Visit the UNCHARTED 3 Multiplayer General Forum in the PlayStation Community forums to learn about exciting community events, find new party members, talk with the developers and discuss the latest news.

We just launched our Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Free-To-Play and the community has never been more active. We’re looking forward to the new players from the Free-To-Play joining in the community and our forums. We are constantly looking for ways to make our multiplayer game even deeper and grow our community even larger. Our community is an active force and has helped influence some great, intelligent tweaks to our game.

Around the launch of the retail game Luxis launched a campaign to get more colors into the multiplayer on the forums. There was overwhelming support from the community as the months rolled along so, after some internal deliberation and feasibility testing, we did it. There are now more colors for multiplayer characters in the game as of the patch we pushed this Monday. We took the opportunity to celebrate our longtime supporters via our Colorful theme this month. In our Uncharted 3 Tournament you can earn Rainbow Guns and the Rainbow Shirt. More importantly you can giggle at our Nyan Drake er, game, in your favorite browser.

The community has been very active in creating their own tournaments and events. One of the most unique ideas to seed itself into our game has been the B2K Summer Olympics, which lead to DrakeShepard and his Winter Olympics. Now the Community World Championship will be held in March. We are providing some very cool prizing that only the Top 5 winners of this championship will receive and be able to use in-game:

Pretty cool, right? We’ll be offering these same prizes to community for other championships, events, and competitions that the community runs and organizes in the future. So check our forums and stay active to learn what those events are if you want to earn these very rare in-game items.

One of the most unwavering and awesome events in our community is the Naughty Paws event. Naughty Paws are Community Game Nights that are run by Naughty Dog community member SweetPoison13. They are typically held every Saturday or at least one Saturday a month. They are very fun and very well run. Please visit Naughty Paws event thread to learn more.

We’re excited to see what cool ideas you have brewing and look forward to continuing to make the UNCHARTED community grow and thrive. See you online!

Chat with fellow PS gamers in our Forums! There’s plenty to talk about, with different sections including:

PlayStation Plus
PlayStation Home
PS Trophy Leaderboard
Whatever you want (aka Off-Topic area)

Win PlayStation games and products Wednesdays on Twitter! Next week we are giving away MLB 13 THE SHOW. As a special bonus, we will also be celebrating PS Vita’s one year birthday this weekend by giving one away, as well as a bunch of games! Follow @HeyPlayStation on Twitter for more details.

Friday, March 1st

PlayStation Campus Tour – Eastern New Mexico University
PlayStation Campus Tour – University of Southern California
Game Dev Night – Guardians of Middle Earth

Monday, March 4th

PlayStation Campus Tour – University of New Mexico

Tuesday, March 5th

PlayStation Campus Tour – UC Berkeley

Thursday, March 7th

PlayStation Campus Tour – Arizona State University

Friday, March 8th

PlayStation Campus Tour – CSU Chico

PS Vita

PS Vita’s game library is growing rapidly, and some of the biggest franchises in gaming are launching on the platform this holiday. In addition to the PlayStation Plus announcement providing an instant game collection for PS Vita, we are also celebrating the holidays with several incredible deals. The Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified, and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes PS Vita bundles will be available for $199.99 (MSRP)* on Black Friday and Saturday only. Here are the details (check your local retailers for availability):

PS3

Black Friday is also a big day for PlayStation 3, where we continue to offer incredible value and the only platform that continuously celebrates the gamer. Two of the most popular first party PS3 franchises will be combined to bring you the Ultimate PlayStation 3 Value Bundle for only $199 (MSRP). This bundle includes a 250GB PS3 System, 30 Day PlayStation Plus Trial, Uncharted Dual Pack (including Uncharted 1 and Uncharted 2), and inFAMOUS Collection (including inFAMOUS 1 and inFAMOUS 2), giving you over $119 in savings.

There will also be special pricing available for new and existing colors of DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controllers at select retailers nationwide. Find a variety of DS3 controllers for only $39.99 (MSRP).

All of these bundles are in limited supply so don’t wait to take advantage of and save on these deals. Happy shopping PlayStation fans — we hope you have a happy holiday!

* Please check local retailers for pricing and availability.

