European gamers still have a little more waiting to do before they get their hands on the PlayStation 3, and compared to the November 2006 release of both the Japanese and US versions, its seems like ages. Sony remains confident that they will be able to meet the March launch date, despite speculation that further delays would be likely. A Sony spokesperson today told journalists, “[President of SCEE] David Reeves has confirmed again today that we are still on course for a March release.”

A spokesperson for SCEA confirmed:

“In a recent interview, Sir Howard Stringer stated that the launch for the PS3 in Europe and other PAL countries is slated for April. Sir Howard meant to say the launch was set for ‘this Spring.’ The release for the PS3 in Europe and other PAL countries remains March.”

In a previous interview, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said that “the European launch in April…is very important to us." European gamers will be glad to see the launch back on track.

Also Today, Sony’s Irish PS3 Web site quoted a price for the console of EUR 629.99 (approx USD 815/GBP 415) for the 60GB model, a higher amount than the previously confirmed price of EuR 599 (USD 775/GBP 395) for Europe. Sony stated that this was due to Ireland’s VAT rate, which is currently 21 percent, and not any pricing changes by Sony. The price for other regions will be announced next week.

Square Enix has announced the release of Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition and Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition for the PSP as part of the 20th Anniversary of Final Fantasy. To clear things up, these two games will not be ports of the originals but will include the gameplay system and scenarios from the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation ports, including the opening FMV sequences as well as a music player mode and monster gallery.

So what exactly makes this not a port? Simple, Square Enix has remade the sprites and backgrounds to fit on the PSP’s widescreen TFT and added new battle effects. The screen layout remains the same and the game will still be in 2D. Some may feel disappointed that Square Enix’s big FF Anniversary resulted in a few minor updates, however, it turns out that this is just the first of many projects. Square Enix executive producer Shinji Hashimoto says to look forward to April for more surprises.

Dark_AleX has updated Custom Firmware 3.03 OE yet again, Revision B of 3.03 Open Edition (OE) has full resolution support for MP4-AVC videos. Unlike the Official Sony Firmwares, OE-B supports full 480 x 272 resolution so you can watch your own views in “UMD-Video” quality. No special video players are needed since OE-B updates the native video player so you can watch full-screen videos directly from the XMB. In addition to this feature various bugs have also been fixed.

Here is a breakdown of the changes:

• Patched the firmware to allow decrypted MP4-AVC videos to play at 480×272 resolution.
• Problem with PIC0.PNG not being shown in PSP ISOs has been fixed.
• Problem with a few games not running at the selected speed from the recovery menu has been fixed.
• The structure of the program has been changed to free up more RAM for game mode.
• Docmaker now supports upto 1000 PNG images (up from previous limit of 100)

[Download]

The PSP is to become available in yet another colour. This time its Champagne Gold (PSP-1000 CG), bringing the total available PSP colour range to six. The new PSP will go on sale in Japan on February 22nd retailing for 20,790 Yen (inc. tax), which is approximately GBP 90/USD 175/EUR 135, which is quiet cheap for a [Base Pack] PSP. For a limited time only, the Gold PSP will be bundled with Monster Hunter Portable 2, which will be released in Japan on the same day. No details about a European or North American release so far, but Sony has mentioned a wider release if it is successful in Japan.

So, the full PSP colour range as it currently stands is:

• Black
• Ceramic White
• Silver
• Metallic Blue
• Pink
• Champagne Gold

[Via: PlayStation Japan]

The Official Sony 8GB Memory Stick (Sony Part no. MSX-M8GS) will be available to purchase in the US next month, with a heavy pricetag of USD 300. The advantage is more space on your PSP so you can store over 1,500 hi-resolution photos, over 18 hours of video or lots of games! The Memory Stick can be purchased from Official Sony Resellers, Sony Stores and online at Sony Style.

The Memory Stick will be compatible with PSPs running Firmware 2.81 or higher. Weighing only 2g and measuring 1.22″ long, its tiny and can fit entirely in your PSP, unlike the Datel 4GB PSP Hard Drive. How much porn will you be able to fit one it?

