PSP Updates - €199 PSP on March 22, official PSone emulator, PSP eyetoy

LookingFor

Lots of PSP news from Sony's conference. Including:

- €199 "core pack" PSP, March 22 in Europe
- An official PSone emulator! Games will be downloadable from the net for a "low" price and will run off the memory stick.
- Eyetoy in the autumn, supporting 'videophone' functionality
- GPS peripheral, will be used by a Mini-Golf game
- Software booting from the memory stick to come in Autumn
- Browser update in the next Firmware upgrade, including Flash support.

All the stories are here: http://psp.ign.com/

weemcd

It’s an interesting step, and I suppose in some people’s eyes a good move forward, but you have to look objectively on all this.

[Good points]: the price drop is fine, step in the right direction
[/good points]

Bad points - an official emulator is nice, but there is already a psx emulator in the works (running around 5fps I believe, slow at the moment but room for development and by the time Sony release their official emulator I feel the homebrew one will really be on its way.) The other major problem is paying for the games cut price, what if you already have the cd of the game you wish to play for the original playstation, its a bit of a gyp having to pay to play it again! Taking the ISO from your game disc should, nay MUST be an option.

GPS: there has been a GPS hack for a long time now available for the psp. Imo, I cant see myself using this, anyone who wants multiplayer starts an ad hock game with their friends, uses xlink or finds a hotspot or uses the official wifi service, which they should focus on standardising and improving on.

Software booting from memory stick: please, I've been doing this for months, since I got my psp anyone who has had theirs from release has been able to load homebrew for well over a year! (Psp radio, various emulators, os shells, homebrew games and ISO loaders *yes they do have legitimate uses, reduced battery drain, faster loading times, not having to carry around multiple UMD's with you.) Is this really what you want so have?

Improved browser support and flash: there are several homebrew browsers available, and there has been a flash player developed.

*Keep in mind, it is nearly certain all these features will be included in the 3.00 FW upgrade, so you know you can kiss homebrew and downgrading goodbye for the near future (most likely forever as Sony will be sure to patch this one up better than they have in previous firmware’s.)*

Neutral points: I'm not sure if this new eye toy is a good thing or not, I cant see much of a benefit of this kind of device in a portable console. Fair enough if you are playing with the ps2 eye toy at 3am in the morning with your mates locked, but are you really gonna be using this thing on the bus?

All in all there is nothing there that really impresses me bar the price drop, what I would really like to see is the release of more games, checking our my local xtravision/woolworths there hasn’t been a notable new psp release in months (imo, this is all down to personal preference at the end of the day.) Perhaps the only worthwhile addition people were waiting for was the inclusion of decent size on-board flash memory, 4gig NAND flash was rumoured. This would be a useful addition to the device, as it would leave more room for mp3’s games and other multimedia content, possibly a large browser cache to help speed up WiFi browsing? This also does away with buying expensive proprietary mem stick duos.

There has been nothing mentioned about improving the psp's d-pad either, and from my own experience with the street fighter alpha 2 rom, the d-pad is atrocious for diagonal directions. How about including the official longer life battery in your packages now Sony? They’ve been in production long enough! Then you can unlock the true speed of the console, instead of capping it at 222mhz to "save on battery life."

It seems to me, that bar the additional prepharials, Sony is completely behind the times on this one, and the majority of things released has been a poor attempt by sony to combat homebrew development.

I will also just ad at the end here, im not a vicious nintendo fanboy, i am very fond of my psp, but when i was reading about the psp and drooling at the concept pictures i thought something so powerfull and attractive would never go into production. Thinking about the possibilities such a powerfull handheld could have, what has been delivered so far is a joke.

rant over.

