About a year ago, Apple released what could be the very defining moment in software development where minor developers became equal footed with some of the largest software houses in the world. The App Store was launched to much fanfare and instantly pulled in small and big developers alike with it's approach to development costs, distribution and royalties. It also gave the general public a great base in which to easily browse and buy small applications to download directly onto their iPhone or iPod Touch device. It appears that Sony is taking no chances that the Apple methodology of the App Store could take off without them and decided to close the gap with the announcement of a Playstation Network equivalent of the App Store.

The new mini-game hub wont quite work like Apple's App Store, however. Sony insists that developers looking to bring games to the 'snackable games' section of the PSN will have to be a strictly professional body with a firm financial backing and be eligible for a development kit. The only thing that's actually different about this new 'snackable games' initiative from Sony is that games will be cheap and small with games as small as 20mb. Sony touts that they have over 50 different development studios involved in bringing games to the new mini-platform. No further details have emerged.

[Source: Develop, via CVG]

Speculation over the long-rumoured Playstation Portable revision intensified further today as 1UP.com spills the beans on the potential PSP-4000, titled the "PSP Go!". The PSP Go! will have no UMD drive and internal storage to save games to, which in turn leads to two tiers of PSP Go! units, one 8GB PSP Go! and another 16GB PSP Go! The increased digital-download PSP game headcount (with Fate/Infinite Codes seeing a UMD-only release) has hinted at an age of digital-downloads for the PSP, then there was rumblings of a new PSP console which was very sneakily snubbed (if this new rumour is true) and then the recent developer-confidence-vote which seemed more than fishy.

The truly interesting part of the PSP Go! however, seems to be that the design of the PSP Go! will be significantly different than the PSP-1000 to PSP-3000 models, with 1UP describing 'flip out' controls. However, even with this extra real-estate, the system will not contain that illusive second analogue thumb-nub. What really sold me on this rumour however, was that they mentioned Japanese and American releases in September to December... With no mention of a European release. Of course, I kid... Kind of. But still, this is just merely a rumour for now. I had my money on a new PSP revision at E3, however we'll have to see if the PSP Go! is, as I expect, a PSP-4000 or the PSP's DSi...

[Source: 1UP]

Sony Computer Entertainment America's Vice President of Marketing; Peter Dille has spoken out against the rampant piracy which is currently on-going for the PSP system to Gamasutra. That in itself is unsurprising and I don't feel the need to -- yet again -- point out that an illegal download of a game off the internet is not always a lost sale. Stating that he believes there are about 50 million homebrew/backup-enabled PSP systems out there ready to consume ill-gotten gaming goodness.

No, what's really important is what Mr.Dille admitted. The article actually starts off with it, that 18 months ago, developers were going to just give up on the system because of the on-going piracy problems... However, now developers have changed their tunes. There's been no indication why, however. Did Sony give developers a look at the future of the PSP 18 months ago? That illusive and rumoured PSP with no UMD drive? Quite possibly. Sony has been ramping up their Digital Distribution service in Japan to supply first-party Sony PSP games over the internet. If the entire platform goes digital, it could work similarly to Valve's Steam system, which has a strong backing from developers and publishers on the PC and seen as a viable means to prevent piracy (although, nothing will be 100% foolproof).

With E3 just around the corner, could the days of the UMD disc be numbered? I'm betting heavily on: yes. That, or a PSP2 will be sneakily announced at E3, however that is far more unlikely now Nintendo's plan for the future is the DS1.5, also known as the DSi. There's also a whole sub-article to be had about how the consumer will benefit (or not benefit, however the case may be) from DRM-filled game software, expense of buying 2GB+ proprietary Memory Stick Duo cards and having internet plans with enough bandwidth. However, let's leave that rant until Sony actually announces something on the subject.

[Source: Gamasutra]

In Feburary, Sony announced a new LittleBigPlanet game after months of speculation leading up to the announcement which, in itself was a little unrewarding. It told us nothing about the game, no screenshots, nothing. And it's been pretty quiet ever since. Infact, it would have stayed that way further if our now-Legendary British manic-depressive and comic genius Stephen Fry wasn't such an avid Twitter user. CVG reported, quite correctly earlier today that Mr.Fry had posted on his Twitter that he was "In studio today voicing 2nd edition of a video game. Will check when I'm there if I'm allowed to say what it is..."

A later Tweet (is that the correct term? I can't keep up with these kids and their Web 2.0 lingo. It's like Jive but for the 21st century...) confirmed that our good man Mr.Fry was indeed voicing for the upcoming LittleBigPlanet PSP game: "I've come to the end of a lush voice-athon and yes, am empowered to confess that it was for a new PSP version of Little Big Planet." If that wasn't enough to get you excited for this game... Well, I don't think there's any pleasing you.

[Source: Master Detectives CVG]

It would probably come to no great shock by now if I told you that Capcom has finally burried their PSP adaptation of the Devil May Cry series. The title was never officially announced, the only way people knew about it was a few stray comments from press relations around the time the PSP was announced, however the game's lifespan wasn't at all simple, the game even made it onto Capcom's E3 2008 lineup schedule. But Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu is the bringer of bad news and has announced that the PSP Devil May Cry game has had it's release halted, effectively killing the project.

After the game was a no-show for so long, one has to wonder what finally gave the game the push to be cancelled now, 5 years on. It's sad to see the game go, however everyone's expecting a new console Devil May Cry this E3 or the next, maybe even TGS. Who knows? All we do know is that hope for PSP DMC is rapidly fading.

