Items tagged with PSP
In case there was ever any doubt about the fact that hallucinogenics are still prevalent in content creation, Hatoful Boyfriend comes to the rescue. Oh, wait - Hatoful Boyfriend isn't the result of a trip to crazy town on qualudes - it's a Japanese game. Of course that doesn't necessarily explain the mind-numbingly cuckoo story line and game objective. What is the objective exactly, you ask? To be frank, we're not quite sure but it sure is out there. It's plainly obvious in fact, that it's way out there. Japan has never had a dearth of romance sims, or what's in effect digital romance novels, but Hatoful Boyfriend takes things to new heights. You see, you'll be able to see to it that your...
Read more...
Nintendo took a lot of risks with the Wii U. It bet on the second-screen controller becoming a major draw, that the console's relatively limited hardware wouldn't be an issue, and that it could spark the same kind of meteoric sales volume a second time around. It's the first time Nintendo has ever tried to launch such a comprehensive device, and as we noted in our review, the Wii U isn't a slam dunk. Early sales data for the all-important holiday season indicates that gamers may feel the same way. Japanese magazine Famitsu reported that post-Christmas Wii U sales slumped to 70,000 units per week, down from 76,000 the week before. That's particularly important because, in Japan, the week after...
Read more...
Sony is halfway through an ugly restructuring period as it seeks to cut costs, consolidate markets, and turn its once-mighty television business around. That's a difficult proposition for any company, but the Japanese giant's recent earnings call was gloomy even under these circumstances. Modest upticks in Imaging Products and Services and Pictures were offset by heavy declines in gaming, home entertainment, and music. The company reported a $314M loss for its first quarter of fiscal year 2012 and cut forecasts for a number of markets. Sony pinned part of the blame on continuing economic turbulence in Europe and America, but investors weren't willing to accept this as the sole explanation. As...
Read more...
New and used games retailer GameStop is starting to move away from selling titles for Sony's PlayStaton Portable (PSP) game console, instead choosing to focus on newer platforms, like the PS Vita. According to reports, GameStop has removed PSP games from a quarter of its stores, yanking them out of the smallest brick-and-mortar locations. The reason, according to what Kotaku was told by a GameStop spokesperson, is to "maximize the merchandising space in the smallest 25 percent of stores." And for the remaining 75 percent of stores that will continue to carry PSP games, they'll be serving up "a greater assortment," the spokesperson said. Image Source: Flickr (ShopRite) Kotaku surmises that this...
Read more...
Sony's new chief executive, Kazuo Hirai, has a monumental task in front of him. He's been charged with reversing Sony's years of losses, even as problems continue to pile up in the wake of ex-CEO Howard Stringer's departure. The road back to profitability got even steeper today, with news that Standard and Poor's has slashed its long-term rating on Sony's credit to BBB+ -- two steps above junk bond status. While this has no impact on the company's existing financials, it means any future loans or financial terms Sony negotiates will likely carry higher interest rates and steeper penalties for missed deadlines. Sony's restructuring plan Like Stringer, Hirai remains resolutely committed to Sony's...
Read more...
Sony's PlayStation Vita went on sale today in Japan to strong demand; there are reports that Sony sold-out all 700,000 units it set aside for the Japanese launch. ""I'm so happy to see so many people lining up for PS Vita so early in the morning," Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Hiroshi Kono wrote in his official blog after touring several Tokyo stores. "I can tell they had anxiously waited for today's launch." The handheld shipped out with an impressive 24 launch titles (the 3DS debuted with just eight), and is backwards compatible with PSP-downloadable games, PlayStation minis, the PlayStation Suite (aka PlayStation Certified titles) and PSOne Classics. It's not compatible with...
Read more...
Sony has confirmed the specs on the company's upcoming PlayStation Vita handheld. The new device will use an OLED screen at a resolution of 960x544. The system will use a quad-core variant of the same dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 that powers Apple's iPad 2 with 128MB of dedicated VRAM and 512MB of main system memory. It's a significant step forward compared to the PSP. Sony is holding firm on the $249 entry price, despite the Xperia Play's failure to catch on at market and the 3DS' own price cut. Sony's marketing indicates that this is somehow a desirable outcome. We don't get it either The $249 price point for Vita is a bit stranger given that Sony has just cut the price on the PS3 to $250....
Read more...
