the deal, we’ll be offering PlayStation Plus subscribers a 20% discount on each game during the first week of its availability.

Additionally, users who spend $60 or more out of their PlayStation Network/Sony Entertainment Network wallet through the month of October will get $10 back in November. This includes any of the Only On PSN games, purchases of games, add-ons, movies and TV shows in both the game and video sections of the PlayStation Store, your paid subscriptions for PlayStation Plus or Music Unlimited, movie rentals or purchases through Video Unlimited and any games or virtual items you buy in PlayStation Home.

Be sure to keep an eye on the PlayStation Twitter feed, as we’ll be giving away download codes for each game in the line-up every week. Don’t miss your chance to get this week’s Only On PSN games for free!

Now, let’s check out the games:

October 4:

• Eufloria – An addictive ambient game of space exploration and conquest, plant growth and bio-mechanical evolution. Explore a beautifully realized universe rendered in a style that is unique and compelling. Conquer asteroids in deep space and use their resources to literally grow and nurture semi-organic plants and creatures to do your bidding.
• Rochard – A fun and original space adventure game that features a resourceful hero, ominous villains, rugged machinery, big explosions, even bigger stunts and sharp one-liners. The game tests players’ coordination and wits as they use gravity to their advantage, changing it at will to solve environmental puzzles and advance through each level.

October 11:

• Sideway: New York – Help defeat Spray, a sinister tagger who wants to dominate both Sideway and the real world in this unique sidescroller that offers you the chance to leave your mark on the city.

October 13:

• Sodium Collection – A more than $35 value available for $9.99, this PlayStation Home value pack includes the SodiumOne Pilot’s Jacket, which unlocks the full 50-level tank combat Salt Shooter game, and weapon upgrades for your SodiumOne tank. Also included is a variety of upgrades for Sodium 2: Project Velocity, a high-speed, free-to-play, futuristic multiplayer racing game exclusive to PlayStation Home, and the wildly-popular Blaster’s Paradise personal space, which hosts a tabletop version of Salt Shooter. Buy from the PlayStation Store and play in PlayStation Home.

October 18:

• Okabu – An action-puzzler, where players will guide Kumulo, Nimbe and four cloud-flying heroes as they battle to save their people and their world from the industrialized threat of the Doza. Dive into a hyper-tactile toybox world filled with a huge number of puzzles, playthings, adorable creatures and devious machines spread across an epic co-op campaign.
• RocketBirds: Hardboiled Chicken – Annihilate an evil penguin regime in this cinematic platform adventure game offering full solo and co-op campaigns with stereoscopic 3D support. Destroy enemies with a slew of weapons and illuminate the secrets to his past while uncovering the real enemies of Albatropolis.

October 25:

• inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood – Vampires swarm New Marais, and revered superhero Cole MacGrath has been bitten. To save his soul and city, he has just one night to find and kill the head vampire. Featuring hours of new gameplay, themed environment settings and new characters/enemies, Festival of Blood explores the darker side of the inFAMOUS universe.
• PixelJunk Sidescroller – Q-Games goes old-school with a completely retro side-scrolling shooter that reinvents the genre from the ground up while maintaining that nostalgic feeling. Dodge flurries of alien bullets and strategically upgrade weapons while battling through sweeping stages full of hazardous fluid and endless shooting mayhem.

Also starting tomorrow as part of Only On PSN, we’ll also be offering a selection of rare classic games in the PlayStation Store: God Hand, GrimGrimoire, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Odin Sphere and Ring of Red.

So head into the PlayStation Store tomorrow afternoon to check out Eufloria and Okabu, and don’t forget: If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, be sure to take advantage of the 20% discounts for the new games each week before we move onto the next week of Only On PSN titles. We hope you enjoy the month of October gaming with these exclusive titles on PSN!

It’s tough to distill the concept down to a couple of sentences without doing the experience a huge injustice, but this excellent trailer should give you an idea of the mood and visual direction:

Now take that ethereal aesthetic, and the tingling that you’re feeling in your temples, and fold a layer of smartly accessible strategy elements over it. You’ll be exploring, conquering and colonizing enemy asteroids without the need for messy tech trees or arcane controls. It’s a rare game that satisfies both ends of the art game/strategy game spectrum, but I think that Eufloria nails it. It’s also tunable in either direction – play on the less hectic Chilled mode to revel in the ambiance, or give Dark Matter mode a try to grit your tactical teeth.

