GamerNode: Latest Sony PSP News

BlazBlue coming to PSP

Count one more awesome game for the PSP. Arc System Works is bringing the high res 2D fighter, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, to the PSP. Announced via Famitsu, the new version of the fighter will launch on February 25 in Japan and come packed with a few extra features. The game will include all the entire cast, ad-hoc multiplayer for up to four people, and a new Legion Mode that has players fight to gain territory on a board.

We haven't heard if the port will be a lower resolution or if any effects will be removed, but if you find yourself chomping at the bit for some portable BlazBlue, the PS3 game does support Remote Play. That should hold you over until the game's US release.

[Joystiq]

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Q-Games discouraged from future PixelJunk ports be...

While PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe debuted to great fanfare and good reviews, developer Q-Games sees things in a different light. President Dylan Cuthbert has suggested that the rampant piracy of his game and other games on the PSP may deter them from future PSP development. Cuthbert stated in a tweet on their Twitter page: "I don't think we'll port anything else to the PSP, we have to see how PJMD does as there's a *lot* of piracy," following with, "because Monsters is such a good fit it is being pirated I think."

It's always bad news to see a developer consider steering away from a platform because of piracy, but PSP pirates are so rampant it seems it's the only way a developer might see to combat the piracy. The final comment from Cuthbert explains it: "unfortunately the pirates could just ...

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Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman! on UMD... if you ...

Even though most PSP games are going digital-only thanks to the fancy new PSPGo, some companies are willing to hold on to the ancient (in the tech world) UMD format. NIS America wants to do just that. The company released Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This? as a digital download earlier this year, but is looking to offer the game as a UMD release, provided you want it.

They are asking that prospective buyers to head over to their site and pre-order the game if they want the UMD. If at least 1,000 people pre-order it, they'll start production and ship them out by December. This is sure to be a collector's item due to the means of procuring it, so head over and drop your order if you want to guarantee a copy.

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NIS America games half priced on PSN Store

Just pick up your swanky new PSP Go? Are you overwhelmed by all the Minis and PSP games that populate the PSN Store, not knowing that you get first? Well Nis America has quite a deal for new PSPGo owners. For one week, they are slashing the prices of all their PSP games on the store to half price. The games being offered are Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light, Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, Dragoneer's Aria, Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman!, Mana Khemia: Student Alliance, and Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? are steals at half off, and Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman! is a great, quirky game for strategy fans. Be quick though, it only lasts a week. After that, the games go back to normal price.

[Joystiq]

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Sony trying to resurrect UMD movie sales for PSP

When the PSP was launched, the games on it were made on an exclusive format invented by Sony; the Universal Media Disk otherwise known as the UMD.

While the format was good for games, the sales of movies on UMDs slowed to a halt and were finally dropped by many of the movie studios.

Two reasons were attributed to the failure of the UMD as a movie playback medium--cost and lack of content. UMD movies were retailing for up to $29 a piece and many PSP fans couldn't swallow the bitter price pill.

John Koller, director of hardware marketing at Sony said:

"The biggest issue with UMD was the lack of creating for a targeted [demographic]. When we first launched, it was a difficult sale. I don't think it's a big stretch to say that a 16-year-old doesn't have a lot of discretionary income. ... We were...

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Square Enix announces two new games for the PSP

At Square Enix's private event "DKΣ3713" (why it had to be a private party, I have no clue), they announced two new games being developed for the PSP amongst other not-so-exciting news regarding a FFXIII demo.

The first PSP bound game is called The 3rd Birthday, the latest installment in the faded and possibly forgotten RPG/Horror series Parasite Eve, which began on PSone in the late '90s. Not much is known about the game yet, but we do know it's going to be a sort of "sequel" to Parasite Eve II. You will be able to control protagonist Aya Brea but played differently than the previous Parasite Eve games. There is no solid date on the release but they did tease us with a "2009 release" window.

The second PSP game is Final Fantasy XIII Agito, which was previously announced to be a mobil...

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Sony wants to expand the PSP's market share

John Koller, director of hardware marketing at Sony wants to make the PSP a formidable force in the handheld market and admitted that the PSP wasn't doing as well as he wanted it to.

But Koller says things are on the upswing for Sony's little machine. "18 months ago PSP hardware wasn't doing quite as well in terms of sales. Since then, it's taken off. We've been talking to a lot of developers and really trying to change their thinking about how PSP is doing and they've realized it from what they've seen at retail."

