What we want from the next PSP update

December 14th, 2006, 20:48 Posted By: wraggster

via pspfanboy

If you're like me, you were somewhat underwhelmed by the 3.00 update. Maybe it was all the rumor-mongering, but I expected the latest update to feature a lot more than simple PSP-PS3 connectivity. Hopefully, someone from Sony's reading this, because this is what I'd like to see from a 3.5 or a 4.0 update.

PHOTO

It's hard to think of any improvements to the PHOTO channel, but one cool thing I'd love to see added is some "Fun" options, a la Nintendo Wii's Photo Channel. Being able to play around with the photos would be a neat way of making this feature slightly more useful. And, it would be a heck of a lot easier to do a photo puzzle on the PSP than on the Wii. Probability: Very Low
MUSIC

One of the niftiest things about Microsoft's Zune is that it allows you to share music, with restrictions. I'd love to see something similar. Users can send self-deleting DRM-protected music files to each other. The tech is there in the PSP: why not take advantage of it? Probability: Very Low
VIDEO

Unrestricted MPEG-2 & MPEG-4 support. The PSP is capable of playing video files as large as 720x480 via UMD, so clearly the hardware can handle downscaling high-res movies. The UMD market is all but dead, so why not free up this restriction? This will make video playback between PSP and PS3 nearly identical. Probability: Medium
Support for Quicktime videos. Most of Quicktime's videos are encoded in a version of MPEG that the PSP can easily decode. We should be able to play .MOV files on the PSP. Probability: Low
Support for Windows Media video. Probability: Very Low
GAME

Downloadable PSP games via the PlayStation Store. Not just PSone games, but actual PSP games. Probability: Very High
Better organization: include three folders when accessing games on Memory Stick? "Demos," "PSone," and "PSP." If you're like me, your PSP's GAME folder is bustling with way too many different files. Better organization would help a lot. Probability: Medium
Save states in PSone emulation. A lot of other emulators (like the Wii's Virtual Console) let you simply create a save state to resume at a later time. The PSP should easily be able to do the same. Probability: Medium
NETWORK

PlayStation Store! It's absolutely ridiculous that you need a PS3 in order to download games for the PSP. They need to get the PlayStation Store onto the PSP, ASAP. Of course, the PSP's wi-fi isn't really fast enough to support 500MB downloads, so an alternative would be to purchase and download a license via PSP, and then download the appropriate game files via PC. Probability: Very High
Remote Play shouldn't make the PS3 inaccessible. With eight gazillion teraflops of power, you think the PS3 would be able to multi-task. Probability: High
Downloading resuming? How frustrating is it when you're trying to download a 200MB video to your PSP, only to have the connection drop? The PSP should be intelligent enough to allow for downloads to resume. (The fact that the PS3 doesn't do this either is absolutely ridiculous!) Probability: Medium

FRIENDS

Integrate the PSP into the PlayStation Network. You should be able to access your profile and messages via PSP. You could then chat or interact with other PS3 and PSP owners. Probability: High
Allow PSP games to use the PlayStation Network. One universal log-in across your PS3 and PSP online games would be absolutely fantastic. Probability: High

What do you think about my suggestions? What would YOU add to an upcoming PSP firmware revision? Feel free to add comments!

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