Sony have confirmed that Playstation Network cards will be available in North America early next year. The cards will act the same as those for the Wii and Xbox 360, except they will do away with the sometimes confusing points system and come in monetary values. Eric Lempel, director of PSN operations pointed out the function of the cards:
“The cards will be redeemable via the PlayStation Store for PC, and on the PlayStation 3 to supply the wallet with funds to spend on games, add-ons, and other paid content.”
Thanks to some photos snapped last week we know that there will be a $20 card, and we suspect a $40 card to coincide with Japan’s JPY 5,000 card.
A 50% boost in processing power is certainly nothing to gawk at, but what exactly do you get at 333Mhz that you don’t get with 222? As God of War: Chains of Olympus creators explain, once they were given access to the PSP’s full processing capabilities, they were able to add better lighting, more particles, and a few minor extras to an already visually captivating game.
The new Iron Man game is looking pretty spectacular in this newly released trailer. I’m going to call it here and say that this could be one of the best movie/comic adaptations yet.
A recent article in Stuff magazine has indicated a revival of the Sony AIBO to be called the Sony AIBO PS. Before you get mad and throw stuff at us, this does have a little to do with gaming: The new AIBO will have a camera in its head that will be viewable on your PS3 and PSP via WiFi. But the best part is you will be able to control your robo-doggie with your PSP or PS3. Once it gets a price tag it will probably cost an arm and a leg, but think of all the money you’d save on real dog food.
PlayStation 3-less PSP owners rejoice - the PlayStation Store for PC has been updated, adding Beats ($4.99) and PSone classic Wild Arms ($5.99) amongst a heap of videos and wallpapers.
With casual games being so popular Q Entertainment would have to have been crazy not to bring their addictive puzzle game Lumines to the PC. Teaming up with Wild Tangent they have done exactly that and are now offering it as a member of Wild Tangent’s online service.
The game is actually based on the PSP’s Lumines II and offers user editable skins, multiplayer modes and online score ranking. The game can be purchased for US$19.95 outright, on a per game basis or free, on an ad-supported version.
One of the main things that held the PSP back was the battery life. Sony have finally decided to remedy that by announcing a 2200mAh battery pack. The pack will add 20% more play time to the original PSP, and a massive 80% more play time to the PSP Slim. The new battery is quite a bit bigger than the standard one, so a new fitted battery cover is provided with the pack. No word yet on the release date, or price.
Sony has announced that the 1 millionth PSP-2000 was sold in Japan on November 22. The figures show that the new PSP Slim has even outsold the original PSP at launch. Sony are also keen to point out that there are now more than 500 games for the PSP in Japan, and that they are coming out faster than ever.
Sony Computer Entertainment co-chief operating officer Jim Ryan has given more credence to rumor of a PSP phone. Ryan has been quoted as saying:
“PlayStation is a proven success and so is Sony Ericsson, convergence with the two arms working together is definitely plausible.”
He did however note that it may be some time till we see such a system and that it would primarily be a gaming device with a phone blended in, not the other way round. This is to be expected as Sony Ericson’s Walkman based phones have the form and functionality of a PMP over a phone.
Sony have just unleashed PlayStation Store for the PSP on the US. Currently the store offers two downloadable PSP titles, 16 PSone titles, and some themes, demos, wallpapers, and videos. The two original PSP games are Wipeout Pure and Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and can be purchased for US$10. The most notable of the PSone titles include Twisted Metal 2, Crash Bandicoot, and Tekken 2 and are currently US$6 each. Unfortunately Mac and Linux users are out of luck as the client required for transfer to your PSP is Windows only. Looks like Sony really dropped the ball not making the store accessible directly by PSP WiFi.