[Source: Kotaku]

Sony, somewhere, deep down in that mechanical heart of yours, you have love for us Europeans. I understand that you have a hard time showing us that love and rather than reaching out, embracing your feelings you shy away, scared of what others think. But don't worry, I understand. This gift you've given to us is more than enough proof of this. And what's more... You're a real boy afterall.

Ahem, well, I suppose I should actually tell you what I'm rambling about for that joke above is meaningless without context. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that three new PSP-3000 colours are winging their way to Europe soon. How soon? Well, the 'Mystic Silver' and 'Pearl White' variations sometime this month, except for the 'Radiant Red' variation of the PSP-3000 which is coming in March. And the march of the red electronics continues on strong...

[Source: Kotaku]

Although I'm sure these designs have been in development for months now, I'd like to think my off-beat comment about how manufacturers should make more red products was the cause for these new colour variations for popular games consoles. Sony has announced (for Japan, at least) a sweet red coloured PSP-3000 series console... Oh and some other colours, but who cares about them. This one's RED. The new PSP-3000 colours include "Radiant Red", "Vibrant Blue", "Bright Yellow" and "Spirited Green". Other than being the worst names in the history of electronics, the colours aren't that great. So here, Sony, I fixed the names for you: "IT'S RED", "Doritos Cool Blue", "Custard Yellow" and "Oxo Vegetarian Green". (Infact, that last link basically shows Sony totally ripped off Oxo's colour schemes.)

Microsoft may also be ready to release a whole Red console to go along with that red controller they said Japan would get later this year. The system is said to be bundled with Resident Evil 5, although Capcom has been tight lipped on the subject. It'll be pretty awesome if it is true though.

[Source: Joystiq / Source: Dengeki Online]

After rumours of a new generation of Playstation Portable games broke free onto the internet, most people had assumed that this would mean that Sony were in the final stages of making the Playstation Portable 2 and now getting interested developers on-board. While a PSP2 is most certainly in some part of the Research and Development stages it seems that it may not come for a good few years yet. Instead, Sony was informing developers to move to the new digital download medium for PSP game distribution over the internet.

The last PSP firmware upgrade gave the PSP the ability to access the Playstation Store from the PSP itself and be able to download full retail titles of games (potentially). The service will hopefully offer cheaper PSP games but on the flip side introduce DRM-laden games and all the mess that comes with it. It's easy to see why Sony wants to abandon the UMD format, even if all they will achieve is a simultaneous release of UMD and Digital Download version of games, for one it's much cheaper to have downloadable games as it removes the need for packaged, physical games on UMD discs. The UMD format flopped badly with only the PSP and PSX (Playstation + TiVo cross over only available in Japan) ever adopting the format (the PSP being the only platform to use it solely), this flop meant that pirces of production of the UMD disc have fallen slowly in comparison to a format which has taken off (like CDs and DVDs) and with Sony's profits down 87% in Q3, they're looking to save money anywhere they can (even in it's profitable parts). It also tackles that niggling little thing about PSP Piracy which runs rampant with custom firmware and a thriving online community. However, as Nintendo has found out with WiiWare and Virtual Console releases, making them downloadable in a contained environment and full of DRM does not stop pirates working their magic without a strong way of detecting piracy and penalties for doing so. (See Microsoft's approach with the Xbox 360, I don't believe anyone has been able to pirate a Xbox Live Arcade game or at least not without being banned from Xbox Live.)

Sony did not comment on the matter of a PSP-4000, however. Considering the PSP-3000 was launched in November, does the PSP really need another revision next year? We'll let consumers decide.

[Source: CVG]

The latest Playstation Portable revision, the 3000 model of the PSP features a slimmer and lighter design, a higher contrast, brighter screen and overall power consumption cuts across the hardware, leaving the PSP a little better off as far as battery life is concerned. The new model shifted 141,270 units within just three days and boosted the PSP's overall world-wide sales figures to 10,357,481 units. That means that on average, Japanese stores shifted nearly 2000 units an hour an impressive feat. Sony Europe and Sony America are yet to publish their first-week sales figures for the PSP-3000.

The PSP-3000 was released in Japan, Europe and America between October 14 and October 16 2008, with Australia following closely this Thursday. Japan got a 3 different versions of the PSP-3000 releasing in [Piano] Black, [Pearl] White and [Mystic] Silver colours. It didn't take long, however, for complaints to arise with the new model, a tiny percentage of customers have been experiencing scanline problems and strange artifact display during normal usage of the console. Sony is currently looking into the issue.

[Source: Famitsu]

Coming in a bit late, but better that then never, Sony has set up a new deal between FON, a big internet service provider in Japan. FON will set up a whole bunch of WiFi Access Points over the land to help PSP owners gain access to downloadable content for PSP games, Dissidia Final Fantasy will have some downloadable content available when the service and game launch later this month.

Kotaku reports that FON have 44,000 WiFi hotspots all over Japan and 2,000+ are in Japanese capital Tokyo alone. Content such as Wallpapers, movie clips and possibly demos can be downloaded off the service. This service comes, of course, in the wake of Nintendo's ability to launch their own hotspots and download stations all over Japan, as well as partnering with big companies such as Buffalo and McDonald's. With Sony's move coming this long after Nintendo's domination of the market, it's obvious they're doing this for the sake of competing.

[Source: Kotaku]