We have some good news for those of you with a copy of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale on the PS3. The game has been out since November and with almost two months passed since release, players are now starting to wonder what future lies for the game by way of DLC. The game has been built to cater for an almost endless supply of DLC character opportunities if SuperBot deems it fit enough, and this week we have some juicy information to share with you on how much you may need to pay for future DLC releases.

One character that has been surprisingly absent from the roster is the infamous Crash Bandicoot, with many players having expecting him to be confirmed as one of the final players in the original roster. It didn’t happen though and players will now hope that SuperBot is planning to make Crash one of the upcoming DLC characters, but he won’t be the first.

SuperBot has already confirmed that the first DLC characters to be added to All-Stars will be Kat from Gravity Rush and Emmett Graves from Starhawk. The release date for these two characters hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the great thing about it is that they will be free to download for the first two weeks upon release, along with a new stage inspired by WipEout.

That means that all future DLC after this will be charged for and further pleasing news is that it looks like prices are going to be very reasonable indeed. Sony has revealed in their smallprint for a competition that upcoming DLC packs will have a value of $3, or around £2 for those with a UK copy. If this prices relates to another two characters plus a brand new stage each time, then you have to say that is very reasonable indeed – especially if it includes the likes of Crash Bandicoot as well.

Don’t forget that each DLC character release will also come with their respective story mode and all unlocks as well such as costumes, so $3 would be a great price if it really is confirmed to be true. We’re a bit disappointed that we didn’t see any Final Fantasy characters in the disc lineup as well, given Square-Enix’ famous history with the PlayStation brand, so hopefully that will change as well when DLC packs start to become frequent for the game.

We would like to see Crash, Sephiroth, Cloud and maybe even Abe as well from the excellent Oddworld games. If you have the game and are still happily playing, let us know who you would like to see join the game as a DLC character. Do you agree that $3 is a very reasonable price for two new characters and a new stage?

Unfortunately though, the suspense may have been killed already as just like Dante before, the new character is someone who had already been revealed due to prior leaks which now look to have been legit all along.

Still though, you’ll be pleased to hear again that Raiden from Metal Gear Solid fame is coming to the game and we have a detailed gameplay video for you to check out, showing off his move set and supers in the game. Developers Superbot have attempted to model Raiden from his appearance in MGS: Rising as much as possible, including using the same button commands to perform special moves as seen in Rising as well.

The video also gives you a glimpse of his unique level 3 super, and we can tell you that for this move he will lock the other three opponents inside boxes for a period of time, allowing Raiden to score a couple of easy kills. Just like in Metal Gear Solid Rising, Raiden will also be very skilled at launching the opponent in the air and performing a series of air combos – he’ll be able to do this in PlayStation All-Stars to more than one opponent at the same time.

We think the only character that fans really want to see next is Crash Bandicoot and we have a feeling that Superbot may be saving him until last. The fact that Activision now owns the rights to Crash may be a reason why we haven’t seen him yet, but PlayStation All-Stars releasing without Crash would be seen as a travesty in all honesty so it needs to happen.

How does Raiden look to you in-game? Don’t forget Solid Snake is coming too at some point, so look out for a gameplay reveal on that as well. Are you enjoying the closed beta?

It turns out that the user from Neogaf forums who originally leaked a multitude of characters here was correct. He said at the time that the likes of Ratchet and Clank, Dante and Sackboy were on the way to Sony’s cross platform brawler and right on cue – Sony made those characters official.

We now have character trailers for the fighters mentioned above, as well as one massive new announcement which you’ll all be very happy with. Aside from the character reveals, Sony announced that users who pick up the PS3 version, will get a free download code to get the PS Vita version absolutely free.

As most of you should be aware now, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale features cross-platform online play between the PS3 and Vita, so this is a fantastic incentive for you to be able to try out the Vita version as well. Sony are calling this their ‘Cross Buy’ incentive and it will also be available with future Sly Cooper and Ratchet and Clank games.

Will this make you rush out and buy a Vita so you can try the game out for free? The gameplay trailer for Dante is particularly good, but there’s still no word on whether Crash Bandicoot will be joining the party or not. Many fans see him as a necessity for the game since he was an integral part of the PS1 era, but it looks like we’ll have to make do with Superbot’s staggered reveals for now.

Dante, Sackboy and Spike from Ape Escape are coming and we guess future trailers will reveal the likes of Raiden, Nariko and Sir Daniel Fortesque from Medievil as well. Let us know what you think of Sony’s new Cross Buy incentive – fantastic news right? What other games should be added to this program?

That now means that PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has now opened its doors for the collection of enthusiastic button mashers out there, as you’ll be able to play with the added pleasure of not knowing how you pulled off a specific move, against a guy who is using the default layout on a PS3 Dual Shock controller.

