Rumor Control E3 2008: Trophies coming to the PSP?

What we heard: Though it got off to a bumpy start, the PlayStation 3’s trophy system is now in place, already rewarding many players–some retroactively–for their in-game feats. However, the same privilege hasn’t been extended to owners of the PlayStation Portable, which has no trophy system….yet.

That may soon change, though, if hints dropped during GameSpot Live’s E3 2008 Stage Show are any indication. During a presentation of Buzz! Master Quiz for the PSP, producer Emerson Escobar described the in-game medal system for the trivia game, which will have over 5,000 questions divided along three levels. “We’ve implemented a new medal system for bronze, silver, and gold. You basically have to get bronze to move onto the next batch of questions,” beamed Escobar.

Then, around the 12 minute mark of this clip, the producer promised something even more interesting. “The cool thing is it isn’t just getting the gold medal,” he chimed. “We’ve also implemented a trophy system. Let’s say you answer a question within one second, you get a lightning finger trophy. If you answer a question within half a second, you get a supersonic trophy.”

When asked if his comments meant that the PSP was getting trophies, Escobar laughed nervously. “Check back with us later,” he said, grinning–and then declining to go into further detail.

If PSPs do get trophies, a recent announcement by Sony raises the prospect that the awards could be cross-platform. At the electronic giant’s E3 2008 press conference, Sony announced it would soon introduce the ability to extend one’s PlayStation Network ID to a single identity for the PSP and on PlayStation-related Web sites, such as PlayStation Underground. If the PSN ID becomes one’s de facto identity across several formats, tying awards from each to it would not be a prohibitively complicated task, as evidence by single GameScores containing both Windows and Xbox Live achievements.

The official story: Sony reps had not expanded on Escobar’s statements as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Looking not bogus. Most likely, it’s a question of when, not if.

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