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Sony ships EyePet for PSP, complete with camera
Looking for a pinch of adorable, a taste of augmented reality and a shiny new peripheral for your PSP? Look no further, mate. Sony's EyePet title is now shipping in the US of A, and a required camera will come bundled in with each UMD. Amazon and friends have it listed for $39.99, and if you're hoping to avoid the otherwise unavoidable "sold out forever" sign during the final week of December, we'd recommend getting that order in now. Oh, and PSPgo owners need not apply -- this one's too cute for NAND.
The PlayStation Phone: new photos, more details!
We've gotten our hands on some more images of the PlayStation Phone, and gleaned a few more juicy details about the handset. Firstly, as you can see in the photos, the model in question does indeed seem to be codenamed "Zeus" (as we reported on the 27th). Furthermore, the handset pictured is running Android 2.2, though apparently there are multiple devices out there with different versions on board (including at least one packed with Android 3.0). Based on what we know, there's little chance the phone will launch with Froyo -- but it's clear these have been worked on for some time with various versions of the OS. The device appears to have an 8GB microSD card slotted, and at least 512MB of internal storage (though we're hoping it's the 1GB we've heard would be present). As you can see from the pictures in the gallery below, the device isn't exactly thin -- we surmise that the handset is around 17mm thick, or slightly thicker than HTC's Touch Pro 2 (and funnily enough, about the same as the PSPgo). From a design standpoint, the device seems to have more in common with BlackBerry handsets than previous Sony Ericsson phones; that smoky chrome bezel which surrounds the device is definitely giving us Torch flashbacks. As always, we're hard at work digging up more info on the phone (and potentially more images), but for now, just sit tight and enjoy the exclusive photos in the gallery below. %Gallery-106270% %Gallery-106052% %Gallery-106050%
The PlayStation Phone
It's hard to believe that what we're looking at is real -- but we assure you, the picture above is in fact the PlayStation Phone you've long been waiting for. As we reported back in August, the device you see is headed into the market soon, likely boasting Android 3.0 (aka Gingerbread), along with a custom Sony Marketplace which will allow you to purchase and download games designed for the new platform. The device snapped up top (and in our gallery below) is sporting a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 (a chip similar to the one found in the G2, but 200MHz faster), 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, and the screen is in the range of 3.7 to 4.1 inches. Looking almost identical to the mockup we hit you with this summer, the handset does indeed have a long touchpad in the center which is apparently multitouch, and you can see in the photos that it's still bearing those familiar PlayStation shoulder buttons. For Sony buffs, you'll be interested to know that there's no Memory Stick slot here, but there is support for microSD cards. The particular model in these shots is still in prototyping mode. As such, the unit doesn't have a custom skin (not even SE's Timescape design seen on the Xperia devices), and is said to be rather buggy. We're digging into more facts as we speak, but it's likely that much of what we reported earlier is still accurate, and though the device could still be headed for a 2010 release, 2011 is looking much more realistic. Still, there's a lot of time between now and the holidays... so keep your fingers crossed! %Gallery-106052% %Gallery-106050%
More details emerge of supposed PSP2 with backside touch controls, HD screen, hot personality
About a month before this year's Tokyo Game Show we started hearing new reports of the PSP2, a device that's been rumored since roughly the dawn of time (which could explain the prehistoric creatures on the concept render above). These rumors, however, were different, specifically the mention of a touchpad on the back of the device. Alas that device didn't make an appearance to the press at TGS, but supposedly Sony was showing it off to some developers. Kotaku has learned a few more things, most notable being a display an inch larger than the current PSP's and having a high-def resolution -- a detail that should surprise none. According to the report Sony is still tweaking the internal hardware, trying to mitigate overheating issues ahead of a release sometime in the fall of 2011. That would likely mean an unveiling at the 2011 E3, the same place the original unit was first shown in the flesh eight whole years earlier.
