At GamesCom Sony announced that early adopters would get a free copy of Gran Turismo PSP within the first 10 days of launch. We now have more details about the promotion to share with you. First of all, you will need to be in a participating country and have a PlayStation Store account. Once you login into the PlayStation Network on your PSPgo, proceed to the PlayStation Store and download the Gran Turismo XMB theme and you will automatically receive your voucher code via email.
If you are wondering what your new PSPgo will look like on the inside, save yourself some trouble and watch the guys at iFixIt rip their PSPgo apart. After ripping the PSP piece by piece, the team discovers some interesting components used in the new PSP. The game CPU and Wi-Fi chip from the old PSP is being used, which means no major speed boosts and still no 802.11 g/n support.
The new PSP is nearly here! Have you pre-ordered one for yourself yet? As most of you already know, the PSPgo is the smallest and mightiest PSP system yet and features 16GB of internal memory, as well as expandable storage to handle multiple applications – games, videos, photos, music, Internet and more. There is also no UMD drive so you won’t have to carry those pesky discs around anymore.
Gran Turismo for the PSP launches this Thursday, after years of waiting. Stephanie Toshimoto, over on the PlayStation.Blog, has posted the TV ad campaign for everyone to view (see below). The advert centers around the Corvette ZR1 vs. PSP racing against each other on Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, CA. And be sure to check out our newly re-designed Gran Turismo website that launched last week where you can find the latest news, trailers, and content.
PixelJunk Monsters will be available to download this week to coincide with the launch of the PSPgo. PixelJunk Monsters was originally released on the PlayStation 3, but allowed Remote Play to the PSP. This PSP Deluxe version of PixelJunk Monsters features all of the content of the original game and the Encore add-on pack as well as additional content and extra goodies to give even previous PixelJunk Monsters players new dangers to dance down.
The PSPgo launches later this week and brings with it a UMD-less future. To aid in the launch of the new PSP model, Sony has uploaded 16,000 downloadable its, from games and movies to TV shows (region dependent). However, not all of this is new content. If you live in the US, you will have access to all 16,000 items – but as for Europe, the number is significantly less. See below for a breakdown of content.
If you are thinking of upgrading to the PSPgo but have a load of old PSP accessories, there is a accessory that can help you out. The PSPgo Converter allows you to use accessories like the Go!Camera, GPS device and other devices. The converter costs $20 and makes the PSPgo less portable due to its large size. Of course, spending $20 is a lot cheaper than forking out on all the new accessories available, but there it would also be cheaper to just stick with your older PSP and make use of those UMD games you have lying around.
Square Enix is all aboard Sony’s PSP digital comics plan. They plan to release four of their manga series on the PlayStation Store this December. Gangan Comics, Square Enix’s manga publishing division, handles titles such as: Fullmetal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Bamboo Blade, When Cicadas Cry, and Kingdom Hearts in Japan. Specific titles were not announced, but it looks like Fullmetal Alchemist is in the bag.
In news that may have an impact on Sony’s new handheld sales, a rep told Kotaku today that the company has scrapped plans for a system to transfer disc-based UMD games to work on the digital-only PSPgo. The Sony Computer Entertainment of America spokesperson said the UMD conversion program will not be available at this time for legal and technical reasons.
It looks like a new PSP service, PlayStation Room, will be similar to Home for the PlayStation 3. At the Tokyo Game Show yesterday, Sony announced that the PSP service will allow users to create 3D avatars, room spaces, blogs, albums, and chat support. This new service will be added via an upcoming PSP firmware update sometime this winter. You will be able to launch the service directly from the PlayStation Network menu on the XMB.
