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At a special Sony event a few hours ago in Japan, Sony debuted their sleek, sexy new PSP. Boasting a 5-inch screen (a PSP 3000 has a 4.2-inch screen), two analog sticks, 3G network connectivity, an OLED touchscreen, a touch-sensitive back panel, front- and rear-mounted cameras, tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls, backward compatibility with downloaded PSP games, and no UMD drive. Instead, the NGP (New Generation Portable, the current acronym of choice for the unit) will use a new memory card that stores games and game data with a large amount of flash memory.

Uncharted, WipeOut, Resistance, and LittleBigPlanet will each have games on the new platform, plus new games Little Deviants, Reality Fighters, Gravity Daze, and more. Even though the system cannot read UMDs, I assume that it can still read Memory Stick Duo cards, as it would take a major hit in the backward compatibility claim if it were not the case (I was unable to pinpoint this information). To demonstrate the NGP's backward compatibility to downloadable PSP and PS1 games, a Capcom representative played the recently-released Monster Hunter Portable 3rd on the system.

Many of you probably heard some leaked info about the "PSP2" a number of months ago. While much of that information has turned out to be true (dual analog sticks, touchscreen), none of the leaked pictures were accurate and several of the leak sources claimed that the PSP2 would have a UMD drive.

The new PSP will be out in Japan this holiday season. There is no current news on a release date anywhere else in the world. So plenty of time to save up, right?

Source: Basic info (Kotaku), Hands On (Kotaku), Additional info (Kotaku [again {sorry}])

If you've been at the forums recently, you not only know about the Square Enix 1st Production Department Premier, and you've probably also read some bits and pieces about the contents of the mini-exposition, too. For your convenience, though, we'll roll it up a bit for you here in the news section. Where we ask people to post new news and such!

Anyway, here's the big stuff. As just about everyone knows by now, there's going to be a Final Fantasy XIII-2, and it has a trailer already. This game's still not Versus. That's still its own game, and it has a new trailer too. And after all this time, that's still all it has. If that doesn't get you excited for its prospects, well, there's not much more I can do for you.

In other Final Fantasy XIII news, the game that we always knew as Agito is Agito no longer; the newly mentioned Type-0 is the new name. The other Final Fantasy XIII news is that Type-0 won't actually be a Final Fantasy game any more, but instead is the starting point for a new series.

Square Enix also showed Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix, which is an extended version of the Birth By Sleep game released last year. Previous Final Mix releases in the series have been Japan-only, and have mostly been Japanese releases of the American version, with a bit of bonus content.

The newest Kingdom Hearts will be coming out for Nintendo's new 3DS, and at this meeting, it got a name: Dream Drop Distance. You see what they did there? There are three "D"s in that name. It's on a 3-D system. Et cetera. Sora and Riku both will star.

Duodecim got some significant play as well, with new characters announced, including Gilgamesh. There's going to be a paid demo in Japan, and folks who buy the demo can get Aeris as an assist character in the full game. No word yet on whether that will be a possibility elsewhere, of course. The American release date was announced separately, too - the game will hit stores here on 22 March, for thirty bucks, and it's ready for pre-order on AmaCoN now, as is The 3rd Birthday, which happens to come out a week later.

Yeah, that's a lot of stuff for a meeting that only happened for about three hours. Not knowing Japanese, hey, I might have missed some stuff, too. Feel free to let me know in the comments.


Source: Kotaku, andriasang, Kingdom Hearts Insider

In case you don't already own one of the many, many PSP bundles released in Japan already (and, come on, who doesn't have at least two?), you might be interested to know that there's yet another one coming, this time for everyone's favorite Final Fantasy universe fighting game. Well, the sequel to everyone's favorite, at least. I expect that it will need to be at least released before it's everyone's favorite in general.

Anyway, it looks as if this bundle, in a striking black and white, features artwork by Yoshitaka Amano on the front and the Dissidia 012 [duodecim] logo on the back battery case. Naturally, it's the PSP-3000 model. This is the first bundle to be designed with Amano artwork, and only the second specially-designed bundle for a Final Fantasy game (the first being for Crisis Core) and third for Square-Enix (Star Ocean got one too).

No word yet on whether this one will make it to the West. Keep your fingers crossed, Dissidia fans, or pony up the 23,000 yen!

Source: Kotaku

The Playstation Network, or PSN, is getting a release that many people here may find interesting. Square-Enix, to celebrate the fact that their Twitter acheived 20,000 followers, is releasing Chrono Cross on the PSN. Here's the catch - it's only in Japan. There's been no confirmed release Stateside, but they probably won't be able to keep that away for too long. Chrono Cross, the sequel to Chrono Trigger (which CoN covers!), was last released on the PSX in 2000, and now is available mostly to old game collectors and emulators. This should open what many agree is a great game to the public again.

And, hey, this is perfect for me. I just finished Chrono Trigger (much to the amusement of CoNchat, until recently I'd only ever played FF7. I'm looking at you, DP). I've also heard some really good things about Chrono Cross, but also that you either love it or you hate it. So, when CC does eventually get released in the States, I imagine anyone who played Chrono Trigger on the DS will be snapping this one up too. You heard it here first!

Source: RPGamer, US Playstation Network

If the title doesn't quite grammatically add up for you, it isn't my fault. That's the currently-official title for what was previously known as the Fabula Nova Crystalis press conference.

The newly-named press event has a new date as well: January 18th, which is seven days later than the original. The name change most likely reflects the content of the event, which, from the beginning, was never going to be simply restricted to games falling under the Fabula Nova Crystalis banner. It seems to be Nomura's party, so we'll likely see whatever else he's up to (Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts 3D).

In addition, the event will now be open to fans. It's in Japan, of course, so that doesn't really have any importance to most of us. Since I have a sneaking suspicion that R51 won't pay for my flight over there to check it out first hand, I'll just keep posting details as I hear them.

Source: IGN, 1st Production Department Premier Site

Okay, readers, let's be honest. The majority of us have played Final Fantasy IV. A decent number of us have played it on more than one system. What with the SNES version, PSX, GBA, DS and Wii, that's five different ways to play! I know what you're thinking right now. "Only five? That's pathetic! Final Fantasy I has been released on at least SIX different platforms!" And you would be correct. Square-Enix, apparently realising this, have decided to bring four up to six. By that I mean, bring Final Fantasy IV up to six platforms, and not.... you know what, never mind.

So, my friends, here's the deal. Final Fantasy IV is coming to a PSP near you. HUZZAH! It'll be coming with Super-Turbo-HD graphics, in the same vein as the Final Fantasy I and II remakes from a few years ago and NOT the 3D graphics from the DS remake. No specific release date as of yet, only "Next Spring". That's quite close.

But that's not all. Remember the sequel to Final Fantasy IV, titled "The After Years"? It was originally released on mobile phones, and then released in installments on the Wii Shop Channel. This sequel will come included in the game with the same graphical enhancements. Booya. It is not clear yet whether the sequel includes all of the episodes with it, but one assumes that that would be the only way to go.

Some people might sigh, seeing this game remade for the forty-fifth time (see linked article), but 4 is one of the games that I never really get bored of. Now I'm going to have to find one of my copies of Final Fantasy IV and play it again. Squee.

Source: Kotaku