Archive for: PSP Go

Uncharted Coming to PSP!? Er… There’s Just One Little Catch

Finally, Sony mega-franchise Uncharted will be represented on PSP… sort of.

The ESRB has leaked details that Sony will be giving some their beloved franchises a bit of a shake-up by releasing a series of game themed virtual pinball tables for the PSP; which they are calling Pinball Heroes (See, Activision hasn’t copyrighted every possible ‘Hero’ related word combination).

+Continue Reading

Crush! Vote! Destroy!

*COUGH!* Wow, there sure is a lot of dust in here!

We haven’t done a new poll in quite a little while now, but it’s the start of a new month so this seems like a good place to get it going again. After all, what better time to resurrect Crush! Vote! Destroy!’s stinking corpse than October, eh?

PSPgo just launched a couple of days back and regardless of if you’re a Sony fan or not, it’s hard not to agree that some severe missteps were made during its marketing and release. This question isn’t designed to incite fanboy rage – rather, we just want to gauge the public’s perception on the release of the system.

What we want to know from you is: “What is the biggest mistake Sony made with the PSPgo?”

For those new here (or if you’ve just forgotten because it’s been so long since we’ve done a new one), you can find the polls at the bottom of the rightmost sidebar. We’ll be keeping this one open for two weeks – voting closes at midnight Eastern/9pm Pacific on Saturday, October 17th. Hopefully we should have a new one up next week and before long we’ll be back in the regular swing of things.

But enough talking… GO VOTE!

PSPgo Hits Stores Today

For good or ill, Sony’s newest iteration on the PlayStation Portable handheld, PSPgo, is in stores now.

“What could possibly be ill about it?” you ask? Well, even if we don’t factor the price ($249 USD) into the equation, there’s still the matter that a number of retail chains around the world are refusing to carry the system, doubtlessly upset that they’re being cut out of the software loop on the UMD-less system.

+Continue Reading

NIS Titles Half Off for PSPgo Launch -plus- Badman UMD Poll

NIS America, the third leg of the niche Japanese title tripod alongside XSEED and Atlus, will be re-releasing a number of their PSP games on PlayStation Network tomorrow in celebration of the launch of PSPgo. And to make the deal even sweeter, for the next week those titles will be on sale for 50% off!

+Continue Reading

Okay, So Maybe PSP Minis Won’t Be Gimped After All…

So it seems that what Gamasutra learned last week at GDC Austin regarding PSP’s downloadable Mini titles being sans multiplayer, updates and more may not be entirely true. According to Destructoid’s Ben PerLee, it looks like the lack of features could just be endemic to the first wave of Minis releases.

+Continue Reading

PSP Minis Will Lack Multiplayer, Updates, DLC for Expediency

Speaking to Gamasutra at GDC Austin, SCEA’s senior account manager, Justin Cooney brought some new info to light about the upcoming PSP Minis. The smaller downloadable games, which many point to as being Sony’s answer to the type of titles being offered on iPhone and iPod Touch, won’t bear many of the same features of their perceived competition – namely wi-fi multiplayer, DLC and software update support.

Why would this be? According to Cooney, it’s for expediency’s sake. Specifically, speeding up the approval process.

+Continue Reading

LocoRoco Midnight Carnival Coming to Japanese PSN

Announced in the next issue of Famitsu, LocoRoco Midnight Carnival will be a new download-only game featuring everyone’s favorite adorable, bouncy balls of goo. The story goes that the LocoRoco have been awakened by the MuiMui and the only way for them to get back to sleep is to track them down.

+Continue Reading

Play as a Girly Boy or a Girly Girl in Persona 3 Portable

Due in Japan on November 1st, alongside the release of the PSPgo, is Persona 3 Portable, a port of the acclaimed PlayStation 2 Atlus RPG. One of the major new details about the game, we’re happy to report, is that you can now choose the main character’s sex.

At the beginning of the game, you select which effeminate gender you’d like to be, which influences several things in the game; from the appearance of your starting persona, Orpheus, to the attendant in the Velvet Room, who will be male if you choose to play female. Nothing has come out yet regarding changes made to the social links system, so we’re unsure if choosing to play a female will automatically make you a lesbian. We always figured Mitsuru swung that way anyhow.

+Continue Reading

Minis on PSP – Bite Sized Gaming Confirmed

If you were in the boat that doubted Sony was targeting the iPhone market with the PSP Go’s look and pricing model, you just had another hole shot in the hull. Better start bailing water, friend. Coming out of Sony’s pre-GamesCom press event is confirmation of an earlier rumored story – that small, iPhone-style downloadable games would be coming to the PlayStation Network.

