Originally posted 20 Feb 2009 at 08:40PM

Yes, loyal QJ readers, the PSP Weekend Warrior is back! Did you miss it? Well, even if you didn't, here it is. Collectibles, videos, and a whole lot of homebrew figure prominently in this first outing of the relaunched PSP Weekend Warrior. Read on!

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The biggest game news on the PSPUpdates blog this week was the Japanese Idolmaster SP leak. While I don't think all of our site visitors were that interested in taking control of a virtual idol, rumors that Idolmaster SP came with official firmware 5.05 resulted in a bit of a frenzy.

Link: Idolmaster SP leaked, comes with firmware 5.05?

Japan again delivered with more hot stuff for the more rabid collectors out there: trading arts figures based on characters in Square Enix's Dissidia: Final Fantasy. Like Mabie said, Square Enix sure knows how to wield the marketing sword.

Link: Dissidia: Final Fantasy trading arts figures

Videos, videos, videos. A good selection of games got trailers and interview videos this week. Persona 4 showed off some of its remade cutscenes, while Sony Bend released a few more Resistance: Retribution videos. Retribution also went gold this week.

Link: Persona re-animated cutscene revealed, other trailers
Link: Resistance: Retribution Infected Mode promo video
Link: Sony Bend on bringing Resistance to the PSP
Link: Resistance: Retribution goes gold; writer Mike Costa talks about Resistance comic

Oh, yeah. Dragonball: Evolution also got trailerized, but I'm having second thoughts about subjecting you guys to it. If you're looking for an actioner, you're better off checking out the Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce demo instead.

Link: Dragonball: Evolution trailer - watch it, or no one will
Link: Dynasty Warriors: Strike Force demo out now

On the flip side of the coin, we also got some bad news. Sony announced that its PlayStation Store in San Francisco's Metreon will be closing after nearly a decade of being the one-stop shop for Sony gamers in the area.

Link: Sony has left the building: Metreon PlayStation Store closing this Summer

News also came out that Brett Ratner's big-screen adaptation of God of War has shelved. That's the bad news. The good news (for a lot of us here at least) is that Ratner's left the project to direct a Chris Tucker movie instead.

Link: God of War movie shelved, director Ratner moves on

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The PSP homebrew scene proved to be alive and well this week too. No Gravity: The Plague of Mind, the first homebrew game getting an actual release on the Sony PlayStation Network, was finally given a release date and list price for US and most European territories.

Link: No Gravity: the Plague of Mind arrives on PSN next week

Those who like to keep the files on their PSPs organized got a treat from Mediumgauge in the form of PSP Filer v5.9. If you don't just use your PSP to play games and listen to music, you might also want to check the new features in the latest  PSPNotes release.

Link: PSP Filer v5.9: bug fixes, new features, improvements to OSK
Link: PSP Homebrew - PSPNotes v2

Homebrew devs got a bit of a leg up when it comes to testing their creations with a new revision of the Java-based PSP emulator, JPCSP. Customization freaks like me also got a new toy to play with: Iver - PSP, a shell that turns your PSP into a reasonable iPhone facsimile.

Link: JPCSP rev 920 PSP emulator
Link: PSP Homebrew - IvEr - PSP v1.00

Homebrew games mostly went the retro route this week. There's Merc Roid, a 3D Metroid
clone, the Asteroid-based Asterz, and perhaps most retro of all, Disco PSP. Prolific emu modder davex also released an unofficial cheat feature for NJ's venerable MVSPSP emulator.

Link: Merc Roid v.0.25 (Alpha): 3D Metroid clone
Link: Asterz v1.1: bug fixes, high score now saves in Arcade Mode
Link: PSP Homebrew - Disco PSP V0.1
Link: Unofficial cheat support for NeoGeo emu, MVSPSP

Of course, the real BIG news this week was the continuation of our new How-To and QuickGuides weekly features, but you already knew that, right:

Link: QJ QuickGuides Issue #2: What's your Firmware? OFWs and CFWs database (Part 1)
Link: QJ How-To #2: What you need to get homebrew running on your PSP

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I've been a bit too busy trying to keep my Prinnies from dying to form any truly cohesive thoughts on this week's haul of PSP news, but something that really sticks out in my mind is the possible implications of the No Gravity: Plague of Mind's upcoming release.

Some Sony bigwigs have said a few times in the past that they are looking into the homebrew scene as a possible source of good games and the like for the PSP. Now that the barrier between homebrew and official has been breached, it's probably the time for Sony to really start considering homebrew and indie developers as a source of games. The distribution infrastucture's already there in the form of the PlayStation Store for PSP, so all we really need right now is an official go-signal.

Sony could even take a page from Microsoft and host their own homebrew game contests. The community's own homebrew comps have churned out quite a few gems in the past, so I really think that one officially sponsored by Sony could open the floodgates to more indie developers working on the PSP. Heck, it could even help the PSP regain some footing in the sales race, but that's probably a bit of a longshot. Still, timewasters that cost nothing more than, say, US$ 5 could go a long way in killing the boredom in between big game releases.