A poster on the Official PlayStation Blog by the screen name of "Free" had this to say on recent article posted on the Blog.

Would you guys mind commenting on the recent statements by a Ubisoft Developer claiming that "the PS3 can't handle AI nearly as well as the 360?

It seems more of the same type of stuff addressed in your "Is the PS3 Really Harder to Develop For?" blog¿ But it would be nice to get an official response to the attack on the PS3's capabilities.

It is nice to have something these articles about this can print to balance out the reporting.

"PS3 can more than handle AI, as you will see with Heavenly Sword, which has hundreds of on-screen enemies with different AI routines at one time thanks to the power of CELL." - responded Dave Karraker Sr. Director of Corporate Communications.
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At last, we've got hold of pretty complete preview code and from the moment we popped it into our debug, our worries melted away. There's no doubt it will be held up as an example of the sort of killer games the PS3 so badly needs when it arrives in the shops in September.
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The forums have been hot lately with rumors and speculations. Some come to past while others fade to black. The hot topic just in on the forums is a member claiming he read a play magazine in which the upcoming PS3 exclusive Heavenly Sword recieved a perfect score of 10/10. Here are some of the alleged quotes from the "Play" Mag article.
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PS Blog:

"Heavenly Sword marketing guy elaborates on the recent Heavenly Sword videos that were just released, so here it is. Hopefully without all the marketing buzz words."
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Members of Sony's online gaming community known as the Gamer Advisory Panel (GAP) recently received an e-mail directing them to an exclusive site where they could view the first two episodes of two Heavenly Sword productions. The first production is a stylishly animated series that will reveal the history of the Heavenly Sword in five weekly episodes. The second production is a five-part "Making Of" series that will focus on various aspects of the development process. Each episode will only be available for one week before it is replaced with a subsequent episode. For all those non-GAP members out there: keep your eyes peeled for these episodes to show up elsewhere.
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Admittedly, the relevance of this clip is negligible considering that Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 hit shelves at the close of 2006. However, GamerSquad thought it somewhat poignant considering the recent slamming of Heavenly Sword by Dead or Alive creator Itagaki Tomonobu, who recently labelled the eagerly anticipated PS3 exclusive as being "half-assed."

Point being? Well, with predominantly poor critical reviews for Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 (GameSpot ¿ 59%, IGN ¿ 64%), perhaps the Team Ninja boss should curb his scathing criticisms while reflecting on this overtly desperate piece of flagrantly 'half assed' and sexist marketing for a game built on tantalising the easily titillated pre-pubescent school boy demographic.

Clearly Tomonubu has never heard it's not the breast idea to throw semi-naked stones in glass houses.
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Yesterday, Itagaki Tomonobu made some remarks about Heavenly Sword, an upcoming exclusive game for the PS3, that the game is "half assed" players will not get much from the title". Heavenly Sword producer Kyle Shubel has responded to Itagaki's comment made in the latest EGM magazine.

Heavenly Sword producer Kyle Shubel:
"My response to Mr. Itagaki would be that the intent of the Hero sequences is to empower the player to experience events that would be nearly impossible to play in a natural platforming state¿

More after jump.
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Itagaki is at it again. Itagaki Tomonobu who is the lead graphics programmer of Tecmo refers to Heavenly sword as "half assed" in the latest EGM magazine in which there's a Heavenly Sword preview and a little article.

"I've never played a good game where the developers put a big icon of the button you're supposed to press onscreen," Itagaki says. "I look at Heavenly Sword and it seems really half-assed, because it's asking you to do all these button-timing sequences but you are not getting much payoff from it."
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Ninja theory developer working on the upcoming playstation 3 exclusive title , Heavenly sword have confirmed that, Heavenly Sword will clock in around 12-15 hours of gameplay mayhem.

He confirmed this via the official forums:

12-15 hours sounds about right for a gamer well versed with fighting games. That's just for a first playthrough - there's also plenty of scope for replayability - especially with the stacks of unlockable content that's been stuffed onto the Blu-Ray.
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Get your blades sharpened as Sony Computer Entertainment has announced that Heavenly Sword will hit shelves on September 12th. Developed by Ninja Theory and published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 3, the game is Sony's attempt at creating the equivalent of a summer blockbuster with extremely detailed cutscenes and action sequences that borrow style from martial arts films.
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Fancy that - Heavenly Sword was originally intended to be "Only on Xbox." A new look at the game has hit GameTrailers, which shows various trailers for the title dating back to 2003, when it was being pitched in its Xbox form. It's hardly as old as the Ark, but still worth a look... You'll see footage from the Xbox version, which was made by the then-called Just Add Monsters. The same team was responsible for Xbox comedy party game Kung Fu Chaos. But it went bust after the release of KFC ... » Read More

Sony has distanced itself from reports that Heavenly Sword has been confirmed for release on 14th September.

Retailers and some press reports have pegged that date for the game, but a spokesperson for the company told Eurogamer this morning that an announcement had yet to be made.
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Heavenly Sword, this emotionally charged, stunningly beautiful hack and slash action-adventure game has received a final and confirmed release date. Heavenly Sword will be shipping to North America on September 4th. It will be shipping as well in Europe on September 14th and in Australia on September 20th. Japan's final release date for Heavenly Sword is still to be confirmed.
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Questions were answered by Daves [NT-DEVELOPER] Sound Engineer over at NinjaTheory Forums. These were questions asked about the demo on the PSN of Heavenly Sword.

Question 1
There were a few problems with it that I would like to point out.
- First when you do super styles that abrupt music change is very odd. The volume increases and it just seems a little out of place. The music cut out every so often and there was even one part right at the beginning of the demo that the music was actually crackling.. it was strange.
Some bodies float as well.
But I had so much fun with the demo and I played through it about 12 times so far.

Answer 1
The volume increase was because they were 'super styles', however, I did nock them back a bit and do some balancing just a day or so ago.
The audio (music cutting out) glitches during the Ninja Sequence are also fixed.
FYI the demo was locked down ages ago, plenty of spit n polish has been done since then right...
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By now, most of you PS3 owners out there have probably downloaded the disappointingly short Heavenly Sword demo, plowed through it in fewer than five minutes and wondered what all the fuss was about. That was our first reaction, too, when we played the same demo during E3 - until we sat down with the game's producer, Kyle Shubel, and he told us what we were doing wrong. While you might never guess it from a quick play-through, the Heavenly Sword demo can be a sublime, endlessly replayable ... » Read More

The Sony Experience More event, Sony Australia's annual consumer electronics trade event, was on again this year in Sydney. Move over, Nintendo - if you want to see a gaming console turned into a mainstream consumer do-all device, you need not look further than today's presentation.
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Yes finally, the demo is now available on the PS Store in EU.
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Peonic from Ninja Theory comments on their official forums that the demo should be out today at noon GMT and that the file is about 1 gigabyte in size.

Time to discuss initial reactions and hands on impressions about the game here on N4G.
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Sony has confirmed to Game Informer that both Heavenly Sword and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction will see demos on the PlayStation Network in the near future. So when exactly? Sony's Dave Karracker believes this week, and considering Europe is supposed to get Heavenly Sword on Thursday, we're betting we'll see the same here in the States.
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You've been drooling over sexy shots of Sony's Heavenly Sword in action for months, and as of this Thursday you'll be able to download the demo to play it for yourself, Sony has confirmed. The demo is short and sweet, only lasting around 10 minutes or so but giving you a nice taster of the multiple-style fighting system, the interactive cutscenes and physics-based scenery. You'll take on a group of men on a high cliff, slide acrobatically down three huge ropes and land in an object-filled ... » Read More