GPS games could be heading your way next year
It only took, y'know years, but American PSP owners will be able to enjoy GPS navigation some time next year. Not only will the platform support navigation and maps, as expected, but John Koller wants to offer something a bit more. SCEA is investigating game development which can take advantage of GPS technology. Koller told MTV Multiplayer the upcoming peripheral "changes the dynamics of GPS but also changes the way developers think about games on PSP because you can start integrating GPS into it." According to Koller, Sony will introduce the GPS solution to third party publishers and is currently brainstorming ideas within its first-party studios. "There's been a number of things that our first-party worldwide studios have looked at, and they've been trying to look at different options," he said.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
7-22-2008 @ 3:25AM
Hashbrown Hunter said...
One really cool and addicting way they can use that like in MGS: Portable Ops where you get a unique soldier per hotspot connection.
Once you reach a certain location in your area (a mall, park, etc.) you are rewarded somehow. It would be kind of cool.
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7-22-2008 @ 3:39AM
Dustin said...
Like golf courses?
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7-22-2008 @ 4:34AM
c.Lake said...
oh...kay...
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7-22-2008 @ 4:38AM
daniel-kun said...
There's virtually nothing fun you can do with GPS. It's absolutely stupid to even come up with the idea....
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7-22-2008 @ 9:41AM
Alexis said...
How can you be sure? Are you a software developer? Bitch, please what's with the attitude.
7-22-2008 @ 9:41AM
Alexis said...
How can you be sure? Are you a software developer? Bitch please watch out with that kind of an attitude.
7-22-2008 @ 11:56AM
Christopher said...
I take it you've never been geocaching before?
7-22-2008 @ 2:57PM
Joker said...
Hey, you have no designer mind. You know what would make for a really cool concept.
Have you watched parkour vids? Imagine you have some virtual monster chase at you (which obviously shows up in the gps), and you have to use your enviroment to escape this "tag".
It would combine my two of my favorite activities, parkour and games.
7-22-2008 @ 3:02PM
Joker said...
I forgot to mention it would make a very dangerous activity, for both you and your psp, but anyway, I would play no matter what.
7-22-2008 @ 3:26PM
Joker said...
Actually, you could be the tag too. And it could be expanded to a multiplayer tag, the tag knows the location of every other player, but they dont know where it is. It would make for a very "moved" game. There wouldnt be a safe place to hide. You could also have virtual flags.
The key here is to relate the psp with the enviroment, and take it further.
There are so many possibilities! I wish i was a developer for sony..
sry for triple post, I get carried over easily :P
7-22-2008 @ 8:05AM
brad said...
Am I going to have upgrade to the Slim in order for the GPS to work?
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7-22-2008 @ 8:11AM
Alien said...
@brad : no , the EU GPS works with old PSPs to ;)
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7-22-2008 @ 8:31AM
strike said...
Check your mail Andrew
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7-22-2008 @ 8:31AM
strike said...
Check your mail Andrew
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7-22-2008 @ 8:32AM
Dr. Strangepork said...
The concept for having a GPS on my PSP is exciting (ok, interesting) but the price point I'm seeing come out of Europe is less so.
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7-22-2008 @ 9:57AM
andy said...
will it work psp 1000 owners or just 2000 owners?
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7-22-2008 @ 10:51AM
SparkyJ23 said...
While thats a nice idea and all can you image the delays localising a game to individual parts of countries?
it took em 6 months to localise Crisis Core from American to English ( yes it is the same language..)
How about instead of talking about vapourware we actually get some games?
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7-22-2008 @ 10:57AM
Joe said...
Well this could make some really cool games. May be even take some of the DS players too. I could see this opening up many ideas for the PSP. May be even bring in more dev because they want to try and make some thing really neat. I also wonder if there would be a built in GPS version of the PSP. Seeing as over at kotaku they have some pictures of the PSP 3000 and it comes with a mic and I could see this being built in too.
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7-22-2008 @ 11:37AM
mercurywa said...
What would be nice is if they can hook up with a site like http://www.geocaching.com/ and build a game/app based on that.
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7-22-2008 @ 11:38AM
zoltari said...
Remember the Gizmondo? GPS games were just terrible in general (mind you, that whole system was terrible) BUT there was one game, a very simple maze game, where you had to run around outside and the GPS tracked your relative position and moved your character on screen - it was quite fun. It also made you a damn sight fitter than Wii fit! If you had two players (two Gizmondos) it was excellent.
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