Release Dates: Eyetoy, GPS, PSOne, Video Calls, PS3 Connectivity *UPDATE*

Here’s something that caught the eye of just about everyone back at QJ. It’s a scan of what appears to be a UK PSP magazine that has appeared across the Internet. The magazine claims to know what dates the EyeToy, GPS, PSOne emulator, Video calling and PS3 connectivity will come into effect.

Although we cannot be sure what the dates actually mean as we don’t have a scan of the full page at our disposal, it is safe to assume the magazine has either predicted these dates or got them from a source inside Sony. According to the page, the PSP EyeToy adaptor will be the first of these new features to be available to the public, coming in as early as September. Then comes the GPS adaptor in October, followed by the long-awaited PSOne emulator also in October, along with video calling. PS3 support will bring up the rear in what we suspect will be a firmware launch around November.

This all seems great, but the question on the tongue of every homebrew fanatic out there at the moment is one of two: Will we be able to use the features somehow on firmware 1.5 (hopefully through using something like DevHook), and will these firmwares be compatible with Undiluted Platinum?

Its a sure bet that Sony will try their best to make 1.5 users upgrade with all these updates, and I can just see Sony making an order for an Undiluted Platinum modchip now to test out it’s functionality and figure out how to stop it working on future Sony firmware releases. Lets just hope that another developer will come along and rescue us,  just like Fanjita and Ditlew with the eLoader, MPH with his downgrader and Booster has with DevHook.

Update: Thanks to Link88 sending us some scans by “logic 3 keyboard”, we’ve got some more complete images of this article from the UK’s Official Playstation 2 Magazine, as well as some new details. Most of the information comes from the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing which states that 15 million PSP’s have been shipped across the globe, which they claim has made it “the fastest selling console ever”.

Aside from the peripherals mentioned above, Sony also plans to make the PSP Browser capable of watching streaming video over the internet, as well as the possibility to save these videos to the PSP for later viewing.

The GPS peripheral will interestingly enough have an impact on various games! In the next version of Hot Shots Golf the GPS will be used to determine your location and allow you to download game content only available for that area. The big surprise here is that Ken Kutaragi said that there are GPS-ready games “on shelves now.” Who knows, you may have one of these GPS-enabled games in your PSP right now. The magazine even hypothesizes that the GPS add-on could be used to track down nearby PSP owners for multiplayer madness.

Of course there’s a bit of talk about the PSOne emulator, mentioning that you’ll be able to download and save games to your memory stick using Sony’s “E-distribution system.” And as you can probably see clearly in the image, 7,000 PSone titles will be available for the PSP, including favorites such as Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy VII & VIII, Silent Hill, and Tomb Raider.

And last but not least, there’s a slight mention that the PSP will be able to be used as a controller for the PS3… and while that’s expected, I would suspect that it will be more of a peripheral than a “PS3 controller with a screen”.

Here’s something that caught the eye of just about everyone back at QJ. It’s a scan of what appears to be a UK PSP magazine that has appeared across the Internet. The magazine claims to know what dates the EyeToy, GPS, PSOne emulator, Video calling and PS3 connectivity will come into effect.

Although we cannot be sure what the dates actually mean as we don’t have a scan of the full page at our disposal, it is safe to assume the magazine has either predicted these dates or got them from a source inside Sony. According to the page, the PSP EyeToy adaptor will be the first of these new features to be available to the public, coming in as early as September. Then comes the GPS adaptor in October, followed by the long-awaited PSOne emulator also in October, along with video calling. PS3 support will bring up the rear in what we suspect will be a firmware launch around November.

This all seems great, but the question on the tongue of every homebrew fanatic out there at the moment is one of two: Will we be able to use the features somehow on firmware 1.5 (hopefully through using something like DevHook), and will these firmwares be compatible with Undiluted Platinum?

Its a sure bet that Sony will try their best to make 1.5 users upgrade with all these updates, and I can just see Sony making an order for an Undiluted Platinum modchip now to test out it’s functionality and figure out how to stop it working on future Sony firmware releases. Lets just hope that another developer will come along and rescue us,  just like Fanjita and Ditlew with the eLoader, MPH with his downgrader and Booster has with DevHook.

Update: Thanks to Link88 sending us some scans by “logic 3 keyboard”, we’ve got some more complete images of this article from the UK’s Official Playstation 2 Magazine, as well as some new details. Most of the information comes from the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing which states that 15 million PSP’s have been shipped across the globe, which they claim has made it “the fastest selling console ever”.

Aside from the peripherals mentioned above, Sony also plans to make the PSP Browser capable of watching streaming video over the internet, as well as the possibility to save these videos to the PSP for later viewing.

The GPS peripheral will interestingly enough have an impact on various games! In the next version of Hot Shots Golf the GPS will be used to determine your location and allow you to download game content only available for that area. The big surprise here is that Ken Kutaragi said that there are GPS-ready games “on shelves now.” Who knows, you may have one of these GPS-enabled games in your PSP right now. The magazine even hypothesizes that the GPS add-on could be used to track down nearby PSP owners for multiplayer madness.

Of course there’s a bit of talk about the PSOne emulator, mentioning that you’ll be able to download and save games to your memory stick using Sony’s “E-distribution system.” And as you can probably see clearly in the image, 7,000 PSone titles will be available for the PSP, including favorites such as Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Final Fantasy VII & VIII, Silent Hill, and Tomb Raider.

And last but not least, there’s a slight mention that the PSP will be able to be used as a controller for the PS3… and while that’s expected, I would suspect that it will be more of a peripheral than a “PS3 controller with a screen”.