VG247 Sony blanked us when we asked for an update on Afrika this week, saying there was nothing to report on the mystery PS3 rhino romp.

"I'm afraid there is no news on the Afrika front at the moment," a SCEE spokesperson said this week.

The firm may have been telling porkies however, as Play-Asia's just listed the game as an August 28 release.
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According to online retailer Play-Asia.com that is, who I've frequently import games from and are pretty reliable on Japanese release dates. The exact date is August 28th, the typical date for most Japanese games release. However, Afrika was missing from the recently released list of upcoming PS3/PSP games but since that is geared towards North America PS3 owners, I think it's highly possible that my most looking forward to game will come out this summer. The version listed here is Asia version, which sometimes feature English language but we should wait for Play-Asia.com updates on that.
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20th Dec, 2007 Gaming is an up and down experience. Some years cram top quality titles into our every orifice until were bursting with videogame joy and have excess polygons dripping messily out of our ears, while some other years… Well, some other years are 1983. In 2007 though, weve had a very good year indeed. A scarily good year in fact. One which has provided us so much brilliance on every format that its a genuine worry that the laws of karmic balance will soon bring us a plague ...
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We haven't heard much of anything from Sony about their mysterious Afrika game since March. Is it a Pokemon Snap-style photography simulator? Is there actually an adventure game buried in there? Or is it simply Sony's response to the growing popularity of "non-games" in Japan? We, uh, don't really know, but have come across proof the game's definitely still in development; it now has a composer.

By way of the Professional Musicians' Local 47 union newsletter, 1UP can confirm that Wataru Hokoyama -- a Los Angeles-based composer who doesn't appear to have worked in the videogames space before -- has recently hired a 104-piece orchestra to start laying down the symphonies to accompany Afrika, whatever it ends up being.

Sure, that doesn't tell us anything more about the game, but it's somethin'.
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The incredible power of PS3 can be used to bring some of Earth's most beautiful environments and creatures to your home. For example, the mysterious upcoming title Afrika looks to be quite the visual feast (HD trailer, after the cut). Ps3fanboy don't know much about the game, or how it plays. However, Ps3fanboy know the game will help us learn more about this unique environment. With it, we may be able to understand even more why so many people are working to try and save this ecosystem, and the animals in it.
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PS3 Fanboy reports: "The game, which features the word judgment with only one "e" in its title, will be released for $70 on Oct. 23 in North America, followed by a global launch later in the month. Yes, it will be bundled with the PlayStation Eye, and expansion packs will be available to buy further down the line. "
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19 Sept, 2007 Weve managed to track down and capture the new trailer for Afrika, PS3s safari-cum-photography game, and its looking more and more intriguing every time we see it. Details are still scarce about how it'll actually work, but seeing as youll be using a camera, at least in some way, we can almost guarantee that any pictures could be used as your wallpaper on the PS3 XMB. And Sonys adventuring doesnt end there; not content with housing tropical fish in a virtual fish tank, in PSN ...
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Messages from the Game Labo

15.08.07 - Here are some messages from the rumor column of the Japanese Game Labo, of which none was so far confirmed.

- Of Sony, Africa(PS3) a kind "search/investigation software" should be, which uses pressure and touch-sensitive mat for the input. The developers got the order to bring Africa before Nintendo Wiifit(Wii) on the market.
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From the article "Pro-G: Well yes, that too. But what about the game 'Mr trying to dance around the question'? (laughs). Perhaps it's being integrated into PS3 Home as a Safari Holiday package?

Harrison: (laughs) That's actually a good idea. The game designers on Afrika are being deliberately coy about the game experience. I know what it is; I've seen it and I know it's going to be a very interesting gaming experience. It's not about killing and it's not about running around the environment shooting elephants and hippopotami - that would be awful. That's not what we're all about. What we're about is taking people to places in a virtual world. So Afrika, I think, is a great example of that. But hold on just a little bit more!"
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Phil Harrison has signalled Sony's intention to make user-created content a significant aspect of the PlayStation 3 platform - and he's not just talking about wacky avatars.

"I have to be really careful not to give the game away because we're keeping this secret," he told the UK's official PlayStation mag, "but don't think about it in terms of maps, think of it in terms of behaviours, environments, physics, rules... all the tools that you could want, but in a very consumer friendly way."

Pointing to Second Life as "a very, very powerful metaphor for where we're going," Harrison went on to say that users would be able to use a USB mouse to find "a deeper level of finesse, that you could get in terms of pixel manipulation and paint programs or fine tuning things". (The PS3 also supports USB keyboard input throughout.)

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"We've got two things in development," he specified. "One in this building and one with an external developer that, [and] when we do share them with you, I think you're going to go 'Ah now I know what he was talking about.'"

News that Sony is considering how to make use of content creation facilities is likely to draw comparison to Microsoft's XNA Studio Express suite, which has been up and running in beta for a bit, and will soon allow users to make their own playable Xbox 360 games using simple tools - albeit for the cost of a subscription fee.

Elsewhere in today's latest excerpt from Harrison, the Sony man talks about old-days PS3 prototypes, whether there are any Easter eggs in the Cross Media Bar ("There are some secrets"), and how Afrika is a sort of metaphor for his wanting to be a striker for Liverpool (good man).
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