The new game will include 30 new tracks and a brand new harmony duet mode.

This new feature will expand upon the existing popular duet feature – allowing players to sing different lines at the same time. A number of songs have been included to suit this feature including Mamas and Papas – California Dreamin’.

PSP Remote Play functionality is also expected to be unveiled and improvements in connection to the MySingStar Online feature.

The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Eminem and Paul McCartney are just some of the artists set to feature on the new disc.

Some PS3 users will once again be saddened that the ability to import PlayStation 2 tracks is not supported. A great shame Sony. A great shame.

SingStar PS3 suffered long delays last year before it’s final release, and the SingStore was initially beset by poor updates.

However Sony eventually put in the effort to restore one of it’s flagship brands.

Sony also announced that they have now sold over 12 million Singstar games, 5 million alone in the financial year April 2007 to April 2008 across both PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3.

The online element of SingStar PS3 is not confined to just downloading new tracks.  Players can upload hilarious or serious video footage of their own singing efforts.  The PS3 version has 140,000 registered users who have uploaded between them 20,000 video clips.

These have been watched both through the PS3 and through the website a whopping 2.5 million times.

Paulina Bozek, executive producer of SingStar said:

“SingStar’s success is built upon simple and entertaining game play. Historically we have added new music tracks to keep the experience fresh but the arrival of PS3 has allowed us to think differently. We can now take advantage of the next-generation features to take the next step forward in the SingStar experience. The launch of SingStore and My SingStar Online is the realisation of this and the experience is now more user-focused, personalised and interactive.”

Online website: www.singstargame.com

Around 30 songs will be added in the next update on the 7th March 2008, including:

•    Aha: The Sun Always Shines On TV
•    Alice Cooper: Poison
•    Big Brovaz: Nu-Flow
•    Bill Joel: Uptown Girl
•    Blu Cantrell: Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)
•    Blur: End of a Century
•    Britney Spears: Baby One More Time
•    Coldplay: Speed Of Sound
•    Crash Test Dummies: Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
•    David Bowie: Heroes
•    Dragon: April Sun In Cuba
•    Elvira Nickolaisen: Egypt Song
•    End Of Fashion: Oh Yeah
•    Fairground Attraction: Perfect
•    Feeder: Buck Rogers
•    Five: Keep On Movin’
•    Jamelia: Superstar
•    Jamelia: Stop
•    Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart
•    Lemar: It’s Not That Easy
•    Lordi: Hard Rock Hallelujah
•    Maria Mena: My Lullaby
•    Maxïmo Park: Graffiti
•    Maxïmo Park: Going Missing
•    Natalie Imbruglia: Torn
•    opus X: loving you girl
•    Paddy Casey: Saints and Sinners
•    Paddy Casey: Whatever Gets You True
•    Reamonn: Supergirl
•    Roachford: Only To Be With You
•    Rooster: Come Get Some
•    Roxy Music: Love Is The Drug
•    Shannon Noll: What About Me
•    Spice Girls: Wannabe
•    Spice Girls: Who Do You Think You Are?
•    Steps: Deeper Shade of Blue
•    Stereophonics: Dakota
•    Stereophonics: The Bartender And The Thief
•    The Darkness: I Believe In A Thing Called Love
•    The Hoosiers: Goodbye Mr A
•    The Screaming Jets: Better
•    The Thrills: One Horse Town
•    The Thrills: Santa Cruz (You’re Not That Far)
•    The Undertones: Teenage Kicks
•    Trio Rio: New York, Rio, Tokyo
•    Whitney Houston: I Want To Dance With Somebody

Other European language versions will also feature some significant new updates.

The list of additions is not massive:

ENGLISH:
Bryan Ferry “Let’s Stick Together”
Doves “Black And White Town”
Editors “Munich”
Marillion “Incommunicado”
MC Hammer “U Can’t Touch This”
UB40 “Red Red Wine”
Whitney Houston “The Greatest Love Of All”

GERMAN:
Wir Sind Helden “Nur ein Wort”
Wir Sind Helden “Von hier an blind”
Wir Sind Helden “Denkmal”

SPANISH:
Amistades Peligrosas “Estoy Por Ti”
Ejecutivos Agresivos “Mari Pili”
Gabinete Caligari “La Culpa Fue Del Cha-Cha-Cha”
Loquillo Y Trogloditas “Cadillac Solitario”
Los Ronaldos “Adiós papa”

However, updates should now be every fortnight and hopefully the SingStore will be expanded massively in no time.

