Hasta La Gadget!

It may sound patently obvious at this point, but there’s still cause to celebrate — Sony’s streaming subscription music service, Music Unlimited, is headed to both the PlayStation Portable and its pair of divergent spiritual successors the Next Generation Portable and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play. Eurogamer sat down with Sony Network Entertainment VP Shawn Layden, who spread the news readily, confirming that the service would be activated (at least in the UK) on PlayStation Portable “in a matter of weeks.” Meanwhile, Android phones including the infamous PlayStation handset will get Music Unlimited “this year,” and SNE “will make it happen” on the NGP as well, presumably sometime after the company reveals when its beast of a portable game station will actually come out. All in the name of taking your tunes with you wherever you happen to travel — a concept that’s getting rather popular right now.

Sony’s Music Unlimited streaming service coming to NGP, will hit Xperia Play this year and PSP ‘in a matter of weeks’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Sony hacked $50 from the PSP Go’s price earlier this week, it didn’t exactly trumpet the news, and now it’s looking like a permanent $150 MSRP for the UMD-less handheld was too good to be true. Text across Sony’s website has silently been changed to reflect a $199.99 price point for both colors of the sliding-screen system, and there seems to be no remaining evidence that Sony ever dropped the price at all. Still, we imagine it’s only a matter of time before such a price cut becomes officially official, as the PSP-3000’s the no-brainer choice if you’re buying a PSP right now — it’s a full $70 cheaper than the less-capable Go.

[Thanks, Phil F.]

PSP Go price cut quietly slinks away, now priced at original $200 MSRP originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In all honesty, you would expect the leader of a team concerned exclusively with producing games for smartphone platforms like iOS and Android to be dismissive of a new dedicated handheld console’s chances, but it’s still jarring to hear such a strident dismissal of the Sony NGP‘s chances. In an interview at GDC this year — yes, the same place where we were treated to some very impressive demos of the NGP’s performance — ngmoco CEO Neil Young has expressed his belief that Sony’s next PSP will be “dead on arrival.” Claiming that the new portable will be incapable of competing with the rich ecosystems and affordable pricing models that smartphones now offer, Young says not even the crazy specs or PS3-like gaming will help the NGP survive. This echoes comments from Satoru Iwata last year saying that Apple, not Sony, is the “enemy of the future” for handheld consoles, though Young does close off on a positive note, saying that he sees brighter prospects for the 3DS thanks to Nintendo’s rich collection of own-brand franchises and reserves of fan loyalty. So that’s it, folks, better start selling those Sony shares while they’re still worth something! Or not, it’s up to you.

[Thanks, Dominick]

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: NGP will be ‘dead on arrival,’ says ngmoco boss originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 03:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony is treating its portable gaming fans well these days by giving them the one-two punch of having both a world-beating device to look forward to in the future and an affordable one to pass the time with until then. Starting this Sunday, the venerable PSP-3000 will be yours to own for just $130, taking it dangerously close to impulse buy territory, while Sony is also adding a few more titles to its $20 PSP Greatest Hits collection, including Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and LittleBigPlanet PSP. Skip past the break for the full press release and the new ad video to promote the cheaper portable.

Continue reading Sony PSP dips down to $130, wants to be your cheap thrill until the NGP gets here

Sony PSP dips down to $130, wants to be your cheap thrill until the NGP gets here originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BARCELONA, Spain — Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play is the phone we have wanted ever since Sony’s PSP was invented. It is, in any meaningful way, the first official PSP phone, and we got to play with it at the Mobile World Congress. How does it do?

Pretty well. With the gamepad tucked out of the way, the Play is a fairly humdrum Android phone, running 2.3 Gingerbread on a Snapdragon processor and equipped with a 5-MP camera. As a phone, it is perfectly fine.

But slide that pad out, and things get fun, fast. You get a D-pad, the four familiar PlayStation “shape” buttons, start and select buttons, and a home button that mimics the regular one next to the screen. There are also two touchpads and a pair of shoulder buttons — around back, behind the screen.

To drive the graphics, the Play has its own GPU, the 1-GHz Adreno 205. This allows the phone to push the polygons around and display them at 60 fps. Here you can see it in action, along with me getting my ass kicked in the preinstalled Bruce Lee game:

Holding it like this, you forget immediately that it is a phone. The buttons are fine, although if you were playing a Streetfighter-style game, those D-pad rolling special moves would be a little tricky. The shoulder buttons are easy to reach, even for my big hands, and the screen hinge is solid enough that things don’t flop around whilst playing.

Games will come from the Android Market, and there will be a separate PlayStation Store for buying old PS1 games, which will run on the Play.

It’s impressive, but I’m worried that it will be too expensive to be successful. Amazon.de lists it at 650 euro, which converts to $880. That’s a lot of cash, and even Sony Ericsson’s promise of 50 launch titles might not be enough to distract you from the sticker price. The launch date has yet to be announced, but could be as early as March.

See Also:

• Rumor: Sony Ericsson Plans Android 3 PlayStation Phone
• Leaked Photo: Is This the Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone?