After being injured on the job, Dustin Waller of Statesville, North Carolina was lucky enough to receive a Sony PlayStation 3 as a get-well gift. That was, until police knocked on his door and informed him that his high-tech gift was actually stolen and police tracked it through the PlayStation Network.

Turns out Waller’s fiance had purchased the PS3 at a local used-game shop in a mall, and after connecting online to the PlayStation Network using the previous owners account, police were able to begin tracking Waller’s IP address. We’re assuming Sony was kind enough to assist in the matter, providing police with the offending IP address.

Needless to say, the PS3 was confiscated, leaving Waller left with nothing to do but ask the used-game shop for a refund. What he got in return was a Microsoft Xbox 360, which Waller notes is not as expensive, or as sophisticated as a PS3. Yeehaw folks!

Read more at The Salisbury Post, which also happens to be my hometown newspaper!

The PSP is warming up to me again with many of the newer games that are appearing from Asia. From Loco Roco now to Patapon, a lovely, hyper-stylish title where you take on the role of God to the Patapon. You lead their charges fighting evil invaders via drum-based patterns and watch as little black squigglies attack and kill out of control red squirmies which sometimes resemble dragons, sometimes not. Now Sony, what is going on with Limbo!!!?!?!

What would you do for a PS3? In our case, not a fucking lot, but I really don’t think anyone else would be so desperate for one that they’d actually do what some members of the press were recently asked to do in London at a God of War 2 party. Members of the press and other party-goers were invited to reach inside a freshly slaughtered goat carcass to eat Offal from its stomach, as part of what could possibly be one of the stupidest gaming-related promotional stunts I’ve ever heard of. Featured in PlayStation magazine, the goat’s head was still hanging by neck tissue as blood dripped to the floor, surrounded by topless women slipping grapes into attendees mouths.

What would you do for a Sony PS3?

“How about eating still warm intestines uncoiled from the carcass of a freshly slaughtered goat? At the party to celebrate God Of War II’s European release, members of the Press were invited to do just that . . .”

Read more: Sony’s stupid God of War 2 promotional stunt

…or maybe not? Thanks to a to a loyal reader for kicking us in the ass by sending us a juicy photo of lots of PS3s hanging out in a Saturn in Vienna, Austria (the “Best Buy” of Austria no less). There are several such stacks throughout the store (estimated around 100 units), which begs the question, did Saturn seriously overstock (probably), are PS3 sales SO high that Saturn *needs* such a large stock or are PS3 sales in Austria seriously that disappointing (probably, again)? Regardless, for €599 ($804) I don’t foresee the PS3 flying off shelves anytime soon here.

In it’s second week available in the UK, sales of the Sony PS3 have dropped drastically, tumbling over 82%, according to the latest sales figures from Chart Track. Without going into specific sales numbers, a spokesperson for Chart Track revealed that PS3 hardware sales have dropped by 82% with software sales slipping 60%. After Sony’s victorious sales data a week prior this must come as a disheartening blow, even considering the natural sales drop after a launch.

Read more: Sony PS3 sales plummet

Poor Sony. They just can’t catch a break. With their overpriced monster of a console failing to ignite the sales charts and now launching in Europe (for around $800 USD after conversion!) to a deafening lull, they have Microsoft trying to trip them up at every turn. From the official PS3 launch party held in Paris, the festivities were rudely interrupted when a barge carrying huge banners stating “XBOX 360 <3 YOU" floated on by, making PS3 fanboys around the world consider taking up high-seas piracy.

Watch video of the drive-by after the jump..

Read more of “Microsoft crashes French PS3 launch party“

Ah how the mighty have fallen. If anyone was ever interested in what a (rumored) corporate power grab from a mother company to it’s prodigal son would produce, this is it. Rockstar Games has announced the release of their web-based music sampling and creation toy, Beaterator, for the PSP, complete with a celebrity name attached, that being hot (as in mainstream hot) Timbaland. No word on if the beats provided by Timbaland will feature any obscure Finnish demo scene samples.

Press release after the jump..

Read more of “Rockstar Games announces Beaterator PSP featuring Timbaland“

Seems we were so excited to actually have a reason to use our PSP again that we might have jumped the gun on our previous post saying Gish PSP was on it’s way. Ignoring the DVDboxoffice and Amazon listings, some rumors (read: forum posts) are stating that the deal for the PSP version of Gish fell through at the last minute, after sales had already sent out the announcements to a few retailers.

Boo. With no official announcement (yet) we can only just wait and see, but, here’s to hoping we can get Gish on a handheld console soon (preferably the DS).

Read more: Gish coming for the PSP, or not? (Thanks Simon!)

Old but what the hell, I just found out that indie games darling Gish is heading to the PSP, bringing it’s dark and ultra-stylish art direction to a slowly dying platform. I’ve heard rumors all around that Sony is approaching high quality indie developers to bring their games to the PSP, which may be a smart move on their part, considering the few who still are interested in the PSP are homebrewers and indie developers. Gish is a unique 2D side-scrolling title, completely physics-based and featuring a Tim Burton-esque meets Japanese animation style ball of tar, rolling around and causing havoc. Congrats to the folks behind Gish!

Read more: Gish | Gish for PSP @ DVDboxoffice

A few days old, but hey, even old news is post-worthy when it points out how badly the PS3 is doing in the market. Over in Japan, the sales figures for January have rolled in and boy was it a surprise. Nintendo sold through around 405,000 units of their Wii console in comparison to the Sony PS3’s paltry 148,000 units. These are sold, in the homes, not ’shipped’ which Sony (and to a degree Microsoft) are so often touting as their sales figures. The key for Nintendo’s success is to stretch their current lead throughout the rest of the year, with solid first and third party new releases and some real expansions in their online service, which is a bit weak to say the least. Online Wii Sports anyone? Yes please!

For the PS3? Sony can probably just hope their marketing team and execs don’t completely alienate the Europeans, who are their last hope of reclaiming market dominance. Though it’s starting to seem quite clear that mainstream games and consumers are replacing their PS2s as this generation’s console of choice with the Nintendo Wii, leaving the PS3 battling it out with the Xbox 360 for the fickle hardcore gamers market.

Read more: Wii outselling PS3 by 3 to 1 in Japan