We continued the trend of general PlayStation brand stories last week, and gamer Raraja wrote in to tell us about how he converted a student from a skeptic to a PlayStation fan.

Converting a Non-Believer

I have been a fan of PlayStation since Christmas day of 1996. I was a member of PlayStation Underground and G.A.P., so when I hear someone bad mouthing the PlayStation brand I take it personally. I also teach at an Alternative Education School for troubled middle school and high school teens. Usually the students have been arrested several times and expelled from school even more. When they are sent to our school it is their last chance of getting a high school diploma, and sadly most do not.

Last spring one of my students, whom I will call Jake, came into my classroom and heard some of his classmates talking about video games. Jake immediately started picking on them. Being the gamer that I am, I told Jake he’d better watch what he said because I played video games. Jake couldn’t believe it and asked me which system I played. I told him PS3 and he then told me that he heard the PS3 sucked. I laughed and told him I bet I could turn him into a gamer and even get him to buy a PS3.

Since our school isn’t a traditional school I asked my principal if I could bring my PS3 into the classroom and let the students play for the last ten minutes of class as a reward for participating in the first 30 minutes. Since we are always looking for ways to get the students to participate my principal said we could try it out for a week.

I went home that night and tried to figure out which games I could bring in to change Jake’s mind. I decided on Madden 12 and Uncharted.

On Monday when Jake came into class he was surprised that I had done what I said and brought my PS3 in. He made fun of it a little bit, but was actually participating in class. After 30 minutes of class I told them that they could play 10 minutes of the PS3. Because Jake was the reason the PS3 was in the classroom, he got to pick the game and could play first. He picked Uncharted.

Jake started playing and by the time the 10 minutes were up he had learned the basic controls. The next three days Jake and his classmates came to class and did their work so they could play Uncharted at the end of class. Unfortunately, on Friday of that first week there was a pretty bad argument over whose turn it was to play, and the principal told me no more PS3. I packed it up that day and figured I lost the bet I made with Jake.

Fast forward to this school year. Jake had to re-take my class, and as he walked in he said, “Yo, Mr. R you saved my life.” I laughed thinking he was joking, but quickly found out he wasn’t. He proceeded to tell me that after playing the PS3 in my classroom he had become addicted to Uncharted and got a summer job to save up and buy a PS3. He told me how he spent his whole summer working and playing Uncharted 1, 2 and 3.

I was trying to figure out how I “saved his life” when he told me how he had been out with his friends and decided he would rather play Uncharted 3. He went home early to play, and after he left, his friends got in a car accident and the seat where he had been sitting was smashed to the point where no one would have survived. Luckily, none of his friends were severely injured.

Jake truly believes that I saved his life that night by introducing him to the PS3 and Uncharted series. As a teacher, I thank you PlayStation and as a fan I say: LONG LIVE PLAY!

Thanks for writing in Raraja! Glad to hear Jake’s okay (and that you’re converting students into PlayStation fans).

Next week we want to hear stories about PlayStation-exclusive franchises. Click here to check out more info on this call to action.

In UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune, a 400-year-old clue in the coffin of explorer Sir Francis Drake leads Nathan Drake on a wild adventure to a forgotten island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Here Drake hunts for the fabled treasure of El Dorado. Learn the backstory of the colorful cast of UNCHARTED characters and the ancient secrets El Dorado hides.

UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Game of the Year Edition is the winner of over 200 Game of the Year awards, and one of the most highly acclaimed video games of all time. In this sequel, Drake is drawn back into the treacherous world of thieves and treasure-seekers. A mystery artifact propels him to undertake an expedition to the legendary Himalayan valley of Shambhala where he finds himself embroiled in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse against a fugitive war criminal. Pushed to his limits, Drake is forced to risk everything.

Soon you can have two of Drake’s most epic adventures waiting on your PS3’s XMB, available at the tap of a button! Look for them on PlayStation Store June 26th.