+Continue Reading

PSP Go May Come Unplugged, Rock Band Unplugged That Is

Are you one of the many who scoffed at the PSP Go’s price point? Well, rumor has it that Sony is going to give you more bang for your $250 bucks by packing in a voucher for Rock Band Unplugged.

Best Buy’s website, which lists the bundle, says it “lets you start enjoying PSPgo’s rocking features right away.” The bundle will come in both colors: “Piano Black” and “Pearl White“.

However, Sony has been silent on the issue, so until we have confirmation from them, we’ll just hold out hope that maybe they’ll package it with a better game.

[Via: Destructoid]

Tretton Laments Lack of “Respect”, Leaks, Industry Impatience

Sony put on a good presser at E3 2009, but one has to wonder just how much more impressive the event would have been if almost every major announcement hadn’t been leaked ahead of time. I would venture quite a bit more so: 1UP’s David Ellis ferreted out info on the PSP Go over a month before the expo and Team Ico’s footage for The Last Guardian was splashed all over the interweb couple of weeks in advance. Despite his jovial, self-deprecating humor onstage at the press event, SCEA President, Jack Tretton, presented a slightly different take on the matter in a recent interview with CNBC.

“People don’t respect confidentiality in this industry,” said Tretton. “It’s tough enough to keep a secret within your own company, much less when you speak to third parties.”

The question still remains, however: did loose lips sink ships in this case? Or is Jack overlooking that the nature of the hype beast that thrives on rumors, speculation and leaks instead of a tightly controlled corporate message?

He also touched on the industry’s propensity to for looking to the future instead of what’s in front of them now: “This is an industry that has trouble focusing on today. We want to constantly talk about tomorrow.… You have to prepare for people to know things in advance. The frustrating thing is they only know a part of the story and that opens up a lot of conjecture and misinformation that ultimately waters down the reality when you roll it out.”

Apparently Mr. Tretton was one of those kids who didn’t like trying to find out what his birthday/holiday presents were ahead of time and was content to wait in total ignorance until Mom & Dad released a carefully worded, properly timed PR statement.

Didn’t you know, Jack? Guessing and speculating is half the fun of this job!

E3 @ CFD – PSP Go

Perhaps you’ve heard the rumors?

Maybe you’re a Qore subscriber and you checked out the “leak”?

Well, Tuesday Sony finally “confirmed” that PSP Go was real and that it would be releasing Oct. 1 for $249.99.  Many industry insiders have balked at the $250 price tag, but SCEA Head of Marketing Peter Dille defended the price stating that “It’s the same price as when we launched the product, the original PSP,” and that Sony was targeting early adopters and tech enthusiasts that want to have products as soon as they are available.

Sony also mentioned that this is not a replacement for the PSP-3000 which will be sold alongside the PSP Go.

Check out the video.

Now hit the jump for more details.

+Continue Reading

1UP Drops Rumors on PSP Go!

Seems that we might not have to wait until E3 for information about the long-rumored PSP redesign after all…if you’re willing to go with as-yet unconfirmed rumors, that is. 1UP.com’s David Ellis just posted a news story this evening detailing information on the newest iteration, tentatively named the PSP Go!

According to the story, Sony plans to put the new hardware out into the Japanese market in September with a late October/early November launch slated for North America. As for the features? So glad you asked…

PSP Go! is said to go the route that we all assumed was coming – the UMD drive is dead (Long Live UMD!) and will be replaced with either 8 or 16gb of flash memory storage. Sony will reportedly have over 100 new and classic PSP titles available to download at launch which, if Kotaku’s rumor about the possibility of in-store UMD rippers for consumers to convert their old titles to digital is true, will mean that the early “test case” of Patapon 2‘s download-only US release may actually be the vanguard of how they plan to appease retail. Gran Turismo Mobile is also rumored to be one of the titles launching alongside the new hardware.

One rumor that, sadly, may not be true is the long hoped-for addition of a second analog nub to better emulate the twin sticks of a DualShock controller – 1UP claims that the device stays with the single analog format. As for the rest of the form factor, the controls are supposedly hidden underneath the screen, which either flips or slides up to reveal them.

Sony, as usual, “does not comment on rumors and speculation”, but I have a sneaking feeling that when this explodes all over the net by tomorrow, they may have to tip their hand a bit earlier than they’d hoped. If not, the announcement at E3 will be rather anti-climactic, don’t you think? Besides, many people are speculating that E3 will be a big win for Sony this year with many large announcements in the wings so why not just let us have a taste early? Give them a reason to want to be excited by the time June gets here.