Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Styled PSP in Japan

Kingdom Hearts PSP-3000

In Japan, Sony has announced the release of an upcoming custom PSP. A silver PSP-3000 styled to respresent Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.

This custom PlayStation Portable will be going on sale January 9th, 2010, and will also include Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep along with it. It will be going at a price of ¥22,000 in Japan, which equates to about $245 over here in America. But for those of you who are hoping for Sony to bring this bundle over here to America, sorry but it is highly unlikely for that to happen. Simply because the release date is not even announced for this region yet, and because Japan seems to keep its custom consoles to itself.

This is certainly great news for our fans across the world who are fans of this insanely popular franchise, behind the mastermind Tetsuya Nomura. For those of you unfamiliar with the franchise, it is a game of an interesting story line in which you combat the forces of darkness which tends to make use of the evil heartless. This time around, you get to take the role of a variety of different characters as you take a look into the past to find out about the big keyblade war. More importantly, this game can be seen as one of the first more sophisticated, or at least ambitious, games to enter the Kingdom Hearts franchise since Kingdom Hearts 2. So this Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep PSP bundle pack is a great incentive for users both old and new to get into the franchise.

PSPGo UMD Conversion Plans Canceled

PSPgo

Sony has recently announced that the plans for allowing UMD conversion for the PSPGo has been canceled. What were they thinking when they came to this decision?

Basically, for those of you who do not understand, for those of you who already own a PSP and were hoping to be able to upgrade and transition to the PSPGo now will not be able to bring your already owned games over to the PSPGo. Instead, you will either have to make due without them or you will simply have to purchase them over again.

Earlier, Sony spoke about hoping to start a program in which umd’s could be converted for the PSPGo. But that will not happen now. The PSPGo makes use of a exclusively digitally driven style. It has no umd drive, and instead depends solely on an internet connection for you to be able to purchase your games digitally, most likely as a way to prevent piracy. At this years E3, they still expressed interest over this matter, though it seems that they will not be able to come to any conclusions. They do not have any solid plans in place as of this moment.

This is a very serious feature that is missing from the PSPGo. More serious than you may know, because this may alienate gamers who wanted this new system with the hopes of upgrading and maintaining their prior library. But now, you will simply have a new system that is fully dependent on digital downloading, and no way of enjoying your previous library. PSPGo is receiving so little support that some retailers are even refusing to place it in stock, due to how low it is expected to sell, especially with its hefty price tag. If you were consider buying a PSPGo, I strongly recommend against it, it is not worth it.

PSP Little Big Planet Not Getting Multiplayer

Little Big Planet

When people first heard about Little Big Planet making an appearance on the PSP, the question arose of what feature would be lost. The PS3 Little Big Planet has many features, and fitting all of them on the PSP would be quite the task.

So logically, there would be a tradeoff on one feature. Earlier, Sony announced that they lost the multiplayer aspect of  Little Big Planet for the PSP. Mainly because they’ve managed to implement a full physics system. You basically have everything else though, being the create mode, ad-hoc sharing, uploading and downloading, just no multiplayer. I’m surprised that they’ve managed to get a pretty good physics system working on the PSP, not that it hasn’t been done before. But I, and many other people, are happy with just a physics system.

Sony goes on further to explain why the Multiplayer was left out. The PSP itself is capable of managing a multiplayer aspect, that isn’t the problem. But in doing so, you wouldn’t be able to enjoy the full physics system, the two together would be too demanding on the processor or memory. Simply too many limitations. Some people are saddened by this announcement, saying that they shouldn’t have brought it to the PSP if it couldn’t handle the multiplayer, but I think it’s still good. You’re able to still enjoy the level creating and sharing capabilities, so it’s well worth it, I think. You can’t have everything, yet, heh. Let’s see how powerful they make the next generation hand helds. So be sure to keep your eyes out for Little Big Planet on the PSP.

Grand Theft Auto: ChinaTown Wars headed for the PSP

Grand Theft Auto: ChinaTown Wars

Grand Theft Auto: ChinaTown Wars, arguably one of the best DS games, is now coming to the Playstation Portable as announced by Take-Two interactive. Not only that, but it’ll be downloadable for the PspGo as well.

The Founder of Rockstar Games, Sam Houser, said that they are glad to bring the hit GTA game over to the PSP and PSPGo. The PSP is a better host for Grand Theft Auto games of such magnitude, I think anyway. The Grand Theft Auto:ChinaTown Wars for the DS only sold 89,000 copies in it’s first month. For a game apart of such a popular franchise, it should have sold that many in, at most, a week. Some people began to wonder if the DS was the right choice to put such a mature game onto.

Some even suggest Piracy had something to do with the poor sales, which is understandable I guess. Many people have their R4’s ready to download any games that come out. However, those who will get the PSPGo, will not be able to hack in any way. The age of hacking possibly comes to an end with the age of digital distribution.  In any case, when Grand Theft Auto: ChinaTown Wars comes over to the PSP, sales will be able to be compared then.

Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, says that GTA games are an important part of Playstation Platforms success. And welcomes it as an epic addition to their line-up of games. This game will be available as both UMD and Digital Download.

Official PSP Go Images + Specs Released

PSP Go

That’s right, the rumored, PSP Go, is now official. The official design and picture to the left. This is the smaller, redesigned, version of the Playstation Portable, and it’s not looking too bad if I do say so my self. It looks like Sony is going for a small and sleek sort of design this time around.

The Psp Go comes with 16 gb of Flash Memory and bluetooth support. The video rental service via PSN may be extended to the Go. Altough the PSP Go is supposed to be the “New Thing”, the previous PSP 3000 will still be made and sold on the market. It is being released this Fall, and pricing has not yet been announced. It is 43 percent lighter then the PSP 3000 and it has a 3.8 inch screen. Also, if you don’t already know, it has the slideable screen, to reveal the buttons as you see in the image to the left.

This is looking pretty good. Sony apparently doesn’t expect everyone to like the new design, so they’re keeping the old PSP on the market, sounds like a smart decision. Looks like one of Sony’s showstoppers and big E3 announcements has just been leaked. Somebody is getting fired, heh. Lets hope that PS3 slim is real, so we can get a discounted PS3 this year!