News Blips: PSP2 has 3G, no achievements for the 3DS, Phoenix Wright as DLC for MVC3, and more

All the excitement belongs to handhelds these days. I guess the home consoles missed the memo that it is time for their bidecadal generational transition.

News Blips:

According to Nikkei in Japan a leaked report confirms that the PSP2 will have full 3G data capabilities. The 3G in Japan will be provided by NTT DoCoMo, the nation's largest mobile service provider. Don't mistake this to mean that the PSP2 is the same thing as the fabled PSP Phone. The Android-powered mobile handset is still a wholly separate device that will play games and allow gamers to make phone calls -- something the PSP2's 3G won't allow. The 3G connection will allow for game downloads and online play. Expect all the details to shake out in the near future -- this is Sony after all, and if they don't announce it, just wait for the leak. [Andriasang]

The Nintendo 3DS won't support achievements. "[Nintendo's developers] don't tell you how to play their games in order to achieve some kind of mythical award," said Bill Trinen, Nintendo of America's head of product marketing. There it is. Nintendo is back to not understanding things that they didn't create. Al Gore invented the Internet, like, a hundred years ago and the Japanese company still hasn't done that right. Bill Gates invented achievements a couple years ago, which means it'll be a long time before Nintendo even admits such things exist. By the way, Bill Gates first achievement? Achievement Unlocked: "See a girl naked" -- can you believe that was only six years ago? [What They Play]

Phoenix Wright could be included in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 as DLC down the road -- if the game gains an audience. "Phoenix Wright is obviously a famous franchise - especially in Europe," MvC3 producer Ryota Niitsuma said in an interview with Videogamer.com. "It would be interesting to see him, although he distinctively lacks the number of moves he might have [in a fighting game]. But if Marvel vs. Capcom 3 does well, he's definitely up on the list as one of the characters to add, given the chance." It would be neat if Phoenix Wright could use litigation to win his matches. Instead of throwing fireballs, he could serve lawsuits to characters like Cammy for lewd acts and indecent exposure.

Team Meat reveals the winner of their Russian box art competition, and it's Sovietastic. The "Please make the Russian cover box so I don't have to" contest was started by Team Meat to get a fan to design what will become the cover of the printed Russian version of Super Meat Boy. I don't know why they just don't download the game on Steam like everyone else, unless in Soviet Russia, game downloads you! The competition received 166 entries, and all of them will be included on a limited-edition CD due out in February.

Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.

(7)

Chris Cosmo Ross

January 24, 2011

Jeff, if you were a game, I'd download you. I'd download you REAL slow...on my dial-up modem. I may or may not back you up on my external hard drive, but I definitely would NOT make pirated copies of you.

Diep Thai

January 25, 2011

I usually skim through if not outright skip News Blips since I see enough of them on other sites. I had no idea one could write such opinionated news. Your thoughts on Nintendo's stance against achievements caught my eye.

Maybe I don't understand something I didn't create either but what's so wrong about leaving achievements out?

Jeff Grubb

Diep, there is nothing wrong with Nintendo's stance beyond the fact that I like achievements and I'm the one writing the news blips... and I mean that sincerely and not in the dickish way that it reads.

I want to catch eyes, so just the fact that we're stopping to talk about this tells me that I'm doing my job.

@Cosmo... that is the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.

... unless my girlfriend is reading this.

Corey Foster

Nintendo's contrarian stance on achievements keeps on being puzzzling. And annoying.

They seemed so cozy with putting it within their games for a while (Metroid Prime Trilogy, Smash Bros. series), but not as a metafeature? Same suit, different damn color; either of which they'll be wearing to their funeral if they keep resisting industry trends for the sake of identity.

Oh, so it's just the way News Blips roll. I can accept that.

As for Nintendo's stance I don't see them going down for not accepting one industry trend. After all they've been going against pretty much all trends this generation and still won (at least financially). Achievements have done many good things but with it many good things have also disappeared. I won't miss them on 3DS, provided I even get the whole system, recent worries have me a bit troubled.

January 26, 2011

Probably on point with them not going anywhere (and pardon my previous polemics to the contrary); Pokemon keeps the master's house a safe one. Also, while I do agree that Nintendo's past reflects a tendency for taking the road less traveled, I can only count on one hand the times it's served them well in the long run. Good for them that they know how and are willing to set the trends; bad for them that they're a company that ignores all other trends while Sony, MS and Apple bear no such compunction. Then we get the highly entertaining PR that results whenever Nintendo gets called on it: "There is no elephant in this room. Actually, we're not even sure of the existence of elephants. Or rooms."

Sure, having the biggest sack in the business can help move things forward, but what's the use if it's constantly being stepped on? Come to think of it, that'd make pretty concise title for a potential documentary. "Nintendo: 100 Years of Tripping Over One's Own Balls."

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