Available nationwide at participating retailers for $99 (MSRP), this new bundle combines the PS2 system with Toy Story 3: The Video Game, which lets players help Buzz, Woody and the rest of the Toys ensure no toy gets left behind.

Nearly 10 years since it first launched, the PS2 continues to be a force in gaming and to date is in more than 146 million homes worldwide. At $99, the PS2 provides great entertainment value for new gamers and families with its built-in DVD player and a deep library of more than 2,000 games. Be sure to mark your calendars for October 31 and enjoy!

It’s funny how quickly “soon” turns to “tomorrow” in the rapidly-growing world of PlayStation Home. As the holiday weekend approaches us (and with it, all those extra hours to play our favorite games), we figured tomorrow would be the perfect time to launch what is easily one of the most epic gaming experiences to ever be released in PlayStation Home.

The Midway — available Thursday, July 1st — launches with 10 games, over a hundred rewards (including the Darla’s Den personal space), and plenty of secrets that you will have to uncover for yourself as you progress through this massive new game space. Simply collect your tickets from the kiosk at the entrance to the Midway and embark on a journey where a new reward is unlocked for every level of every game you master. Hang out in the space for long enough and you can even be rewarded with more plays for your favorite games (or the ultimate bragging rights at the Meet Darla photo booth). You can even collect exclusive arcade-style games like Trigger Happy-in-a-Box for the Darla’s Den personal space! Just enter the hilarious Tele-Porta-Potty in PlayStation Home’s Central Plaza to access the Midway when it launches this week.

For a holiday as important as Independence Day, we wanted to make sure we delivered the best event we possibly could to you, the loyal PlayStation Home community. And we wanted to make sure that both Canadians and Americans got an ample opportunity to celebrate – hence, Captain Kablooey’s Boombastic Bonanza! Simply head to the Central Plaza on Canada Day (Thursday, July 1st) and/or the 4th of July to participate in the festivities by playing the brand new Independence Day game with your friends, unlocking exclusive rewards (that you’ll have to see to believe), and then using those rewards to unlock progressively bigger and badder fireworks displays for the enjoyment of all onlookers. It’s easily one of the largest and most awesome events we’ve ever thrown — and it will only be available for a limited time — so come out to Central Plaza and show your national pride Home-style.

This week also plays host to some serious updates in the PlayStation Home Mall — with the highly-anticipated Active 8 Apartment UFO (which we’ve heard has a penchant for cattle abductions), new Independence Day-themed items from the Sodium store, full Woody, Jessie, and Zurg costumes from Toy Story 3 (and a bunch of furniture to boot), and tons of Alpha Protocol clothing items (including Michael Thornton, Sie, and Scarlet Lake costumes). So be sure to head to the PlayStation Home Mall this Thursday to keep your collection complete with these awesome new items.

See you in Home!

Needless to say, the virtual E3 Booth event space has been a tremendous success. And we have you, the 14 million users that make up the illustrious PlayStation Home community, to thank for that.

After all, it was your idea to recreate the PlayStation E3 Booth for the hordes of gamers unable to attend in the flesh. It was your requests for bigger and better rewards that led to the development of all the awesome commemorative items associated with the space. It was you that asked for the behind-the-scenes look at SCEA’s PlayStation Home development team that has been airing in the VIP area of the virtual E3 Booth. It was you that demanded that the SCEA PlayStation Home Community Management team get out from behind the screen and chat face-to-face on the show floor (many thanks to those of you that took the time to stop by the booth and talk to us, learn about some of the new content we have coming down the pipe and, most importantly, give us your feedback on the platform — we had the time of our lives!)

We have tremendous momentum coming out of E3, and you can bet that we’re going to continue to come correct and deliver the content that you demand between now and our next big event. This week, we are releasing a brand new personal space based upon Disney-Pixar’s third installment in the critically acclaimed Toy Story series. “Andy’s Room” transports players to the world of Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and the other toys owned by Andy Davis. Packed with mini-games and fun interactives, Andy’s Room is a must-have addition to your personal space collection. Pick yours up this Thursday from the Estates store in the PlayStation Home Mall. In the meantime, check out this video we’ve scored that highlights some of the key elements of the space (Note: Some of the virtual items that are shown towards the end of the video will be released over time — stay tuned for specific release dates).

