When Acclaim 1.0 premiered its Burnout series, it launched on the PlayStation 2 way back in 2001. Now, over five years later, the series shows up once more on Sony’s system. Burnout Dominator, a PS2 and PSP exclusive, is now available.  Of course, the franchise is now owned by EA (but, then again, what isn’t?), and it’s a last hurrah for the PS2 before the much-anticipated Burnout 5 hits (hopefully) later this year.

More information can be found in the full press release below:

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The king of speed and destruction is back! Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that Burnout™ Dominator has shipped to North American retail outlets for the PlayStation® 2 computer entertainment system and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system. Burnout Dominator has been rated E10+ by the ESRB, with descriptors of Violence.

Burnout Dominator is an all-new installment of the blockbuster Burnout™ series that challenges players to face off against a series of hot-blooded rivals in tests of reckless driving. The game features an all-new “Maniac Mode,” daring players to take down other drivers and string together massive combos of the wildest driving stunts without crashing. Burnout Dominator also marks the return of Burnouts and Boost Chaining, where gamers store up supercharged boost and use it all in one go – before combo-ing into another Burnout – for truly irresponsible speed.

“Burnout Dominator celebrates the terrifying feeling of speeding down the wrong side of the road, slamming into the car next to you and teetering on the edge of control at 200 miles per hour,” said senior producer, Nick Channon. “It’s a return to the game’s essence – the fastest, most aggressive racing series out there, bar none.”

Burnout Dominator for PSP also features ad hoc multiplayer for up to six players, as well as “ScoreSync” functionality, which allows gamers to compare their best race times against their friends.

Burnout Dominator was developed by EA’s Criterion Games and UK Studio team in Guildford, UK.

Sony Corp. said Tuesday it will lower the price of its PlayStation Portable gaming device by $30 to $170 amid intense competition among game console rivals, particularly Nintendo Co.

It’s the first time Sony has officially lowered suggested retail prices on the PSP since its debut in March 2005. Video game publishers and financial analysts have been urging Sony to slash hardware prices in recent quarters.

The cuts come two months after Sony’s gaming unit posted a third-quarter operating loss of $443 million, largely due to hefty costs for the launch of its PlayStation 3 video game console.

Although Sony promised business at the gaming unit would improve by the latter half of the fiscal year, the company said declining sales during the October-December period of Sony’s predecessor console, PlayStation 2, as well as the handheld PlayStation Portable and PSP game software, hurt quarterly profits at the gaming unit.

Sony’s PSP competes mainly against Nintendo’s Game Boy and DS. Despite being launched in 2004, the DS — which some retailers sell for as little as $130 — outsold every other console in the United States in February, registering 485,000 units sold, according to market researcher NPD Group.

Nintendo has also been a formidable player in next-generation consoles, traditionally a Sony stronghold.

The Nintendo Wii, released in November, sold 335,000 units during the month, followed by Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 with 228,000 units and Sony’s PlayStation 3 with 127,000 units.

With its diminutive “Wiimote” — a motion-sensitive, wrist-mounted remote control — Nintendo’s Wii has been a surprise hit among kids, women and older players, catching on far beyond the “hardcore” gamer niche of young men. The Wii sells for $250, far less than the PS3, which starts at $500.

Jack Tretton, president and chief executive of Foster City-based Sony Computer Entertainment America, said Sony’s price cuts were an effort to make the game more affordable to young gamers.

“We have recently seen a steady rise in the number of teens adopting PSP as their primary handheld entertainment system, and we expect the new price will accelerate that trend,” Tretton said in a statement.

Sony, which also lowered the price of its higher-end PSP Entertainment Pack 20 percent to $200, will launch a print and online advertising campaign targeted at teenagers.

In late November, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. slashed prices on the PSP to $170. Although world’s largest retailer didn’t release sales numbers, analysts said the promotion was a success, and they were encouraged about Sony’s official new prices.

“We expect a modest step-up in PSP unit sales during an otherwise seasonally slower period for the video game industry,” Colin Sebastian, senior research analyst at Lazard Capital Markets in San Francisco, wrote in an investor note.

First I must say that if you ever plan on playing homebrew applications on your PSP then it would be unwise to ever update your PSP firmware unless you know exactly what you are doing.

On to the story.

