PSP gets price cut, PSone emulator, videophone functions News
PSP News by Tom Bramwell
PSP will see a worldwide price cut this month. From March 22nd, European gamers will be able to buy a "base unit" (presumably devoid of stuff like the headphones) for 199 Euro (about £140).
US gamers will pay $199 from the end of the month, and the Japanese will pay 19,800 yen for a white unit from April 15th.
During a press conference in Tokyo today, Sony boss Ken Kutaragi also talked about the company's plans to add a PSone emulator to PSP, with "selected games" available through digital distribution to be stored on the Memory Stick. (Cynics amongst you might question the use of the word "add", but there you go.)
Although timing on that has yet to be confirmed, Kutaragi was more specific about other new services - including an EyeToy camera peripheral to attach to the USB port, which launches in September, and video voice-over-IP (in other words, video-telephony), which will be available in October. Pricing on all of that's yet to be announced.
Kutaragi also discussed some of Sony's plans for updating PSP software this year, starting with network update to add Macromedia Flash support this, er, spring (touch wood, eh?), with extended RSS channel support also on the way to allow users to save radio content (podcasts, presumably) and movies.
There was no word on previously rumoured services and hardware iterations - for example, we know no more about "Sony Mail" or the rumoured PSP with built-in hard disk - but there was news on the GPS receiver mentioned at E3 last year. It will launch this autumn and have a role in games, starting with Hot Shots Golf.
An interesting year in prospect for PSP hardware, then, although - as with PS3 - there are still plenty of gaps to be filled in, presumably at this year's E3.
Sources - IGN, Reuters
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Cosmopolitan
15/03/06 @ 09:01
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Playing the old Final Fantasies (7-9) on the PSP?
/is tempted Still, 199 euros is too much for me now. /waits for another price drop |
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tentonipete
15/03/06 @ 09:31
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yeah i'm not paying to download a game to memory card that i already own... FFVII for example.
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tonynibbles
15/03/06 @ 09:48
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Fucking hell
Adding flash player is fucking uber. Opens up a world of applications. And if the player can access hardware such as eyetoy, microphone etc - which it probably will be able to do, so that software devlopers can use flash to build the voip stuff etc (like EyeToy chat) that is fucking class. |
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tonynibbles
15/03/06 @ 09:52
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yeah i'm not paying to download a game to memory card that i already own... FFVII for example.
Why the hell not? We'll all be going mad for Rev downloads when they come out. I think with the PSone back catalogue of games, this is a good move for Sony... Ok, so long as they are a few quid and they dont take the piss with procing, it should be class. |
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It's a simple strategy. Keep releasing increasingly hotter games, and keep lowering the price. So you always sell as many as you are making.
I would prefer a SNES emulator, but I doubt they'll be up to it. :-) Now, if they allow me to copy movies to it without giving them secret passwords as names, I'll be a happy bunny. |
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SeesThroughAll
15/03/06 @ 11:15
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So, taking a Nintendo approach towards emulation, heh?
Let's see... a PSOne emulator UMD, a few games taking roughly 500Mb (those that used most of the CD), bought separately, so I would end up: - buying another 50 euro emulation UMD which will probably not even bring any games to boot. - paying for the downloads (even though they're old games, it could be as expensive as 20 euro depending on the game). - buying a larger Memory Stick. All this just to play a few games I liked all over again... no thanks.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 15/03/06 @ 11:17
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SeesThroughAll
15/03/06 @ 11:19
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...extended RSS channel support also on the way to allow users to save radio content (podcasts, presumably) and movies.
Wake up Sony! WiFi is the only advantage the PSP has over the iPod as a media device. Use it wisely! |
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PinkSpider
15/03/06 @ 12:17
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yeah i'm not paying to download a game to memory card that i already own... FFVII for example
Hell, being able to play FF7 whilst watching TV would be ace and well worth upto £20 in my opinion. Saying that I'd rather pay less for digitally distributed products (unless say buying FF7 on PSP would allow you to download it for whatever future consoles support digital distribution AND wouldnt have to pay for it again, like Steam). The PSP is looking better to me now, I'm going to have to buy one (soon). - Before today it was pretty much only games like Lumines which where tempting me. Also games on the PS1 I would love to play: Wipeout 2097, All the FF's, Xenogears/ Chrono Cross (maybe we could see these without modding/ importing!) also stuff like Future Cop LAPD... etc. The PS1 really did have an ace catalogue of games.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 15/03/06 @ 12:18
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tonynibbles
15/03/06 @ 12:50
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@ oreillymj Name 1 useful app developed in Flash.
Dude, what are you talking about? THis is a really good development. Flash isnt all about crappy marketting flashy banners. With Flash on PSP you can develop chat rooms, video and voice communication apps, mail applications, calendars, word pads, spreadsheets, database admin interfaces, image editors, ftp applications, rss aggregators, video and audio streaming applications, Map application such as GOogle maps (available in flash on some sites), awesome GAMES like that one The list is almost endless! True flash development almost guarantees an application built in flash to work on any platform with flash player at the same version as it. If they get Flash 8 on PSP it will open up a world of homebrew developers. Its A GOOD THING... |
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gamingdave
15/03/06 @ 12:51
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oreillymj - Name 1 useful app developed in Flash.
Stop trolling. Thers a wealth of usefull apps built in Flash. Yeah its overused for advertising and can be anoying, but products such as ladbrokes live betting app and betandwins are great examples of live web applications. The question is, what version of the flash player will this be? 6, 7, 8, Lite1.1, Lite2? And will be able to launch swfs directly from the memory stick, and full screen, or will it only be for content embedded within web pages? As for eyetoy, not really sure who that will work?!?! and the fact that they are launching a camera and a VOIP service doesnt suggest video-telephony. Not really bothered about a PS1 emulator, but I suppose it would give me something to fill the memory stick with. |
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bunglebonce
15/03/06 @ 13:04
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Forget apps, I want to take badgerbadgerbadger.com wherever I go :)
PSone emulation sounds fantastic to me. How shall it be distributed? My guess is that it would be through the PS3's online system and memory stick pro duo slot. FFVII, Wipeout 3, Tenchu: if I got all those games in the compatibility list, I think I'd die of happiness. I'd even upgrade my virgin 1.5! |
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tonynibbles
15/03/06 @ 13:55
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sounds like mobile skype - pretty sweet if you ask me.
I seriously hope its not Flash Lite, though Im guessing it will be. |
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gamingdave , I 'm not trolling. I asked for useful uses of Flash. I got a list of apps with no actual links to working examples. I checked out the link to a telent client, but it's for an unrleased version of Flash and currently doesn't work.
BTW - I think the version for PSP is 6, so it looks links there'll be less SQL editors and relational databases and more spinning banner ads. Anyone who has used the PSP's browser will tell you that a mini-usb keyboard would be a higher priority than Flash in terms of usability. |
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gamingdave
15/03/06 @ 14:24
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Click on the "bet in play" button on the top right hand corner here. Thats Ladbrokes' live betting app, which provides constantly changing odds and markets during sporting events. Its Flash 6, 30k, and has a low processor hit.
Id also say have a look at orisinal. I know its not apps, but an example of lovely simple Flash games, so if the PSP can run 6 or above, or Lite2 and can accept joystick input we could see some lovely stuff coming out.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 15/03/06 @ 15:33
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Galvanizer
15/03/06 @ 16:32
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Hmm...
PSP is gonna be £140. DS Lite will launch for around £120. Which should I go for? |
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