Today in Joystiq: February 11, 2008

by Ross Miller { Feb 11th 2008 at 11:59PM }

Joystiq reader BluezPS sent us some mockups (read: fake) he made of a redesigned Sony PSP. Shoulder buttons aside, that's one impressive-looking handheld, and we wish it was real. So sexy. Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Joyswag: Win Guitar Hero III on your platform of choice
Massively Week in Review: Feb 5 - 11, 2008

News
New games this week: Lost Odyssey edition
GameStop to label Interactive Achievement Award winners
EA announces intial batch of Hasbro games, G.I. Joe sadly absent
DICE 08: Shane Kim talks Marvel MMO cancellation, Alan Wake
Apple revises trademark to include gaming devices
Lords of Thunder, Harvest Moon crop up on Virtual Console
Buggy Lost Planet demo pulled from PSN, new demo coming soon
NPD begins tracking online game subscriptions
Frontlines gets multiplayer demo for limited time
Halo 2 finally joins Xbox 'Platinum Hits' collection
EA to refund Australian Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for lack of online play
This Wednesday: Commanders, Discs of Tron assault XBLA
Banjo Kazooie 3 coming late 2008
Rock Band Weekly: The Clash, The Police and The Ramones
Juno game not actually in the works
Professor Layton DLC already available
EA Blueprint developing games for social networking sites
This is a trailer for This is Vegas
Guardian: UK plans legally enforceable game ratings
IGF finalist Audiosurf available for pre-purchase on Steam
Nintendo's Miyamoto, Iwata discuss Wii Fit origins
Netflix, Best Buy boosting Blu-ray

Rumors & Speculation
Dead Space may provide scares without pause

Culture & Community
E for All scheduled for Oct. 3-5 at LA Convention Center
Zero Punctuation 'previews' begin on X-Play Feb. 12
Weighted Companion Cube makes cameo in World of Warcraft

[Via PSP Fanboy]

Tags: dailyrecap

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Yuccadude @ Feb 12th 2008 12:15AM

First thought: "Ooo, I would totally buy that."
Second thought: "It's not real? Rats."
Final thought: "Get Ben Heck on that."

ThornedVenom @ Feb 12th 2008 12:56AM

When there's a will, there's a way.

When there's a win, there's Heck.

AlphaOmegaSin @ Feb 12th 2008 12:17AM

the psp has needed a fuckin redesign for a long time. that shit excuse for an analog stick annoys me and the fact that there isnt a second one makes for controlling alot of games *cough FPS's* an annoyance. if this were real, youd see people trading their current psp's in without even thinking.

FidliousWong @ Feb 12th 2008 9:14AM

You know Kuturugi TRIED dual analog on PSP, right? According to him, people were constantly dropping it.

FOXHOUND @ Feb 12th 2008 10:12AM

Given how the PSP is designed, I can believe it. I personally haven't had difficulty with the thumbpad for mine since I have it resting in the palms of my hand. However, I know friends who "angle" the handheld for better use of it since their hands are larger.

Abuzar @ Feb 12th 2008 12:23AM

Sony should hire this guy.

jamma @ Feb 12th 2008 7:01PM

Sony should hire this guy, but also Dark_AleX and Ben Heck, then we'd have a great design, great hardware and great firmware.

StevenRafael @ Feb 12th 2008 12:30AM

Sony is fucking stubborn. They're not gonna redesign anytime soon because the Slim isn't even a year old yet... And they can't retire the PSP until it sees atleast a 7 year lifestyle.

This would be sweet for the PSP-2 however. Dual analog and four shoulder buttons are a must.

That screen should be cut down vertically as well.
1. It looks kind of like it's got a 4:3 ratio... More so in other pictures. It needs to have the same ratio as the PSP.
2. Toning it down would probably make room for shoulder buttons to be placed on top rather than on the sides.
3. It'll make it even smaller, thus more portable. And maybe even leave room for a detachable plastic cover... Because right now, that thing looks like a scratch magnet.

DangerMouse @ Feb 12th 2008 12:41AM

There first mistake was that they chose to stick with the optical drive instead of using flash memory, so they had to build the slim around the UMD. In other words, not much to work with.

StevenRafael @ Feb 12th 2008 12:51AM

Agreed. They need to scrap this UMD crap. By the time PSP2 is ready to enter the market, memory sticks won't cost that much to produce. Hell, 2 gig sticks can go as cheap as 20 bucks these days, and UMD's can't hold that much content anyway.
I'm not saying they should use memory sticks because that would probably be easy to pirate,

By the way, I meant 7 year life cycle.

ThornedVenom @ Feb 12th 2008 12:59AM

Sony won't, because they would have probably invented another optical drive technology which would still store even more data than flash technology (despite flash getting cheaper).

Under the pretext that next-gen portable gaming needs that.

B1gC72 - PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 12th 2008 3:47AM

@ StefenRafael

and the award for creepiest avatar goes to...

lol but all jokes aside, i agree with what you saying. we wont get a second analog stick this generation cause it would completely alienate the old PSP users which would be alot worse than what the Slim is doing right now since it only adds a couple features. but opposed to everyone else, i dont think UMD was a bad choice at the time they decided to put it in there. 1.8GB on a small, hard to pirate (or so they thought) disc. but now flash memory is ALOT cheaper and leaves them with an option to have even more space and save battery. i dont mind having just 2 front buttons though, i think having all 4 would get a bit crowded on the back. i think when the PSP2 drops, itll have a second analog stick and flash memory.