Superbot made their announcement on their official Facebook page, confirming that the transition to fighting stick was actually a natural one, since all of the PS3 commands switch over to the arcade buttons accordingly. The only notable difference that Superbot has made, will be the repositioning of the throw command which will differ slightly between arcade stick and Dual Shock.

While this is obviously great news for those that really take their fighting games seriously, the majority of PlayStation All-Star fans are still waiting to see which new characters are going to be announced next. Recent leaked information has suggested that the likes of Raiden, Dante and Sackboy are coming, but official reveals are due at GamesCom 2012 later this month.

There’s still no hints on any Final Fantasy characters joining the party either, so let’s hope that Superbot are keeping this ace up their sleeves until the week before release. Are you a hardcore fan of fighting games? If so, let us know if you intend to pick up a fighting stick for the game. We’ll let you know if there’s an official stick out closer to release – we expect so.

From our point of view, we can’t wait for the game. We think the game is looking great and should have been on the PS3 a long time ago, but unfortunately it appears that one high profile games developer doesn’t feel the same. Hideki Kamiya is a big name in Japan having worked on the original Devil May Cry and first Resident Evil game when employed by Capcom.

He now applies his trade with Platinum Games who have Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance on the way, but he’s voiced his disapproval of PlayStation All-Stars, by calling the game a ‘rip-off’ on Twitter. He was hosting a Q&A session on the site with his followers and certainly didn’t hold back when fans asked him for his opinion.

Aside from calling the game a rip-off, he also stated that he just ‘doesn’t like the game’ and distanced himself from suggestions that some characters from PS2 game Okami and Bayonetta may find their way inside the game – two of his well known projects in the past.

Amusingly, a further Tweet also showed that he wasn’t really bothered about the criticism he was receiving after he called All-Stars a rip-off. It does seem a little ironic however that the timing of his comments come, when he is currently developing a game called Project P-100 for the Nintendo Wii U.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think his Tweet sums up what you have been thinking all along in that All-Stars is just a Smash Bros rip-off? Or do you think that he has got this completely wrong and needs to try the game first before judging?

This is potentially a massive leak as well, as one daring Neogaf user has decided to go public in uploading not only a series of unannounced stages for the game, but revealing a collection of brand new characters for the game too – including some big name stars.

Until confirmed by developers Superbot, there’s always the chance that it could be fake, but given the scale of this latest leak, we have a feeling that this is all legit. Prepare to be excited as it looks like Solid Snake is going to be joined by Raiden as well from the Metal Gear Series.

Other leaked characters thought to be coming include Dante from Devil May Cry (reboot incarnation), Sackboy from Little Big Planet, Sir Daniel Fortesque from MediEvil, Nariko from Heavenly Sword and Evil Cole joining regular Cole Mcgrath from inFAMOUS. Here’s an image uploaded by miladesn from Neogaf:

Our pick from that bunch is Raiden – we definitely didn’t expect two characters from Metal Gear joining the party. Superbot are yet to confirm Snake, but David Hayter has already confirmed that he’s in the game so things are really starting to get exciting. On a more disappointing note – still no Final Fantasy characters. Surely Superbot are aware that everyone wants to see at least one Final Fantasy character in the game, so let’s hope that Square-Enix give Sony the rights they need to put someone like Cloud or Squall in the game.

One another interesting piece of info that we have to share with you, is that Sackboy may take on the style of Mokojin from Tekken and be a variable fighter – meaning that he’ll be able to steal the moves and/or supers from opponents. Hopefully we’ll be able to confirm some of these characters soon when we get the next official reveal at GamesCom in August.

Are you excited that Raiden looks to be coming to the game? Also give us your thoughts on new Dante appearing, not the old school Dante who everyone prefers. Who do you want to see added next – give us your best list?.

As far as we’re aware, the developers over at Superbot nor Sony via the PlayStation Blog have made an official announcement on this. The reason for this, as we see it, is that the beta is only accessible through the Hong Kong store at the moment, when ideally a lot of you are waiting for the beta to go live in the US and Europe.

Those participating in the beta are probably confined to silence, so no major leaks slip out before release. We can tell you however that the beta gives you access to six characters and they are: Kratos, Parappa, Radec, Sweet Tooth, Fat Princess and Sly Cooper. You’ll be able to participate in multiplayer matches and word on the street implies that the beta is very fun indeed.

Have you received a code yet? We’ve read that some lucky users have already received codes, despite the fact that they are not a PS Plus subscriber. This could be due to Sony’s selection policy where they choose users who they deem to be ‘active PSN users’ – whatever that means.

If you have managed to get in, drop us a comment below without spoiling any info on the beta itself. We hear that the beta is only going to be available for one day, so it really is an exclusive closed test – consider yourself lucky if you get in.

