I look forward to the day David Perry finally starts to talk about a new Shiny Entertainment game. The past couple of weeks, he's been a constant thorn in Sony's side with his claims of a new UMD-less PSP. This week he's even challenged Sony to call him a liar. The company hasn't responded yet with a "liar, liar, pants on fire" quip, but they have rolled out some interesting new ideas for the future of the PSP in terms of software.

Now that the required opening statements are out of the picture, let's get cracking on this week's PSP Weekend Warrior!

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Hardware:

Fan-made image, everybody.

• Rumors and claims about another hardware revision for the PSP was still high up in everybody's mind this week:
• David Perry has again asserted that the PSP2 is real, and that it won't have a UMD. He also challenged Sony to call him a liar. Link.
• A trip to the mill led to another bag full o' rumor concerning the rumored sliding screen on the PSP 4000. Apparently, it's "basically the same as the one in the 3000 - except it slides." Wow. Link.
• Is the iPod Touch a worthy adversary to the PSP? The way SCEE's Ray Maguire looks at it, the iPod Touch and iPhone may be well off on their own as a handheld device, but when you're talking a "specific games machine," it's PSP all the way. It's like the console wars, except, more portable. Link.
• For the numerically inclined stat watchers out there, SCEE has released info putting the PSP at 3 million units sold in the UK. Mucho impressive. Link.
• Oh, and if you want to get a new PSP-3000 plus 20 games for free, Sony's running a contest where the top prize is just that. All you gotta do is make a video that shows your whole world in your hands - or at least a representation of it. Link.

Software:

• Sony has started changing their gameplan for the PSP by giving some advice to third-party devs. They're asking devs to make more games from big franchises, but make them shorter. Kinda like what Ready At Dawn did with Chains of Olympus. Link.
• Speaking of Ready At Dawn, RAD CEO Didier Malenfant said that used games are more of a threat than piracy. He also denied that RAD has a new PSP game in the works. Aw, man. Link.
• More interesting stuff from John Koller, who said the table is open right now for even non-Sony games to appear as downloads on the PSN. Can anybody say PSP Virtual Console? Link.
• Konami has announced that they'll be releasing double packs for the PSP this March. The titles aren't new, but you guys might be interested in picking up two games for less. Link.
• Word has it that Mastiff is in the process of bringing a new tactical RPG to the PlayStation Portable. The game listing was spotted on Gamefly, but there's hardly any details on this rumored game. Link.
• The war-waging eyeballs in Patapon 2 have gotten Pata-priced as they Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon their way to the release date. Goddamn, that music really does stick in your head like crazy glue. Link.
• Importers and PSP owners who just love to have some of that lethal strawberry should take note of the Japanese release date for Bleach: Heat The Soul 6. By the way, anybody here reading the manga? I wish Kubo Taito would get this series over with and start working on Zombie Powder again. Link.

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I like to think of myself as a bit of a retro gamer. Yeah, I started out on a NES so I can't really claim full-fledged old-school roots (I never owned an Atari game system for example, boohoo), but I do love playing and replaying games that have already been rendered, shall we say, obsolete on the graphics side.

That's why I find John Koller's remarks about the whole "non-PSOne games being offered on PSN" thing as something that is definitely relevant to my interests. Thing is, though, I'd actually prefer it if they first concentrated on beefing up the PSOne Classics they're already offering in the US and Europe. Seriously, the games for these two regions combined don't even come close to the number of games already available on the Japanese PSN. Not exactly a gyp, but close enough.

That's it folks. Watch out for the next PSP Weekend Warrior, same day next week. Don't forget to catch the QuickPeek later on, too.