PSP2 apparently in Mortal Kombat developers' hands, said to be a 'pretty powerful machine'
We just heard last month that Sony might already be showing off some prototype PSP2 hardware (said to be roughly similar in size to the PSP-3000), and it now looks like the next-gen handheld may have found its way into some developers' hands as well. That's according to Shaun Himmerick of Netherrealm Studios, at least, who responded to a question about a new Mortal Kombat possibly heading to the PSP or 3DS by saying that while they won't be launching day one on those devices, they actually "have a PSP2 in house." He further went on to say that the PSP2 looks "like it's a pretty powerful machine," and added that they don't yet have a 3DS system but are looking to get one. No confirmation from Sony on this, as you might expect, but it certainly seems like the hardware is pretty far along -- possibly even ahead or on the same track as the 3DS? [Thanks, Aaron]
Apple claims 50 percent of portable gaming market, iPod touch 'outsells Nintendo and Sony combined'
Nintendo famously called Apple the enemy of the future in the video gaming space, and by golly, it looks like the Japanese giant was right; Steve Jobs just told an audience that the iPod touch alone outsells Nintendo's DS and Sony's PlayStation Portable combined, worldwide. How many games iPod touch users actually play and for how long wasn't discussed, but Jobs said 1.5 billion "games and entertainment" apps have been downloaded -- again, on the iPod touch alone, never mind all those iPhones. Update: As many fine readers have suggested in comments, this particular statistic seems a little hard to swallow, given that the Nintendo DS alone sold roughly 132 million units -- a good bit less than the 120 million iOS devices Apple claims, and only some of which are iPod touch -- as of the Japanese company's July earnings report. We've contacted Apple for clarification and hope to be able to explain the discrepancy soon. Check out our liveblog of the keynote event right here!
Sony's Andrew House: PSP Go launched in part to 'learn more about what the consumer wanted'
Sony's certainly been fairly candid when discussing the PSP Go in the past, but SCEE CEO Andrew House went quite a bit further than usual in discussing the download-only handheld with MCV recently. When asked if he considered the PSP Go to be a success, he responded by saying that it was "introduced in a mature lifecycle to learn more about what the consumer wanted," and that Sony has "definitely learned a lot," adding that "one of the reasons we launched PSP Go was to understand where that consumer behavior was going." He further went on to say that Sony was "getting signals from consumers that this was the kind of device that they wanted," but says that Sony needs to "recognize that consumers like their packaged media library." Does that mean a return to physical media for the eventual PSP 2? House unsurprisingly wouldn't say, but we have a feeling Sony will be getting plenty of questions about it at E3 next week.
Sony confirms ten free game offer for UK PSP Go buyers, North America gets less awesome deal
Well, we've got some good news and some less good news for potential PSP Go owners. The good news is that Sony has now officially announced the ten free game offer for PSP Go buyers in the UK, which is just as we had heard and is available in quite a few countries besides the UK as well (hit up the link below for the complete list). Not among those, however, is the United States or Canada, which is where the less good news comes in. While Sony has also announced a similar promotion for US and Canadian consumers, it only covers folks that buy a PSP Go starting today (not anyone that bought one after April 1st, as in the UK), and you'll only be getting three free games, not ten -- those include LittleBigPlanet, Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters and SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3. What gives? We're not entirely sure, but the only other incentive Sony is offering for North America is a new line of "Favorites" titles that will be priced at $9.99 apiece.
Sony looks to boost PSP Go sales with ten free games -- in the UK, at least
We're not sure if this is the "relaunch" that we've been hearing about, but it looks like PSP Go buyers in the UK will soon have one big new reason to consider the UMD-less handheld -- Sony says that it'll be throwing in a whopping ten free game downloads with each system. That deal will apparently also apply to at least some existing PSP Go customers (those that registered their system after April 1st), and it looks like you'll get a surprisingly solid lineup of games, including titles like Little Big Planet, Gran Turismo, Wipout Pure, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Need for Speed Shift, to name a few. Unfortunately, there's no indication on when or if the promotion will launch over here, with SCE's UK sales director Mark Howsen only confirming that it will be rolling out in the UK "next month."
Sony posts another huge annual loss, but PS3 sales are up
Sony just posted its yearly results today, and while a ¥40.8 billion ($439 million) loss is never a good thing, it's at least a marked improvement from last year's staggering $1 billion drop into the red, which was the company's first loss in 14 years. LCD TVs and cameras were Sony's big electronics sellers, while PS3 sales went up to 13 million from 10.1 million last year -- and hey, Sony's console actually became profitable at the end of the year as production costs have gone down. Now for the bad news: PSP sales were down to 9.9m from 14.4 last year, with game sales dropping to 44.4m from 50.3m units, while PS2 hardware went down to 7.2m from 7.7m units and PS2 software fell sharply from 83.5m units to 35.7m units. That's not completely unexpected, as the PS2 can't last forever and the PSP is getting long in the tooth, but it means that Sony faces some serious pressure to hit its target of 15m PS3s sold this year to pick up the slack and help it hit its goal of posting a ¥50 billion ($541 million) profit next year. Let's hope that Move controller lives up to the hype, right? Sony's also counting on 3D to help it get there, and wonder of wonders, it also expects Sony Ericsson to hit profitability, so that X10 mini pro had better be a big improvement over the Xperia X10. We'll see if Sir Howard can keep all these various ships going in the right direction while still keeping the rest of Sony's diverse operations (like its profitable life insurance business) in line -- it should be an interesting year.