One of the things Sony wants to change is the content for the PSP. Many titles were just ports of its bigger console cousins. "...the games [developers] were creating were mostly ports and a lot of consumers were playing it at home and saying ‘well, I could play it on a scr...

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Super $200 PSP bundle coming in October

Yes, there is actually news outside of E3! Sony revealed that it plans to launch a mega deal PSP bundle slated for release in October.

In this jammed packed bundle, Sony is offering a silver PSP, the game Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, a coupon to download Echochrome, a UMD movie and a 1GB memory stick for only $200.

It looks like Sony is out on the hunt to capture more of the handheld market with the lower price and added swag.

When the PSP first launched in 2005, it retailed for $249 and only came with the PSP, a small 32MB memory card and charging chord. The new price and sweet bundle just may generate some more PSP fans out there.

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Patapon 2 revealed in latest Famitsu

Scans from the latest issue of Famitsu confirm that Sony is planning to release a sequel to the fantastic Patapon. However, the game is right now only confirmed for Japan, and Sony has not yet commented on whether or not the game will see release in North America, or any other territory for that matter.

The scans, as you can see for yourself below, seem to show off plenty of the same beautiful art style that the original introduced earlier this year, and furthermore I can't imagine the game play could have been changed too radically. So if you liked the original, then there's most likely a lot to be excited about.

There do appear to be some new inclusions, though. For those of you who don't Nihongo o hanashimasu (speak Japanese) the Japanese word for flying is bolded on the right hand side o...

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Dissidia: Final Fantasy gameplay

What do you get when you mix some of the most popular characters across most of the Final Fantasy games and Super Smash Bros-like mayhem? A FF fanboy's wet dream called Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Gaze at what to expect from playing this game when it comes out on the PSP in the near future. Featuring multiple characters, free flying combat and crazy animations, it's definitely a game to keep on every Final Fantasy fans watch list.

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PSP firmware 4.00 adds Google search

Sony's beefing up the PSP's feature set once again with the upcoming version 4.00 firmware. This time around, Google search will be integrated into the XMB via a new, easily accessible menu button for anyone interested in surfing the internet from their handheld.

The new "Internet Search" button will be located in the Network section of the XMB, and will "deliver the same Google search results as when searching on www.google.com." Aiming to "make web searches easier and convenient," Sony will also be adding a history feature that will save up to 20 previous search strings for later use.

In addition to the search function, firmware 4.00 will allow PSP owners to adjust playback speed for videos stored on their Memory Sticks. "This allows you to watch a video quickly, or slow it down to listen ...

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Ready at Dawn says it's quits for the PSP

Ready at Dawn, the game developer of the highly acclaimed PSP title, God of War: Chains of Olympus, and the popular Daxter game says that it is calling it quits as far as making any more games for the PSP.

Ready at Dawn sent back all of its devkits to Sony and will be moving on to bigger and better projects.

On RaD's website, an announcement stated:

"With Chains of Olympus going Gold in Japan... we're now officially done with PSP development. So today we sent all our devkits back and seeing all these boxes ready to be picked up definitely marks the end of an era here at Ready At Dawn.

"Can't wait to show you guys what we have in store...."

Although the announcement was sudden, there may have been hints that RaD was thinking about leaving the PSP. Didier Malenfant, president of Ready at Dawn, s...

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FFVII: Crisis Core CE to hit Europe

Europe is preparing for their Collector's Edition of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core to hit shelves very soon.

This edition comes with a high-quality slipcase and "the art of Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII-" hardcover artwork book. A price has not yet been confirmed, however current estimates from various websites agree that the price should not exceed 200 Euros ($312 US).

More info will be released when the game is closer to its release date. For now though you can check the official UK webite and learn all you need to know about the game and it's promotions.

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Sony's attempt to remove portability from the PSP

Great Scott! Another peripheral for the PSP that completely ignores what the last P stands for. It's portable for those playing the home game. In Japan, the land of the rising amounts of tecno-stuff, Sony has released a special kind of cradle for the PSP.

It's the kind of cradle you can set on your desk so you can watch movies. No longer will you be hampered with holding the PSP while you watch that free UMD of Family Guy you got with your Daxter bundle, or Lords of Dogtown if you can even remember those dark times.

This cradle/docking station does more than just hold up your PSP, it also comes with a remote, allowing you to control the Cross Media Bar from a great distance. How great? Well, the screen on the PSP is only 3.5 inches, so really the remote doesn't even have to work at fart...