WhoMe @ Feb 12th 2008 5:56AM

"Hell, 2 gig sticks can go as cheap as 20 bucks these days, and UMD's can't hold that much content anyway."

You're fucken kidding me right? 20 bucks for the medium, lol. Even if they get it down to like half that, that's still ridonkulously expensive. Why do you think they moved from cartridges to optical media? What does a DVD cost to produce these days? Gotta be a matter of mere CENTS.

FidliousWong @ Feb 12th 2008 9:22AM

Thank you, whome.

I was hoping SOMEONE had some goddam sense in regards to the UMD issues in PSP. Look, Sony HAD to go UMD. Period. This was not a choice by any stretch. UMDs, when they were first rolled out, were actually cheaper to make than a dual layer DVD (since then, both have gotten cheaper). Flash media, meanwhile, would have brought the price significantly higher. How high? At PSP launch, a 2GB MSPD was $300 (and they were STILL sold out at most online and local retailers for months). My how times have changed. Also, you people forget, look at the industry. You really think we're beyond the point of retail channels? Your average consumer still likes the idea of OWNING their media. PSP couldn't have been solid state media. Period.

Dio @ Feb 12th 2008 10:20AM

The average consumer is also a moron. Digital distribution should be the way to go and who knows if Nintendo will do the same with the DS? I'm pretty sure people are going to eventually get sick of brick and mortar traps, and once they find out they can download games then they won't have a reason to go to Gamestop/etc unless they need to sell games.

It would be nice for games to be put onto flash memory as mentioned earlier, but it is expensive. I think it would be better if the PSP had internal memory in the future. Just keep in mind that Sony DOES sell movies on 2 GB memory sticks, and think of how that could be applied to games when they become cheaper. It might not have been that profitable to produce these and sell them for $40-50, but they still did it and you will still see them in stores.

wait in the car @ Feb 12th 2008 12:44AM

That would be so uncomfortable to hold. You'd have to hold it so tightly you'd pretty much always be holding a button down.

Also, those "shoulder" buttons are in terrible locations.

ThornedVenom @ Feb 12th 2008 1:01AM

The design could be improved a little more, but I like the idea a lot. =)

Sliding seems more durable than flip-opening a la DS. They just have to make sure that it feels right.

blahblahbloo @ Feb 12th 2008 1:05AM

The slickest part is that it's somehow running Ratchet and Clank Future.

maverick_saturn_626 @ Feb 12th 2008 1:48AM

Looks uncomfortable :P

As of now, I'm happy with the way my current PSP fits in my hands, just needs these extras:

Hardrive
More internet memory
Phone capabilities
MSN PSP (A PSP equivalent of msn)
Music and internet sync
Better internet
Better on screen Keypad

Thats pretty much it as far as my mind goes for the moment.

Grimmus @ Feb 12th 2008 2:04AM

Sony releases a new model like this, and suddenly everyone wonders why every electronics store in the nation removes their warranty programs for the product; Cases of "New Sony PSP Loses Screen" from people mishandling their console overtake the nation.

Ethan @ Feb 12th 2008 3:16AM

My Dad believed that the ps3 was being redesigned because there was a mockup in t3. And that was far less plausible than this.

B1gC72 - PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 12th 2008 3:52AM

lol one of my buddies went apeshit over that same mock up. he was pissed because he had just bought an 80GB a couple days before it dropped. i dont know how you could believe that Slim PS3 mock up though, it wasnt that good. no this on the other hand...

Jezreel @ Feb 12th 2008 3:26AM

The grammar cops say: "we wish it was real" ought to be "we wish it were real."

B1gC72 - PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 12th 2008 3:58AM

damn that thing sure is sexy, and very well done. that said, the shoulder buttons are in a terrible spot and it looks to be too wide for a comfortable pocket fit. i think a slider would be great but ive seen enough broken DS's to say that people would break this.....alot.

Poisoned Al @ Feb 12th 2008 4:25AM

While this looks awesome, I can't see it living very long inside my pocket with my keys, let alone in the hands of some 8-year-old tard.

Brucie B @ Feb 12th 2008 7:01AM

I don't care, That Thing Looks Freakin SWEET!
Way better looking then my psp...

I think maybe a lil redesign, if any but overall I think it would be fine. I don't think it was bad to use the Old School Nintendo Controllers...

James @ Feb 12th 2008 8:06AM

It looks like people can't look beyond a pretty design :rolleyes:

2 Analogue sticks with no space below them is pretty dumb. Especially when they're being held from the side rather than from below pointing up (like a regular controller, since there are no handles on the model). The current analogue nub is near impossible to use properly (thought I'd give an FPS a go last night. ouch) since it isn't angled and therefore gives no indication of where it's pointing until you hit the edge.

As a designer the guy is quite good, although it's not that pretty. As an industrial designer it's quite a poor attempt.

FidliousWong @ Feb 12th 2008 9:25AM

Wow, I agree. Part of me sees this and thinks "awesome." But then part of me remembers the finger hell that was the GBA SP and thinks looks aren't everything. Besides, as you stated, this design doesn't solve the dual analog problem of high drop potential.