The Xperia Play has yet to launch in the US, but it's already available in the UK, Canada, Ireland and Spain. Xperia PLAY will be in stores in the US market with Verizon Wireless "this spring." Or at least, Verizon wants to hack into it and load up Verizon bloat and limitations first before unleashing the phone to anxious subscribers.

The Xperia Play packed with Google's Android 3.0 "Gingerbread" OS, over sixty games available in the first week alone, and a slide-out gaming pad, gamers will surely forget about those other fruity and kiddy mobile platforms... at least until the NGP arrives this holiday season.

The phone arrives with a few exclusive titles under its belt including N.O.V.A. 2, Dungeon Defenders Second Wave, Backstab and Asphalt 6. Other optimized games include Assassin's Creed Altair's Chronicles HD, Need for Speed, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Gun Bros, Galaxy on Fire 2, Zenonia 2 and more (see list below). All of these will be downloadable through the Xperia PLAY launcher application, and not via the Android Market.

Of course, the big hype around this PlayStation-sanctioned phone is the ability to actually play PlayStation One games. Crash Bandicoot will come pre-installed within the PlayStation Pocket app, with five additional games available to purchase and download including Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Jumping Jack Flash, MediEvil and Syphon Filter.

However, sales of PSOne titles being offered for the phone haven't exactly been brisk, evidently. All of the five PlayStation games available for the Xperia Play have sold under 1,000 downloads each since the device launched in early April. Current figures based on the Android Marketplace, here are the sales totals:

Cool Boarders 2: 100-500
Destruction Derby: 500-1,000
Jumping Flash: 50-100
MediEvil: 100-500
Syphon Filter: 100-500

Dominic Neil-Dwyer, Head of Market Development at Sony Ericsson, told PlayStation LifeStyle that it's not really a concern:

I think there's also an awareness thing for people that are getting their hands on the device and where they are choosing to purchase games, There's only a few, at the minute, PlayStation One titles there, and there's more coming on a regular basis, and there's the whole PlayStation as a content provider exclusive to the device, the story about that, that will emerge and people will see.

So, there's no concerns, it's a revolutionary device, it's shaking up the market, we're very pleased with it. In terms of getting the PlayStation Certified program out, generally, we're very happy. I think we'll make a full assessment of if it has achieved our expectations fully, further down the line, so we're very happy.

As for what the future has in store, he says to look to E3, as more games and support for the device are sure to be announced there. "There'll be more exclusives to come," Neil-Dwyer promised. "We'll be making some pretty big announcements at E3". More games will be added on a regular basis and will likely mirror what's already available for the PSP and PSP Go.

Always thought those in-game cutscenes were cool, but you couldn't view them anywhere else except during the game?

PMF (Playstation Media Files) is a PSP video file format that being used in many games for PSP. so many games cut scene and movies are actually stored on the UMD with PMF format and all the game is doing is calling the PSP AVC(H264) module to play it.

Want to play PMF video on your PC? for that, you will need to extract the PMF out of the ISO image. Here is a guide on how to extract the PMF video with UMDGen. I hope this tutorial comes in handy cheesy.

You can open and modify ISOs using UMDGen, the latest version is currently 4.00. Download the UMDGen

Now you are ready to extracting PMF video:

1. Open UMDGEN and open the game you want to get a video. UMDGEN v4.00 can open compressed games. there is no need to convert your CSOs to ISOs before ripping.
2. Browse the directory from a PSP .ISO game, first seen a folder with the name PSP_GAME and file UMD_DATA.BIN. Looking for a folder called "Video" / "Movie" / "Cutscene" etc, inside you will find all the PMF video.
3. Select the PMF file you want to extract, right-click and choose "Extract to" option. Browse to the folder you wish to save the PMF video.

Finally you need Lande PMF Player. Lande PMF Player will allow you to playback PMF video files on your Windows desktop. Download Lande PMF Player here. Or you just need a codec to play .PMF videos, and play them from any media player on your windows PC. You can download PMFPlay H.624 Codec for Windows.

If you're looking for some cool videos to put on your PSP device, check out the site below. You'll find thousands of videos that you can download for free after you join as a member. You'll also get unlimited access to download PSP movies, music, videos, software and much more.

A new version of CTFTool GUI has been released recently. CTFtool is a Windows-based utility that allows you to create or convert your own PSP Themes (CTF) for your PSP. This handy homebrew tool can also for the extraction of resources inside CTF packaged theme files. Additionally, it can convert theme data across multiple formats for rebuilding and modification purposes.

This latest releases has added brand new features and more stable than previous version. Notable features of the latest release includes - added toolbar mode, right click history and drag and drop. It also includes rewrite conversion module, support conversion between 5.00/5.03/5.50 and more. Check the changelog listed below.