The newest 3D-flavored handheld from Nintendo may have sold like gangbusters on launch day, but purchases since then have fallen sharply. Current estimates indicate that the company has sold just 830,000 3DS'since the system's March debut. That's particularly significant once we include the 400,000 units Nintendo claims it sold at launch. Subtract those numbers from the total, and the 3DS may be struggling to break 100K a month. With game publishers like Sega already delaying titles in a supposed bid to improve sales farther down the line, the 3DS risks being caught in a downward spiral. Nintendo's price cut, which is scheduled to take place on August 12, may be enough to reverse disappointing...
Read more...
There's news from the 3D sphere of both Sony and Nintendo today and neither company sounds particularly cheery. On the Sony front, 3D development chief Mick Hocking has advocated that developers only use 3D when it actually improves the title as opposed to tacking it on as a bullet point feature. "It's been a good first year," Sony's 3D chief Mick Hocking told Eurogamer in an interview this afternoon. "We've got 50 million PlayStation 3s that support 3D playback. 3DTVs are selling well. We've had great response from our fans out there at game shows and forums about the 3D games we've produced. But the most important thing is 3D quality." "We need to, and we're trying to encourage everyone to...
Read more...
Sony's PlayStation Vita is the next big thing from Sony's handheld gaming department, but if you're curious as to how the long-lived PlayStation Portable line is doing, here are the numbers. Sony has just revealed that a whopping 70 million PSP handhelds have been sold globally up until now, starting way back in December of 2004. That's a big, big number, no matter how you slice it. It's important to note that Nintendo still holds the overall gaming handheld crown, but they effectively started the trend way back with the Game Boy. Their DS line alone has sold well over 100 million units to date, so Sony's still lagging in that regard, but it's still a ton of units and has for sure been profitable...
Read more...
And now, we know the name for Sony's Next Generation Portable. The NGP, as it's called, will now be forever known as the PlayStation Vita, and unlike the PSPgo launch, it's looking more and more like Sony may just get this one right. The Vita will be sold as a standalone handheld gaming console (with Wi-Fi), or as a 3G device exclusively from AT&T. Sony Ericsson and AT&T have a longstanding relationship, so it's possible that the Sony roots there assisted in making this one available only to America's most hated network. The PS Vita will sell for $249 (Wi-Fi) or $299 (3G), and the name itself is worth talking about. Vita means "Life" in Latin, and it's pretty obvious that Sony's hoping...
Read more...
Nintendo has taken a page from Sony's playbook, even as the video game giant struggles to recover from the impact of its decision to remove Other OS support. The Free Software Foundation recently examined* the EULA and privacy policy Nintendo attaches to the 3DS; both are far more draconian than corresponding agreements for the DSi, DSi XL, DS Lite, or original DS. Let's start with the privacy policy. The two documents are organized differently; a careful comparison indicates that the DSi policy matches the 3DS policy on nine of the latter's ten points. The missing point (ix in the 3DS agreement) is the importance differentiator. It states that Nintendo may collect Personally Identifiable Information...
Read more...
Convergence is the name of the game this year. While tablets are becoming computers and media players, Sony's PlayStation Portable is becoming more than just a gaming device. Qriocity is a service that has been touted by Sony for some time now, but in the past, it was only on non-mobile devices. But now, it's coming to PSP, and with that comes an entirely new platform. The service is called Music Unlimited Powered by Qriocity, and it serves to let PSP owners "instantly stream songs, create playlists, and received personalized music channels from a catalog of 'over seven million songs' from the Big Four music labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music,...
Read more...
Well, at least no one can complain about the price tag on Sony's PSPgo any longer. Or wait... can they? When Sony's disc-free PlayStation Portable launched, the reactions were mixed. But almost everyone had a reaction of some sort. Some said it was the future of gaming. Others said physical media wasn't dead yet. Over the years, it has been proven that disc-free is still a little ahead of the curve, and while digital downloads are on the rise, people still aren't ready to give up media altogether when it comes to gaming. Now, Sony has dropped the price on the device to $150, which is quite a fall from the $250 list price at launch. You might say that this price drop is in anticipation of the...
Read more...