Sony’s added some neat perks for PlayStation Portable owners with its announcement of the 3.30 firmware upgrade.

The latest upgrade allows PSP users to play compatible games online, do a bit of web surfing, download podcasts and more. The podcasts will be available at more than 7,000 T-Mobile HotSpot locations, which include some Starbucks, Borders, Hyatt hotels and about 70 U.S. airports.

The promotional offer also includes six months of Wi-Fi access at the T-Mobile spots. When the six-month trial is over, PSP owners will have to pay for the service. To get the deal, PSP owners have to login to the network by March 28, 2008.

“ This new offer enables SCEA to take portable gaming and entertainment to a new level of mobility and convenience for PSP owners,” said Peter Dille, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment America, in a media release. “With T-Mobile’s service, we’re making it possible for the PSP community to connect in new ways and access the online content they want in more places than ever before. More and more PSP users are going online to challenge each other in multi-player games, and we can now make it more convenient to access online gaming as well as the Internet, showcasing the rich feature set that PSP has to offer.”

The first game on the online list is Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters. More titles are expected soon.

The upgrade sounds like a good one that puts the PSP to greater use.

For a full list of 3.30 details, click here.

Eidos Opens the Gateway to Creativity on the PSP System With the Portable Music Studio Traxxpad

New Application for the PSP PlayStation Portable System Enables Professional Grade Music Production On-the-Go

Eidos Interactive Ltd., one of the world’s leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, today confirms that it will publish Traxxpad, an application which transforms the PSP PlayStation Portable system into a powerful piece of professional music studio equipment, in North America this spring 2007.

Traxxpad blends the power of sequencers, drum machines, and keyboards while simultaneously making the equipment easy to use and accessible, allowing anyone to create, mix and sample their own tracks at home or on-the-go. Music making can be as fun and easy as simply pressing buttons, or as in-depth and detailed as the user wants to make it.

“The PSP system is so much more than a gaming platform,” said Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Robert Lindsey, Eidos, Inc. “Traxxpad utilizes the PSP system hardware to its fullest. It produces professional music, and makes it easy to do, providing an end result that is more fun and satisfying than completing a pre-defined task in a game.” The key to the intuitive design of Traxxpad i its utilization of different high-end, music-making modules which focus on different aspects of music making such as sequencing, song assembly, and melody creation. Sounds can be assigned to specific buttons, and inputted into a sequence by rhythmical button presses. To make the game accessible to people will all musical skill levels, if a sound is off-beat, Traxxpad automatically associates the sound to the nearest 16th note, allowing immediate, great-sounding results.

“It’s one thing to make a powerful music device, but it is truly impressive to make an application that allows someone unfamiliar with music to make something that sounds professional,” said Marketing Manager, Kevin Gill, Eidos, Inc. “That is where Traxxpad excels. This is a piece of software that appeals equally to both aspiring musicians as well as professional music producers.”

Equipped with over 1000 stock sounds which range from drum samples to exotic instruments, the extensive sound library ensures that there is always variety to choose from. If more is needed, Traxxpad can also be utilized as a Sampler, utilizing its compatibility with the PSP system microphone. Sample anything, anywhere, and then use the wave editor to trim, adjust gain, normalize or reverse the recording. Most importantly, Traxxpad allows users to export their songs to .wav or .mp3 files, enabling production to be as easy as burning to a disc or transferring to a MP3 player.

With Traxxpad, players now have the ability to make a sick beat, the perfect song, or the best ring tone — the choice is up to them, and creativity knows no bounds. Developed by Definitive Studios, Traxxpad is set for release exclusively on the PSP(R) system in North America this spring 2007.

About Eidos Interactive Ltd Eidos Interactive Ltd is part of SCi Entertainment Group Plc (SEG) one of the world’s leading publishers and developers of entertainment software. Eidos consists of publishing operations across Europe and the US and several development studios including Crystal Dynamics, IO Interactive, Beautiful Game Studios, Eidos Studios Hungary, Eidos Sweden and Pivotal Games. The Group has a valuable combined portfolio of intellectual property including: Tomb Raider, Hitman, and Just Cause.

About Definitive Studios, LLC Definitive Studios is based out of San Francisco, CA and is dedicated to creating innovative cutting edge titles.