Check out my previous post for more game details and a list of some of the huge improvements for the PS3 iteration, and be sure to leave a spot for it in your PSN library if the concept intrigues you. Eufloria will be launching October 4th for $9.99, with a trial and unlock so that everyone can give it a shot. Supporting interesting independently developed games is an important goal for us, especially amongst all the blockbuster behemoths this fall – we love bringing you this stuff, and want to do so all year round. With that said, I hope we’ll see you in a few weeks!

(P.S. The little looping song that plays on the XMB before you launch the game has served as my background music for tens of hours of work throughout the year – as you can imagine, the full soundtrack is absolutely stunning.)

So what does this mean for you as a gamer? It means more unique, fun, innovative, edgy and higher quality game experiences on PSN that you won’t find anywhere else! We are excited for the upcoming PSN exclusive titles that are part of this three-year plan, including Eufloria, Okabu, and Papo & Yo, which recently received several accolades at E3, including Best Puzzle Game by both IGN and GamePro. Under this investment, we’re committed to delivering titles that have innovative gameplay mechanics, vibrant visuals, interesting storylines and an artistic element to interactive entertainment that can only be found on PlayStation Network.

Stay tuned to the PlayStation Blog for more exciting announcements around the PSN exclusive games portfolio soon!

The important part is that myself and a group of other SCEA folk are busy ramping up our Pub Fund program, helping independent developers to bring their games to PSN without the restraints of a traditional publisher. There are no specific criteria, outside of selecting games that we think are interesting and that we’re dying to play ourselves: Joe Danger, Hoard, Explodemon! and Tales From Space: About a Blob are recent examples that came to fruition with the aid of our program. We have a RIDICULOUSLY KILLER slate of titles lined up for the future, and we’re going to try and do a better job of giving you guys a heads-up about them so that you can share in our excitement, and hopefully help support the developers who are trying to do things a little differently.

And that brings us to Eufloria, which we’re thrilled to announce as our next Pub Fund title! Omni Systems are hard at work wrapping up a gorgeous new PS3 iteration of their ambient real-time strategy game, scheduled to hit the PlayStation Store in the latter half of June for $9.99.

The core gameplay revolves around exploring and conquering procedurally generated asteroid fields (which means that most levels will be different each time you play them), using their raw resources to grow seedlings and battle neighboring enemy forces. The ultra-minimalist aesthetic and simple mechanics make for a relaxing, accessible experience, while the devious AI and level design (something these guys know well) give it a strong tactical edge that really carries the experience. I promise that you haven’t played anything like it on PSN before; cull together bits and pieces of flOw, Mushroom Wars and Everyday Shooter and you’re on the right track…but still quite a ways off. Here’s how the developers at Omni-Labs describe the game:

Eufloria PSN isn’t really like other games. It has strategic gameplay, but no technology trees or complicated interface. It allows for exploration and expansion without being punished for small mistakes. It offers challenges that are fun, but in a style that can be described as “ambient gameplay”. There is conquest but there are no space marines in sight. Instead, all of Eufloria’s gameplay is based on growing your strategic and colonising life forms on asteroids that you conquer throughout the game. That is right: you are basically playing a game of intergalactic guerrilla gardening. Oh, and you engage in massive battles against enemy plant life.

The improvements and additions to the PS3 version are numerous – both in huge strokes and tiny tweaks – but a few highlights include:

• New units: A new plant will automate troop movements, while a new tree type helps terraform asteroids (both visually and to change the attributes of the seedlings grown on it)
• Improved gameplay: Including rebalanced levels, improved AI, and a new 2x game speed that works like a fast-forward button
• New collectibles: Ancient Artifacts add flavor to the universe, as well as full Trophy support, natch
• More music: Including 100 additional minutes of completely new music by ambient specialist Milieu (the OST is particularly gorgeous)
• Enhanced graphics: Smoother, faster visuals with much more environmental and color diversity
• Updated controls: Completely redone PS3-specific interface and controls

So you’ll be getting by far the best version of the game for an awesome price, and a demo alongside it on day one in case you’re not convinced. So keep a little brainspace reserved for one of the more interesting games of the summer, and we’ll be back around E3 with some new media and a final launch date. Thanks guys!