People are too distracted nowadays by their electronics, and it isn't just distracted driving. Some have been run over by trains while texting, or hit by cars. In this case, a 10 year old boy nearly suffered the consequences of playing a portable video game while near some subway tracks. It serves as another cautionary tale of too much electronic distraction. The incident occurred in Milan, Italy, and was caught on video. The 10-year-old boy was playing a video game on his PlayStation Portable (PSP) when he slipped off the platform and onto the tracks. Fortunately, off-duty police officer Alessandro Micalizzi, 23, was nearby, and he acted quickly. "I just reacted with instinct - I saw him go...
Read more...
Can you believe this? That's not the PSP, that's the next PSP. And not the next PSPgo. Are you still with us? We hope so. Sony's PSPgo was more of an experiment than anything else. It relied solely on digital downloads, not accepting UMDs or physical discs of any kind. It was a drastic shift in approach for the company's handheld business, and they apparently learned a thing or two from it: physical media is still useful, and still demanded. The next-generation PSP, codenamed the NGP for now, was introduced today in Tokyo, Japan. The company announced that it wouldn't actually be on sale until the holiday season of 2011, so there's still a very long wait before anyone will be buying one at their...
Read more...
Sony's attempts to prevent piracy on both the PS3 and PSP have taken a number of blows in recent weeks. Today, the company announced that it intends to sue the PS3 hacker GeoHot, who's been an increasingly large thorn in the company's side over the past 18 months. When Sony released the 3.21 firmware update that broke Other OS functionality, it was GeoHot who first demonstrated his own custom firmware running both 3.21 and Other OS simultaneously. For more information on the repercussions of Sony's decision and its anti-piracy efforts to that date, check our original coverage here. Let's recap first. Last fall, Sony cut the price of its PSP Go from $249 to $199 in a purported attempt to boost...
Read more...
Sony has been digging deeper into the media content distribution and sales business lately, as with most other console makers. Nintendo and Microsoft are also using their game consoles to sell media, movies and all sorts of content, but the PlayStation 3 and PSP seem particularly poised to make an impact. Both are multi-media centric, and both are well connected with the PlayStation Network. Today, Sony announced that a feature of the PS3 would be coming to the PSP, bringing with it a slightly different twist. Qriocity is currently used to provide movies and other content to the PS3, but the version coming soon to the PlayStation Portable will be focused on music. Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity...
Read more...
Rumors of a PlayStation phone (and PSP users' interest in same) has swirled around the Internet since the original PSP-2000 launched, but Sony has never commented on the question of whether or not it would actually bring such a device to market. Ever since Nokia's N-Gage disaster, phone manufacturers and console developers alike have looked askance at the idea of a combination device. The advent of touch technology and the recent surge in smartphone capabilities may have established phones as popular gaming platforms, but no one has had the guts to attempt to marry the two functionalities again. It's a little-known fact, but failure is actually shaped just like a taco This alleged prototype has...
Read more...
It's a fact: the world isn't ready to give up on physical media entirely just yet. Well, it's not really a "fact," but it's fairly clear that at least this is true in the video game world. CD sales have been in decline for years, just as iTunes sales have been on the rise. With music, people seem to be okay with downloading digital copies. But with movies and games, it's still comforting to hold onto a physical copy. Sony's PSPgo was an experiment of sorts to see if people were truly ready to do away with physical game discs and go digital-only. The PSPgo lacked a UMD disc slot (that still exists on the traditional PSP), meaning that the only way you could purchase and play games on it was via...
Read more...
According to Sony executives, the recent growth in cell phone / mobile device gaming poses no danger to the company's gaming-focused products. Instead, Sony's president of Sony's etworked Products & Services Group, Kazuo Hirai, believes new interest in gaming is an opportunity. "It’s something that will lead to broadening the customer base of the overall game industry, Hirai said in an interview in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, yesterday. "People who had never played a game before may enjoy it on their iPhone or Android cell phone and may want to play more at their home.” Sony has launched several high-profile products/capabilities in the past 12 months (think the Move,...
Read more...
With the possibility that they might have to spend 120 more days underground since being discovered a week ago Sunday, how do you keep 33 Chilean miners sane? Psychological stress will weigh heavy on them, besides all the physical aspects of the entrapment. One answer: PSPs. Indeed, PlayStation Portables have been sent down to the miners, in the cups they receive daily packed with rations. Of course, one has to wonder how they are going to keep those things charged. Hopefully they can snake down some power cables, and hey, while they're at it, how about a cable to allow Internet access? In that small area, a wireless router would work fine if it was cabled to broadband. Indeed, they'd then have...
Read more...
