Curmudgeon GamerActually, that's not precise enough -- they've put out v.3.90 for the PSP-2000 model, aka new hotness. For those of us with the original PSP, aka old and busted, it could be the end of the road for firmware updates.
I don't know if Sony's announced this yet, but I bet that when PSN access finally comes to the PSP, it'll be for the new model only. Ah well. Maybe I should look into firmware modding again...
It turns out 2008 will likely be the best year ever for gaming and Apple. Who knew?
I'm having a hard time thinking there's ever going to be a better year than when Tomb Raider 2 was ported, Madden came to the Mac, and, most impressively, Quake 3 Test was Mac-first. I recall some mainstream mag with a cover of a blue & white (iirc) tower asking if that'd be everyone's next gaming box.
Hopefully the move to Intel does mean good things, long term, for Mac-specific gaming. Boot Camp is still a significant barrier to entry for most Mac users. Look, folk, we're mainly talking about one-button mouse, iApp lovers, even if we include Mighty Mouse's hidden right button, MacBook Air's gestures, and FileMaker Pro. I'm happy to see more positive Mac gaming press, but until DirectX is Mac-native, I'll continue not holding my breath.
Which makes me wonder... Why doesn't Microsoft buy out Transgaming and put them down? I can't recall Matt's stance on Transgaming; it seems like something seedy was going on with what they'd "borrowed" from WINE without giving back what common courtesy, if not the letter of the license, says they should. If Transgaming has done enough in-house work to make Cider, wouldn't buying them effectively kill the gaming resurgence on Mac? And we're back to Blizzard and Ambrosia...
(Technically, Mr. Jade said it's "the best year ever for gaming and Apple", which hardly precludes Apple and gaming having great years having nothing to do with one another. What with a recession coming, I'm not sure that's true on at least one count, but it's always good to have a quality fall-back position. And hyperbole sells! Always! It's the best sales tactic EVER!)
I remember when it was announced that GNU/Linux would be permitted on the PlayStation 3 out-of-the-box and how this was a move to prevent piracy. These folks, who at least give the impression of being in touch with the hardware hacking scene, believe that making the PlayStation 3 open to other operating systems has kept it safe from the pirates. In a nutshell, the "smart" hackers open a system up and the "dumb" pirates then exploit the opening. By inviting the former group to play within some boundaries (certain PS3 hardware is still off limits from within PS3 Linux distributions) the latter group doesn't have a chance.
Now, that doesn't mean that the PS3 will never be hacked. All systems are hacked, eventually, I believe. But 14 months after the launch Sony is still secure. Every other system they've launched has been hacked to pieces, and they've lost out on at least some software licensing fees as a result. (I won't try to figure out how much, given how people argue that pirates would never have bought the games in the first place, that Sony might benefit from having more people playing software on its platforms, etc. etc. Perhaps we can all agree that it's at least greater than thr-- four dollars.)
Of course, the irony is that Sony finally had the right idea on the platform whose software fewer people actually want to play, much less pirate.
If you ask me, all the furore surrounding the HD-DVD gloom and doom buzzing around the internet can only be a "good thing" for Sony. It's all just further proof that the symbiosis between games console and media accessory is irrevocably complete and the resulting abomination is the future. And I'm not even going to begin to theorise about how the PS3 might have helped Sony's Blu-Ray empire.
Sony are probably going to use the news as a metaphorical ladder to climb towards their metaphorical goal in the universe, which is to sell the PS3 as a "lifestyle" console. This serves the dual purpose of inevitably infuriating people who spend a considerable chunk of their time browsing internet forums (i.e: me) and also generating a huge swathe of attention (case in point: this post) where the ensuing knock-on effect will cause some people to put down money and actually buying one.
There's got to be some fence sitters, who both want to adopt a HD format and not buy the next Betamax. This news will surely encourage them towards a PS3. Right?
Of course, there's the bigger picture. We all want to be seen as cool and Sony are no different. By touting their universally-panned fence-sitting jack of all trades black box as some sort of arbitrary accessory to life then Sony aren't just making a games machine for teenagers they're making something you're not ashamed of having in your living room. I'm sure that's the sort of general consensus that Sony are getting at. I'll bet you my right arm that's the kind of stuff they talk/make Powerpoint graphs about in business meetingsDon't get me wrong, Sony are no worse than the competition. After all, my 360 has spent the last three weeks slapping me round the face with news about how I can download movies onto my games playing console, provided it's not too busy randomly exploding and I can buy a sound system big enough to drown out the console's turbine engine.
I bet even Nintendo would do it if their little white brick was powerful enough.
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