Sony Launches New Interactive PS3 Show ' Qore'

Monthly interviews, art, exclusive downloads, and more for $2.99 per episode.

On Tuesday morning, Sony announced their latest addition to the PlayStation Network: Qore. Described by the company as a " hi-def gaming lifestyle show," Qore will provide behind-the-scenes clips, developer interviews, concept art, screenshots, and downloads for several games each month. All of this content will be accessed through a videogame-like front-end menu, allowing players to look at the games and content in the order that they want.

Unfortunately, all that juicy content cannot be offered up for free: Every episode of Qore will cost $2.99, or fans can shell out $24.99 for a thirteen-episode subscription (which will include a free download of Calling All Cars as an added bonus).

Our demo of the new service began with an exclusive new six-minute preview of the upcoming Incredible Hulk movie. Unlike most of the advertising in Qore -- 15- to 30-second commercial segments each time you move to a specific game' s section -- the Hulk preview is skippable and can be accessed from the main menu. Sony hopes that most viewers won' t mind the brief commercial interruptions, as they plan to make sure the commercials are focused on products they believe their audience will be interested in. In our time checking out Qore, we saw ad spots for Metal Gear Solid 4 and GRID among others.

Each game-specific section of Qore (as well as other areas of each episode) will be hosted by well-regarded former CNET online host Veronica Belmont. Games for the first episode, releasing this Thursday, include Soul Calibur IV, Afro Samurai, SOCOM: Confrontation, Secret Agent Clank, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Subsequent episodes will be released on the first Thursday of every month.

Playing off the videogame-like interface, Sony promises that each episode of Qore will have hidden easter eggs. The first episode features a simple arcade game of some sort, though Sony did not show this during our demo. Sony reps also confirmed to 1UP that Qore will be connected to Home in some way when that service launches later this year.

Fans will probably care more about Qore-exclusive downloads than the video content itself. The first episode, for example, will feature an invitation for the SOCOM beta, a major bonus in justifying that $2.99 price tag. Sony said we can expect other exclusive downloads in this and future episodes -- access to demos and other items that will not be available to PlayStation Network users who are unwilling to pay for a Qore subscription.

Most curiously, a lot of the ideas behind Qore -- epsecially its offering of exclusive demos -- seems to backpedal on many previous Sony statements deriding the Xbox Live model of forcing consumers to pay for a full online console experience. While PlayStation 3 will still offer free multiplayer, Qore essentially charges half of what you' d pay for an Xbox Live Gold subscription for a tiny portion of what that offers, although it seems likely we' ll see more frequent Qore-exclusive downloads than we have Xbox Live Gold exclusives.

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You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

the start of the slippery slope for those who thought that PSN would remain free compared to live.

the start of the slippery slope for those who thought that PSN would remain free compared to live.

Well at least there not charging for online. They will always give us that free option.
This is just extra content. The PSN will remain free mark my word Heck if you ask me thats the only thing they have over the xbox live . They brag all day about it being free and its safe to say it will remain free.

Ill stick with GT thank you very much.

Sony hopes that most viewers won' t mind the brief commercial interruptions

LOL are they serious? Atleast make it free if there are commercials in there. That sounded really funny.