PlayStation Portable 2 official announcement…

Dual analogue sticks, front and rear touchpads, Sixaxis motion control, three-axis compass, 3G data connection, Wi-Fi and Android powered. This is your PSP2:

Official specs:

CPU: ARM® Cortex™-A9 core (4 core)
GPU: SGX543MP4+
External Dimensions: approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
Screen: (Touch screen), 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED
Multi touch screen (capacitive type)
Rear touch pad: Multi touch pad (capacitive type)
Cameras: Front camera, rear camera
Sound:Built-in stereo speakers, built-in microphone
Sensors: Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass
Location: Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi location service support
Keys / Switches: PS button, power button, directional buttons (up/down/right/left), action buttons (triangle, circle, cross, square), shoulder buttons (right/left), right stick, left stick, START button, SELECT button, volume buttons (+/-)
Wireless communications: Mobile network connectivity (3G), IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1×1) (Wi-Fi) (Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode), Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR （A2DP/AVRCP/HSP

Price: Unconfirmed. Sony says “affordable”.

Posted by Miktar Jan 27, 2011

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I will have my revenge… against pirates.

God of War: Ghost of Sparta

Ready at Dawn, creators of PSP titles like Daxter, God of War: Chains of Olympus and most recently God of War: Ghost of Sparta, have questioned why developers even bother making making games for the PSP anymore. This has nothing to do with the hardware, but with the piracy that plagues Sony’s portable console.

“It’s getting to the point where it doesn’t make sense to make games on it,” said Ready at Dawn’s Ru Weerasuriya in a recent interview with website VG247. We all know that Sony’s handheld isn’t the only platform being punished by the piracy problem – Nintendo’s DS is also affected by rampant piracy. Mr Weerasuriya, a former Blizzard employee, admits that he isn’t as familiar with DS piracy as he is with that of the PSP, but he adds that flash cartridges enable pirates to hack ”practically every single game that’s ever come out for it.”

He went on to point out that piracy on the PC is alleviated somewhat by things like online multiplayer and Internet activations. With regards to the PSP, however, Weerasuriya added this:

“It’s a tough call right now to say what’s going to happen to it and where it’s going to go, but it definitely hurts a lot of developers out there who are trying to make great games.”

If you plan to get your hands on Ready at Dawn’s God of War: Ghost of Sparta for your PSP soon, don’t be an asshole about it by going the dirty pirate route. You can read the rest of the interview with Weerasuriya here.

Posted by Dane Remendes Oct 27, 2010

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New PSPgo owners can get Gran Turismo for free

To celebrate and promote the launch of their new PSPgo, it seems that Sony is giving new PSPgo owners a chance to grab a copy of the PSP version of Gran Turismo for free. It sounds like a simple enough process. The instructions for it are as follows:

1) Buy a PSPgo
2) Sign in to the PlayStation Network with your PSPgo between October 1st and October 10th
3) Download your free GT PSP theme
4) Once you’ve got the theme, check your e-mail for a redeemable code
5) Enter the code into your PSN account
6) Download the game and enjoy

This sounds like a pretty reasonable offer for new PSPgo owners – but that does mean that you’ll have to be quick. Of course, it’s only a good offer for those in SA with internet access since the PSPgo relies solely on online distribution.

The PSP Gran Turismo looks pretty damn amazing.

Posted by Matthew Vice Oct 01, 2009

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GAMESCOM 09: PSP Minis launching October

Look at that: more PlayStation news just sloshed out of a beer tankard in Germany. It seems Sony is into all things tiny at this year’s GDC/GAMESCON as they’ve elaborated on their concept of PSP Minis.

Ooh look, an official logo

From 01 October PSN users will have access to a new section on the store for PSP Minis, which are tiny games for the PSP systems that aim to satisfy that trait that most gamers have: the desire for instant gratification. The games will have a file size limit of 100MB, making them ideal for quick downloads to satiate the game craving. The file size also means you’ll be able to cram a bunch of them onto your Memory Sticks, or an even bigger bunch of them onto the built-in storage of the PSP Go units when they launch.

Sony anticipates having at least fifteen Mini titles available from 01 October, and estimates around fifty titles to be ready by the end of 2009. Confirmed titles so far include: Pacman Championship Edition, Funky Punch, Burn Zombie Burn 2D, Championship Manger, Sudoku, Puzzle Scape, Alien Havoc, Fieldrunners, Breakquest and Melody Bloxx.

Portable 2D zombies? Awesome.

In keeping with all things mini, you can expect the price tag for each of these games to follow suit. No official word on pricing just yet, but don’t expect to be paying more than R100 for Mini titles, assuming, of course, that the PSP Mini store hits our PSN as well. There is no reason why it shouldn’t, as we’ve had good PSP download support so far. I must admit, the PSN is becoming more and more South African gamer-friendly, and now with this addition of smaller titles up for download, you can be sure your bandwidth cap will thank you.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Aug 19, 2009

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