Tag: Microsoft

GamePro interview with Scott Steinberg, marketing VP of Sony

GamePro interview with Scott Steinberg, marketing VP of Sony– Interesting read.  There’s discussion of the Blu-ray victory, Microsoft’s 2008 game line-up, and possibilities for new PS3 downloads (including the possibility of movies, music, and PS2 games).

Sony’s marketing VP tells GamePro that Microsoft may have “already leveraged all of their big assets” for the Xbox 360 in 2007, leaving 2008 wide open for the PlayStation 3.

New slim line PSP info-splurge(tm) and critique

This post was originally written on the City In The Clouds blog.

It is slimmer, lighter, loads games faster (due doubling the RAM) and outputs video to TV screens etc..

But what about the owners of existing PSPs though?  Sure, you had the PSone redesign and the PS2 redesign but this is a substantial change.  All’s the PS2 redesign did was slim the unit down, add networking and get rid of the (mostly) unused hard drive expansion bay.

So, what makes the PSP so different?  Well, this time Sony makes software updates as well to its systems.  Take Sony’s upcoming 3.60 firmware upgrade for the PSP- all the features I’ve seen so far are just for the slimmer PSP (mainly due to the new hardware) like UMD-caching, and options for outputting video.  I suppose my argument is what if Sony only creates more firmware updates for the slimmer PSP or possibly even hardware that is only compatible with the new PSP?  Maybe unthinkable, but surely possible.

In the past, hardware revisions weren’t much of a problem, but now major new features are being incorporated into software updates (via firmware).  Is it really fair to (pardon my upcoming language) shaft current hardware owners in this way?  I think Microsoft has done well in this regard with its Xbox 360 revisions.

Related reading (in no particular order):
PSP firmware 3.60 reveals hidden USB Charge feature
Joystiq hands-on with the new PSP
Added RAM makes PSP games load faster
Comparing the new PSP with the old
PSP Slim Lite boxart revealed
PSP redesign revealed; Lighter, slimmer, lasts longer