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Sony Presentation Reveals Further PSP Details
Thanks to PSPInsider for pointing to a Sony Technology Group information page, where they've recently posted the slides for a presentation on developing for the Sony PSP (PDF) given at the Australian Game Developers Conference last month. The slides re-iterate Sony's claim that the recently announced PSP will be "the Walkman of the 21st Century", and note the UMD optical disc format is "cheaper and faster to manufacturer than ROM", and thus "publisher-friendly". PSPInsider has extracted several of the more interesting slides, including an example of the hardware-assisted surface tessellation the handheld will be capable of, and pictures of the PSP emulator/debugger alongside some sample code.
So you're complaining that a handheld system is weaker than a pc? Ever play a GBA?
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
1. Developer support for a Sony handheld is inevitable, particularly given the more cost-friendly disc format. If they have half the developer support of the PS2, the PSP will be in good shape.
2. As was already stated above, your expectations for performance seem ridiculous in the extreme. How many true handhelds available today have the performance of a "budget PC" (before you answer, keep in mind that you can get a 2.4-GHz Celeron-based Dell Dimension desktop for $450).
3. Who the hell complains about more screen real estate? It's nearly three-and-half times the resolution of the GBA (130,560 pixels for PSP versus 38,400 for GBA)! I can understand being miffed about the N-Gage screen considering it's a relatively awkard vertically oriented deal, but 16:9 is becoming the new standard.
In short, nice troll. You got me. :)
Sony successfully raised a lot of press about the inclusion of NURBS compatible hardware with their original PS2 announcements (Ooh! Such a powerful machine!) and are just trying to recreate the same hype around the PSP.
The PS2 supported them all this time as well, but NURBS are inefficient and not the best for real-time 3D. I still have yet to see/hear of any PS2 games that use NURBS either, but correct me if I'm wrong.
I used to work for Sony Electronics doing development for the Sony CLIE. The "Walkman" phenomenon was referred to quite often and the CLIE was frequently referred to as "The Walkman of the next century" by our overseas counterparts.
Since that didn't boil over the way Sony had planned I guess they're going to give it another shot with the PSP, but I really hope Sony has some other gameplan in mind rather than trying to recreate a success story from ~15 years ago. (That seems like a trend best left to washed up pop-stars).
I'm looking forward to seeing what this system can do, but it all comes down to reminding yourself not to willingly believe the hype, and don't wow yourself with their fancy numbers (unless you really know what they mean).
"and note the UMD optical disc format is "cheaper and faster to manufacturer than ROM", and thus "publisher-friendly""
But is it more important that the media be more publisher friendly, or more crush-test friendly? What about media that's jiggle-friendly? I know it's been said a million times before, but is Sony really going in the right direction media-wise on a device you're supposed to be able to use wherever, whenever? This isn't something that's supposed to sit on a shelf somewhere and collect dust.
There's also the fact that optical media can be easier to pirate/crack. Nintendo seems to have done it right with the GameCube, but is Sony going to be able to do that as well or is there a rude Nokia-esque wake-up call for them in the future?
Oh, and one more question about Sony's handheld all-in-one media device: Are we to expect a device that plays movies about as well as a PlayStation 2?
Sony is in a world of hurt, with massive layoffs in progress and on the way.
The next Walkman myth undoubtably helps Sony execs sleep better at night.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
Did I misread that PDF, or does the development kit include an emulator for running PSP games on the developer's PC workstation?
If so, was something similar included with the PS1 and PS2 dev kits? That would have been fun to play with.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
This is sounding like a product that will be inferior to the GBA overall, but I'm willing to bet it makes a lot of money regardless...
The GBA never has EMPHASIZED graphics as its selling point. True, they tout its 32-bit (NOT 16-bit, people) architecture, but nowhere near the level that Sony is touting the PSP's specs. They emphasize fun gameplay. Look at the best selling GBA games: Wario Ware, the Mario Advance games, Pokemon, Advance Wars. These are all pretty low on the graphics scale (Hell - Mario Advance 1 and 4 are ports of 8-bit nes games!), yet together these games have sold millions of copies.
That being said, PS2 has a great namebrand and this will likely carry over to the PSP. We'll see...
"quick, tell me why my launch PS2 runs perfectly fine, even though i've spent countless thousands of gaming hours on it, and i've never sent it back to sony for anything. not to mention the fact that none of my Friends have had any problems with any of their PS2s. the Problem really isn't as big as the media likes to hype it up to be"
You got lucky. If your machine broke down, Sony'd find a way to tell you it was your fault, and charge you for them to fix it.
Piece of advice: When people start saying a machine is commonly defective, the lamest thing to do would be to go defending them. People don't just get up and say "I hate Sony!" and then start spreading stories that their machine broke down. If the machines are breaking down, then you should be paying very careful attention. Why? Because you need to think about what could happen when you buy your next system from them. I can't speak for the PS2, but the original PS1s were crummy pieces of garbage, and Sony treated their customers like shit over it. They just refused to admit they built faulty machines. Do you really want to gamble $300 of your hard earned money with a company that behaves like that? I won't, and I didn't. I'm personaly boycotting Sony over it. I'm not telling you to go do the same. Far from it. What I am telling you, though, is to not ignore people's complaints. Caveat emptor.
"Derp de derp."