Hacking the PSP Blog

Dark_AleX OE Network Update Downloader coming soon from Xandu

Xandu has posted on DCEmu about an application he's working on that replaces the Network Update feature with one that downloads the latest update to Dark_AleX's Open Edition custom firmware. The only information that Xandu offered was that he hadn't released the application yet due to connection issues. Hopefully we get to see something soon!

Via DCEmu

Are hardcore gamers on the decline?

Ars Technica has an article by Frank Caron that takes a look at 2006 game sales and the possiblity that the number of hardcore gamers is decreasing, noting surprising sales figures for licensed games like Cars. From the article:

The demographic of the top 100 game sales by genre reveals expected numbers. Sports games and licensed games (e.g. titles based on licenses like Disney) were at the top of the list by a large margin, each with over 20 games of the top 100 of 2006. Action games and shooters followed with about 10 games each. Platformers, RPGs, racing games and others rounded out the bottom of the list. Likewise, publisher market share was hardly surprising, with EA taking the majority of the pie, followed by Nintendo, Take Two and Ubisoft. The report even documents release dates, which show an expected gravitation towards the holiday season.

As the report runs down the top 100 games by sales, though, things get a little more interesting. Despite the genre bar graph showing a high number of licensed game sales, I never really considered which titles were breaking the records. Surprisingly, Cars managed to take second place on the list of games sold. After Madden, Cars was the best-selling game of 2006. Though generally considered to be a triumphant waste of time and money, Cars demonstrates quite readily the power of a license in the place of competent gameplay. The game even managed to topple Lego Star Wars, which I would have expected to top the list, given its appeal to the hardcore and casual gamer alike. This surprised me.

Read the full article here...

Source: Ars Technica

StrmnNrmn Previews Daedalus R9 UI

StrmnNrmn has posted a screenshot on his blog of the new interface he's been working on for the next version of Daedalus. He notes:

Please don't read anything into the list of titles shown in the screenshot above! I haven't been working on compatibility in R9 (with the exception of a few PIF fixes), so it's unlikely that anything which was broken in R8 is now working. Once R9 is released I'll hold a straw poll to see if you want me to focus on compatibility in R10, and if so, which titles.

Source:  Retro Console Dev

Planet Moon No Longer PSP Exclusive

Early in the PSP's life cycle, Planet Moon Studios made news by becoming a PSP-exclusive independent developer. The idea at the time was that the company wanted to find a platform that would allow it to continue to make creative games, and because of various market factors, decided PSP was the one.

After a three game publishing deal with Majesco was cut short, however, the company had a chance to look over its options, and as we've just learned, is now moving away from simply working on Sony's portable.

"We're no longer a PSP exclusive developer," confirms Planet Moon chief operating officer Aaron Loeb. "One of the things that was funny was when we made that announcement, people assumed what we were announcing. They sort of read between the lines and assumed that we'd become a handheld developer, which was never our intention with it. The goal of Planet Moon when it was founded was to make original IP and it's still our goal as a company -- it's still our striving mission."

Read the full article here...

Matt Leone
February 31, 2007

Source: 1UP