If the rumours are correct, Sony will lift the lid on PSP2 – arguably the industry's worst kept secret – later this week in Japan. And Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens has further fuelled speculation by telling Eurogamer that suggestions the console is as powerful as PS3 are "true".

Speaking to us at last week's Nintendo 3DS event in Amsterdam, industry veteran Cousens said, "We're at the tip of the iceberg" of portable gaming, as "mobile phones have only just got going" - with 3DS and PSP2 set to join the fray.

On the subject of Sony's next handheld – whose existence has never been officially confirmed by the company – Cousens said: "In portable areas, you're going to have statements, which are already out in the press, saying PlayStation Portable 2 is as powerful as the PS3 - which is true.

"So you're going to get mobile devices as powerful as what were considered notebooks. I just think it gets bigger."

The PSP2 is said to have touch controls on the reverse of the unit and 3G support that enables gamers to play online games and download software and movies. It is expected to release this year.

Meanwhile, the UK publisher boss was full of praise for 3DS, arguing that its arrival "jump-starts the industry this year - I think it's going to be absolutely enormous and open software opportunities for the creative process".

On the price of the hardware, Cousens said he didn't expect it to "take too long for that to fall below the £200 mark," adding: "Presumably there's margin in there for them to do that."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...owerful-as-ps3 ...

More than half of GAME's customers trade in their old games to help buy new games.

Trade-ins were huge over Christmas, Group CEO Ian Shepherd told MCV.

"Even in the run-up to Christmas, when you would think most of our customers are buying games new in order to give them as gifts, you still have a lot of trade-in happening," Shepherd said.

"Around 50 to 60 per cent of the time, when we were selling a brand new game we were taking in a trade-in against it."

Shepherd's comments are sure to interest game publishers, many of which blame pre-owned sales for their financial woes.

THQ is one publisher that has attempted to combat used game sales.

Upcoming shooter Homefront will block used game buyers from progressing past level five in multiplayer.

EA's Online Pass requires users to redeem a one-off unlock code to access online features. Without it, a fee must be paid to play online.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...fund-new-games ...

42 per cent of all games sold for Xbox 360 motion-sensing add-on Kinect since launch were created by UK developers, new figures from UKIE/GfK Chart Track show.

The best-selling Kinect game by far is Kinect Sports, created by the Microsoft-owned, Twycross-based studio Rare.

Kinectimals, another Kinect launch game, was created by Cambridge-based UK studio Frontier Developments.

The UK accounts for 30 per cent of all PlayStation Move software unit sales since launch, UKIE said.

Meanwhile, UKIE points out that this week's number one game, LittleBigPlanet 2, was created by another UK developer: Guildford's Media Molecule.

Director general Michael Rawlinson said: "The array of strong products that our home-grown, UK talent is producing is something we can all be proud of. This just shows how our UK developer base remains one of the best in the world, and can continue to step up to the plate as the market develops and platforms evolve."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ect-games-sold ...

Consumer rights group Gamers' Voice plans to report Activision UK to the Office for Fair Trading for the "never-ending list of problems" gamers have found within the PC and PlayStation 3 versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops.

A formal complaint will be submitted to "the relevant government agencies that protect consumer rights in the UK" this week, Gamers' Voice pledged.

The decision follows the publication of an open letter to Activision UK detailing the many problems found within the best-selling game of all time. Gamers' Voice claims the open letter was ignored.

In December last year developer Treyarch admitted there were problems with the PS3 version and pledged to do something about it.

"We are aware that many online players have been experiencing connectivity issues since Tuesday's patch," wrote Black Ops community manager Josh Olin on the official forum.

"Forum feedback has been tremendously helpful. In fact, we've been on the forums, monitoring feedback and in a number of cases, working with community members directly, so please keep the feedback coming.

"In the meantime, know that we're committed to doing everything we can to support the best online experience, and we're working quickly to resolve this issue."

Patch 1.04, released earlier that week, promised to fix plenty of problems - NAT issues and spawn worries among them. The unwelcome reality, however, was the exacerbation of connectivity issues in PS3 online multiplayer.

