This year’s Games Convention from Leipzig has witnessed Sony’s mea culpa towards Europe: lots of goodies coming exclusively to the PAL territory, including the previously announced TV tuner.
After getting the PlayStation 3 six months later, with no Emotion Engine and degraded backwards compatibility, for an incredibly high amount of money no price cut envisioned (just a mere addition of a supplementary wireless controller and a game in what is called the Starter Pack), Europe can finally enjoy some vindication: Sony’s latest announcements from GC 2007 are mainly focused on the “old continent”.
The first ones refer to new, limited edition PSP bundles featuring Spider-Man and The Simpsons. As announced at E3, in Santa Monica, Sony is readying enhanced PSPs, which are 33 percent lighter and 19 percent slimmer, and which will go on sale in Europe on September 5. The limited editions will be co-branded with The Simpsons and Spider-Man franchises: they will both cost 199.99 euros, but will have different colors. The Simpsons-branded PSP will of course be “painted” in yellow and will include a copy of Electronic Arts' The Simpsons Game inside the package. The Spider-Man-themed PSP will have red and black hues and will come bundled with the Spider-Man 3 movie on UMD and a copy of Activision's Spider-Man 3 game.
The new PSP Slim and Lite will retail for £129.99 UK and €169, and will also be available from September 5.
"We are delighted to announce the arrival of the newly designed PSP to the SCEE region, whilst also providing something unique and special for our consumers," said David Reeves, president of SCEE.
But probably the biggest announcement made at GC (and the most spectacular as well) is the confirmation of a TV tuner and the adjacent addition of Live TV menu in PS3’s media bar.
Branded LiveTV, the upcoming service from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is arriving in early 2008 in major European markets like the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany, with David Reeves, head of SCEA, saying that Scandinavian territories will follow “in due course”.
LiveTV consists of a TV tuner and personal video recorder (PVR) for the PS3, which allow console owners to watch, pause and record live TV. During the live demonstration from Sony’s booth at GC, Reeves and Mark Bunting (from Sony’s Worldwide Studios) showed the console’s new capabilities, adding that “you can watch any free-to-air channels available in Europe.” PlayTV will also record individual programmes or whole series to the PS3 hard drive for viewing later on the family TV, or for transferring to the PSP for remote viewing outside of the home. One interesting feature exhibited during the conference was the possibility to preview the recorded channels through thumbs, which, when highlighted, offered a 15 seconds “trailer” of what was registered on the PS3’s hard drive. If someone is still encountering difficulties in understanding how the machine works, there are video tutorials available.
PlayTV has an easy-to-use and intuitive 7-day Electronic Programme Guide or EPG and operates on the widely available Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial (DVB-T) format.
According to Reeves, “because this is PS3, both TV tuners are future proof, supporting high definition broadcasting as well”. PlayTV's two TV tuners are High Definition ready and are able to view, record and play back High Definition signals in full HD1080P.
Moreover, with the recently launched connectivity between the PS3 and the PSP (via Remote Play’s Wi-Fi beam), users will be able to stream content stored on the PS3’s hard drive or watch live TV stations from the comfort of their sofas. If they are away, they can transfer that content on the Memory Stick through PSP’s USB cable.
Optional on-screen graphical display provides a wealth of information about the status of PlayTV and provides quick access to programme information, stored TV programmes and the controls to pause or record live TV. PlayTV will also set the correct interface for either Standard Definition or High Definition displays.
Sony promised that the application will evolve in time and that the latest tweaks will be made available through the PlayStation Network (it’s interesting to see for example how will PlayTV integrate with the upcoming HOME, the playful social environment Sony is preparing for PS3 owners this fall). With the recent hardware update, the PlayStation 3 goes beyond its initial functionality (“computer entertainment system”) and becomes a full-fledged game-playing set-top box.
"The introduction of PlayTV really will extend the already broad entertainment credentials of PS3, and makes it an exceptionally attractive proposition for the whole family," David Reeves added. "PS3 already provides High Definition gaming, Blu-ray Disc movies, music, video, photo album, web browsing and PlayStation Network support. With the introduction of PlayTV's state of the art TV tuner and PVR functionality, PS3 is now the best choice of home entertainment hub for the whole family.”
The DVR service is solely intended for the European areas, and its arrival in the US is highly improbable. "The problem with the DVR is that the U.S. doesn't have terrestrial digital television yet, so while some cities like San Diego have it not nearly support in the U.S. to make it worth the effort for Sony. When that changes, and it will, Sony will be on the ball,” Phil Harrison said.
There are also more things to mention about the PSP. Already praised as one of the most innovative gadgets on the market and boasting with functionalities like Web-browsing, gaming, movie watching or the recently added TV watching, the PSP now lives its second youth with a slew of new services available exclusively for it.
Sony thought it wouldn’t be a bad thing to add GPS navigation to the Xcross Media Bar, so they’ve teamed up with industry leaders like TeleAtlas and NavNGo to bring out a new Satellite Navigation package for the stylish handheld called Go!Explore.
Due for release in the New Year, Go!Explore incorporates a GPS receiver and the UMD (Universal Media Disc) software containing your chosen maps, supporting 11 unique audio languages on every geographic version; English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish.
Go!Explore has access to upgradeable Maps & Points of Interest (PoI) that can be purchased via the PlayStation Network, and to additional maps, POI, downloads and other WiFi features that will be made available in the future.
The Go!Explore package is accompanied by the Car Adaptor and Car Mount accessories, which will be bundled together.
As if this whole plethora of new features wouldn’t be enough, Sony also came up with the idea of transforming the PSP into a full social-networking device. Apart from its Wi-Fi gaming feature, the slimmer PSP will also have messaging capabilities, with the addition of Go!Messenger, slated for a January 2008 release.
By downloading a small application provided as part of a future firmware upgrade, PSP owners will be able to instant message (IM) each other when connected via Wi-Fi using a new and intuitive on-screen keyboard. By adding a headset, voice chat and voice messaging becomes possible, and by connecting Go!Cam, the attachable video camera for PSP, users also have the ability to make video calls to their friends and leave fun video and voice messages.
Go!Messenger has been developed in partnership with BT, Sony’s wireless communications partner across SCEE territories.
