t Sony Europe’s packed GC press conference in Leipzig, the company gave players a general overview of the PlayStation landscape—and also announced a number of new add-ons for its PlayStation 3 and PSP platforms.

Shortly after the assembled crowd settled into their seats, the company announced it will be launching a new service in Europe that will enable users PS3s to become digital video recorders. Titled Play TV, users will be able to record live television – either HDTV or Standard Definition television. This new service is said to be live in Europe in early 2008.

By the use of an over the air antenna and a USB 2.0 peripheral, users will be able to record and playback TV shows through their PS3. The antenna will be able to record from a new format in Europe called DVDT (or also known as DGTV, Freeview Playback, TDT, and more.)

Users will be able to schedule recordings up to 7 days in advance, switch live TV channels, and record shows either from the channel you’re watching, or shows programmed to record ahead of time.

Users will be able to browse their already recorded video by using something much like SingStar’s album browse function, and see a quick snapshot of the recording. By clicking on the recording users will be able to see a quick preview clip that’s 15 seconds in length so they can determine whether or not they’re going to select the proper recording.

Better yet, users will be able to play their recorded programming from their PS3s onto their PSP systems by using the remote play function.

Currently, there’s has not been any announcement on what will happen with this technology in North America, but it’s indeed promising, especially if it gets hooked up with cable, satellite, or IPTV services instead of open air antennas.

Surprisingly enough, most of the announcements were geared toward the PlayStation 3’s little portable brother. The company announced that it was adding a few more products that will fall under its Go! brand, which is the umbrella that the PSP camera—the Go!Cam—fell under.

First up is Go!Messenger, a voice, video and text chatting program that will be available worldwide. After a PSP firmware update in January 2008 and an additional software download, users will be able to keep in touch with their friends using their PSP systems. It should come as no surprise that Go!Messenger is fully compatible with the Go!Cam. While you won’t need to own the camera to receive videos, you will obviously need the accessory to send vids to your friends.

Second, a product called Go!Explore will turn your PSP into a fully functional GPS system. With Go!Explore, Sony says users can plot out routes for either vehicular or pedestrian travel—which are then charted out in animated and interactive maps. Users can zoom in, rotate the view, check out a sped-up virtual trip and even suggest alternate routes. The system requires a special GPS adapter, which plugs into the system. We didn’t get to see it up close, but the external antenna appears to flip down and is about the same size as a PS2 memory card. There also wasn’t any firm information about a release date, pricing info for the adapter or whether it will even work in North America.

Today’s press conference gave PSP owners another reason to be particularly excited—providing they like movies and television and also happen to live in the UK or Ireland. If you can check all of those boxes, you’ll soon be able to take advantage of a new PSP video download service. Through the service—in an exclusive partnership with European satellite service Sky—PSP owners will be able to download sports events, movies, TV shows and music presentations directly to their systems. Some of the specific examples shown in a brief montage included the comedy film Superbad, a football match, Lost, Ice Age, Ghost Rider, Rescue Me and a cricket match. While the service is rolling out in the UK and Ireland first, Sony says that the company is in active discussions with potential partners in France, and that Spain and Germany are next on their list. No mention of North America, eh? We see how you are…

We’ll let you know more about these interesting new accessories and programs as details are made available.