"Clearly, CODBLOPS was the one of the biggest, if not the biggest releases of last year, which obviously leads to more people playing and more chances for bugs to be found," Gamers' Voice said.

"Our view is that it doesn't matter how big a game is, it should not be released 'unfinished' or with bugs that make the game unplayable, which are words we have seen in a lot of emails to us recently."

The group added: "Problems arise when, in the case with CODBLOPS, entire sections of the PS3 and PC gaming community are apparently being used as game testers for an extended period after a game's release, yet being asked to pay for the privilege. This is not a tenable way to treat us as consumers of videogames and it will not be tolerated."

Eurogamer has asked Activision for comment.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ack-ops-to-oft ...

News via http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/...ZVIHcKeJoX.php

Team FSD released a new W.I.P. build of FreeStyle Dash v2.0, the alternative dashboard for homebrew/JTAG 360s.
Today they released RC1.7 (Rev 2151), available as independent download or if you already have FSD2 you can use the build-in updater.

What's new/fixed:
(Added) HTTP Download Resuming for interrupted Asset Downloads
(Added) System Extended Partition to the Mount List
(Added) Content Extraction Resuming for interrupted Asset Extraction
(Fixed) Issue where extracted xbox 360 games without nxeart would still have icon downloaded despite settings
(Added) ContentHash to ContentItem to make each content item completely unique each scan
(Added) HTTP Queue to database to support http resuming in all modules
(Updated)Added new setting for weather
(Added) Ability to disable auto scanning
(Added) Toggle Setting for HTTP Download Resuming
(Added) Setting for WeatherLocationName to the database
(Added) Weather
(Added) Weather Location Search
(Added) Clear Skin Data Button
(Fixed) Double focus issue in icon game list
(Updated) Kinect Icon Gradient
(Updated) Weather to support Imperial and Metric Units
(Updated) Kinect icons to closer match retail
(Added) Weather unit setting to DB
(Added) XML Error check to weather. If a key returns invalid it will attempt to get the info with another key.
(Updated) Changed all Weather icons to dds for loading speed increase.
(Updated) Kinect tab background
(Updated) File Manager re-done. Can do actions either way or in either window.
(Fixed) Copying folders in new File Manager.
(Fixed) Root at top when of file strucutre
(Fixed) Hide LB and RB Buttons when processing copy.
(Fixed) folder copy on move.
(Fixed) Focus Bug in Canvas Config Scene
(Fixed) Focus Loss Bug in Change Log View- made all buttons exit scene.
(Fixed) Prior text in Content Settings (fine tuned)
(Added) Weather Icon Set
(Updated) Added Weather Icon to PSD
(Fixed) Deleting package in root deletes Whole Hard Drive.
- Now lists path and says will delete it all.
- Containers only delete file not folders.
(added) Arrows for file manager
(Added) quite a bit more to the samba support (requesting and storing credentials) [It's almost done now]
(Added) scenes for getting samba credentials
(Fixed) FileBrowser was showing Samba passwords in path
(Deleted) Skin folder
(Added) New Skin
(Updated) Basic files
(Added) Main Scene scene
(Updated) PSD Files
(Updated) Skin
(Updated) Fonts to Xui reduced format
(Updated) Top/Bottom Bar Mock Up
(Added) ability to override stored samba credentials (hold the back button while selecting a samba folder that has stored credentials)
(Fixed) progress dialog in filemanager showing stored passwords as part of the path
(Fixed) message box asking if you really want to delete a file showing stored passwords as part of the path
(Added) Ability to turn on/off samba client in general settings scene
(Added) code to support turning on/off samba client. Samba client is now officially part of the dash. Remember, clicking smb: the first time each session will take some time as your network is scanned for shares.
(Fixed) Make samba credentials scene skin-able (don't hardcode skin name)
(Added) ability to set the samba workgroup to the general settings scene
(Added) ability to specify samba workgroup
(Added) Multi Font support
(Updated) Main
(Fixed) Crash on copy from or to root. Cant do it now.
(Fixed) Con Launching.
(Updated) SMB Credentials Scn
(Updated) DualPane Scn
(Added) Multi Font support for skins
(Fixed) wstring issue in credentials
(Fixed) Focus bug in Credentials Scn
(Fixed) Wrong Setting shown when content settings is first opened
(Added) Check for root for makedir, delete and rename
(Added) New Date format
(Added) New HDD Labels
(Added) Percentage Label for HDD
(Updated) Top Status bar almost complete
(Fixed) Credentials scn values not set on init
(fixed) Notify on rename
(fixed) Notify wording for copy and move
(fixed) Transfer in titleupdate manager says transferring
(fixed) end samba workgroup to enter samba workgroup
(Fixed) In ftp CWD \ could crash FSD
(Changed) File Manager always resets both source and destination to the root
(Added) Animated clock
(Updated) Status bar with version 2 for new skin handling