UNCHARTED fans in the US might have noticed that all playable DLC for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves is available for free. While we popped the cork a bit early in the States, this is indeed a celebration of the pending arrival of both of Drake’s adventures as downloadable digital titles. When the PS Store updates today, everyone worldwide will be able to download the following DLC content for UNCHARTED 2 absolutely free of charge:

• UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves “Drake’s Fortune” MP Pack
• UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves “Golden Guns”
• UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves “PlayStation Heroes” Skin Pack
• UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves “Sidekick Skin Pack”
• UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves “Siege Expansion Pack”

This free UNCHARTED 2 DLC program will run until the digital launch of the two titles on June 26th. Once the PSN store updates on June 26th, all this DLC will only be available via purchase on the PS Store or when you buy the digital version of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Game of the Year Edition. Mark your calendar for June 26th and be sure to practice your witty comebacks, daring leaps, and fortune hunting tactics as Nathan Drake’s first two blockbuster hits will be just a download and a button press away!

Hi everyone! I’m the the writer and director of UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss. We’ve just released a trailer that introduces a new and important character from our story. You met Jason Dante in our E3 demo and learned a little bit about him: that he and Drake have known each other a long time, that they each know Sully, that Drake taught Dante a lot about treasure hunting, that Dante can be a little, well, greedy.

This time we’re introducing Marisa Chase. But as she tells Drake at one point, call her “Chase,” only her grandfather calls her “Marisa.” I don’t want to give too much away at this point, but I can say this: once again Nathan Drake finds himself on a quest to solve a historical mystery which he hopes will lead to a fantastic treasure. The trick is staying alive long enough to get there. No easy task. And when Drake gets between Dante and Chase, events quickly spiral out of control.

We were lucky to get some really great talent to play our key characters. Nolan North, of course, reprises his role of Nathan Drake. Nolan brings more than just acting to the story, he helps make the dialogue his own, creates funny ad libs on the spot, and helps rework scenes that might be having problems. Chase is played by the talented Christine Lakin, who you might remember as Al from the television show “Step by Step.” Dante is played by the amazing Jason Spisak, who’s played almost as many characters as Mr. North. Working with these guys and watching them bring our UNCHARTED world to life was amazing. I think Amy Hennig, the writer over at Naughty Dog, once told me that good actors can make even my bad dialogue sound good. Not that I have any… :)

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the trailer. There’s more information on UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss coming soon.

More NGP Games

• Hustle Kings
• Sound Shapes
• Super Stardust Delta
• Wipeout (working title)

Until very recently, only a handful of people outside of PlayStation had ever laid their hands on an NGP unit. People would ask me what I thought about the upcoming handheld, and I’d have to reply with: “It looks really good.” I hadn’t had the chance to play it either.

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That’s why we invited the cream of the gaming press crop onto a Sony Pictures soundstage in LA, where they (and we) could finally spend hours experiencing some of the titles that will comprise the NGP’s diverse launch lineup. Straight off, Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, made it clear what the day was all about:

“We’ll talk more about social connectivity features down the line – today is about showing off the core games and getting you hands-on time. I’m sure you have burning questions on launch date, pricing, 3G data plans, and we’ll be very happy to share all those with you moving forward.”

We first spoke with John Garvin and Chris Reese of Sony Bend Studio, who are developing the highest profile launch title, UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss. Their team was responsible for the PSP’s best shooters, Resistance Retribution and a pair of Syphon Filter titles, so I wondered what they make of the new hardware.

Then we toured around sampling the rest of the titles. Today, you’ll see posts for:

A note about the videos you’ll see: Every NGP you’ll see is a dev unit; they’re the right size, but they don’t possess that final PlayStation-quality fit and finish. What you’ll eventually be able to pick up in a store will look a heck of a lot better.

The titles you won’t see today, you’ll see demoed live at E3 on our stream. Look for much, much more on NGP at next week’s E3 Expo.

We weren’t expecting the massive turnout for our panel on Saturday, “Naughty Dog LIVE: Game Design with the Dogs.” When I got to the Naga Theater to setup for our panel, the line waiting to get in was insane – and it was a whole half-hour before our panel was due to start. I heard some people had been waiting in line for over an hour at one point. It was sad to hear that PAX Enforcers had to turn away a ton of people waiting to get in by the time they started to fill the theater. There is no doubt that it was awesome for us to see that kind of turnout, but it was also a little bittersweet that we couldn’t get in everybody who wanted to attend.