In other Toy Story 3 news, be sure to head to the PlayStation Home Theater this Thursday to load up on some exclusive Toy Story 3 virtual item rewards. All you have to do is watch the Toy Story 3 footage and — voila! — Toy Story 3 t-shirts will magically appear in your wardrobe. Pretty cool, eh?

Our uber-popular PlayStation Home’s Top Avatar events continue with our 80s Week contest. Decorate your avatar in neon garb, spandex, and other loud and proud attire, snap a pic, and upload to this thread on the official PlayStation Home forums. The winners will be awarded the fame they’ve always vied for (or maybe not, but you will get your picture emblazoned on a billboard in Central Plaza, which is a good first step towards your own TV show, or so I’ve heard…)

The recently released Playground space is a smash hit, with tons of users gathering in this highly immersive space to partake in games of H-O-R-S-E and chess, party of the rooftop lounge, and enjoy the high-quality, original hip-hop and funk music circa-1980 that is blaring throughout the space. Come this week, you’ll be able to bring the party back home with the Playground Boombox, which allows you to take the music of the Playground space to your personal space for your own private bash. A first for the platform (the ability to play music in personal spaces and clubhouses), the Playground Boombox will be available on Playground Boombox this Thursday, June 24th from the Furniture store.

Finally, the Sodium store will be updated this week with additional female clothing items and furniture, and the popular Dog and Cat suits will be released as well. Check the Latest Update tab under the Community section in your Menu Pad on Thursday for a complete list of the newest content.

See you in Home!

Back in April, we announced here that you can play as Buzz Lightyear’s arch-nemesis Zurg only on the PlayStation 3. Despite being in Toy Story 2 for only a few minutes, he is our favorite character — we’re excited to have him in the game for you to experience and enjoy! And today I wanted to share some more details on what you can expect when you pop in your PS3 copy of Toy Story 3: The Video Game and unlock the evil Emperor Zurg.

Zurg is quite a bit different from our other playable characters, which allowed us to create some fun things to do specifically as Zurg in Toy Box Mode. He’s the only character with a cannon, and his move set is completely different from our other playable characters. He has many of his own missions, and he even has his own vehicle — the Zurgmobile — complete with hood-mounted cannon. My favorite Zurg pastime is just running around the Toy Box and blasting the townspeople. His evil laugh is great too…MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Check out our new video (above) on how playable Zurg came together for the PS3. Then, play as Zurg yourself when the game releases on June 15th.

Now there’s only one thing left to do: talk to the developers of Toy Story 3: The Video Game! The PlayStation.Blog participated in a roundtable that included the film’s director and senior production staff from Avalanche Software, and we’ve highlighted the best exchanges below.

Movie-based games have a mixed track record. What will make Toy Story 3 work well as a game?

We think it’s successful because Avalanche Software tapped into something great — the fundamental idea of play, of kids at play. It’s something we’ve done in all three of the movies, where we’ve seen Andy playing with the toys. This free, unbridled, silly play that’s exhilarating to watch. In Toy Story 3, we decided to go into that world and see what play time is like from a toy’s perspective. Avalanche Software tapped into that early on with this notion of the Toy Box Mode, which was inspired by the beginning of [the TS3 film] and what it’s like to be inside one of those play times. — Lee Unkrich, director, Toy Story 3

The whole idea of working in a kid’s imagination is something that you can build a good experience out of. When you’re playing a game, or playing with toys, you’re doing two very similar things. Another thing that allowed us to break the mold was the amount of time we had to work on the game, two and a half years. We had the amount of time you need to test it, refine it, and iterate the game to make it as good as gamers expect. We pushed ourselves. We felt that our initial pitch was a creative risk, but throughout the course of making the game we took a lot of technical risks, making sure that the engine was top-notch and that everything looked good. Towards the end, as Pixar finished up the film, we started having daily reviews with Pixar animators. So in a way, Pixar quality was being infused by Pixar. — John Blackburn, CEO, Avalanche Software

