Planet PSP named, dated

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 June, 2006

Now it's Passport To...

Planet PSP, a software package for Sony's portable based on the Lonely Planet travel guides, has been renamed Passport To... and will be released on September 15th.

The new title reflects the fact that it's a range of releases for cities including London, Rome, Prague, Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam (wot no Enfield?), and each will be stocked with tips on things to do and see that you can read off your PSP.

During E3, Sony announced that the guides tell you about the best restaurants and clubs among other things, with maps, videos, "audio walks" (i.e. listen while you walk), lots of photographs, and itineraries - your own, and pre-planned ones for the lazy traveller.

We're also told to expect downloadable updates to keep the guides up to date with new information, which is something the books - hugely popular as it stands - certainly can't do.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • timing58 #1 6 years ago

    Well done...released just after summer holidays

  • lambtron #2 6 years ago

    You mean instead of just buying a book and being able to look at whatever I want when I want i get to faff about with my PSP, fight with a horrible broken interface and endure loading times.

    How about fook right off!

  • bad #3 6 years ago

    Just don't forget your spare batteries or you'll end up lost without a map...

  • kangarootoo #4 6 years ago

    @lambtron

    You could of course simply not buy it... Might save yourself a bit of stress into the bargain.

    Whats that? You weren't going to buy it but are getting all angry anyway? Puzzling stuff indeed.

  • LazyDan #5 6 years ago

    Gimmicks on a handheld... And not the one everyone thought it'd be!

  • skillian #6 6 years ago

    Maps and "audio walks" are a great idea for a handheld.

    I agree it's cutting it a bit fine tho - could have done with being a couple of months earlier.

  • asphaltcowboy #7 6 years ago

    "wot no Enfield?"

    Don't "diss" Enfield "man"!

    No ok, I don't like it much either :p

  • SeesThroughAll #8 6 years ago

    Gimmicks on a handheld... And not the one everyone thought it'd be!

    Any product, accessory and even game is a gimmick.

  • Xerx3s #9 6 years ago

    When im going to the 'less fortunate' side of this planet, one thing that I won't be taking with me is expensive electronics. Its asking for trouble (yes, thats first hand experience :\ ).

  • JediMasterMalik #10 6 years ago

    I think this is a good idea for anyone who does a lot of travelling, provided they get a good variety of destinations on there.

  • Lawlost #11 6 years ago

    and what is wrong with Enfield?!

  • SeesThroughAll #12 6 years ago

    I think this is a good idea for anyone who does a lot of travelling, provided they get a good variety of destinations on there.

    I don't really like the concept. The amount of information to cope with means that whatever they cram into the UMD will be obsolete already at the time of release. Sounds like SCE want to go EA fashion on this non-game.

    We're also told to expect downloadable updates to keep the guides up to date with new information

    What we are not told is whether these updates are free or not. And if anything is going to eat away memory stick space, this is it.

    Meh.
    Edited by SeesThroughAll at 21/06/06 @ 13:51

  • chupachups #13 6 years ago

    I agree with lambtron, if you're travelling a book is far far more convenient than using a games console. Travel books are absolutely packed with more info than you'll ever use, they're easy to consult, they don't need any batteries, and you don't really need to worry about them getting stolen or broken. A book will probably survive being drenched, battered, left in the sun or whatever, but a PSP probably won't.

    PSP is great for games, great for music, great for movies, great for photos... but it's just not the right format for large amounts of text, especially when it needs to be consulted in far-off lands possibly for long amounts of time between battery charges.

    You get the feeling that this and Talkman are Sony just providing potential PSP purchasers with excuses to show off their expensive toys rather than wanting to provide a practical solution to a genuine problem.

    If you absolutely totally need to go the electronic route, you'd probably be better off getting a decent phone or PDA which can display the web properly and accessing travel guides on the internet which are far easier to keep up to date and provide a far wider variety of information. Phones don't need wi-fi hotspots to work either, which is handy if you're out and about, although they can run up quite high internet bills in many countries.
    Edited by chupachups at 21/06/06 @ 13:59

  • escapedape #14 6 years ago

    Oi! I'm from Enfield!

    Nothing wrong with it as far as I can see, ya git! :D

  • Zuiyo #15 6 years ago

    Chupachups is da man.

  • nickthegun #16 6 years ago

    Book = £10

    PSP + Planet PSP = £180 (conservatively)

    Plus my lonely planet wont run out of batteries and cause me to get mugged by hordes of street children and, as has already been said, fucking around with buttons isnt as easy as turning a page.

    Dont get me wrong, ive got a PSP and am desperate for it to get some good, innovative content, but this really isnt it.

    I mean, just the logistical problems of getting the fucking thing charged or being able to see the screen in the blazing sun are enough to put me off.

  • Hughes. #17 6 years ago

    Not wishing to align myself with the usual trolling chumps at the start of this thread (and most PSP threads), but if Talkman is anything to go this could end up being pretty poor. I assume this will tie in with the GPRS doo-hickey?

  • Hughes. #18 6 years ago

    "I mean, just the logistical problems of getting the fucking thing charged or being able to see the screen in the blazing sun are enough to put me off."

    Can't argue with that, trying to see the PSP screen in even moderate outdoor brightness is a no go.

  • lambtron #19 6 years ago

    @hughes

    I fail to see how anyone is trolling in this thread, people just seem to be expressing valid criticism of something...

  • Arwin #20 6 years ago

    Healthy cynicism is the default mode of posters on eurogamer.net ... if you haven't figured that out yet, you can't have been here very long.

    Anyway, I think it's a great idea, especially the audio walks are great to have when seeing things, and if I've got the PSP with me anyway because it's so great for games, movies, etc. etc. then why not for this?

    And reading text on the PSP is no problem, the Browser proved this already.

    I do agree that it's hard to read when the sun shines on it, but that wouldn't be much of a problem in at least a few of these cities. :p And of course you can always look for shade.

    And the GPRS functionality, well, I think that'd be pretty cool!

  • MadHattr #21 6 years ago

    I think the title reflects that sony are really punny. Passport To = Passepartout from "Around the world in eighty days".

  • MrChuckles #22 6 years ago

    Passport to...Pimlico

    Great film.