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Sony Delays PSP To 2005
An anonymous reader writes "CNN Money's Game Over column is reporting that Sony has delayed the launch of the PSP handheld gaming system in the U.S. until it has a 'reasonable amount' of titles to launch with the system. This will push the PSP to 2005 in the States, giving Nintendo free reign in the holiday season - as well as a possible headstart for the Nintendo DS." Some earlier reports had indicated the PSP was due to launch worldwide in November 2004.
can we really call it a PlayStation???
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If I'm not mistaken, didn't Nintendo say that the DS was not meant to be vying for the same market as the PSP, but rather there would be a new Gameboy to do that?
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I hope so, maybe by the time PS3 comes out I can afford a HDTV that will actually make getting a PS3 worth while.
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That's what I thought too, but after adjusting to the old school graphics I'm starting to play it a bit more than all my other consoles/PC etc. Final Fantasy Tactics and the beauty that is Metroid Zero Mission suck you in.
It all comes down to gameplay, and of course being cheap and with a massive library helps a lot. I'm still jonesing for a PSP, but the GBA will hold me off until then I'm sure.
Sony: Oh, yeah, it won't be ready until 2005...
Customers: Groan...
Fast Forward to Deceber 5, 2004
Sony: Oh, btw, the PSP is for sale now, at $20 more than we thought...
Customers: Quick! Run to the stores!
Since this is supposed to be the "Walkman of the 21st Century", and will have USB, memory stick technology, etc., it seems unlikely that "waiting for games" is a valid reason not to release it when they said they would. They may be having problems, or may be trying to stir up demand. I'm guessing the latter.
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I thought the PSP as a portable PSX, and played PSX titles.. Guess not, that would have been cool.
I guess it's another cartridge based handheld for GameBoy to lay waste to. I seriously doubt it will succeed where Lynx, GameGear, Nomad, TGXpress, NeoGeo Pocket, Game.com, and now NGage have failed.
But I would have bought a handheld PSX. Maybe PSX hardware is just too easy to hack?
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Because the PS1 is almost 10 years old at this point, and the PS2 can play every PS1 game ever made.
Assuming they can afford one, and there's at least some PS2 games that someone likes, why would they be buying a PS1 when they could get a PS2 and have the best of both worlds? And even then, i've heard of plenty of people that use their PS2's largely for playing old PS1 games.
Use your head, instead of trying to sound superior.
Actually, I suspect it means that the PS3 has been bumped up in the schedule, and may be unveiled earlier now.
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The graphics are only awful if you compare them to modern games.
The GBA's graphics is only getting better over time... as I've seen lately by playing Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town... they are starting to actually stand atop the original 16-bit games in the SNES and Genesis.
I for one am a hardcore gamer so graphics do not matter. Nonetheless, for what it's worth, the GBA's graphics are AWESOME! Compared to XBOX though? Of course not... but don't be a fanboy.
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
There's already a Playstation Portable. Homemade.
He also makes all sorts of other portables. Check it out.
Xbox reviews.. We think they're funny.
Bah, this is nothing new. Every console gives this excuse. It doesn't really mean they'll have more launch titles. I bet it still only launches with 10 or so games.
The PS2 had over 13 months (well, 13 months and a day) lead time over its competitors. That's a long time to build a user base. Also, the PS2 was a big technological leap from the PS1, while the DS seems more gimmicky than anything else. It doesn't/probably won't have the same momentum going for it as the PS2 did entering its launch date. You make a good point, but I'm not inclined to agree with you.
"Sony" is brand name enough to sell the buggers
I hope Nintendo's next Gameboy is simply a handheld Gamecube with a cartridge slot for backwards-compatibility. Think about it--the Gamecube discs are already small enough. And then Nintendo would already have a product line as well as developers familiar with the system.
I'd love to go from Metroid Zero Mission to Metroid Prime on one handheld Gameboy...
Ifso, the statement 'until it has a 'reasonable amount' of titles to launch with the system' does not make too much sense imo : Or the porting itself is having problems : In which case the delay can have hardware problems as the cause.
Not seeing any conspiracies here, just seems a bit odd to me : Looking forward to this handheld beats though :)
"It seems that many japanese companies like to tease us Americans for a while while they have the latest gadgetry...."
I read in a magazine somewhere that part of that delay is that it takes like 6 months to FCC approve a game system, Japan doesn't have that sort of wait.
I would, of course, appreciate details on this. This is the same magazine that said the N64 was going to run at a 'zippy 500mhz'. They didn't understand that it was just the memory bus.
"Derp de derp."
If the N-Gage did everything Sony's PSP does including looking like something that I wouldn't be embarrassed to carry around, it would be a steal at twice the price given that it's a tri-band phone. However it doesn't, so it isn't. Hell, it's not worth what it costs now. Maybe in a few years someone will hack them and get them to communicate phone to phone without cell sites (is that even possible? I could make up a bullshit argument for yea or nay I think, but I don't really know how flexible their hardware is) and then they'll be fun toys but right now I would be a lot more excited by a GBA SP with a headphone jack.
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Something I've noticed is that these discussions of the PSP (which inevitably lead to discussions about the PSP vs. the GB(A/SP)) leave out the issue of how well complex 3D games are even going to play on a small screen at a low resolution. Games like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D played really well at 320x240, but moving into the realm of stuff like Quake the minimum reasonable resolution was really 640x480. Nowadays people want to play their games at 1024x768 or higher. Even NTSC television has a higher resolution than the PSP. So to the heart of it: are 3D games even going to be very playable at a lower resolution on a tiny screen?
As it is I definitely have to sit closer to the TV playing current-generation 3D games. With complicated (and smalll!) menus and instructional text, not to mention tiny objects which are not all that noticeable even on a regular television I can't imagine the frustration of playing these kinds of games with a handheld, in potentially bad lighting, with hordes of surrounding visual distractions (if I play a portable, it's in a car/bus/train, or somewhere else in public).
So, that being said.. if the PSP comes out with a big library of 3D games ported from the PS/PS2, I think it may suffer a nasty fate. Nintendo has a huge 2D library, Sony has/licenses enough 2D games to maybe take two hands to count. 2D games to me seem much easier to play (in general) than 3D games in a visually restrictive environment, and I'm not going to buy a PSP if/until I find it playable and it has a good library. One or both of those things might not even occur. I think people without unlimited pockets will hold out for good titles at least, things which make sense to play in limited time frames. Sony may fall victim to the industry shift to "nothing but 3D," and "let's make games more complicated." It will be an interesting event, if nothing else.
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