Hasta La Gadget!

We’re not sure if this is the “relaunch” that we’ve been hearing about, but it looks like PSP Go buyers in the UK will soon have one big new reason to consider the UMD-less handheld — Sony says that it’ll be throwing in a whopping ten free game downloads with each system. That deal will apparently also apply to at least some existing PSP Go customers (those that registered their system after April 1st), and it looks like you’ll get a surprisingly solid lineup of games, including titles like Little Big Planet, Gran Turismo, Wipout Pure, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Need for Speed Shift, to name a few. Unfortunately, there’s no indication on when or if the promotion will launch over here, with SCE’s UK sales director Mark Howsen only confirming that it will be rolling out in the UK “next month.”

Sony looks to boost PSP Go sales with ten free games — in the UK, at least originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony just posted its yearly results today, and while a ¥40.8 billion ($439 million) loss is never a good thing, it’s at least a marked improvement from last year’s staggering $1 billion drop into the red, which was the company’s first loss in 14 years. LCD TVs and cameras were Sony’s big electronics sellers, while PS3 sales went up to 13 million from 10.1 million last year — and hey, Sony’s console actually became profitable at the end of the year as production costs have gone down. Now for the bad news: PSP sales were down to 9.9m from 14.4 last year, with game sales dropping to 44.4m from 50.3m units, while PS2 hardware went down to 7.2m from 7.7m units and PS2 software fell sharply from 83.5m units to 35.7m units. That’s not completely unexpected, as the PS2 can’t last forever and the PSP is getting long in the tooth, but it means that Sony faces some serious pressure to hit its target of 15m PS3s sold this year to pick up the slack and help it hit its goal of posting a ¥50 billion ($541 million) profit next year. Let’s hope that Move controller lives up to the hype, right? Sony’s also counting on 3D to help it get there, and wonder of wonders, it also expects Sony Ericsson to hit profitability, so that X10 mini pro had better be a big improvement over the Xperia X10. We’ll see if Sir Howard can keep all these various ships going in the right direction while still keeping the rest of Sony’s diverse operations (like its profitable life insurance business) in line — it should be an interesting year.

Sony posts another huge annual loss, but PS3 sales are up originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 17:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Backing away from a previous position, are we Nintendo? Just a month after Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime claimed that the iPhone OS (you know, that operating system used on the iPod touch, iPhone family and the iPad) wasn’t a “viable profit platform for game development,” along comes the company’s president to say that, in fact, Apple is the primary “enemy of the future.” That’s according to Times Online, who says that the Big N’s CEO (Satoru Iwata) feels that the battle with Sony is a “victory already won,” and who clearly believes that the next wave of gaming won’t be of the traditional sit-on-your-coach-and-slam-buttons variety. ‘Course, the PSP never has been able to hang with the DS family, but even the Wii has a ways to go before it catches the mighty PlayStation 2 in terms of global sales. Going forward, the company is purportedly looking to revive the element of “surprise” in Nintendo products, but it might be best served by simply catching up to the competition and supporting this wild concept known as “HD gaming” over “HDMI.”

Nintendo CEO: battle with Sony is over, Apple is the ‘enemy of the future’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gamers worried about accidentally dropping their PSPs or spilling Red Bull on their PlayStation 3s can rest a bit easier: Sony began offering extended warranties for each on Monday.

The Sony Protection Plan, which are priced up to $59.99 for two years, cover both the PS3 and the PSP. Gamers can also purchase a special “accidental damage” warranty from Sony to cover the PSP, which pays for repairs to a cracked screen.

Sony’s new extended warranties include:

PS3: A one-year extension ($44.99) or a two-year extension ($59.99)
PSP: A one year extension ($29.99) or a two-year extensions ($39.99). The PSP with accidental damage waiver will be priced at $39.99 for a year’s worth of coverage, or $49.99 for two years. Both the PSP-3000 and PSPgo are covered.

“The PlayStation brand has long been synonymous with the highest
quality in engineering and design, and it’s because of the reliability
of the PS3 and PSP systems that we can offer the PlayStation Protection
Plan,” said Glenn Nash, vice president, operations, SCEA, in a statement. “We have heard
from consumers that they’re interested in an extended service plan
that’s backed directly by SCEA and leverages our technical expertise.
While both the PS3 and PSP systems are designed with future-proof
technology and built for long lifecycles, we’re looking forward to
offering this service to consumers looking for added peace of mind.”

There’s a catch, though.

It’s somewhat hard to believe that Sony as a whole turned 60 just under 4 years ago, and since then we’ve seen the PlayStation turn 15, the PlayStation 2 turn 10 and the PlayStation 3 celebrate its first. Today, the outfit’s PlayStation Portable (or PSP, in shorter terms) is gettin’ down on its fifth birthday (while our own bionic Thomas Ricker parties on his 482nd), with the North American debut happening on March 24, 2005. To date, over 17 million of the iconic handhelds have been sold, over 820 titles have been created for it and an all-new, UMD-free version has come along to dazzle those who are champing at the bit to ditch physical media. The platform as a whole still has a ways to go before it catches the Big N and its Game Boy / DS line, but hey, the millennium is young.

Continue reading Sony’s PSP turns 5, may very well live forever

Sony’s PSP turns 5, may very well live forever originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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