PSP shortages point to new hardware release

[Frances_Penfold]

Stocks of PSP units are down worldwide, pointing to a possible official announcement about a re-design by Sony at E3 next week.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=168451

This is clearly speculative but shortages have been a reliable indicator of videogame hardware revisions in the past. It also makes sense given the 333Mhz option now available officially via new firmware-- the current PSP hardware can barely handle this battery wise.

This may well be timed for the release of 333Mhz Wipeout Pulse this fall! I am sure hoping so. New handheld Wipeout with a fast and buttery smooth framerate and decent battery life => Frances very happy

8)

[infoxicated]

Wow! By that logic, there must be a new version of sex on it's way into my life any week now! :D

After all, the old version has been in short supply for as long as I can remember!

[Sausehuhn]

Wow! By that logic, there must be a new version of sex on it's way into my life any week now! :D

Ahahah! Good one! Cheers for that! :beer

[q_dmc12]

I have read that it is a psp with an unflashable motherboard...

[Frances_Penfold]

Yeah, no doubt Sony would use any hardware revision to "batten down the hatches" against custom firware and piracy-- as well they should. Hopefully they would also provide a significant upgrade to firmware functionality as well.

I guess we'll find out this week what exactly Sony has in mind (if anything).


Wow! By that logic, there must be a new version of sex on it's way into my life any week now! :D


Hah!
:p

[Rapier Racer]

LOL you need to put that on the quotes thingy foxy lol

[The Gracer]

The quotes "thingy" sort of disappeared into the darkness after the site revamp didnt it? I remember that my first ever post in the forum had a quote in it that Medusa thought quite funny - something about a retarded sheep on acid? :D

[infoxicated]

That's a fair point - I'll find some way of re-introducing it when I work on the site again.

[RJ O'Connell]

Yes, please do.

What I want to know is who's going to pick up the publishing rights to the new Sex...EA Sports? (Then it would be year after year where the only thing that changes is what songs you'll hear while playing. And the year title. Ha!)

EA SPORTS SEX 08 - IT'S IN THE PANTS.

[q_dmc12]

catchy;)

ever notice the "EA ...BIG!" is a little suggestive?

[infoxicated]

Heh... if they're looking for a cover athlete, then I've been working out for a while now! ;)

[Rapier Racer]

33% lighter, 19% thinner, new colors nothing to get excited about in my view

[Dogg Thang]

Exact same d-pad and buttons. Totally missing why the PSP desperately needed a redesign.

[Lance]

They've done the same thing to the Japanese PS2. More chip integration = faster production at less cost. Let the profits fall where they may. Or rise.

[lunar]

longer battery life, works faster, TV out - really the only things I would want to improve on the PSP I already have. Good job I say..... Pure and Pulse on my TV......... Sold! 8)

[Frances_Penfold]

Hah. Looks like the armchair pundits at Neogaf were right about something :)

I'm pretty excited! I'd have liked tweaks to the d-pad and nubbin' but I'll settle for lighter and better battery life.

Any word about the screens, in particular, whether the refresh will be faster? That's another thing I'd like fixed as well.

Here's a brief summary for folks looking for more info. Not exhaustive, however.

http://psp.ign.com/articles/803/803439p1.html



----
Infoxicated, I guess this means you should start queuing up that Barry White music and dimming down the lights :g

[Roz]

Hehehe. I was actually pretty surprised when I saw SCE president taking the new PSP out of his pocket. At first it didn't seem different but when he turned her around, it sure seemed thiner. And 199€ is cool, although I'm probably not buying it (at least not until it hits the 150 mark).

[RJ O'Connell]

I'll stick with my 7 minutes of battery life until the price drops to...$149.99 or below. Same as the redesign PS2.

[Frances_Penfold]

More info, straight from the horse's mouth:

http://www.scee.presscentre.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=4393&NewsAreaID=17

Note particularly this comment:
"new PSP is equipped with enhanced feature to temporarily store game data from UMD, reducing load time during game play"

Good for Sony! That's probably one of the ways the units will achieve better battery lifespan.

Edit: video of the new enhanced PSP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn_ku9nmA8U

[infoxicated]

Infoxicated, I guess this means you should start queuing up that Barry White music and dimming down the lights :g
Ding dong! :D

[Sausehuhn]

Did I say that I (design wise) really don't like the speaker's new position?

[Dogg Thang]

Sound-wise, they should hopefully be better there though.

