Belated happy birthday, Sony Playstation Portable! Now three years old, what more can the PSP show us beyond Remote Play? How about seven more years? In an IGN interview, Sony's John Koller revealed their plan of a PSP with a ten-year lifespan and more. Details over at the full article.

Did you know that yesterday, the PSP celebrated its third year out in the US? What's in store for the handheld's future now? Quite a lot,  including services that fans have been clamoring for for a while now, such as more Remote Play with the PS3, a video download service, and more. Check out the full article to find out what else is in store for the PSP in the future.

Sony PlayStation Portable users, you'd think we'd recommend that you'd better find a Wi-Fi spot soon, but there's little to celebrate about the latest firmware update that Sony has just plopped into our handheld. Or at least not like 3.90. And that even goes for Japan, though the updates aren't exactly similar. But wait, we've got an update at the full story.

Visit: QJ.NET's PSP Firmware Discussion

Senior product manager for Sony's PSP John Koller announced SCEA has decided to distribute, market, and sell targeted top content from other studios and content providers. The first move in this direction if the launch of new MTV UMDs this week.

Want to know more about this? Check out the full article for all the titles, pricing, and expected launch of the UMDs.

Sony's John Koller was all over CES 2008 with the PlayStation Portable. He talked about how good 2007 was for the handheld and what's to come in the year 2008. Accessories, big games you won't find in consoles, added features, and an expanded multimedia capability set awaits everyone who owns the PSP. See the full version for the video interview on John Koller.

Sony's PSP product manager John Koller was recently picked up for an interview over at the ongoing CES 2008 to talk about the future of their handheld. The dude touched on several interesting topics, including some of their general update plans for the PSP. More details up ahead in the full article.

 How did today's handhelds do in the holidays and for the duration of 2007? The answer shouldn't be too hard to figure out if you've been reading gaming news every so often. The Sony PSP had a solid year all throughout, while the Nintendo DS continued its dominance above all other platforms. Analyst Michael Pachter and PSP marketing manager John Koller share their insights why.

The days of having to deal with saving your game due to your PSP's short battery life may soon be over with Sony's recent revelation of its new Extended Battery Pack kit and cover compatible for both the old PSP and the PSP Slim and Lite.

The recent announcement guarantees significant additions to your present PSP's battery life, enabling gamers to play their games longer than ever before. Details at the full article.

For those waiting for the promised PSP Download Store, it looks like you'll have to wait a little bit longer. Sony officials were not able to specify a launch date when asked about the PSP's downloadable media service. The reason? Sony is still working on Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect downloadable content from getting pirated, said John Koller, spokesman for the PlayStation Portable.

According to some financial analysts like Forrester Research's James McQuivey, the delay is setting back the PSP from challenging the popularity of the iPod. "It could have been the first big mobile carrier of TV shows and movies," said McQuivey on the PSP's potential to become one of the best portable media devices should it have DRM.

Even Jack Tretton, Sony Computer Entertainment America's (SCEA) president recognizes the importance of the downloadable service for the PSP.

I think the advent of a long awaited and quite frankly long overdue ability to deliver a downloadable service for the PSP will help us out a great deal... Hopefully we'll have it out there by the fall.

The Sony executives did give some information about the upcoming PSP downloadable store. Short form games will be available, and once music and movies are made available in the service, Koller promises that they will be of the same quality as the almost-flawless UMD media.

 

It certainly looks like the PlayStation Portable is more than an optional in-game tweaking device for the PlayStation Home, PS3's virtual world. Sony Computer Entertainment's (SCE) marketing boss John Koller has revealed that they have something in store for the PSP in Home, enabling them to experience Home on the go.

There is still no official word about Sony PSP's inclusion into the PlayStation Home network, but Koller has already hinted that it's quite natural to have the PSP as part of this virtual world. "Intuitively, if you take the PSP with you, you would want to take some of Home with you," he said.

On a related note, he also gave a few tidbits regarding the redesigning process of the PSP:

We certainly looked at the area below the [face buttons on the right side of the PSP] for a second analog stick, but we thought the issues far outweighed the benefit we'd get out of it.

So they really did consider the inclusion for the second analog stick, and found that there's not much reason to add it into the redesign. Sorry, Me and My Katamari Fans, looks like we're stuck with mashing the D-pad and the directional buttons in rolling that Katamari.