Our panel focused on showing the inner workings of how game design works at Naughty Dog, led by game designers Richard Lemarchand, Jacob Minkoff and Justin Richmond. We picked a spot in UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune that had a minor narrative hole – between Chapters 3 and 4 – and used that as the basis to explore a fictional Chapter 3.5 we titled “Strip Search.” The first half of the panel was spent laying out the objectives for the design of this chapter and the type of structure and pacing that was important for us to maintain so that everything would fit neatly into the UNCHARTED universe in look and feel.

Jacob fired up Autodesk Maya for the second half of the panel and loaded an example blockmesh level for Chapter 3.5 that he sketched out in his spare time over the couple of weeks leading up to PAX East. It was Jacob’s responsibility on the panel to pitch his level to Richard and Justin, explain his game design choices, and receive feedback to demonstrate our collaborative and iterative design process. We also stopped briefly and turned to our audience to let them give us their ideas on how to solve a specific design challenge within the level.

Unfortunately we started to run out of time towards the end, because we wanted to talk about how to turn this level into one that works in our multiplayer game and also open up the floor one more time to get suggestions from our audience. Perhaps we can get to that another time if we ever get a chance to do a similar panel.

Once it was all over, we met with a lot of our fans in the audience that came up to chat. We’re really grateful to have such awesome fans and we owe you all thanks for attending our panel and coming up to say hi!

If you were at PAX East and weren’t able to get into our panel – and I know there were a lot of you – you can read a recap of our panel on Joystiq. In addition, we should have the full video of our panel available on NaughtyDog.com sometime in the next couple of weeks. Check back later on to check it out!

The “Drake’s Fortune Multiplayer Pack” includes two maps and six character skins inspired by Nathan Drake’s debut adventure, UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune. The six skins are available $2.99 and the two maps are available for $3.99 – or you can get all of skins and maps in a convenient, value-priced bundle for $5.99.

Check out some of the new character renders of the skins included in the Pack:

You can view and download the full set of character renders from the Naughty Dog Flickr page.

So, you may be thinking to yourself, “What are these skins and maps exactly?” We’re glad you asked. Read on for detailed descriptions of our “Drake’s Fortune Multiplayer Pack” content.

TWO new maps, available in all competitive multiplayer game types and in the co-op arena game types, inspired by locations found in UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune.

The Flooded Ruins
Based on UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune Chapter 10 – The Customs House, players will find themselves fighting in the midst of a thunderstorm, complete with rain, thunder and lightning. The Flooded Ruins is an asymmetrical map centered on the Customs House building, which is surrounded on one side by multiple two-story buildings and many flanking routes – you’ll need to stay on your toes and watch your back. The Customs House itself provides the advantage of higher ground if you manage to take the center sniper perch, where you can dispatch your opponents or call out their positions to your teammates. Watch out for incoming grenades!

The Facility
Based on the submarine bay in UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune Chapter 18 – The Bunker, The Facility is centered on a rusted out U-boat that has been left to rot in its dry dock. This fairly symmetrical map works well with all game types. Players can hide in dark corners, snipe from the control tower, or go guns blazing into combat. Look out for the moving cargo on the upper levels – it can block your shots or cut off an escape route at a very inopportune moment!

SIX new multiplayer skins based on characters from UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune.

• UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune Nathan Drake
• UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune Elena Fisher
• Gabriel Roman
• Atoq Navarro
• Eddy Raja
• Javier, the mercenary

The Multiplayer Pack also unlocks 12 NEW Trophies – 11 Bronze and 1 Silver – to earn as you play:

• Bronze
• Brass Knuckles – Get 100 Melee Kills in Deathmatch or Elimination Games
• Gold Digger – Finish Wave 10 in 1 Gold Rush Game
• I Told You I Was Hardcore! – Complete All 3 Co-op Objective Maps on Hard Difficulty
• Made It – Finish Wave 10 in 1 Survival Game
• Plays Well With Others – Win 50 Objective Games
• Plundered! – Get 200 Captured Medals
• Rapid Fire – Get 7 Tripled Medals in Deathmatch or Elimination games
• Sneaky… – Get 50 Stealth Kills in Deathmatch of Elimination games
• Still Alive – Win 50 Elimination Games
• Tastes Like Chicken – Get 20 BBQ Medals in Deathmatch or Elimination games
• Wipe Them Out… – Win 50 Deathmatch Games
• Silver
• Cold Blooded – Get 2,500 Kills in Deathmatch or Elimination games

