Disclaimer: Above image is an artist rendition of trophies on the PSP.
Right around E3 2009 there were rumblings of trophies coming to the PSP. These rumors reached new heights when it was reported that SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 had trophy support. This was quickly debunked by Slant Six, who are the development team behind the game, stating these “trophies” were actually an in-game reward system known as “medals”. This was further shot down by Eric Lempel who revealed Trophies that hackers could exploit the trophy system.
Although there was a glimmer of hope, coming from the President of Sony Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida who proclaimed:
“It’s under discussion, but there are some technical challenges.”
Now, we’ve uncovered some possible “proof” that PSP trophies are coming, and could be much sooner than you’d think…
According to the retail packaging for the PSP version of LittleBigPlanet, within the list of game features, among leaderboards, add-on content, and PlayStation Home, there is also mention of trophies.
Before you get your hopes up… We’ve had LittleBigPlanet review code since the beginning of November, and we’ve yet to unlock a single trophy. However, this IS review code after all, many things have been altered to assist the reviewer, such as infinite respawns at all checkpoints.
Another glaring issue that makes this feature unlikely, is the fact there isn’t an area within the PSP’s XMB for trophies. Then again, Sony could be stealthily preparing a firmware update as we speak. A firmware update would almost certainly be needed to enable such a feature.
PSP owners hopes are already running high, since this is being reported by users on the Official PlayStation Forums, and is garnering quite a bit of interest.
It’s also important to note that many upcoming PSP games have the framework needed for trophy support. SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 features “medals” and Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines includes “accomplishments”, both of which could easily translate over to trophies.
We’ve emailed SCEA for a confirmation and we will update as soon as we receive a response.
Either way, LittleBigPlanet for PSP launches this week, so we’ll be finding out for sure soon enough if the game does indeed support trophies on the PSP. If so, this almost certainly means a PSP firmware update this week to coincide with the games release. For now, file this as a rumor.
[Update] IGN have reported that Sony revealed LittleBigPlanet for PSP will not feature trophies. A representative for Sony said:
“The descriptions on the pack front summarize the PSN experience and are not specific to the individual product features,”
So apparently Sony doesn’t mind falsely advertising features on the retail package of their games. Either that or this Sony rep is buying time until an official announcement. Like we mentioned above, LittleBigPlanet launches this week, so we’ll have to just wait and see.
Another thing we’d like to point out. If these features that summarize the “PSN experience” aren’t speaking of individual products, then why aren’t the same features included on the LBP PSP retail box, that are included on the PS3 LittleBigPlanet Game of the Year Edition retail box (pictured below).
