It seems as though Sony has gone out of their way to prevent piracy on their latest handheld console by designing the firmware in such a way as to prevent further attempts to circumvent the security of the system, ultimately resulting in an end to the piracy that plagued the previous incarnation of the Playstation Portable. Many blame the widespread piracy of the games for the dismal sales figures that the system achieved, though it is often compared to the amazing sales figures for Nintendo DS software,  despite the relative ease pirates had in illegally obtaining and, subsequently, playing games on that system.

Sony’s John Koller even went on record stating that various components, such as the inability to rip games, and the lack of an external battery, will help prevent the piracy. Hopefully this will help boost sales of digital only titles over the playstation network, and ease the concerns of potential developers for the system. On the other hand, the market still hasn’t decided on if it’ll actually buy into the new system and its download-only format. Only time will tell. Are any of you planning on investing in a PSPgo? If so, what features have you sold on it? I’d love to hear.

[Image Source: SCEA]

“We’ve had a lot of success with the 3000,” Koller says when I bring up the issue. While the earlier models of the PSP were incredibly easy to use with ripped or downloaded games, the PSP Go is going to make things tougher on the pirates. “You won’t be able to rip your games and play them on the system, the firmware precludes that,” Koller explained. “There’s no external battery, so there’s a number of protections put into place on the system.”

Although this is sure to protect the PSP Go, this may come of as one slight downfall for the PSP Go now. When that battery starts to wear down, that means sending that sexy device to sony for a couple of weeks with a fee.

It appears that in a recent interview, Polyphony Digital’s Kazunori Yamauchi, almost confirmed a worldwide release for the upcoming, and long awaited title, Gran Turismo 5. If you recall, a preview of the full game, entitled Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, was released to the public. While the game didn’t impress people as much as the new contender, Grid, which was released shortly afterwards, it showed quite a bit of promise for a glorifide demo. News has since been slowly trickling out regarding the tweaks to the game which were implimented since that release, including realistic damage. Kazunori goes on to confirm that the damage will effect the handling of the cars in the game, and that “real NASCAR races” are to be included in the final product. Oh, and apparently the game runs at 60 frames per second at a very impressive 1080p.

 This is really music to my ears, having played Grid mere weeks after Gran Turismo 5 Prologue came out. I was amazed by how much better the game seemed, and I had speculated myself as to how they could possibly top it. It comes as no surprise that the constant delays that the game has since faced have provided the developers enough time to really tweak the game for the better. Now, I’m looking forward to playing the final build even more than before, though I’m not sure when that will be. As far as I know, we are probably going to be seeing Gran Turismo for the PSP far sooner than we are for the Ps3. Until then, I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed and hope that through some miracle, the game is actually as good as it sounds. Then again, when has Gran Turismo ever gone wrong?

If you’d like to read the entire interview, you can do so here.

[Image Source: Sony Computer Entertainment]

Next month, Rockstar and Take-Two interactive will be releasing their latest PSP title, Beaterator. The title was developed by the same studio that brought you the portable versions of Grand Theft Auto, namely Vice City Stories, Liberty City Stories, and the recently released Chinatown Wars. The new game will be available via the Playstation Network as well as on UMD, most likely in preparation for the upcoming release of the PSPgo.

Unlike those other titles mentioned however, Beaterator is more of a music suite which takes many of the tools you’d find in a studio and throws them into a music generator, making it easily usable by anyone. This allows you to easily create beats on the go. Famed music producer Timberland apparently contributed to the direction of the project, providing insight and lending his experience to the development of the title.

“I’ve worked closely with Rockstar Games to make something completely unique,” said Timbaland. “Beaterator is like taking my music studio and turning it into a suite of tools anyone can use. We can’t wait to hear the beats people make and share with the world.”

Apparently it was originally created as a flash application on the Rockstar website, but recently they decided to build on that, as it gained popularity. The title should be avaliable in North America on September 29th.

A number of the “press leaks” that flooded the news prior to the E3 conference came from a Twitter account claiming to be Sony PR.  This impostor went forward promising some big things which all turned out to be false, save for the new PSP that was already leaked so long ago.  Recently, Jeff Rubenstein, an actual agent for Sony’s PR team has posted on the official PlayStation blog that “the only real PlayStation PR person identifying himself as such on Twitter is… me. Think of this as ‘Jeff’s Place’.” It’s good to know that he is looking out for us.

 Speaking of Twitter, we’ve recently set up a Twitter account so you can stay updated with our news and editorial content. Our username is @ButtonSmasherUS. We’ll also be linking to it on our blog roll to the right. I do wonder if people are actually using twitter as their main source of news. It just seems to me that you can only fit so much into a tweet, and you’d think anyone actually using it to post news directly would need to spam it. It makes me wonder if any of you use twitter for more than just quick updates, and links?

[Image Source: SCEA]

Well, it’s been a long week so far, and I’m still finding myself trying to catch up with my E3 related work. The convention was really a blast. I met with all kinds of companies, got my hands on upcoming products, saw footage from projects in development, and even socialized with my game journalist peers. I sat through press conferences and listened to numbers and statistics, but what really mattered was the games and technology itself.

I wasn’t shocked to find that Sony and Microsoft were announcing their entry into the motion sensing market. It turned out that Microsoft indeed had a motion camera in development, though some reports hint to some potential problems with the recognition of certain skin pigmentation. I certainly hope they don’t run into those issues, especially since you’d think they’d test the Project Natal bar before showing off the technology.

While their motion sensing technology seems pretty impressive, Sony’s latest handheld console, the PSP Go, seems to be rather expensive considering it’s cheaper for them to make than the previous models. I’m not the only one to point this out, but you’d think they’d want to save consumers money. They’ve already announced that they’ll be discounting their development kits for potential developers, which is a good first step. Maybe now we’ll expect to see more great titles like Patapon 2, and God of War: Chains of Olympus.