Dark_AleX recently updated his latest Custom Firmware, 3.03 OE-A, to OE-A2 (or A’). The minor update fixes a few bugs in the firmware while adding a new feature. Custom Firmware 3.03 OE-A was released only a few days ago and Dark_AleX is already working hard to correct bugs. To update to OE-A’, simply copy ‘oe_a2update’ folder onto your PSP and run the program. You must be running firmware 3.03 OE-A in order for the update to work, so if you are not already using 3.03 OE-A, install it before updating.

Here is a list of changes:

• Added CPU Clock selection for UMD/ISO games.
• Fixed various bugs regarding the recovery menu
• Fixed a small part of code in UMD emulation that was not multithread safe.

[Download]

Channel 4 is to deliver programming to the PSP via the Internet. Using Wi-Fi hotspots, PSP owners in the UK will be able to download various programs such as Channel 4 News, Celebrity Big Brother updates and radio podcasts. The initial content will be delivered in podcast form from the broadcaster’s new radio service.

The service is aimed at commuters who can log on for internet updates using hotspots operated by the Cloud Wireless Network. Access to Cloud hotspots costs GBP 11.99 a month on their monthly tarrif, but shows can be downloaded for free via the Channel 4 portal.

Nathalie Schwarz, director of Channel 4 Radio, said:

“Becoming the first broadcaster to make radio content available wirelessly on PSPs will help 4Radio connect with a young, mobile audience, making our programming easily available whenever and wherever they want.”

The BBC are ITV are planning to follow Channel 4’s example later this year by broadcasting live TV online. Both providers are to launch a “catch-up” service where viewers are able to watch any program broadcasted within the past seven days for free.

[Via: Times Online]

SCEE has officially released its own PSP formatted magazine for the PSP, called “The Magazine”. Just like any other PSP formatted magazine, it can be viewed using the PHOTO Menu on the PSP. The first issue was released on December 15nd, 2006 via the PlayStation Store found at YourPSP.com (not the one via the PS3) . Issue 1 contains reviews about various PSP and PS2 games including Killzone Liberation (PSP), Guitar Hero II (PS2), and several others. There is also an article about the new James Bond Movie, Casino Royale and a tribute to Singstar.

In my opinion, the magazine is good but lacks the quality seen in many of the independent magazines available on the Internet. It is a good try but improvement is necessary. We have no information on when Issue 2 is to be released but we will keep you informed. In the mean time, head over to the Your PSP Store and download a copy for yourself.

You must register to YourPSP.com before you can download any content from the store. The magazine is available for free, however, you must have your PSP connected to your PC as it will be downloaded directly on to it (using a Java Applet).

[Via: YourPSP Store]

Dark_AleX’s Custom Firmware 3.02 OE-A is now here, released just a few hours ago. The installation process is similar to that of 3.02 OE-A and involves the dumping of PRX files from Official Sony Firmware 1.5 and 3.03. The files needed can be extracted easily using oeupdatemaker supplied in the 3.03 OE-A Archive. Once complete, a new file ‘DATA.DXAR’ is created which is needed to run the actual update program ‘303eoflasher’.

Before installing, remember to read the instructions (found in ‘Readme.txt’) throughly before continuing so you are aware of the exact process. As always, there are risks involved when altering the firmware so ensure you follow instructions to the letter. We are not responsible for failed update attempts.

Screenshot

Change from Firmware 3.02 OE-B to 3.03 OE-A include:

• Added support for compression in PSX ISOs (look at PopStation documentation for more details).
• Added support for decrypted document.dat (PSX games manual) (look at docmaker documentation for more details).
• Fixed a bug regarding free region: a stupid bug caused it not to work at all.
  Now it should work, although it has not been tested due to lack of UMDs of different regions
  between the testers and me.
• Some generic bug fixes in the code.
• Now includes the SDK.
• Fixed some bugs that could cause the brick of Korean/Chinese/Taiwan/Singapore PSP when restoring default settings. To prevent this, the region of those PSP’s are faked to Japanese when fake region is disabled.
  For same reason, Korean region is removed from fake region.
• Added Australia/New Zealand and Russia to the regions to be faked.

