Sony's PSP-3000 on its Way

[Hermiod]

Pictures of the new model PSP here.

Improvements announced so far:

- New brighter, less reflective (so you can play in brightly lit areas or outdoors more easily), more colourful screen with a faster response time. Comparison pictures here.

- Built in microphone for Skype support.

- TV-Out now supports TVs without progressive scan.

Two bundle packs have been announced so far for North America.

- The first pack contains a "Mystic Silver" PSP, a 1gb Memory Stick Pro Duo, a copy of Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters, National Treasure 2 on UMD and a voucher for a copy of Echochrome to be downloaded from the PS3 or PC stores. This will cost $199.99.

- The second pack contains a Piano Black PSP, a 4gb Memory Stick Pro Duo and a voucher for Everyday Shooter to be downloaded via the PS3 or PC stores. Again, this costs $199.99.

Both packs will be available on October 14th. A third pack containing just a Piano Black PSP for $169.99 will be available later this year.

Europe is getting various bundles containing FIFA (not sure which version but presumably 2009), Harry Potter, Buzz! and Go! Communications on the 15th of October.

Australia is getting just the core pack for $299.99 AU on October 15th.

[JonathonWally]

A second thumbstick would have been worth selling my old one to get this new one.

[Hermiod]

^Yeah, but no existing games would take advatange of it.

[The Borg Queen]

Ah, so it's just another revision of the PSP and not a new handheld console?

That's a shame.

I wonder if/when they plan on making a successor to the PSP...?

[Hermiod]

^I imagine they will just as Nintendo will produce a new DS eventually.

[Plecostomus]

Are these PSP's backwards-compatible with the PS2? My guess is a resounding NO.

[Hermiod]

Plecostomus wrote:

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Are these PSP's backwards-compatible with the PS2? My guess is a resounding NO.

Well, no, of course they aren't any more than the DS is compatible with the Gamecube.

[Capt. Vulcan]

^ You mean via the download and play? I don't think the psp has the power to do that, not to mention a full dvd is like 9gbs.

[Hermiod]

Capt. Vulcan wrote:

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^ You mean via the download and play? I don't think the psp has the power to do that, not to mention a full dvd is like 9gbs.

Exactly. The PSP can play some PSOne titles via software emulation or by loading them on a PS3 and then playing them over a network connection.

[JonathonWally]

Hermiod wrote:

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^Yeah, but no existing games would take advatange of it.

Maybe no past ones, but future ones could. I stopped playing mine a long time ago. I wonder how much I could get it, I have 10 games and a 2 gig memstick, plus a 4 gig harddrive, I should just sell it.

[unimatrix7]

I think they need to fix the thumbstick they've got before they go adding a second one. Luckily I only use my PSP for JRPGs and LocoRoco, so I rarely have to use it.

[JonathonWally]

unimatrix7 wrote:

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I think they need to fix the thumbstick they've got before they go adding a second one. Luckily I only use my PSP for JRPGs and LocoRoco, so I rarely have to use it.

I don't disagree with you about the current thumbstick, but after a while of getting used to it, I didn't have too much an of issue. Then again, I haven't bought a game for the thing in well over a year.

[MyCylon]

^
I've been playing GTA: Vice City Stories quite a bit recently and I have to say I find the thumbstick very awkward. I feel I have to bend the thumb too much which means that it can hurt after a while (and I don't mean playing hours on end).

I think that along with the load times is what needs fixing the most on the current PSP.

[JonathonWally]

Justtoyourleft wrote:

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^
I've been playing GTA: Vice City Stories quite a bit recently and I have to say I find the thumbstick very awkward. I feel I have to bend the thumb too much which means that it can hurt after a while (and I don't mean playing hours on end).

I think that along with the load times is what needs fixing the most on the current PSP.

All this will be fixed on the PSP2 I'm sure, Fix the shitty parts of the original, then charge 3 times the price.

[Rii]

JonathonWally wrote:

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I wonder how much I could get it, I have 10 games and a 2 gig memstick, plus a 4 gig harddrive, I should just sell it.

I've a PSP gathering dust in a drawer somewhere too, I'm not sure if it even still works. I've been contemplating selling my Wii, the PSP should probably go too. It's a shame really, it's a sexy piece of hardware.