Wow, gotta love gimmick game accessories.

Dear Sony: We the fans want better games for the PSP, not these gimmicks (Didn't you say at E306 you are not into gimmicks?). If you haven't noticed, you are a good 10+ million units short of the DS.

If the Wii controller will make you tired, this'll kill you. I can take three hours of arm-swinging, but I shouldnt have to get up and walk around outside while playing a game.

Besides, youre going to be looking at the screen, not at the surrounding area. Hopefully youll have to go to an area and itll let you sit there for several hours, because if you have to move around constantly while playing, I envision a lot of stubbed toes...

"Beside, you're going to be looking at the screen, not at the surrounding area."

And then you get hit by a car.

How are they ging to cover their asses on this one?

If it works without any major issues, I'll definitely buy it so I can make my way through the city since I don't know the roads that well.

Who in their right mind, except like one person, will actually use this at a golf course. If I took this out of my pocket while I am playing a 9hole, they would kick me out of the club easily (luckily i dont have to pay for this crazy expensive club)...

I really think Nintendo should get on this with the DS. The golf thing would definitely appeal to a business crowd with a large disposable income who would think nothing of dropping 200 bucks for a sleek DS Lite with a GPS. The stylus would be perfect for a scorecard function. This is probably the market or group that most believes video games are for kids, or dangerous- I don't know... middle-aged republicans? Anyway, they have lots of money, and if you hook them with the golf function, you know they'll be playing brain age next, a pink DS for the wife at Christmas, etc.

Hire me, Nintendo, that's some damn fine strategic planning.

I think it is time that we see the PSP as what it is, a multimedia device that also plays games. That way, news like this are going to sound pretty cool and interesting.

Sounds awesome, I don't know my streets so well and with my PSP in my car as a music player this will definitely help.

I always thought there was a fine line between 'innovation' and 'gimmick.' I figured it was a distinction one couldn't really make until at least a few implementations had come to market, so as to actually judge the validity and potential of the new method.

I didn't realize that all you really had to do was check the company name to know, even before the thing in question even came to market. Touch screens and motion detection: innovations. GPS use: gimmick.

Thanks, gaming community, for making things so much easier.

The PSP can do so much... Well, crap. Who needs all of it, anyways?

"Only you darn tech savvy teens!!"

Yeah. I don't know who said that, but it was probably somebody a lot older than me. But seriously, who needs all the stuff Sony has pushed out for the PSP?

I don't think you can call the GPS add-on a gimmick as it isn't being forced onto developers, like the touchscreen or motion sensing. :) Some of the best DS games use the stylus at a minimum(and often as just a cursor) but I digress...

If MGS wants to use it for some stupid reason, let them. It's not required for play.

Personally, I like this addition. I often have to print out directions from MapQuest whenever I go on road trips or just around town, it'll be nice to just toss my PSP in my car and go. I hope it has vocal indications for turns and such - if not I'll just have to make GF learn to use my PSP without breaking it. :p

This would be neat except, well, useless. I want to like this, I really do. I still play my PSP as often as I can find a game worth even playing a little bit. (And because I still haven't found a black DSLite in stock.)

This looks to have the same problem that Talkman had.

I picked up Talkman because it looked like some gimmicky fun and might help with my Asian languge learning. Well it was gimmicky all right, but not much fun. As a language tool it was dead slow (needing access the UMD) and when I need a quick phrase it was always faster to pull out a pocket language guide (or real electric dictionary) than yank out this huge brick and spend a few minutes loading up the proper mode, then have it no know any of the words/phrases that were needed. (If I had to do a cold boot it could take something like 5 minutes to get into translation mode.)

GPS is wildly popular in Japan, but most everyone who wants GPS has one, usually built into the car, or part of their phone, which is smaller, more convenient, and hooked up to network services ("email my current position") and without the horrible boot up and load times.

And the US, GPS isn't popular because... why would it be, except for a few people who travel unto uknown areas often and geocachers and off trail hikers, no one needs it. Plus I'd love to see how they put decent GPS info for any significant part of the US on a UMD.

Maybe this would go over in Europe, I don't know what the GPS adoption rate is there.

I don't think you can call the GPS add-on a gimmick as it isn't being forced onto developers

gim‧mick  /ˈgɪmɪk/
-noun
an ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, esp. one designed to attract attention or increase appeal.

The GPS addon is a gimmick by definition. I can only think of one logical reasons why they are ignoring their consumers, and that it is because they knew they have lost this generation of the handheld market, and trying to profit off the non gaming capabilities of the PSP.

