Glockstar
03-16-2006, 05:10 PM
Sony Computer Entertainment chief Ken Kutaragi outlined the PSP's future as part of an hour-long speech at the Spring 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing in Tokyo on March 15. Here's the skinny:
- Shipments of the PSP have crossed 15,000,000 units worldwide
- America will get a new PSP "bundle" at the end of March. The new package is barebones, coming only with system, AC adapter, and a battery pack. Cost is set at $199.
- Still no word on when/if Sony will bring the Ceramic White PSP to America.
- To make sure that software keeps on coming, Sony lowered development fees for the PSP. The price of a PSP development kit will be dropped to 500,000 yen from the current price of 750,000 yen. Currently, SCE has shipped 5,412 development kits for the system.
- At the briefing, SCE announced and showed slides of A) a USB camera and B) a GPS receiver unit.
A) The camera, which includes a microphone, will be available via a PSP version of EyeToy Play in September. Third party game developers have already taken shipment of development libraries to make their software compatible with the camera.
B) The GPS Receiver features an update rate of once a second and takes at most 40 seconds to get a first fix from a cold start. Developers have taken delivery of a partial set of tools for making GPS-ready software. Kutaragi mentioned a few potential applications for the device, including portable navigation software. SCE is already at work on "Hot Shots Golf with GPS," which will feature shot simulation and downloadable golf course data. A Japanese release for this latest entry in the company's star golf series is set for Japan.
- Macromedia Flash 6.0 compatibility will be made available via a network update later this Spring. The Flash upgrade will let games include Flash-based content.
- RSS Channel support will also be made available via a network update later this Spring. The RSS channel support will allow for playback and saving of internet radio and will initially support just audio. In the Summer, Sony plans on updating the RSS channel support to include video.
- In the Fall/Winter, Sony will be releasing an update that adds Video and Voice Communication over IP support. With the Eye Toy camera, you'll then be able to take part in video chats. The format for video chat will initially be Motion JPEG, although this might change with future updates.
- The Fall/Winter update will also add an exciting new game download service to the PSP. With the update, the PSP will be able to boot up games that have been download directly from a server to a Memory stick. To show off this new feature, Sony plans on offering a PSone game download service. Games that have been downloaded to Memory Stick will run through emulation on the PSP. Specifics were not revealed, but it appears that Sony plans on offering titles on a gradual basis, and that it hopes to make nearly all PlayStation games available.
- Kutaragi made mention of a couple of connectivity possibilities between the PSP and the upcoming PS3, suggesting that the PSP would be able to act as a remote control for the PS3 and view videos from the next generation system. It sounds like they'll connect thru WiFi.
I got all this info from IGN. Click below to read the full article and to see the slides.
http://psp.ign.com/articles/696/696079p1.html
- Shipments of the PSP have crossed 15,000,000 units worldwide
- America will get a new PSP "bundle" at the end of March. The new package is barebones, coming only with system, AC adapter, and a battery pack. Cost is set at $199.
- Still no word on when/if Sony will bring the Ceramic White PSP to America.
- To make sure that software keeps on coming, Sony lowered development fees for the PSP. The price of a PSP development kit will be dropped to 500,000 yen from the current price of 750,000 yen. Currently, SCE has shipped 5,412 development kits for the system.
- At the briefing, SCE announced and showed slides of A) a USB camera and B) a GPS receiver unit.
A) The camera, which includes a microphone, will be available via a PSP version of EyeToy Play in September. Third party game developers have already taken shipment of development libraries to make their software compatible with the camera.
B) The GPS Receiver features an update rate of once a second and takes at most 40 seconds to get a first fix from a cold start. Developers have taken delivery of a partial set of tools for making GPS-ready software. Kutaragi mentioned a few potential applications for the device, including portable navigation software. SCE is already at work on "Hot Shots Golf with GPS," which will feature shot simulation and downloadable golf course data. A Japanese release for this latest entry in the company's star golf series is set for Japan.
- Macromedia Flash 6.0 compatibility will be made available via a network update later this Spring. The Flash upgrade will let games include Flash-based content.
- RSS Channel support will also be made available via a network update later this Spring. The RSS channel support will allow for playback and saving of internet radio and will initially support just audio. In the Summer, Sony plans on updating the RSS channel support to include video.
- In the Fall/Winter, Sony will be releasing an update that adds Video and Voice Communication over IP support. With the Eye Toy camera, you'll then be able to take part in video chats. The format for video chat will initially be Motion JPEG, although this might change with future updates.
- The Fall/Winter update will also add an exciting new game download service to the PSP. With the update, the PSP will be able to boot up games that have been download directly from a server to a Memory stick. To show off this new feature, Sony plans on offering a PSone game download service. Games that have been downloaded to Memory Stick will run through emulation on the PSP. Specifics were not revealed, but it appears that Sony plans on offering titles on a gradual basis, and that it hopes to make nearly all PlayStation games available.
- Kutaragi made mention of a couple of connectivity possibilities between the PSP and the upcoming PS3, suggesting that the PSP would be able to act as a remote control for the PS3 and view videos from the next generation system. It sounds like they'll connect thru WiFi.
I got all this info from IGN. Click below to read the full article and to see the slides.
http://psp.ign.com/articles/696/696079p1.html