PSLegion: What you can hope for this April

There are many new exciting additions you can look forward to this April. The coming month could be one of the biggest for the PlayStation brand. Here's why:
New PlayStation Store: inc Video Store and Music Store

At Demonstration PlayStation last month (which is a small conference for developers on the the future of the PlayStation brand), Kotaku was giving a run down on what was shown. These include the God of War PSP, Limited Edition MGS4 PS3 Bundle, and a new PlayStation Store. All but the new store have been officially confirmed but you can bet on this one too. Kotaku explained that the new store was like the SingStore as interface goes, and that North America will also be seeing a Video Store in the same month. They also speculated that the Music Store would also see the light of day. This is all we had to go on until a Sony rep in an interview explained how the PlayStation Network will be getting a major overhaul early April, mainly based on customer feedback. This almost confirms the new store which is very exciting. Sony has said for a while that Video on Demand will be coming to the PlayStation 3 sometime this year. It will be perfect timing too as both Microsoft and Sony are fighting to get the GTA crowd onto their platform. GTA IV is the biggest game coming out this year, and a huge percentage of PS2 and Xbox owners are willing to go 'next-gen' to continue their love of the franchise.Probability: 90%
PSP Firmware 4.00

The current PSP firmware is at 3.93, which goes ever closer to the 'big' 4.00. If the rumored new features are true, amongst them, DivX support, this will be one of, if not the biggest updates for the system. But what else? Well, this goes along with the store update but an actual PSP Store on the PSP is very likely. In a interview with Game Informer, Sony's John Koller talked about video downloads coming to the system in all shapes and sizes, and said it will be integrated with the PlayStation Network, and will be arriving shortly.Probability: 70%
Home Global Open Beta

Here's something we are never sure on where it stands. Originally planned Summer last year, then delayed till the Winter, then delayed to 'Q1' of this year, the Home Open Beta has been on the lips of a lot of PS3 owners. Desperation is one word to describe how some are feeling. I would like to say it would reach the goal of 'Q1' but with only a few days left, that's very unlikely. So when? Well again we go back to GTA IV. The Home Open Beta will get a lot of press, thus thriving sales of GTA IV for the PS3, and the system itself. It will also make current PS3 owners happy and relieved if it came next month. But as we have heard next to nothing on the issue, i'm afraid to say that its not too likely. We have heard quite a bit about the Metal Gear Solid Online beta for sometime now, which is due 'late April'. The Home Open Beta would be as big as that, so surely we would get as much notice? We can never know will Sony, but what we have heard in a recent interview is that Home isnt something which can be rolled quickly; its a slow process. So what we may have here is a beta which will slowly become available to more and more people, until its just right and gets an official release of 1.00 at E3 in July. Hopefully this process will start... about now.Probability (Global Open Beta in April): 40%

http://www.pslegion.com/news/what-you-can-hope-april