Sony selling 'PlayStation Protection Plan' warranty extension for PS3, PSP
Sony makes some pretty resilient game consoles, and while you'll certainly hear about the occasional glitch, they aren't exactly plagued with RRoD. That said, there's always room for worry, and if you're willing to pay for peace of mind, Sony has a brand-new service agreement with your name on it. Dubbed the "PlayStation Protection Plan," it simply extends the full warranty on your PlayStation 3 or PSP for another year or two, and optionally covers your handheld's five-foot swan dive onto solid concrete for an additional fee. While replacement won't quite be no-questions-asked and the warranty explicitly fails to cover dead pixels, liquid damage and loss of data (among other things), we can still imagine some will pony up the $30 to $50 for extra insurance. Not us, though. Since you can only buy if you're still within the original warranty period, it won't help us replace our backwards-compatible 60GB PS3... and honestly, we think we've had enough of Sony's protection.
Keepin' it real fake: PSP-shaped Mini Game King makes classic emulation a royal decree
Flamboyantly attired in a flowing fuchsia scarf, the Mini Game King is probably guilty of countless copyright violations, but we don't care. The real question is whether this latest KIRF PSP can actually play games, and we're happy to say it does. Summoning the full might of its infringing power, the King can emulate eleven classic consoles and handhelds when it's not playing AV files from 4GB of internal memory, and its Chinese manufacturer triumphantly claims that the device "will make you happy unlimited" if you hook up an wireless six-axis controller as well. "This controller does not come with the console, you have to pay for it," reads the box, but we're dying to try "3Dthergame" and "Othergame" as soon as we can dig one up.
Sony's PSP turns 5, may very well live forever
It's somewhat hard to believe that Sony as a whole turned 60 just under 4 years ago, and since then we've seen the PlayStation turn 15, the PlayStation 2 turn 10 and the PlayStation 3 celebrate its first. Today, the outfit's PlayStation Portable (or PSP, in shorter terms) is gettin' down on its fifth birthday (while our own bionic Thomas Ricker parties on his 482nd), with the North American debut happening on March 24, 2005. To date, over 17 million of the iconic handhelds have been sold, over 820 titles have been created for it and an all-new, UMD-free version has come along to dazzle those who are champing at the bit to ditch physical media. The platform as a whole still has a ways to go before it catches the Big N and its Game Boy / DS line, but hey, the millennium is young.
TiltFX from Codejunkies makes a PSP respond to your every move (video)
We all lean when playing racing games and sit up in our seats when jumping in action games, but so far most PSP games have stoutly ignored all that nonsense. The TiltFX from Codejunkies might finally make those uppity consoles a little more responsive with a "G Sensor" -- a three-axis MEMS gyro that clips onto the lower-left of a PSP 1000, 2000, or 3000-series console. (Sorry, Goers, left out again.) Once plugged in you can simply tilt the console in the direction you want your character to go, something that we could definitely see enhancing the experience of games like Archer McLean's Mercury or or Loco Roco. And, for just £14.99/$19.99, it's certainly a better value than some other PSP accessories we've sampled in the past. Video demonstration after the break.
Sony prepping new line of handhelds, including PSP phone?
You know who knows everything? People familiar with the matter. In particular, they know everything when "the matter" happens to be Sony's handheld strategy for 2010, which is said to finally include an honest-to-goodness PSP with phone capabilities -- something the world's been demanding for as long as they've wanted a Zunephone. According to the WSJ, the device is apparently part of a larger push by Sony to create an iTunes-like Utopian ecosystem of products this year that connect to Sony Online Service, an ecosystem that would also include a hybrid portable of some sort that "blurs distinctions among a netbook, an e-reader and a PlayStation Portable." Details aren't offered on this particular monster -- but turning our attention back to the phone for a second, it's claimed that Sony's working with it in conjunction with the folks at Sony Ericsson under the direction of Kunimasa Suzuki, an exec largely responsible for the VAIO line who's also involved with the PlayStation team. Of course, SE's already taken some baby steps toward corporate harmony by bundling Remote Play support with the Aino, but everyone knows that PSP compatibility is the panacea; Microsoft finally buckled on the Zunephone thing with the introduction of Windows Phone 7 Series, and there's no reason why Sony shouldn't follow suit.
