Sony: PSP without UMD 'always the plan'

During an interview with GameBusiness.jp, Sony's product planning division head honcho, Naoya Matsui, commented that Sony always had plans to go UMD-less, and that the PSP Go is the fruition of all that planning. "We'd planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning," Matsui said. He further makes his case by stating, "But if we'd simply released the hardware, there wouldn't have been much for everyone to enjoy. We needed to prepare the right environment for it first - things like the transferral [sic] of content with the PS3 and PSN, and PC software to manage content like music and movies such as Media Go."

Matsui explains that part of the progression of the PSP to the PSP Go is that Sony had to wait until digital content was on par with physical media, and that the timing now is right. That's one of the reasons Sony is still selling the existing PSP alongside the Go. Well, that, and it's probably not a good idea to have a single handheld that costs as much as a Wii.

[Via Edge]

Sony: PSP without UMD 'always the plan' originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Battlefield 1943 declares war next week, starting July 8

Battlefield 1943 is ready to let bullets fly and bombs drop on July 8th and 9th for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, respectively. The final declaration of release was made by the official Battlefield 1943 Twitter account, intriguingly named "officialbf1943."

Remember, the "Coral Sea" map can only be unlocked through community collaboration. If you won the game through our Joyswag efforts, don't forget to submit your codes!

Battlefield 1943 declares war next week, starting July 8 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Hot Shots 'Refresh' revealed as a minigame collection

First teased by developer Clap Hanz a couple days back, IGN reports that the latest casual sporting game in the Hot Shots franchise is actually a collection of 12 disparate minigames. Minna no Sukkiri ("sukirri" is Japanese for "refresh") does feature some sports -- karate, baseball, soccer, boxing, racing -- but only in bite-sized servings. The remaining seven games are ... well, they're odd, comprised of book-organizing, vegetable fighting and vacuuming, to name just a few.

We can see this minigame jumble getting a strong push for PSP Go in the States -- under a completely different name, of course. The Japanese version is slated for release this fall and a demo will be made available on Japan's PlayStation Store this Friday, July 3.

Hot Shots 'Refresh' revealed as a minigame collection originally appeared on Joystiq Playstation on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Topatoi spinning to European PSN this week

We haven't heard much from Topatoi, the spinning 3D platformer developed by Ukrainian developer Boolat Games, since it was announced last November. Now, suddenly, the European PlayStation Blog has revealed that the game will be released this week -- but only in Europe. Boolat's PR manager calls Topatoi "the first part of the saga" and notes that the game will include split-screen multiplayer, with future updates providing more multiplayer modes.

No word on an American release yet -- but it definitely won't be this week. The official Boolat website says an announcement will be coming "soon."

Gallery: Topatoi

Topatoi spinning to European PSN this week originally appeared on Joystiq Playstation on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Face-melting deal: GHWT guitar and mic for $50, today only

Everyone's favorite plastic peripheral purveyor, Red Octane, is having a bit of a deal today. The normally $60 wireless guitar and $20 wired microphone for Guitar Hero World Tour (across all platforms) are being offered together in a $50 package -- today only!

If you're less than impressed by the GHWT deal from today, why not get into your fancy schmancy time machine and head back to yesterday when you could've gotten an even better deal? Oh, what's that -- you don't have a time machine? Guess you're stuck with the $50 dollar deal over at Red Octane's website then, fancy pants.

Face-melting deal: GHWT guitar and mic for $50, today only originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.