Categories
Gaming Sony

Price Of PSPgo In USA & Japan Slashed

Sony has announced a massive price cut for the PSPgo portable gaming console for consumers in the United States and Japan. The discounted price in Japan looks all the more sweeter with a drop of ¥10,000 off the original price. That is roughy $124 in USD terms. American buyers will now see the device selling at a $50 reduction in price.

So what does all of this mean? If you are in the USA, the new PSPgo will now cost you $199 instead of the original $249. And if you are in Japan, the PSPgo will sell for ¥16,800 ($208) instead of the older ¥26,800 ($332) price. The new discounted prices are expected to be available starting October 26.

Since its launch, the Sony PSPgo has been constantly criticized for its high price. The company had in February this year announced that they may be relaunching the console in the future due to a lack in consumer interest and poor sales. Let us hope the discounted prices now will help resuscitate the sales of this wonderful console.

Categories
Google Mobile Sony

PSP On Android – Sony Building PlayStation-Branded Games For Android?

Is Sony bringing its PlayStation games to the Android platform? There have been mild rumors about this in the past as well but these speculations have now received a boost thanks to a job posting on Sony’s website that calls out for applications from developers with “experience in mobile development, especially Android” and with “knowledge/experience in online gaming“.

The move makes sense considering that both Apple and Google have been sprucing up their mobile OS offering that makes them attractive platforms for gamers. Of course, a device like PSPGo is much more tuned to the requirements of gamers but by bringing up PlayStation branded games to the Android platform, Sony could be opening up their gaming applications to a whole new world of casual gamers. I wonder though whether Sony would let existing PSPGo customers port their games to their Android phones. Sounds unlikely at the moment, but let’s see how it pans out.

Categories
Mobile

Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone Features And Launch Details Revealed

Sony Ericsson has been rumored to be working on a smartphone for gamers for quite some time now and from what we hear, the device could be launching as early as October of this year. The latest rumor comes from Engadget and the website has some pretty juicy news to share.

Firstly, the Sony Ericsson Playstation phone could be some sort of a cross between the Samsung Galaxy S and a PSPgo. That is, the device could be a slider phone that will contain a D-Pad like analog gaming controls in place of the regular QWERTY keyboard. In other words, slide-out and you have a PSPgo and slide the control in and you have a touchscreen phone.

Apart from this, the device is expected to come with Gingerbread – Android 3.0 and could be branded as an Xperia to start with though an independent Playstation phone is also very likely. Other rumored features on the phone include a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.7 or 4.1 inches WVGA display, 5-megapixel camera and 3D gaming is not ruled out.

Sounds exciting, isn’t it?

Categories
Gaming Sony

PSP2 May Not Support UMD – May Be Smartphone

Sony has not had a great few releases as far as its gaming console segment is concerned. PSPGo did not ‘go’ down really well with the customers. However, according to the Head of Sony Australia, Michael Ephraim, PSPGo has marked the path forward for the company that may now be contemplating an end to physical distribution of game. Ephraim said,

“[PSPGo] was the first device of its kind where you did not have packaged goods or pre-recorded media. I think PSPGo will blaze the trail for future iterations of the handheld.”

While Ephraim did not explicitly rule out the possibility for PSP2 to not support the original UMDs of PSP, he noted that PSP2 may be a digital download-only device. He further said that any handheld device in the market today will be in direct competition with smartphones – that are basically an all-in-one device and are pretty popular among gamers.

So will PSP2 also include voice-calling capabilities to take on competition from smartphones? Ephraim did not answer.

[via GameSpot]

Categories
Gadgets Sony

Sony Playstation3 And PSP Warranties Extended

A survey of over 500,000 gaming console owners conducted last month showed that XBox was the most failure prone gaming console on the planet. While PS3 was not as vulnerable as Xbox 360, it sure had a lot of catching up to do with Nintendo Wii.

Apparently in a bid to better appeal to customers, Sony has offered an extended warranty policy for its PS3 and PSP customers. They are not free, of course. But at just $10 above the warranty cost for one year, these are surely a bargain.

Sony playstation3 and psp warranty period

[via CrunchGear]

Categories
Gadgets Sony

Sony PS4 Could Come With Flexible TouchScreen Technology

This might sound extremely futuristic and some might call this cost prohibitive, but according to educated speculations, the next version of Sony Playstation could come equipped with flexible touch-screen tech.

This was communicated by Tai Chiem, a freelance designer known for his renderings of Sony products. According to Tai, while it may be too expensive to bring flexible touchscreen in the present day scenario, it should be pretty likely in 5-10 years.

Now this is neither from an official source nor is from an insider; so take this with as much skepticism as you would want. However, what do you think? Is flexible touchscreen a possibility in PS4 or even PS5? Let us know what you think.

[via Game Thirst]

Categories
Gadgets Sony

PSPgo Price Drop Imminent?

Sony’s much hyped PSPgo hasn’t lived up to the expectations and sales have been moderate at best. One of the primary reasons behind this is touted to be the price.

Sony PSPgo is priced at close to $100 more than the other models in the segment and with price being one of the crucial factors in this segment, it is likely that Sony drops the price of the gaming console to try and increase the market share.

This apart, a marketing blitz is also likely. Sources close to GamerVision have told the website that Sony is planning a heavy marketing campaign to get the customers interested in the gaming device once more.

What do you think; will a price drop offer the turnaround that Sony is desperately looking for? Tell us what you think.

[via Gamervision]