The UMD format has received a lot of criticism from both the games industry and movie industry, however, Sony isn’t going to adandon the format so easily. This stand was recently echoed by PlayStation Portable Senior Marketing Manager John Koller as he reiterated the different strengths (and weaknesses) of the format.

“UMD possesses many strengths, from size to form factor to portability. Duplication of UMDs is much easier, cheaper than cartridges. We’ve really optimized time and cost by going with a disc-based format. UMD is a unique medium to create games and developers need to understand that when tackling the system.”

He added, “There’s no question the biggest weakness is related to porting games from other platforms. Publishers are concerned about the size of UMD because they can’t cram a DVD game on to it”.

Given all these, the marketing manager explained that Sony really believes in the format and is not going to drop it. Koller shared, “We’ll never walk away from our base. Whether it’s movies or game content, third parties have an incredible opportunity to utilize it. The future of UMD is bright”.

According to Matt Brown, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment VP, “the launch of the PS3 had a had a tremendous impact on Blu-ray software sales across the board. Recent sales figures are a clear indication that the PS3 is seen as an entertainment device.” Figures announced by Sony Pictures strongly support the statement. According to the announcement, 180,000 Blu-Ray discs have been sold in Europe after experiencing a 1000 increase in sales since PS3’s launch back in March.

“Casino Royale” got special mention for being one of the biggest titles. Combining 500,000 copies given away to PS3 owners and the actual number of copies sold easily makes it the most widely distributed Blu-ray film to date.

XTREME PS3 is proud to announce the first issue of the XTREME PS3 Magazine. This is only a prototype issue to see how popular the magazine is and contains over 30 pages of content. The issue includes previews of Ninja Gaiden Sigma and GTA IV, reviews of Super Stardust HD as well as several articles related to the PS3. The magazine can be viewed on your PlayStation 3 or you can use a PC. Download it now and let us know what you think.

The magazine is viewable on the PSP but will require a lot of scrolling. Please let us know what you think of the first issue by posting comments or emailing us using the Contact Form. See below for a full summary of the issue:

• Previews:
  • Final Fantasy XIII
  • Ninja Gaiden Sigma
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
• Reviews:
  • Super Stardust HD
  • Rainbow Six: Vegas
• Features:
  • Yellow Dog Linux
  • Future of the PS3
  • Remote Play

[Download XTREME PS3 Mag Issue 1]

That time of the month has arrived! XTREME PSP Issue 25 is now available to download. The newest issue is packed with 100 pages of great content including previews of Final Fantasy I, Hot Pixel, and Transformers, reviews of Mega Man Powered Up and CRUSH, plus all the usual content. Also in the magazine is another music review, the results of our competition and a homebrew review.

Summary of Content

• Previews:
  • Final Fantasy I
  • Hot Pixel
  • Transformers: The Game
  • Star Wars Battlefront
  • Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes
• Reviews:
  • Mega Man Powered Up
  • CRUSH
  • Brooktown High: Senior Year
• Homebrew:
  • PiKey
• Music:
  • Foo Fighters

[Download XTREME PSP Mag Issue 25]

Dark_AleX is leaving the PSP Scene and as a result, 3.51 OE development has been seized. Dark_AleX’s website states that he will no longer continue developing Custom Firmware OE for the PSP because of various reasons. We were very suprised by this news since only a few days ago did Dark_AleX announce development on 3.51 OE. Dark_AleX will surely be missed because if his great contributions to the homebrew community.

Quoted from Dark_AleX’s website:

“Bye, scene.
I’ve decided to cease OE development, and leave PSP scene.
The reasons are various.
One of them is the time it consumes, which i’m losing from other things.
The other is related to my security. I didn’t like Sony menaces to PS3 hackers.
I think it is better to leave now rather than end paying the consequences.”

We would like to wish Dark_Alex good luck to whatever he decides to do in the future. Only one question remains: What will happen to the OE custom firmwares with the absence of Dark_AleX?

The recent Resistance: Fall of Man patch, which was released Friday, seems to have a bug in it. After updating the game, it is impossible to connect to the new WW servers of the game.
Numerous users are reporting across all forums boards, that after the update they cannot log into the new online server. When users try to connect they receive error: “Network Connection Failed”.

This is believed to be a bug in the recently released update. We suggest RFOM users with the game to NOT update just yet and wait for a fix if they enjoy the online play, if not go on right ahead. We are currently waiting for a fix from the Developers. We will update you on any new developments.

UPDATE (03/07/2007 at 3:54 AM):

It seems that there are no bugs with the patch. The connection error is specific to the PlayStation 3 and not the patch. If you experience connection problems please reboot your PS3 and check that you are connected to the Internet. We have tried to connect to the game server lots of times and we did not experience any problems.

According to a post on the Devsgen PSP forums, Sony has included an official ISO loader in PSP Firmware versions 3.50 and 3.51. The loader is called np9660.prx and will apparently let PSP users load ISO files off their memory sticks. Once again, this feature wasn’t mentioned in the official change log, but it could be because Sony is planning to allow ISO downloads in the future.

Sony could be planning to release downloadable PSP titles either through PSN or a similar service geared exclusively for the PSP. The company has already mentioned earlier this year that a download service for the PSP is in the works.
French PSP news site PSP-Generation also notes that Dark_AleX and Mathieulh will be patching the np9660.prx file for use in Custom Firmware 3.51 OE.

Dark_AleX will not be releasing Custom Firmware 3.50 OE, as previously reported. Instead, Dark_AleX is working on Custom Firmware 3.51 OE to save time and utilize Sony’s most current firmware version for the PSP handheld system.
There has been no time frame yet for when 3.51 OE will come out, but rest assured that we’ll be reporting it as soon as it does.

So far, the features of Custom Firmware 3.51 OE are still unknown but hopefully we will have more details closer to the release.