Sony mentioned a few days ago that they were hard at work to make key 3rd and 1st party demos available for download. Well, today you can download an official Medal of Honor: Heroes demo directly to your system. I’m a demo whore and constantly download these onto my memory stick. I play them all a few times and then just leave them there, my spoils of war.

Follow the directions below to download them directly.

YourPSP users: (European users only)

Connect your PSP to your computer and visit YourPSP.com. You will be able to download and install the demo automatically.

Everyone else:
1. Download the demo ZIP file.
2. Extract the contents of the ZIP file.
3. Connect your PSP to your computer using a USB cable.
4. Go to the PSP/GAME folder.
5. Copy ULED90008 folder into directory.

The pop culture sensation is headed to handhelds, but three years after the movie’s release.
Crave Entertainment today announced that they’ll be bringing Napolean Dynamite to handhelds (three years after the movies release). The title till debut on the Nintendo DS and PSP sometime later this year.

The game promises to bring all the idiosyncratic moments from the movie. Napolean Dynamite will feature characters such as Kip, Uncle Rico, Pedreo, Tina the llama, and of course, Napolean himself.

Napoleon Dynamite is one of the great cult classics of the past decade, said Mark Burke, senior vice president of product planning and business development at Crave Entertainment. Its one of those films that has great memorable lines and characters, and we expect that fans of the movie will really like the game.

Well just have to wait and see if Napolean Dynamite is still a commercially viable title when it�s released later this year.

From just about day one, the holy grail of the PSP homebrew scene has been PSX emulation, and while much has been accomplished on this front, the spiffiest emulator yet happens to come courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment Itself. Of course, that emulator entails a pay-per-download scheme, limited catalog and requires a PS3 to make it all work, right? Not so much anymore, thanks to hacker extraordinaire Dark_AleX and his new Custom Firmware 3.02 OE-B, which lets you convert your very own PSX ISOs and run them at full speed on the PSP. OE-A worked as a hack for Sony-released download titles by stripping the DRM, but it sounds like OE-B is the real deal here. Sure looks like those PSP fanboys are going to be having some happy holidays this year. Keep reading to spy an incredibly blurry vid of the hack in action.

Read - DCEMUuk
Read - QJ.net

It has been announced that Sony Corp. will launch a slimmer model of its PlayStation Portable handheld game player in September, in its latest attempt to ignite demand for its game hardware and compete better with Nintendo Co. Ltd.

Both Sony and Nintendo released their handheld gear, the PSP and DS, respectively, late in 2004, but sales of the PSP, which can play movies, music and games, have recently been outshined by the DS.

“From a distance, this PSP might not look very different from the current model … but when you have it in your hand, the difference becomes quite clear,” Sony Computer Entertainment Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai said. “It’s actually 33 percent lighter than the current PSP. It’s also 19 percent slimmer.”

Hirai, who replaced Ken Kutaragi, known as the “Father of PlayStation,” as head of Sony’s game division earlier this year, made the PSP announcement during a presentation at the E3 video game exposition, the industry’s biggest event.

Nintendo sold 23.6 million DS units in the year ended March 2007, outpacing PSP shipments of 8.4 million.

Underlining its lead both in the console and handheld markets, Nintendo last month zipped past Sony in market value and bumped the Tokyo-based electronics conglomerate off the list of Japan’s 10 most valuable companies.

A Sony spokeswoman said the slimmer PSP would retail for about $170, the same as the current PSP. Nintendo’s newest DS model, the DS Lite, sells for $130.

Like Sony, Nintendo last year launched the lighter version of the DS, accelerating already white-hot demand for the handset. The DS Lite has two screens, opens like a book and allows gamers to control play with a stylus, instead of manipulating a keypad.

Nintendo executives said on Wednesday that portable sales made up 50 percent of its hardware sales in 2006, compared with just 30 percent in 2002.

PRICE CUT

On the console side of its game business, Sony this week cut the U.S. price of its PlayStation 3 by $100 after seeing the PS3 far outsold by Nintendo’s Wii.

“This new price went into effect on Monday. Since then sales of 60-gigabyte PS3 have doubled at top five retailers,” Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said during the E3 presentation.

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 and the Wii have outsold the PS3 by several times in the crucial U.S. market, leaving Sony, which has dominated the game industry over the past decade, in the unfamiliar position of playing catch up.

Its high price and scarcity of attractive titles have been cited as main reasons for the PS3′ slow start.