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Do you practice hack-fu? Sony wants to know

Sony is not coy. In a recently released survey Sony asked its public strait up if they hack their PSP's and why. That's kind of ballsy don't you think? The survey is part of "ongoing consumer research" into why PSP owners enjoy destroying all the hard work and effort Sony employees put into building the PSP. 

Maybe it's just the Japanese translation but the survey (pictured below) has some hilarious wording. Things like "Hacking a PSP makes me feel like a rebel" and "It's my PSP, I can do whatever I want" are almost too good to come from official channels.

I'm not quite sure what Sony is hoping to gain from this kind of research. Are they just trying to get an estimation of how many PSP's are hacked? Would that change anything if they knew?

I mean even if half, no, ninety percent of PS...

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PSP has a 10 year plan. Sony will keep modding it

Sony's PSP, whether it be the original "phat" version or the newer slim version; the machines have been flying off the shelves in the past 6 months in the three major regions (Japan, NA, Europe).

With such popular games like FFVII: Crisis Core, God of War: Chains of Olympus and Monster Hunter G, the PSP is appealing to more and more players across the world.

With the celebration of the three year aniversary of the PSP, IGN recently interviewed Senior Marketing Manager of the PSP, John Koller, and asked him about how long he believed the life cycle of the PSP might be.

Koller replied saying, “We’ve talked about the PSP being a 10 year product, but a 10 year product in the continued… how can I put this… in the continued lifecycle, so we obviously had the 1000, we h...

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Blu-Ray Portable Copy should be done "later this y...

Just before the latest PS3 firmware update, rumors about the inclusion of Portable Copy -- which would allow PS3 owners to copy their Blu-Ray movies in standard def to their PSP for portable viewing -- swirled around the Internet like excrement in a toilet. Unfortunately (and not surprisingly) it wasn't included. (Or, to keep the metaphor going, the toilet was unsurprisingly clogged.)

The good news is, it's still on the plate for a future PS3 update "later this year." After reaching someone to speak with at Sony about Portable Copy and asking if it would even exist, they said that it's still in the works, and should be available before the year is done as the first Blu-Ray discs with portable copy included will hit the market by year's end. (Should being the key word, I assume.)

At this po...

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No more God of War from Ready at Dawn Studios

Did you like God of War: Chains of Olympus as much as Brendon did? If so, you might be disappointed to find out that Ready At Dawn Studios, the team responsible for the game, have made it clear that Chains of Olympus will be the last God of War game they will work on. That means no more PSP games; it means no port to the PlayStation 2, either.

"Moving forward, we can confirm that Chains of Olympus will be our last PSP game as we're moving on to other projects and other ideas on other consoles. We can also confirm that this will be our first and last God of War game as, just like Daxter before it, there will NOT be a PS2 port of the game. We like our games PSP exclusives :)"

I'm glad they like their PSP exclusives, but I know that this news is going to break plenty of gamers' hearts. I won...

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New Bronze PSP Bundle for Japan

Everyone loves color, therefore it is only smart for a game company to release their console in many different colors. Nothing about the console that changes; same hardware but all of a sudden it seems a lot more appealing.

Sony knows that changing colors sell, as can bee seen by the multiple different PSP bundles they offer to consumers in Japan and the U.S. 

You've got the regular black PSP, the silver Daxter bundle, the white Star Wars bundle, the upcoming red God of War bundle, the grey Final Fantasy Crisis Core bundle etc...Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has announced a new PSP bundle featuring a bronze-colored system.

According to Gamasutra, the PSP "Matte Bronze Value Pack" will become available for a limited time on April 24th for ¥23,800 ($228), and will include a “Matte Br...

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New Red PSP with God of War bundle

On top of the recently announced MGS4 release date and bundle information from Destination Playstation (that's fun to say), new info has arisen about a God of War: Chains of Olympus and PSP bundle from Sony.

SCEA has confirmed that the 'limited-edition' God of War Entertainment Pack will include a 'Deep Red' PSP with Kratos 'silk-screened' on the back, a copy of the game, Superbad UMD, and a PSN voucher to download Syphon Filter: Combat Ops from the PlayStation Store. The bundle will be available in June for $199.99.

This would be Sony's third PSP bundle in the US, following the Daxter and Star Wars Battlefront sets. I must say it does look slick and sexy just like Kratos--I mean, strong and brutish!

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