What I don't get is why is Kojima still supporting this piece of shit? Oh I forgot, he is on Sony's payroll and will do whatever they said (we call these kind of people bitches).

If they price this right, I'll be all over it. If they throw it out there at $150+, I'll just wait til Sony abandons it and pick it up at BigLots. A few months after I got the PSP, I was wondering if it was my worst gaming purchase ever. Now, after a few decent games finally (Tekken 5, Lego 2) and what looks like a hardware commitment from Sony it looks like the pressure falls back on the 360.

"only in japan" - SOB!

I don't know, you can scream gimmick all you want, but until recently, I really didn't want a psp. I'm more of an rpg/platformer/turn based player, and as such, it hasn't really appealed to me. With the recent (non-gimmick) announcement of Oblivion, and the gps add-on (as long as it isn't too annoying of an add-on) I can see myself becoming more and more interested. I don't really care if this is some ploy to get niche gamers/non-gamers to buy their product, it's marketing, and they are doing it just like every other company out there.

I think this is mostly targeted towards a Japanese audiance. Theyve got the urban sprawl to make something like this worth it.

hmmm, I'll pass on this one. Still don't really see the point of it in relation to gaming. As far as PSP gaming goes, I'm still feeling Tekken, Wipeout and Armored Core (being a late adopter) But Monster Hunter Freedom has been in my PSP since I bought it a month ago and I'm loving it.

It's not perfect (crappy camera control, load time can be annoying, button layout can cause cramps) but it's DEEEEP. I'll be playing it for 150+ hours at least.

Are there any other games slated to use the GPS thingy?

Also, are there any movies of it in the wild?

gim‧mick  /ˈgɪmɪk/
-noun
an ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, esp. one designed to attract attention or increase appeal.

The GPS addon is a gimmick by definition. I can only think of one logical reasons why they are ignoring their consumers, and that it is because they knew they have lost this generation of the handheld market, and trying to profit off the non gaming capabilities of the PSP.

ac‧ces‧so‧ry  /ækˈsɛsəri/
-noun
1. a subordinate or supplementary part, object, or the like, used mainly for convenience, attractiveness, safety, etc., as a spotlight on an automobile or a lens cover on a camera.

The GPS is an ACCESSORY to a device. It is not required, it is not needed, it is only there for the people who are interested in such a device. It would be a gimmick if they started bundling it with all PSP's and require games use it, but they arn't. So as it stands it is nothing different than a new set of head phones or the GBA camera for example. It is just a accessory that adds a new level to a device that has always been billed as a multimedia/multi-functional device.

And all this with a 18 minute battery life. Did they even consider that? This thing has to suck some major battery power. It takes a lot of power to use GPS. My (expensive) Garmin Nuvi only has a 5 hour rating and all it does is GPS. It has a big powerful LI battery too. The device has to play software on a UMD to run the GPS I'm sure. Well then it has to communicate every few seconds with GPS satelites. This will use as much if not more battery power than WIFI does on a PSP. That means the battery can't last more than 2 hours. So why?

This won't be cheap and you probably won't get free map updates and I'm sure the map waypoints and even the map will suck. There's a good reason that GPS units are so expensive. So pay out and get a good one. They put a lot of money into making these things really work well. I'm sure the signal reception isn't very good either.

From what I could understand on that page, it seems like the MGS Portable Ops will use the GPS for a treasure hunt type of game to unlock extra characters to play online (it specifically says the characters you unlock can't be used in the main game). It sounded like it would pick a point somewhere in your area that you would have to find, not make you travel a long way to wherever they set the points at. Dunno how that would account for points ending up inside buildings and whatnot, but if that happens I guess you could just reload the mode and hope to be luckier the next time.

There also seemed to be mention of using wifi to discover other people with the game as you walk around with your PSP. Maybe something like the discovery mode on Animal Crossing DS.

this is betther and dont cost so mutch here is a link

http://images.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http://deniska.dcemu...

I can't belive some of the comments I'm reading here. Especially those that say this is a bad idea. A company comes out with a product that adds an additional level of functionality to an existing product and you call it a "stupid" or a "gimmick"?

Some guy named Zadaz is actually saying that GPS isn't popular in the US! What information is he looking at? US consumers will buy almost 3million portable nav systems this year! And that number will likely grow to 7 million in 2007! That's a FACT! A company like this one that is trying to adapt functionality to millions of devices in the hands of millions of people should be veiwed as an innovator. No, it's not a game that allows you to shoot cops and rape hookers but it may allow some PSP owners to get from point A to point B easier.