Either way, Nintendo doesn’t seem the least bit worried, and why should they? They really do own that market right now, and they’ve done well at creating an entirely new market with their Wii console. They have a new Zelda in the works, multiple Mario titles, and a brand new Metroid developed by Tecmo, of all people. In short, this is going to be a great year for games.

 [image source: E3 Logo - e3insider.com]

I’ve had the pleasure of playing Rock Band Unplugged, and was present for a short session with one of it’s producers while wandering the booth at E3.  The game is a complete single player experience, somehow packed into a single game with plays via timed button combinations on the PSP console. In order to deal with the lack of controllers shaped like the various instruments, you’re forced to swap between each instrument merely using the PSP to input the various timed commands. Of course the timing is different for each instruments, and while it might not compare to having the full Rock Band controller set, it keeps you engaged in the game. Having to switch between the instruments deals with the lack of multi-player.

Upon questioning the producer, I was able to determine that they were merely focused on getting the Rock Band experience to really translate to the PSP before looking into other possibilities, such as the potential for multi-player. As far as graphics are concerned, we’re talking about some of the cleanest on the console to date. Everything from the band members, to the sets themselves look like they belong in the original game, which considering the limitations of the hardware, is quite impressive. There is also talk of potential for a download plan similar to that you find with Rock Band for the Nintendo Wii. Rock Band Unplugged should be available in stores next week. There is also a PSP bundle featuring the game set for release.

[image source: MTV Games]

Konami held a press conference Wednesday to discuss it’s upcoming projects. Announced were 5 titles, 2 of which had been previously talked about at various conferences over the course of the week. In addition to Metal Gear Peace Keeper, and Metal Gear Rising, Konami went on to announce Metal Gear Arcade, an coin-op title heading to Japanese arcades later this year. This brings the total number of Metal Gear titles in development to 3, which raises concerns of over saturation for the series. While I’m glad that they’re pushing the product into new markets, I’m curious about the quality of these titles.

And if that’s not enough, Kojima also announced his involvement in the new Castlevania game, titled Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Destructoid has the trailer posted on their site here. I was incredibly impressed with the games visuals and the voice actors they’ve gathered are top notch. In fact, the moment I heard Patrick Stewart’s voice during the trailer, I about died. I don’t know why his voice is so good. As for the gameplay, I’m not too concerned. While previous attempts at a 3d Castlevania have often led to terrible results, I have faith in Kojima Productions. After all, they made Metal Gear, right? I just hope that they can handle all the projects they’ve decided to take on.

Finally, Konami announced a new Dance Dance Revolution title which will take advantage of an 8 sided control scheme. It’s as if they took two DDR pads and layered them instead of placing them side by side. While I’m kind of disappointed that they would use that as the big surprise for the end of their conference, I’m sure someone was excited about… somewhere.   

[Image Source: http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/next/]

I’ve finally had time to sit down and actually write something while at E3. It’s been crazy. The big three had their conferences and all of them blew me away. I can’t pick a clear winner, though as far as how they presented the content, Microsoft had an edge. As my friend, Mr.Burlington, pointed out to me earlier, Microsoft’s no nonsense approach was really a breath of fresh air. Instead of boring us with stats and charts, they just came right out with the games. Half an hour in and they made the statement “everything from here on out is exclusive.” I was impressed. That said, the only title they mentioned that I am extremely excited about is Alan Wake.

Nintendo came out strong with a number of announcements, most surprising of which, in my opinion, was Team Ninja’s involvement with the upcoming Metroid game. We were half expecting to see another Zelda or Mario, and while I was kind of hoping they’d let Metroid sit on the shelf for a bit, I can’t say I’m disappointed. They did, however, announce a Mario Galaxy which I’m sure a lot of people will be looking forward to. From what I was told, Nintendo has also been showing art from the next Zelda title to select journalists behind closed doors. I wasn’t fortunate enough to see the art myself, but I’m told it’s impressive as well.

Sony came to the plate with a number of big titles, including a CG movie of Final Fantasy XIV, which they claimed was going to be a PS3 exclusive. Square has made a point, however, to let everyone know that the MMORPG game is also being released on PC, in addition to the PS3, and that the exclusivity is still in the air since they are considering bringing the game to multiple consoles. Perhaps the bigger announcement–though it had been leaked months beforehand–would be the PSP Go, which I had previously touched on. Several reports of hands-on impressions from other journalists seem generally positive.

[Image Source: e3insider.com]

While I was invited to the Sony press conference at E3 next week, I felt it’d be wrong for me to not post about the latest bit of news that leaked onto the net just days before the conference itself. Eurogamer.net managed to snag some of the official press photos for Sony’s upcoming handheld console. It apparently slides open, and plays games via download, though  I’m not exactly sold on it myself. Still, it might be a good buy for anyone who hasn’t already bought a PSP slim. You can find out more about the console from this video released on Destructoid back in March.

 That’s right, I said March. Apparently they were the first ones to drop the details about this console, and more astonishingly, they were almost completely on the mark. I’m still in awe that they managed to get this info up as early as GDC, but equally amazed by how nobody else seemed to pick up on it–that is, until 1Up mentioned something about it. That said though, Destructoid had them beat to the punch. If any of my robotic friends are reading this, way to go. You guys deserve the props for being first. 

I’m still looking forward to hearing what Sony has to say at their press conference, as they’ll probably have plenty to talk about in addition to this latest console. Still, why all the secrecy Sony? I don’t think anyone will be able to steal your thunder. After all, the DSi just came out, and I don’t think Nintendo plans on trumping your new console anytime soon.

 [Image Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/]