[Download]

[Via: Max Console Forum]

UPDATE:

We have just installed 3.03 OE-A on our PSP and it works just fine. We have included a screenshot of the System Information (see above). Nothing has changes from the recovery menu that we have notices. We did try and play a Region 2 UMD Movie on our Region 1 PSP and it works, though we’re not sure how good the compatibility is with all the UMD Movies available.

Before running 303oeflasher, you may want to check the MD5 or SHA-1 hash of the DATA.DXAR file. The hashes are as follows:

MD5: 03186D46D2F1B0ACD923098BEBC87281
SHA1: 3C80833A970EEA16A94D74DAFF6220889A9CEE4A

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:

Creating the DATA.DXAR file

• Copy the’oeupdmaker’ and ‘oeupdmaker%’ folders to X:/PSP/GAME/ if you are using Firmware 1.50 or to
  X:/PSP/GAME150 if you are using whatever version of 2.71 SE or 3.02 OE.
• Download the 1.50 and 3.03 Sony Firmwares anc copy them to the ‘oeupdmaker’ folder with the names "150.PBP" and "303.PBP", respectively.
• Run the ‘oeupdmaker’ program from the XMB. This program won’t write to the flash, it will just create a file called DATA.DXAR in the
  same directory (oeupdmaker).
• The program will verify that the SHA-1 of the generated file is correct once the extraction is complete.
• Once that you have done this, you can save the DATA.DXAR file to skip this step in the future.
• The process of generating the DATA.DXAR file will only take a few minutes.

Installing 3.03 OE A to the Flash

• Copy the ‘oeflasher’ and ‘oeflasher%’ folders to X: /PSP/GAME or X:/PSP/GAME150 if you are 2.71 SE or 3.02 OE)
• Copy the generated DATA.DXAR file into the ‘oeflasher’ directory.
• Run the flasher from the XMB. If your battery is less than 75%, the program will display a error saying
  and will return to the XMB.
  • If you have battery problems, you can bypass this check, at your own risk, by executing the flasher program with triangle and the L-trigger pressed.
• The program will then show an agreement. Press X to continue the installation process flash the custom firmware, or R to cancel and exit to the XMB.
• If you accept, the program will flash the custom firmware. During the flashing process, DO NOT shutdown the PSP or remove the Memory Stick, doing either will brick your PSP.
• Once the flashing process is complete (usually takes a few minutes), shutdown the PSP and restart to 3.03 OE.

Updating to 3.03 OE A2

• This update should only be used on a PSP running Custom Firmware 3.03 OE-A
• Copy the ‘oe_a2update’ folder to X:/PSP/GAME150.
• Run the program from the PSP XMB. DO NOT shutdown the PSP or remove the Memory Stick until the update has complete.
• Once complete (update will only take a minute), restart the PSP.

Custom Firmware 3.02 OE version C will not be released according to Dark_AleX, who is instead working on Custom Firmware 3.03 OE-A, which we can expect within the next few days. Reports indicate that 3.03 OE-A will include ISO compression to be used with the PopStation, resulting is smaller PSX EBOOTS. Also included (as the name suggests) is the ability to run UMD games requiring Firmware 3.03.

No details have been released about any other features to expect, but ISO Compression, improved PSX EBOOT support and Firmware 3.03 Support is already good enough. The announcement about 3.03 OE-A was indirectly made on a forum post over at Max Console (See post #569 Pg 44).

Quote, posted by Dark_AleX on 02/01/2007 at 12:08 AM GMT:

“No need to change nothing in the app anyways, since i may start working in 3.03 OE tomorrow, and it should be ready next day.

[Via: Max Console Forum]