I’ve been making games for 15 years, and I’ve made quite a few film titles. We never got a good lead time. We have a lot of pride in what we’re trying to do, but we never had the ability to make the game we’d like to make for those films. In this case, Pixar has allowed into the process much earlier than anyone else. It was two and a half years ago, and so we could be more adventurous, take some risks, and come up with the Toy Box mode. It gave us a lot of freedom. – Jeff Bunker, art director, Avalanche Software

I remember leaving Avalanche Software’s pitch for making the game, and we were so excited because the Toy Box idea was so strong. That’s key at Pixar: if the idea is good, we’ll figure out the design and the details. Everybody loved their take from the get-go. — Bob Pauley, production designer, Pixar

How closely does Toy Story 3: The Video Game follow Toy Story 3 the film?

We wanted to tell a story that hit on the high points of the film and lent themselves naturally to gameplay. We didn’t want to wedge gameplay into the narrative to advance the plot from point A to point B. We created a structure where the game is kind of a retrospective of the movie. We aren’t trying to tell the whole story, but re-live parts of it and linger in certain scenes for a little longer — Andy’s house, Sunny Side Day Care, and so on. Story mode became a companion to what we consider the “meat” of the experience, the Toy Box mode. That’s where we allow you to play with Andy’s toys the way you want to play with them. Story mode definitely has a beginning, middle, and end, and it follows the movie. But the ending scene of the film is not the ending scene of the game, per se. – Jason Katz, story editor, Pixar

How does cooperative play work in Toy Story 3: The Video Game? Are there any team-based moves?

Yes, absolutely. You can pick up and throw other players in single-player or multiplayer. Buzz can throw Jessie up on a shelf, for example, to get to areas you normally couldn’t reach. You can do it in Toy Box mode, too. You can do separate missions, you don’t have to stay together. One player can go off and do ten missions while the other player is doing missions. Then you can come together and solve puzzles together. –Mike Thompson, creative director, Avalanche Software

Final question…does the Buzz Lightyear video game from Toy Story 2 appear in this game? Is it playable?

Yes! It’s all about capturing the emotion of the experience. In the movie’s version of the Buzz Lightyear game, you fly down to the planet’s surface, battle against all these robots that Buzz blows away, and then then a boss fight. So that doesn’t quite work. We wanted to take that experience and translate it into something a little bit longer, something that made more sense for gameplay, but remains authentic to the feeling you got when you saw the Buzz Lightyear game in Toy Story 2. Great pains were taken to make it feel…right. — Jonathan Warner, senior producer, Avalanche Software

Toy Story 3: The Video Game hits the PS3 and PSP on June 15th, three days before the film’s premiere.

SCEE blogger Jem Alexander and I recently stopped by the charming Pixar offices and got a few minutes to play around with the PS3 version of Toy Story 3: The Video Game. More importantly, we got a chance to play as Zurg in the game’s open-world, highly customizable Toy Box mode.

But let’s back up a bit. Distinct from the Story Mode, Toy Story 3′s Toy Box mode is a standalone sandbox that enables you to build a town and populate it with whatever landmarks, characters, and missions you’d like. When playing as Buzz, Woody, or Jessie, there’s plenty to do: mine for gold, take on side quests, race in various vehicles, beat down baddies, and compete in challenges. The reward is more gold and, by extension, more unlockable toys and buildings for your custom town. Get a peek at Toy Box mode in the video below.

Enter Zurg. Formally introduced in Toy Story 2 as a villain and arch-nemesis to Buzz Lightyear, Zurg is a Vader-esque bad toy who possesses enormous offensive power compared to the milder, meeker Woody and team. Once you buy a special toy in the Toy Box mode, you can use it to transform your character into Zurg and begin a reign of destruction. Zurg is tough, and packs a rapid-fire blaster with plenty of ammo, a far cry from Woody’s single-shot ball throw projectile attack. You can also cruise around in the Zurg-mobile, outfitted with its own cannons, to terrorize the town, compete in races, or just bust sick jumps and flip tricks. On-foot, Zurg’s power comes at a tradeoff: he can’t pop double-jumps or grab onto ledges like Woody and the gang, meaning he’ll miss out on some secrets tucked in the game’s many nooks and crannies.