Placebo

in all fairness i see the emulation as a step forward[dont count of the psone emulator being made at the moment, thatw ill never reach fulls peed], now im not sure if theyll convert titles like tekken etc or just simple games like gradius or something.
But step up, as for getting rid of homebrew, can you honestly say you use anyof it ? sure i used the note pad for a bit but thats about it, most of it is rubbish, minus the emulators i guess. If anything it will kill the psp and youll end up with the a game gear. Besides when u buy a game u play it for a good bit, isoloader = playing a game for 5 min going on to next one, i already upgraded to 2.6.
conclusion:
emulator = amazing news

Slippin Jimmy

Just one or two things that I would like to know, if you can spare the time. The first one being that, what is an emulator. I have heard it been mentioned, but do not know what it means:o . Can someone please tell me.
The second thing is, I have a psp. Are sony or whoever going to be selling an additional GPS reciever for it, or is it just a new console that they are bringing out? Will I be able to use it out of the house?

These questions probablly sound stupid, but I am stupid. lol. Thanks in advance.

Ciaran500

An emulator is software that lets you play program from one platform on another. So you can play PS1 games on the PSP.

The GPS is a seperate reciever that hooks onto the top of the PSP and plugs into the UBS port. It'll work anywhere in the world.

shortys94

The PSPs software and hardware are really being bettered at the moment:)


(not sure if bettered is a word, but i couldnt think of what else to say at time)

Slippin Jimmy

shortys94 wrote:

(not sure if bettered is a word, but i couldnt think of what else to say at time)

Yes I think bettered is a word. Eg, he bettered himself at that subject:D .

So it is the same as a GPS, yeah. Will I be able to use it in a car. We are talking about satillite navigation, aren't we?

Fabrizio

will most major retailers in Ireland have PSPs in at €199 on the 22nd or will it be a few weeks before we see the price change?

monument

LookingFor wrote:

- €199 "core pack" PSP, March 22 in Europe

In "Europe" maybe, but not here...

Meanwhile, in PlayStation Portable news today, a “Base Model” PSP is set to retail from March 22 at 209 euro in Ireland.

Source: Sony Computer Entertainment Ireland

Hobbes

gps games suck btw. Had one before for a PDA where it was an adventure game and to play you had to go wandering around for miles to find anything. Golf game sounds like you have to walk to your ball.

I've seen some phone tech recently that allows you to generate 3D objects within real space video that you can interact with. Would be nice if this was ported.

The only thing I am looking for and doesn't exist yet (bar in homebrew) is a pdf reader.

Skyuser

You gotta feel sorry for anyone who buys a PSP today or tomorrow for €275 when it will be €209 on Wednesday.

MontgomeryClift

It's €199 in Europe and €209 here. If you buy it for €209 then you are the enemy and I will tell Eddie Hobbs on you. Seriously. Don't accept this ****.

Skyuser

MontgomeryClift wrote:

It's €199 in Europe and €209 here. If you buy it for €209 then you are the enemy and I will tell Eddie Hobbs on you. Seriously. Don't accept this ****.

People aren't gonna picket outside the shops. There gonna get out an extra tenner and pay.
It's nothing new here. Ireland is always overpriced compared to the continent.

rainbow kirby

Skyuser wrote:

You gotta feel sorry for anyone who buys a PSP today or tomorrow for €275 when it will be €209 on Wednesday.

Or you could just get the giga pack with a free game bundle for €289 in GAME... Such a pity I have to wait until June for my PSP!

Skyuser

It's officially €209 from today just incase anyone forgot.

Andy-Pandy

Great news on the price drop. I just droped a glass of strawberry milk on my psp over the weekend. I woke up hungover, had been sleeping on my arm (dead arm), tried to pick up the glass and splash. Pain in the hole it was. Good to hear itll only be 200 to replace.

tba

Skyuser wrote:

It's officially €209 from today just incase anyone forgot.

yep but game seem to be the only ones sellng it for that price atm.

Skyuser

tba wrote:

yep but game seem to be the only ones sellng it for that price atm.

Probably the older ones are still at the old price. Only the new basic pack is €209.
Also, we thought we were being ripped off here at €209 because europe was €199. Well UK price is £149 which is about €225.

Laguna

I'm pretty sure the PSP is still £179.99 in the UK, it is on www.play.com and www.amazon.co.uk and the HMV my friend works in (London), so for once, Ireland isn't being the most ripped off...

Skyuser

Check again. The basic pack is £149.