Like many other fighting game developers have done in the past, Superbot has decided that gradual reveals are the best method at the moment for slowing unveiling their full roster before release later on this year. The game has just been playable at EVO 2012 and we can now confirm that Toro is coming to the game, as well as none other than Tekken veteran Heihachi Mishima!

Toro is a Sony mascot if you are unfamiliar with him and he’s been in games such as Ape Escape, Everybody’s Golf and most recently Street Fighter X Tekken alongside Buro. Heihachi on the other hand should be a household name and we’re glad to see that Superbot are thinking outside of the box in bringing a pure fighting expert to the table, rather than the ‘party’ style of characters that they have added so far.

In the trailer that Sony has released below, you’ll see that Heihachi brings his famous fighting style from Tekken to the Battle Royale with him. In particular, check out his ‘Electric Wind God Fist’ and ‘Twin Piston’ moves on show and more importantly – the fact that Heihachi now adds combos to the game, which other characters haven’t so far.

Will we be seeing any other Tekken characters in the game before launch – Paul Phoenix and/or Law would be a nice addition. Considering that Tekken is now considered to be a third-party franchise after originally debuting on the PS1, let’s hope that opens up the gates for a few Final Fantasy characters to be included as they are in the same boat. Square-Enix may opt against the likes of Squall and Cloud appearing in the game, as it essentially makes their own Dissidia fighting game non-existant.

Are you surprised that Heihachi has joined the roster? Let us know who else you would like to see next.

The audience at Sony’s keynote in Los Angeles were treated to a brand trailer for the upcoming game, which also confirmed the inclusion of another two characters into the game. Nathan Drake will be added, which we already knew thanks to prior leaks, but Big Daddy from Bioshock should be a surprise to most of you.

We were a little disappointed that we didn’t see any more characters unveiled, or a live demo of cross-platform play working on the Vita, as that is surely going to be a major selling point for Vita owners planning to buy the game. We’re guessing that this portion isn’t ready for show yet, but we should see some Vita action soon since the game is thought to be coming out this Fall along with the PS3 version.

The prospect of being able to play online with PS3 players direct from your Vita over the PlayStation Network is a mouthwatering prospect for sure. If Sony extends this capability over a 3G Vita connection as well, then imagine the fun you can have whilst away from the home. We’re expecting to see character reveals for Solid Snake and Cole soon, but who else will be joining in on the fun? We saw at Sony’s E3 keynote that Assassin’s Creed 3 will have some exclusive PS3 DLC, so if a deal has been made there, maybe Sony will work to make Connor a playable character in the Battle Royale as well – how about that folks?

For now, check out the latest E3 gameplay below and give us your thoughts on the game. We’re usually not a fan of dubstep music in video games, but we have to say that the track included with this clip is a rather nice pairing. On a side note, check out the amount of YouTube dislikes on this video. Almost 2,000 dislikes now, compared to 600+ likes. Are these from angry Smash Bros fans perhaps?

At the moment the game is only official for the PlayStation 3 and although we recently dreamed of having a PS Vita version as well, it looks like this could be a reality in the future. It also means that another of Sony’s intended E3 bombshells has been leaked prior to the event and how many times has that happened in recent years?

A portable version of the Super Smash Bros style mashup is mouthwatering to say the least. It was only days ago when we were wondering if the PS Vita hardware could handle a portable version of the game or not and based on the information posted to Robert Krekel’s LinkedIN account – this game is definitely on the way. Krekel is a sound designer at Sony America and has done sound work on previous titles such as Uncharted 3, Twisted Metal and Starhawk. Unlike previous LinkedIn leaks, the information about a PS Vita version of PABR is still there to be viewed by the masses. Just look at the ‘current projects’ section under experience and you’ll see it.

A PS3 and PS Vita version of an upcoming party game means two words to us – cross platform. Imagine the fun you could have being able to play PS3 players online straight from your Vita. Again, we’re not sure if hardware restrictions can make this possible, but the game is crying out for a basic level of cross-platform support at least. Even if you could transfer data between the two versions and perhaps unlock secret characters on PS3, by playing the PS Vita version only – that would still be pretty neat.

The ultimate feature for us is obviously cross-platform online play between both versions, but will Sony be able to deliver on this? The pleasing aspect for us is that the PS3 version doesn’t look like it’s a game which is ‘maxing’ out PS3 hardware. Sure it looks fast and frantic, but we have a sneaky feeling that the game may have been designed in a way so that the PS Vita can join in on the fun as well. Could PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale finally be the game which kicks off a ‘cross-platform’ golden era on the PS Vita? Remote play functionality has so far been non-existant, but we’ll let that go if we can play online with PS3 players direct from the Vita.

Are you excited about the possibility of cross-platform play for this game? Give us your opinions and suggestions on how it could work below.