But he is really, really powerful. Given his destructive tendencies, many of the Zerg-only missions involve acts of cruelty: blasting townspeople, smashing objects and structures, and generally wreaking havoc. Zurg will also tie into the game’s PlayStation Move support, which will be available as a downloadable mini-games later in this fall after the game’s release in June. In one mini-game, Zurg will be able to shoot at targets from a first-person perspective using PlayStation Move to aim and fire. Details are still early, but the team at Avalanche Software sounded excited to be working on an early PlayStation Move-compatible game.

Thus wraps our hands-on experiences with Toy Story 3: The Video Game and Zurg, but stay tuned on the PlayStation.Blog — we’ll have some in-depth interviews from the team at Pixar (including the film’s director!) and Avalanche Software, discussing what it was like to collaborate on the game’s two-year-plus development cycle. It’ll be a good read! In the meantime, watch the video below for a sneak peek at Zurg’s gameplay, in case you missed it the first time.

As you can see from the photos on this page, Pixar isn’t exactly your ordinary office. The central lobby design was actually overseen by then-CEO, Steve Jobs, which makes perfect sense as the whole building has a very Apple feel. The whole place is littered with artwork, statues and prints displaying characters and scenes from their movies. As a result it’s impossible not to feel an uplift in mood as you walk through the doors.

The event began with a presentation, showing off a few short scenes from Toy Story 3 which, as someone who studied computer animation at university, was pretty exciting as we were the first people outside of Pixar to see the final scenes. The film’s quality was as you’d expect from Pixar — this is definitely not a sequel for sequel’s sake. I now can’t wait to see the full thing when it releases in June.

The game was also presented to us and it’s clear just how closely Pixar and Avalanche Studios have been working to make this more than just another movie tie-in game. From what I’ve now seen and played, it worked pretty well.

After the presentations, we had a chance to sit down with the team from Avalanche Studios and Pixar (including the film’s director and producer), ask questions, and finally get plenty of hands-on time with the PS3 game. You can expect to see some hands-on impressions of Emperor Zurg, who’s exclusively playable in the PS3 version of the game, as well as our interview round ups coming in the next week or so. In the meantime, check out the rest of our photos from the Pixar trip below.

In Story Mode, the player plays as Buzz, Woody, and Jessie, each with their own unique play style, to play through eight action platforming levels. While not a complete retelling of the movie plot, the player will visit some of the places, and meet some of the new and classic characters that are in the film. We take the player to some totally new places as well. Also in Story Mode, we’ve stashed all of our collectibles. The collectibles, when found, allow the player to unlock new toys for the Toy Box.

The Toy Box is a totally different experience from Story Mode. Here we put the player in an open, non-linear environment and allow them to play with Andy’s toys any way they like. The player is free to complete missions for different characters, customize the townspeople and buildings, race in various vehicles, and much more. The more adventurous and creative you are, the more you will get rewarded. I encourage you to unleash your imagination in this mode of the game.

In the Toy Box, the player can play as Buzz, Woody, or Jessie. I am happy to announce that exclusively on the PlayStation 3, you can also play as Zurg! Zurg has many of his own unique missions. Whether it’s driving around in his own custom vehicle, or blasting everything in sight with his tri-gun, players can help Zurg achieve his singular goal of eliminating Buzz Lightyear, or just do whatever else they’d like.

I’m also excited to let you know that Toy Story 3: The Video Game will be compatible with PlayStation Move. It was cool working with Sony and this new technology to create downloadable mini-games designed specifically for this new motion controller. So, come Fall, there will be even more ways to play with Toy Story 3.

Now, check out our Zurg exclusive trailer and game screens for a taste of what you can do as this dastardly villain, and don’t forget to watch out for Toy Story 3: The Video Game in-stores, June 15th!