CTFTool GUI v.4.4

1. Rewrote CTFtoolMenu with VC, current version is 2.0, support 32-bit and 64-bit systems
2. Integrated PRXeditor v1.1
3. Add a water wave model.
4. Subject conversion failed when converting the prx will be deleted or rco, converted part of the theme of reducing the case of crash.
5. Right image index to increase coverage of the source file prompt.
6. Right click menu of the second additional layer icon of the ptf format.
7. Pspboot_plugin.prx plug-Fixed some BUG.
8. Fixed various bug.

Download CTFTool GUI v.4.4

To create PSP themes using CTFTool you must understand the CTF theme components

• The XMB on the PSP is known internally as the "VSH" and since the advent of homebrew is highly customizable. The firmware files vshmain.prx and paf.prx contain the main positioning of the icons and the layout of the XMB.
• Topmenu_plugin.rco contains the menu icons as well as the glow and shadow icons for each menu icons (3.52 and below firmware), and for 3.70 and above firmware, it is named Topmenu_icon.rco. Topmenu_plugin.rco also holds the names of any of the icons in the XMB (on 3.52 and below), and for 3.70 and above it only stores text.
• System_plugin.rco file stores components such as XMB sounds and the busy icon and system_plugin_fg.rco contains the battery icon. Impose_plugin.rco in the other hand, holds the sound volume icon.
• System_plugin_bg.rco contains the background animated wave. Before the firmware update 2.70 was released, it was very easy to edit the menu background colors by just editing the BMP files at FLASH0:/VSH/RESOURCE files 01.bmp to 12.bmp, but after the update all the background BMPs were held in a single BMP file named 01-12.bmp. The files were added after each other in the BMP file by simple HEX editing. That way opening the file in Paint for example, the user would just see the first month background color which is grey.

Related posts: How to make your own PSP themes

Bored of your old PSP themes? This is the right place for you to update yourself on the latest PSP themes on the net and learn how to install your PSP themes and also customize your own PSP themes.

Please take note that if your PSP firmware is not match with the PSP themes version, then you might experience error. For example, my PSP custom firmware is 5.00 M33 and my themes are for 4.01. Only the wallpaper will be applied but the rest remains the same and not changed.

In case you didn't know the PSP custom theme or CTF theme, you can read my previous post about The Difference Between .PTF and .CTF Theme.

Before we start, I'll tell you what you need:
- The PSP Theme you desire
- PSP Firmware 5.00 M33 or higher
- USB to connect to your computer

Now you can have custom themes without flashing. The steps are exactly the same as when you're installing CTF themes only that you need to download an additional plug-in.

1. Download the CXMB plug-in.
2. After you have unzipped the file, copy the CXMB folder to the root of your memory stick "MS0:/"
3. If you already have a seplugins folder and vsh.txt inside, open vsh.txt in seplugins, add this line (ms0:/cxmb/cxmb.prx) and save. If you don't have, just copy seplugins folder and its contents into the Memory Stick root directory.
4. Add themes by putting CTF files in MS0:/PSP/theme/
5. Now you need to enable CXMB (the plug-in) in your PSP Recovery Mode (boot holding down the building onto R). In the recovery mode click on plug-in and enable CXMB.prx

Here is an example of a CTF Theme:

Download the CyberTech PSP Theme	Download the AppleCor PSP Theme

If you're looking for some cool themes to put on your PSP device, check out the site below. You'll find thousands of backgrounds that you can download for free after you join as a member. You'll also get unlimited access to download PSP movies, music, videos, software and much more.

On hacked and Custom Firmwares for the PSP, aspects of the XMB can be customized such as the icons, battery and volume meters, the text displayed under each menu item, the animated wave in the background, and the bitmap for each month can be changed. The PSP contains 27 backgrounds, instead of the original 12, varying from color to color. On the original firmware, only the menu icons themselves can be customized via themes.

PTF is the official theme of the original format, more stable, simple.  PTF will only change your icon and wallpaper and it does not need custom firmware whereas CTF needs it. CTF is a very interactive theme because it changes the whole layout of the PSP including the PSP startup. CTF is by the players to produce their own format, gorgeous. Changeable, the most splendid of its characteristics. The effect of PTF theme by direct PTF file copy of the Memory Stick, PSP will be able to read. CTF format and will need CXMB this through a powerful plug-ins to achieve. CXMB is a brush-free F0 can be made the subject of the effect of F0 plug-in.

PTF will only change your icon and wallpaper.	CTF changes the whole layout, wallpaper and icon of the PSP

PTF not change the Gameboot screen	CTF change the Gameboot screen

PTF not change the PSP Startup	CTF change the PSP Startup

If you're looking for some cool wallpaper and backgrounds to put on your PSP device, check out the site below. You'll find thousands of backgrounds that you can download for free after you join as a member. You'll also get unlimited access to download psp movies, music, videos, software and much more.