[G'Kyl]

Heh... if they're looking for a cover athlete, then I've been working out for a while now! ;)

You do know that EA's cover athletes seem be struck be bad luck the season they're on the cover - and in the kind of sport the game is about... ;-)


Did I say that I (design wise) really don't like the speaker's new position?

Design-wise I'm with you. But you probably won't even notice them while playing games. :)

Ben

[rdmx]

Haha, the Madden curse :D
The original 2007 cover person was taken off the cover after a petition.
It seems that this 2007 person isn't doing very well either!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madden_curse

[Dogg Thang]

On the redesigned PSP, Gamespot seems to suggest the increased battery life is a bit of a myth, though that's not how they put it. What they say is that, due to more efficient workings, the new PSP can get much more out of battery life, meaning they could use a smaller battery to get the size down while keeping the same battery life of the system. According to them, you can use a normal PSP battery to double the battery life but it won't fit inside the cover and you need to get a seperate set.

[borell]

Since version 3.50 Sony has added an iso-loader to their firmware. This means that the official firmware probably supports playing games from "official" iso dumps (downloadable games, anyone?). Moreover, I seem to recall that I read somewhere that there is a "Cache game" feature, or something similar, in version 3.60, i.e., an official feature to dump the game onto the memory stick and play it from there.

[G'Kyl]

Since version 3.50 Sony has added an iso-loader to their firmware. This means that the official firmware probably supports playing games from "official" iso dumps (downloadable games, anyone?).

Yep, you can buy PSone games via PSN and download them to your memory stick (or play them on PS3 if you like). Wipeout's already been released among a few others.

Ben

[borell]

Yes, but I referred to an iso-loader for mounting iso images of PSP games. Did not mean the software for emulating PS1 games. It could be that with the new model psp coming out, one can put in an UMD and choose "Cache to memory stick" and then be able to play the game off the memory stick. This for sure helps saving battery life. I am not sure if any of this is more than rumours, though. It is not that they sacrifice too much to add this feature, since one has been able to do this with cracked firmware since a long time back.

Official ISO loader found in FW 3.50, 3.51 (http://pspupdates.qj.net/index.php?pg=49&aid=96433)
Initial features of PSP FW 3.60 (http://pspupdates.qj.net/Initial-features-of-PSP-FW-3-60/pg/49/aid/97415)

From Gamespot.com (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6174199.html?sid=6174199&part=rss&subj=6174199):

"Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai said that the new PSP will be 33 percent lighter, 19 percent slimmer, the battery will be more efficient, and there will also be faster loading of games. It will also come with the ability to output high-quality video by pressing the display button. This means that movies, games, photos, and all other PSP applications can be output to a TV screen."

[Frances_Penfold]

My reading of the announcements suggests that there is clearly SOME sort of caching, it's just not clear how exactly it works and how extensive it is. The caching could be large part of how the new PSP achieves better battery life even while running 333Mhz.

From SCEE:

"Also, new PSP is equipped with enhanced feature to temporarily store game data from UMD, reducing load time during game play."

http://www.scee.presscentre.com/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=4393&NewsAreaID=17

[Rapier Racer]

I remember him saying the UMD drive itself was going to be improved on

[Frances_Penfold]

There's a new video showcasing the differences between the old and new PSPs, done by a Sony rep.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/looking-good%5Cokay/psp-slim-hands+on-comparison-285819.php

Note-able info provided:
1. The d-pad and analog stick have been made more responsive (?!)

2. The new battery is smaller and offers similar total battery life to the battery in the old PSP. However, if you put an old PSP battery in the unit it will run for 10-12 hours! That'll be really useful for online sessions :)

3. Load-times are supposed to be significantly improved via the additional RAM.

4. The line-out looks pretty cool-- you can see it running in this video.

No word about changes to the screen itself-- for example, improved refresh rate or the like. Still, looks like there are enough minor improvements that together it's will provide a better experience :)

[Mad-Ice]

Nice movie, I especially like the line-out option. So many things to see and hear with a big screen! :clap

[Dogg Thang]

I'll believe the control improvements when I actually experience them myself. The battery thing, I think is absolutely crazy. Battery life has been one of the most talked-about things in need of improvement on the PSP. It has haunted the PSP from day one. The thickness of the machine? Hasn't really been an issue. So, when they find a way to make the battery more efficient, they strip the size in favour of a smaller battery landing the machine with the exact same battery life. Nuts. Yeah, you can use a bigger battery, but it doesn't fit - you need a new cover and it will stick out from the machine. No better than just releasing a larger battery pack for the current model.