Sony exec says PSP Go 'confused' consumers, might have been too expensive
Well, we've already heard some rumors that Sony was considering a relaunch of sorts for the PSP Go, and it looks like at least some execs from the company are now starting to speak publicly about why such a move might be necessary. In an interview with IndustryGamers, SCEA Senior Vice President of Publisher Relations Rob Dyer admitted that the PSP Go did "confuse" customers, and that the "higher price point didn't help matters any either" -- not exactly the sort of thing you hear Sony say every day. Does that mean we'll be seeing updated hardware or a lower price anytime soon? Dyer unsurprisingly wouldn't say when pressed, adding only that Sony is "going back and re-communicating" with consumers.
Sony patent application reveals universal, LCD-based game controller
Well, here's a bit of an odd one. A recent patent application from Sony has not only revealed an LCD-based game controller (which would be notable enough in itself), but an LCD-based, universal game controller that's designed to work with more than one game console. As you can see above, the touchscreen would be able to accommodate various buttons and layouts for different consoles -- Sony even curiously mentions consoles like the Amiga CD-32 and Atari Jaguar (for emulation, perhaps?), in addition to Microsoft and Nintendo -- and the screen itself would be housed in what Sony describes as a "game controller skin." Of course, this is still just an application for a patent, and we're pretty sure Sony is focused on another controller at the moment. [Thanks, Anand]
PlayStation 3 still a loss leader, 'six cents for every dollar' of hardware sold
Though Sony's overall bottom line is back in black, what held it back from an even bigger celebration cake was its core electronics brand, and no stranger to that sector is the PlayStation group. Both Joystiq and The Wall Street Journal took a more careful look at the numbers, and there's a few points worth noting. PS2 sales took a year-over-year dip, down from 2.5 million to 2.1 million. PSP took a larger hit, down to 4.2 million from 5.1 million. The PS3, however, is a mix of good and bad news. The good news: 6.5 million in unit sales, up from the 4.5 million prior. That said, it turns out Sony has yet to pull its home console away from "loss leader" status -- WSJ reports the company is still losing "about six cents for every dollar of PS3 hardware sales," i.e. if Sony were to sell the consoles to retailers for $300, it'd technically be taking a hit of $18 each time. That's nowhere near the estimates when the PS3 first launch, and additionally Sony's CFO Nobuyuki Oneda is promising a 15 percent reduction cost by March 2011, which should go a long way. Lets' not forget the company still makes money on Blu-rays and software sales, but in the meantime, hang tight little buddy, you're this close to being profitable all by your lonesome. Update: An error in fiscal sales figures that has been subsequently remedied.
Jill Stuart's Sweet Limited Package PSP makes its own innuendos, coming in March
¥21,000 ($232), Japan, March 4. All of the foregoing should be irrelevant information because we're absolutely, positively, definitely sure you're not going to actually buy one. Right? Look, even if you genuinely don't object to Blossom Pink as your color scheme, and if you quite rightly find yourself attracted by the handy soft pouch for ensconcing your new PSP-3000 in, don't you care about what other people might think? And that's entirely aside from the generic and lazy expectation that women will buy anything so long as it bears a hue from the pink portion of the spectrum. Either way, this bundle of corporate greed and malevolence is coming in about a month's time, if you're weird enough to care. %Gallery-84471%
Sony's John Koller: Apple's entrance into gaming market drives consumers to PSP
Um, okay? Just days after Apple introduced its exceedingly underwhelming iPad while simultaneously attempting to convince that masses that said product was the portable gaming device they had been waiting their whole lives for, Sony's own hardware marketing honcho has come forward and extolled Cupertino's decision to finally make the gaming leap. In a recent interview, John stated the following: "Apple's entrance into the portable gaming space has been a net positive for Sony. When people want a deeper, richer console, they start playing on a PSP." While we can't seem to shake the suspicion that Mr. Koller is drawing links that probably don't exist (at least fully) in reality, research firm NPD does show that sales of the PSP have "nearly tripled since the iPhone went on sale in June 2007." Of course, it's not like the PSP has gained functionality, become the home of more than a few killer titles and spawned a UMD-less sibling since the heydays of '07, but hey -- who are we to question the suit?
