PSP users in European and PAL regions regions are in for a dose of hard reality. The now 10-year-old portable from Sony will be losing access to the PlayStation Network come September 15th. According to Sony, PSP users will still be able to download titles from Sony Entertainment Network Online Store as well as redownload past purchases from the PSP download list. The official statement from Sony can be found after the jump.
As far back as February, we knew that Sony was enjoying success with its PS4 sales, after the corporation mentioned that its full year target had already been met. A crucial companion to unit sales is software sales, and the 2013 results show a surge of 33%, ensuring that the new alpha console is profitable at the start of the new generation of gaming.
A total of 14.6m units of consoles were shipped in 2013, with at least 7m being Ps4 units alone.
What’s changing rapidly in the gaming division? Read on to find out.
Welcome to the PlayStation Store update for May 6, 2014. We have a great update this week packed full of new content and sales. The PlayStation 4 receives several titles this week including MLB 14 The Show, Bound By Flame and the highly anticipated local multiplayer suite Sportsfriends.
PlayStation 3 users can also try out Bound By Flame and the visual novel/adventure game Hakuoki: Stories of the Shinsengumi. PlayStation Vita receives the God of War Collection and Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse among others.
Finally, PlayStation Plus users will be receiving Stick It To The Man (PS4) and Pro Evolution Soccer (PS3) for free along with many discounts on several games. Keep reading to see a complete list of content available on the PlayStation Store this week!
Great news, Sony is celebrating the the Playstation Vita’s one year anniversary this month and you’ll be able to get free games and save on great deals for PS Vita’s anniversary this week. First off, starting today you can download three classic PSP games and one PS One classic from the PSN:
In addition to the free games, PSN and PS Plus users will be able to purchase a number of PS Vita games for cheaper this week. PSN users will get a 30% and PS Plus will get 50% off these following games:
At long last, Sony and Konami have brought Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker to the PlayStation Vita. Originally, the game was released for the PSP on April 2010 and eventually for the PlayStation 3 in a HD pack. Due to the PlayStation Vita’s capabilities of downloading PSP games, Konami never saw it necessary to make an official PS Vita port.
Now, all of that has changed and gamers can access the PlayStation Store to purchase Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PS Vita. According to the PlayStation Blog, besides the epic single player adventure, players can also partake in:
four-player CO-OPS (Cooperative-OPerationS), and six-player competitive matches using the PS Vita’s Ad Hoc capabilities
Today’s Sony Q1 2012 earnings report were the first under new President and CEO, Kaz Hirai who took over the company a little less than 6 months ago. Like the past few years, the earnings report was nothing to write home about though its tough to expect a full turnaround from a company whose been as battered down as Sony. While Sony continued to take big losses in the television division (expected), the company drastically reduced their business ending year forecast for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita by 4 million, with the PS Vita having only been released for 5 months in the US.
Just in time to celebrate US and Canada’s Independence Days, Atlus PS3 and PSP games are half off this month. The sale, nicknamed HOJAEFJAAM or “Half Off Just About Everything For Just About A Month,” will be 50% off until July 31st and includes Atlus hits such as Catherine, Persona 3 Portable, and Trine 2.
The Atlus “HOJAEFJAAM” Sale Includes:
PlayStation 3 Games
Players can purchase and download the games through the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3, PS Vita and PSP.
The Atlus “HOJAEFJAAM” PSN Sale ends on July 31st.
Thanks to the PlayStation Blog, we now know what the box art for the highly anticipated Playstation Vita title, LittleBigPlanet, looks like. Not straying away whats made the previous two PS3 and PSP titles so unique, the new LBP box art one again features Sackboy and the adventurous world he’s bound to explore front and center. A behind-the-scenes video awaits you, after the jump.
Remember how Sony unveiled the Crystal White PlayStation Vita for Japan, with the Wi-Fi version for ¥24,98 ($312) and 3G for ¥29,980 ($375)? Well now, Hong Kong has jumped in on the action as well with shipments landing on June 28th. The newest color to the PS Vita will also cary no price premium so whether black or white is your color choice, you walk out paying the same. Those who wish to pre-order however will get some extra goodies like the Trooper Pack, Armor Game case, 4GB memory card and a lint free cloth for free which in some ways, actually places the price of the Crystal White addition below its black counterpart. Us fate and press release, after the jump.