[Frances_Penfold]

I agree Dogg, it is a curious choice on Sony's part.

Perhaps for the average consumer, Sony figured that battery life is not so big of a deal, and decided this was a compromise-- thin and small size for the people worried about portability with the option of a bulging battery for folks worried about battery life?

[Rapier Racer]

Man from Sony talks about new PSP. basically what we already knew however the last line caught my attention


The PSP processor is now unlocked to run at 333 megahertz, whereas it had been locked at 266 from launch through this spring. He said all forthcoming Sony-made games will use that speed and that consumers shouldn't expect a hit on battery life.I was under the distinct impression that it ran slower than 266, 222? at launch. Did they get that wrong or did we.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1566451/20070806/index.jhtml

[infoxicated]

Yeah, I noticed that when I read it this morning - they got it wrong.

[Frances_Penfold]

New impressions of the revised PSP from IGN:

http://psp.ign.com/articles/816/816852p1.html

Perhaps most important to this crowd: the D-pad is supposed to be somewhat elevated (in comparison to the old PSP model), and easier to control. See page 2 of the impressions for details about this.

[RJ O'Connell]

I'll gladly take a raised D-pad with more precise control over the clumsiness of the old PSP's D-Pad, but my zero dollar budget won't allow it.

[xdirex]

I modded my d-pad by putting a circular, thin piece of plastic between the plastic button (the d-pad itself) and the rubber contact points.

It's very simple to do (if you don't mind opening up your PSP, voiding your warranty), works really well, and control in Wipeout is much improved (barrel rolls are a lot easier).

I've had it like this for about half a year now, and there have been no side effects. I didn't even glue the plastic in place like a lot of tutorials would suggest, I just cut a centre hole that fits around the pointy middle bit on the plastic d-pad button. It effectively raises the d-pad a little, giving it a nicer feel.

The d-pad in it's original state is pretty average (although far from unusable, as many over the top DS fans would suggest)...

[rdmx]

My dodgy d-PAD up button (have to press it to the top right) is trying to tell me something...
Maybe i should just open it up and clear possible gunk blocking the contacts...

[Zhang Fei]

Hello I haven't visited here in a long while (I was more of a lurker/noob then), but did you know that you can play the new PSP through your TV, I read this and immediately thought of Wipeout and you guys.

Elliott.

[Flashback Jack]

Believe me, the list of features have spread far and wide. TV-out is perhaps the most known, and as a result, most anticipated.

- F

[Frances_Penfold]

Probably the feature of the TV-out that I am most anticipating, is that it should really streamline the ability of racers to make live videos. I'd love to see a collection of lap records from Flashback or Asayyeah, for example.

Anyway, TV out is definitely an all-around improvement to the PSP hardware. I wonder if the battle with the DS may have gone differently if this was introduced earlier in the game, e.g., at launch. It surely would have given folks more reasons to buy UMD movies.

[shunjalo]

In-game videos were the first thought that came to my mind when I heard about the TV-out. Although they were possible before, this should make recording them much easier. I can hardly wait.

[lunar]

Recording online battles and having the ability to play on a bigger display without eye-strain are major motivations to get one of these. However, this article on IGN (http://psp.ign.com/articles/816/816852p1.html) (linked by Frances before) says that games will only output in 480P over component cables. I should know what this means, but does it mean that I wouldn`t be able to play games via a scart lead on my SD television? The reduced load times are a good reason for getting a PSP light, but without the game output working on my TV I wouldn`t go for it.

[borell]

As far as I have understood, the signal is Y'PbPr analog component video. So it will not work through composite, s-video or rgb. Moreover, the fact that the signal is progressive is enough to rule out many of the standard definition tvs.

Why do Sony deliver tv-out in a way that most of us probably cannot use? :turd

[Frances_Penfold]

My understanding is that, for playing games, you DO need the component cables :( You do NOT need component cables to watch movies, photos etc.

http://boards.ign.com/psp_general_board/b7159/149512047/p1/?7

Here is some discussion on IGN-- Chakoo is a PSP developer and generally knows what he's talking about.

[borell]

Yes Frances, that's correct. Good that you mentioned it.

I did not make myself clear in the post above, but I assumed talking about using the tv-out for gaming (because that would be my only interest). Sloppy me!