Official Site: http://www.teamfsd.com (#FreeStyleDash on EFnet) ...

News via http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/...luXLjrFgYj.php

Zouzzz released a new version of UpdateSPY, this programs allows you to download each Microsoft update and will give detailed information about each kernel/dash update (release date, burns fuses, size, files details, ...)

What's new/fixed:
* Added 2.0.12625.0 with Avatar
* Changed download code with a more clean one
* New lay-out/look ...

News via http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/...FkdUhFXUma.php

XZP Tool v1.0 has been released - a tool that allows you to easily packaging and unpackaging the xzp file type that is used for skins in freestyle dash:
[QUOTE]
Features

* Opening - There are a few different ways to open an xzp. Use File>open file, hit the Open file button, drag/drop it onto the app, or right click it in the listview and hit open.
* Extracting - Once an XZP is open in the app you can extract it by hitting extract to and selecting a folder to extract to.
* Building - To build an XZP, either hit the Build button or right click a folder in the directory view, then select a version to build, and select a save file name.
* Converting - To convert the open xzp , hit convert then choose a version to convert to.
* Add File - To add a file to the root of the xzp, hit add file and select a file. This just automates extracting, copying the file over, then rebuilding. (note that this updates the open file).
* Add Folder - Adding the folder is the same as adding a file, hit add folder and select the folder and that will be added to the root of the xzp.
* Test - To test that an xzp extracts properly hit test. This will extract it temporarily to the same folder and displays any errors that occurred, then delete it when done.
* Save Copy - To save a copy of the open file hit save copy and select the new file to save it as.
* Delete - To delete the open xzp hit delete and confirm you want to delete it.
* Logging - A log is kept on the right side, to clear it right click and hit clear.
* Refreshing - To refresh the directory view right click a folder and hit refresh. ...

News via http://forums.qj.net/psp-development...-9-signed.html

Tripprog is a fun little program I've written that produces a hallucination-like effect. It generates ten random numbers; three for the background color, three for the foreground color, and four for the foreground's dimensions. I wrote something I'm really happy with, almost exactly how I want it. I thought I'd post it.

Features:
Pause function
Custom background editor
Grayscale effect
GPL-friendly

Tripprog makes a good music visualizer, and a good background for other PRX plugins. Tripprog has been signed for official firmware 6.37 or lower, without any hacks or exploits. Download links are below. There is one small bug, when you set a custom background color without grayscale, and then toggle to grayscale, your custom color will be overwritten with the neutral color. ...

News via http://forums.qj.net/psp-development...at-client.html

YamaIRC is an Internet Relay Chat(IRC) Client for the Zune HD and PSP devices.

It currently supports all the basics of IRC from PM's to Actions(/me) to Joining/Parting Channels. It features Multi-Channel support, Selectable User Lists, Built In OSK, MyChannel Private Messaging Window, New Message Alerts, and more.

This is only a beta release, bugs are to be expected, let me know about em, and ill do my best to fix everything.

My Forum can be found at Evolved Entertainment • Index page

Change Log: Replaced wifi connect screen with official wifi screen. (Should fix everyone who couldnt connect there wifi.) ...