1UP asked Shane Kim, Microsoft Corporate VP, about the possibility of Microsoft games appearing on handhelds. His answer? "We do it today. We don't publish those titles directly ourselves, we are creating intellectual property that have great appeal to customers of handheld devices. Whether you're talking about mobile or the DS -- you probably won't see it on the PSP, though."

Why the Nintendo love? Well, Microsoft wants to target the kids that seem to shy away from Xbox's older demographic. Get those kids hooked on their properties on the DS, and then hope to reel them over to the 360: "Nintendo's fine. Particularly when you talk about some of our titles from Rare. A Kameo or a Viva Pinata on a DS makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways from a franchise perspective."

However, wouldn't one of Microsoft's more mature properties, like Halo, fare better on a handheld that not only has better tech, but has an audience that would be interested in such a product? Unless Microsoft has handheld ambitions of their own ...

Every week PSP Fanboy brings you a great new podcast that you can use your PSP's RSS feature to subscribe to. We uncreatively called the feature RSS this!

It's time for a little shameless inner-joystiq self promotion. This week we're going to recommend you listen to Xbox 360 Fanboy's very own fancast. Every week the fancast will keep you up to date on all the happenings in the world of Xbox. Hosted by Richard Mitchell, Dustin Burg and David Dreger, the fancast features site news, Xbox developments, listener mail and also questions for listeners to ponder. As with any good podcast, there's humor mixed in with all the information and even if this was your only source for Xbox 360 news, it'd really be all you need.

While you may not own an Xbox 360 now, you'll probably own one eventually, so listen in. If you want to add the Xbox 360 Fanboy Fancast to your PSP's RSS, just bring up this site with your PSP through our mobile version at m.pspfanboy.com and click on this link: http://podcasts.xbox360fanboy.com/rss.xml Then you can exit your web browser and the show should be in your RSS channels. From there you can set a timer for auto-download of episodes, or stream them and save them to a memory stick.

Got something you have RSS'd and would like us to feature? Just let us know in the comments, or let other readers know what you think of the Xbox 360 Fanboy Fancast.

For all your port haters out there don't look now because the PSP is about to get a port of a port in the form of Sid Meier's Pirates!. In the game, which was originally released in 1987 and re-made in 2004 on the PC, then released in 2005 on the Xbox and is now scheduled to be released in January on the PSP, players take control of a pirate who must find his kidnapped family members, gain revenge and obtain lots and lots of booty.

"We love the new possibilities from handheld systems like the PSP," added Sid Meier, Director of Creative Development at developer Firaxis Games. "Pirates! for the PSP system allows players to shape the heroic life of a pirate while embracing the pirate's way of life -- always on the go!"

Thankfully, the PSP version, which will be published by Take-Two Interactive in North America and Europe, will feature some new features like new treasure hunts, widescreen display and four-player wireless multi-player, according to Gamespot. Pirates! is a game I always wanted to play on the Xbox but never got around to it, so I'm really hoping this version comes through.

The above PSP has all the bells and whistles. And by that, I mean it has crazy LED lights, joysticks and an Xbox jewel. MAXCONSOLE called it the "pimped PSP." That sounds about right.

The below PSP seems to be afflicted by a mysterious condition. Watch carefully, and then be shocked! It seems like this person received one of those bootleg Memory Sticks we warned about earlier.

If there's one thing I can say about the PSP's sales, is they've been holding steady at right around 20,000-25,000 each week for a good while now.

However, the DS Lite couldn't maintain its massive sales numbers it accumulated a few weeks ago when it sold nearly 275,000 units, which had more to do with Pokemon than anything else.

- DS Lite: 104,487 19,650 (15.83%)
- PS2: 24,727 3,537 (12.51%)
- PSP: 21,603 553 (2.63%)
- GBA SP: 2,299767 (50.07%)
- Xbox 360: 1,743 358 (17.04%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,714 441 (34.64%)
- Gamecube: 653 165 (33.81%)
- DS Phat: 273 13 (5.00%)
- GBA: 37 25 (208.33%)
- Xbox: 3 5 (62.5%)

The PSP doesn't have too many more releases this month with only Shinobido, Hot Shots Golf for GPS, Lost Regnum and Heaven's Will. It will be interesting to see if any of those games, especially Hot Shots, helps raise PSP sales the next couple weeks.

[Source: Media Create]

For the second week in a row, the PSP dropped in sales has dropped in sales. And to make matters worse, last week the DS Lite outsold the PSP by 107,000 units, but this week it increased its lead by outselling the PSP by 116,000.

1. DSL - 139,835
2. PS2 - 32,673
3. PSP - 23,118
4. GBASP - 2,145
5. GBM - 1,186
6. 360 - 1,109
7. NGC - 763
8. NDS - 316
9. GBA - 20
10. XBOX - 8

So far this year, the PSP has sold about 1.3 million units against the DS Lite's 4.5 million units. Couple that with the fact the PSP can't outsell the PS2, which has been on the market since Reagan was in office, and the future seems pretty bleak for our favorite handheld in the Land of the Rising Sun.

[Via Games Are Fun]
[Update 1: I've magically come and corrected the word "Japanese." Strange how no one caught that. - Andrew]

Well, look how the mighty have fallen. The Nintendo DS Lite, which is the PSP's biggest competitor, saw a 50-percent decline in hardware sales last week. Never mind sales numbers ... who cares about those anyway? It's all about percentages, baby.

The PSP surged on with a six-percent jump in sales that can most likely be attributed to Tales of Phantasia Full Voice Edition's total domination in the software sales chart.

- DS Lite: 113,831 115,108 (50.28%)
- PSP: 29,141 1,642 (5.97%)
- PS2: 19,882 2,821 (12.43%)
- GBA SP: 2,104 647 (23.52%)
- Game Boy Micro: 1,801 10 (0.56%)
- Xbox 360: 1,094 156 (12.48%)
- DS Phat: 1,058 738 (230.63%)
- Gamecube: 696 159 (18.60%)
- GBA: 13 9 (40.91%)
- Xbox: 5 5 (infinite%)
- Wii: 0 0 (0%)

The PSP needs to keep looking in its rear-view mirror, however, because the DS Phat also saw a big spike in its percentages with a whopping 230-percent increase. But, I expect this to be short lived due to its "teh suck."

Also, look at how crappy the Wii is selling. Hah hah, it's being outsold by the original Xbox and hasn't even sold a single unit! Those percentages look pretty bad.

(Via Joystiq)

Those damn Japanese are at it again with their never-ending obsession with the Nintendo DS Lite. Last week, it seemed the PSP was possibly staging a comeback, but a surge in DS Lite sales that almost topped 200,000 nipped any thought of that in the bud.

- DS Lite 196,719(19,866)
- PSP: 41,289(1,315)
- PS2: 26,547 (96)
- GBA SP: 3,051(822)
- Gameboy Micro: 2,031(265)
- Xbox 360: 1,204(1,042)
- Gamecube: 940(99)
- DS Phat: 934(596)
- GBA: 23(14)
- Xbox: 6(5)

I'm tired of thinking of reasons to why the DS Lite is handing the PSP its ass. Sony is going to have to do something to turn the momentum back in its favor very quickly, or any thought of winning in Japan will be lost. Maybe Sony can start by getting some games on its system that will compete with the DS Lite's. Oh well, there's always next week, right?

(Via PSP Advanced)