Over the last week, there’s been a mixed bag of news for Sony and their 2012 outlook. Despite the company posting a record $5.7 billion annual loss, the electronic giant was hopeful about returning to profitability in 2013. Still, Sony’s sales were down across the board, including the PlayStation division, with sales down 6.8% compared to a year ago. Though not amazing numbers, the PlayStation Vita, Sony’s recently-released handheld, sold 1.8 million units since its debut earlier in the year, beating many analyst expectations.
A big part of Sony’s PlayStation sales dips are attributed to their old consoles which have continued to sell well past their life cycle. Down to 4.1 million units sold, compared to 6.4 million units from the years past, the PS2 has been a shining beacon for Sony as the 12-year-old console continues to help Sony’s bottom line. The PSP has also seen a drop, down to 6.8 million versus 8 million from the year prior. With the PS Vita waiting to catch on fire and continued strength from the Nintendo 3DS and smartphones, it’s surprising to see the PSP sell as many as it did, giving further credibility to the continued strength of the PlayStation brand and available games. The PS3 was also no slouch, though it took a dip of 400,00 units compared to the year prior, with 13.9 million units sold.
More charts and numbers after the jump.
With the release of the PlayStation Vita, it was inevitable that retailers would eventually make more room for the powerful portable and begin to pull support for the 7-year-old PlayStation Portable. With stores varying in all sizes, GameStop has announced that they will be pulling PSP games from their smaller stores to make room for newer content.
“The consolidation is occurring to maximize the merchandising space in the smallest 25% of stores,”
With 1.8 million PS Vita’s sold since its introduction earlier this year, its not all that surprising to see this move. GameStop has however assured PSP owners that the remaining 75% of their stores will continue to carry PSP games with full availability on their website. It’s also worth noting that with the rise of digital downloads, thanks to iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad and now the PS Vita offering same day downloads with new game launches, retailers like GameStop have been aggressive at finding new ways to attract consumers. GameStop has even gone as far as starting to sell Android tablets in stores and is rumored to be working on their own gaming focused Android tablet.
It’s hard to believe that Q-Games, the developer behind the PixelJunk series on PlayStation is turning 10 years old today. With a new game titled 4am set to be released next Tuesday, May 15th, the small developers with grand games will be offering a host of their games for $1 on PSN. That’s right, you can be playing some of the highest rated PSN games for a dollar each. After the jump, the full list of games for $1 awaits you.
While the PS Vita launched with a healthy of important apps which include Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and Flickr, the no brainer Skype was no where to be heard. Unlike the PSP which requires the purchase of a front facing camera which already has Skype, the PS Vita features a front and rear facing camera, right out of the box. So it seemed strange that the predecessor handheld would have access to such an app while the new and much more powerful Vita would not. Now, word has it that a Skype app could be headed to the PlayStation Vita by months end.
The truth of it is, we don’t know a whole lot about the PlayStation 4, codenamed Orbis and even that could end not being the real internal codename. Despite some talk about how the PS4 might not play used games, there hasn’t been many new nuggets of information about the next generation console till now. According to a job posting by Sony Computer Entertainment America, the PlayStation makers are looking for members who will help “contribute to the voice recognition system and technologies for the PlayStation platforms.” With the PS3 well into its mid cycle, this leaves us only with the PS4.
Despite being released only 24 hours ago, Sony has now pulled the most recent firmware update for the PS Vita. The PlayStation Vita system software update v1.65 was designed to bring minor enhancements to the new portable powerhouse like an On/Off “Notification Alert” setting and improved ‘Near’ functionality among other things. While all those features all seemed to pan out, an unfortunate glitch has been encountered where adhoc play in PSP titles seems to have stopped working. As Eric Lempel from PlayStation notes:
We identified a symptom that users can not play adhoc play in PSP titles if they download the system software, so we have taken down the system software temporarily. The system software will be available to download again soon.
I’m personally doubtful that this affected a large pool of people and it seemed to have gone by unnoticed by Sony’s own internal testing which more so points towards the fact that a lot of people are probably not playing PSP games on their PS Vita. Still, Sony has done the responsible thing here by pulling the update. A new update should be out by weeks end.
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