Even after the price cut, the PS3 costs $20 more than the most expensive version of the Xbox 360, and twice that of the Wii, whose $250 price and motion-sensing controller have made it a best-seller despite its lack of life-like graphics.

In a bid to send a message that strong PS3 titles are in the pipeline, Sony showcased some 50 upcoming games at the presentation, including the latest installments of blockbuster fighting game “Metal Gear Solid” from Konami Corp.  and popular in-house racing title “Gran Turismo.”

During the presentation, it was indicated that “Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots” will not be available until early 2008, giving hard-core gamers one fewer reasons to rush to store shelves.

Following the announcement, shares in Sony were up 0.3 percent at 6,350 yen by midday on Thursday, roughly in line with the benchmark Nikkei average.

2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, today announced that Ghost Rider, the action-packed combat and motorcycle video game featuring Marvel Comics’ iconic supernatural superhero, is now available in North America for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system, the PSP (PlayStationPortable) system and Game Boy Advance. The title will be available in Europe as the movie releases in different regions. The Ghost Rider video game reflects the stylized action of the successful Marvel comic series and Sony Pictures’ upcoming Ghost Rider movie.

The game was developed by Climax and its storyline was authored by famed comic writers Garth Ennis and Jimmy Palmiotti. In the video game, stuntman Johnny Blaze is brought back as his alter ego, Ghost Rider, to protect others from experiencing his Hell on Earth. Ghost Rider haunts America’s highways, inflicting his righteous wrath upon the souls of the wicked and the damned. The unique storyline takes Ghost Rider to a large variety of scenes and locations, while facing off against familiar faces from both the Marvel comic universe and Sony Pictures’ movie.

“The Ghost Rider video game offers an exhilarating gameplay experience in a fast-paced environment. Ghost Rider can battle multiple enemies from the Marvel Universe using his trademark weapons, the Hellfire Chain and Hellfire Shotgun,” said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. “Fans of the comic book series will love its true-to-form style.”

Features:

-Ride the terrifying Hell Cycle, swinging Ghost Rider’s chain at enemies and using the bike’s powers to ride on water, boost over jumps, and power down under obstacles.

-Travel through several locations from the movie, including the Quentin Carnival and Caretaker’s Graveyard and take a ride down the skyscraper that links Earth to the depths of Hell.

-Upgrade the Hell Cycle, gain new moves and increase Ghost Rider’s stats using the essence of defeated foes as currency.

-Besides possessing superhuman strength, speed and durability, Ghost Rider can force criminals to experience a level of emotional pain equivalent to that which they have caused in others with his Penance Stare.

-Fight in spectacular boss battles with key Ghost Rider villains, including Lilith, which will put players’ combat skills to the test.

-Unlock original Ghost Rider comics, artwork, “making of” footage and developer interviews.

-Extended replay value with bonus characters, challenging players to dig deep into the experience.

-PSP offers new gameplay including game sharing, and Wi-Fi multiplayer racing for up to four players.

A piece of code referring to Skype has been found in the recently decrypted firmware version 3.10.

There is a rumour circulating that Sony is working to partner the PSP with Skype. Skype is a popular application that allows PC and Mac users to call one another for free based on P2P telephony technology.

A reference to Skype was recently found in a decrypted version of vshmain.prx from PSP firmware revision v3.10. It is worth noting that references to both POPS and GPS PRX’s were found in previous decrypted firmware versions and have both since emerged as new features included in subsequent firmware upgrades.

Less than two weeks ago, the internet was abound with rumours about Sony entering into a partnership with some new major software companies and at least one major ISP. This may well have been the smoking gun for an as yet unannounced union between Skype and the Sony PSP, although at present this is as speculative as the recent claims that Yahoo were a likely future business partner for Sony Computer Entertainment.

Unlike the DS the PSP is not equipped with a microphone and so would need a peripheral microphone in order to be used as a P2P telephony device. There have been a slew of mods that allow the DS to be used as a two way communication device and Nintendo themselves demoed an application of their own at E3 2005 (complete with lip synching Mario and Luigi avatars).

Considering the growth in Mobile games and the recently unearthed Nintendo phone patent, it seems that the major console manufacturers certainly have communication in mind as a key feature for the future of their devices. Sony may well be trying to ensure their future credentials in that area of the market.