The game was finally releaed shortly before Christmas after weeks and months of delays.  Sony had promised around 300 tracks would be in the SingStore on day 1 to complement the 30 on the disc, but only around 60 were available – most of which had already been featured on PS2 versions of the game.

18 tracks were added last Friday, and the next update will be on February 4th.  After that Sony aims to produce a new update to the store every fortnight.

About time too.

Read the full preview below and then find out to pre-order and get 15% off those RRP’s on one of the PlayStation’s best multi-player games.

Features

30 songs on the disc – 350 already in the new ‘Singstore’!

The game arrives with around 30 tracks, but you will be able to download as many as you want from the PS3 Online Store. Around 350 tracks will be available at day one with more being added all the time.

The initial 30 songs on the disc cover a wide range of genres from the 80s to now.

* Blink 182 – “All the Small Things”
* Blur – “Coffee & TV”
* Britney Spears – “Toxic”
* Coldplay – “Fix You”
* Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.”
* Gwen Stefani – “Cool”
* Junior Senior – “Move Your Feet”
* Macy Gray – “I Try”
* Musical Youth – “Pass the Dutchie”
* Ne-Yo – “So Sick”
* Orson – “No Tomorrow”
* OutKast – “Hey Ya!”
* Primal Scream – “Movin’ On Up”
* Pussycat Dolls – “Beep (song)”
* Radiohead – “No Surprises”
* Razorlight – “America”
* REM – “Losing My Religion”
* Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman – “Somethin’ Stupid”
* Scissor Sisters – “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’”
* Supergrass – “Alright”
* The Automatic – “Monster”
* The Cardigans – “Lovefool”
* The Fratellis – “Chelsea Dagger”
* The Killers – “Mr. Brightside”
* The Stone Roses – “She Bangs The Drums”
* The Zutons – “Valerie”
* Twisted Sister – “We’re Not Gonna Take It”
* U2 – “Beautiful Day”
* Weezer – “Buddy Holly”
* Wolfmother – “Love Train”

If you have any of the PlayStation 2 SingStar games you will be able to ‘unlock’ these tracks to use on your PS3 too!

Undoubtedly, though, the SingStore is the real attraction. It’s like iTunes, essentially – an online shop where you can search for your favourite songs and download them to build up your very own library of SingStar tracks.

Sony has yet to release figures on how much each new track will cost to download (although we have heard rumours ranging from 75p to £2.99)

MySingStar Profile Pages!

The other major new feature introduced by SingStar PS3 is My SingStar Online – it’s a social networking service, essentially. If you’re familiar with MySpace, Facebook or any of those other sites used by today’s youth (and today’s grown-ups “because of the music thing”), you’ll be right at home.

On your My SingStar Online profile page, you can post a picture of yourself, list your favourite artist and favourite song and pick a flag to show which country you’re from. Your high scores will be displayed, along with comments other users have left for you.

Then there’s room for photos and videos you’ve taken using the official PS3 camera or any of the web cams SingStar supports from third-party manufacturers. Snapshots are taken automatically when you’re singing a song, and you can also grab your own at key moments. Then it’s a matter of saving them to your media gallery and stick them on My SingStar Online, with the option to restrict viewing to those on your friends list if you’re shy.

As a SingStar PS2 owner (yes I have ALL the discs) I look forward to this new SingStar version. Although after a couple of drinks down the pub, you know how everyone loves hogging the mics, it could become an expensive business when you ‘have to’ download every song in one night!

You can order SingStar PS3 now at a discount.

a) Game only £19.99 (save £5) – Order here
b) Game + 2 microphones only £39.99 (save £5) – Order here

SingStar Next Gen is released on the PS3 on 7th December 2007 in the UK