Downloading the either the maps or the bundle unlocks the Trophies within the in-game multiplayer menu. You can gain progress towards completing these new Trophies in any game type that fits the Trophy criteria.

Purchasing the skins only will NOT unlock the additional Trophies.

We’ve also made sure that all our players can play from the same matchmaking pool regardless of whether they have purchased the maps or not – head over to NaughtyDog.com to read about how we’re doing this and how to change your profile settings.

I arrived at the show with Christophe, Amy and Bruce and we walked the red carpet, which was a pretty cool way to start the evening off. There were tons of media lined up with cameras and microphones ready for interviews. We stopped for a few interviews and Christophe even played a game of Wii Resort Table Tennis against one of our interviewers (he let her win…so he says). Continuing down the carpet, we ran into a bunch of people arriving at the same time as us like Marty O’Donnell from Bungie (who walked away with the award for Best Score for Halo: ODST… congrats!), our friends from Infinity Ward (Modern Warfare 2 won Best Shooter and Best Multi-player!) and Stig Asmussen (God of War III won Most Anticipated Game!). It’s humbling to be around the people who make your favorite games.

Once we found our seats (VIP…thanks, Geoff Keighley) we sat around and waited nervously for the show to start. I had to control my inner fanboy as Mark Hamill, Samuel Jackson and Alyssa Milano sat down in front of us. The setup was amazing! The back of the stage was a huge video screen that actually wrapped around the sides to create a really cool 3D effect. SPIKE really stepped it up this year and pulled out all the stops.

As the show began, it was awesome to hear Claudia Black’s voice as the MC for the evening. She had only found out the night before that they wanted her for the job and she jumped right in and nailed it. A consummate professional, as always. Unfortunately we soon found out that both she and Nolan North lost out to Jack Black for Best Voice which was the start of our losing streak, and had us worried we might walk away empty-handed. The competition was tough this year…in each of the 8 categories we were nominated in, we were going up against my favorite games of the year.

After losing Best Studio, Best Action Adventure Game, and Best Score we were up to 0 for 5! We were definitely getting even more anxious. The show was coming to a close, and after the amazing Halo Reach world premiere they announced that it was time for the Game of the Year presentation. I cheated and looked at the teleprompter so I could see a split second before it was announced and there it was…UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves! It was an amazing feeling walking up on stage to accept the award. They announced we had also won Best PS3 Game and Best Graphics at the same time. The night belonged to the team back at Naughty Dog but I couldn’t imagine two people better to represent them than our Game and Creative Directors, Bruce and Amy. So they gave their heartfelt acceptance speeches and the show was over.

From there it was off to the parties and time to celebrate with the rest of the Dogs. A bunch of coworkers who were at the community event/viewing party in Hollywood drove downtown to meet us. It was a great night and I couldn’t have been more proud to have been part of such an amazing project. We’re so glad that a bunch of us got to share the moment with the fans at the community event because in the end, that’s really why we work so hard on our games. Knowing that we have an audience that appreciates the end result keeps us coming back to do better next time.

This was only the second time in Naughty Dog’s 15-year history of making PlayStation games that we had won an industry award of this caliber, and we tripled that in one night. We’ve definitely raised the bar for ourselves in so many ways. But everyone on the team is looking forward to the challenge and we couldn’t be more excited to do it again.

Now it’s time to enjoy the holidays, but then it’s time to put our noses back to the grind stone and see what happens next.

We’ll be releasing the remaining episodes – Episode 3 and 4 – TODAY for $0.99 each on the US PlayStation Store.

If you haven’t checked out UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra to get a sneak peek at Nathan Drake before the events in UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune, head to the PlayStation Store and download Episode 1, which is still available for free.