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PSP Reception Lukewarm in US?
There are plenty of interesting takes available on Sony's new media/game console. The neat tricks seem to be the most popular. An Anonymous Coward writes "A blogger figured out how to batch convert e-books so they can be read on your PSP. Check out the guide here for a complete walkthrough on this method." Meanwhile, RyuuzakiTetsuya writes "PSP Vault has a great story on how to Use Non-Duo Memory Sticks on a PSP! The process involves using an adapter that's meant for a Sony Ericcson phone." Via Joystiq, a way to get Tivo content on your PSP. Out in the real world there is already talk of the opening weekend sales. Doomstalk writes "According to IGN sales of the PSP have been lukewarm, with many outlets selling as little as 10 out of the 80 units they received." The PSP is currently burning up the charts in Japan, though, where the console has been out for a while. Early adopters on a holiday weekend may not be the best yardstick. Official numbers from the first weekend of sales likely available on Monday.
Looks like American gamers are looking for Microsoft to release a handheld...
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
I was at EB Games earlier today and one of the customers there asked the dude behind the counter if they had sold out of PSPs. The guy said no they still had plenty.
When millions disappear from earth, it's not aliens, it's the rapture.
The hacks are already starting to role in. A web browser has been found in the PSP game Wipeout Pure.
More info here: http://www.pspondering.com/
There aren't any PSPs at my EB or else I would have dropped three hundred bucks that I don't have.
You wrote all that in the 2 seconds after the article was posted? Wow!
I have this really funny quote that I like to put here. Unfortunately, there's this really annoying thing called a char
I mean, the market got tapped a bit by Nintendo's lame ass dual display thing a few months ago. I think (and hope) it's successful.
Hell, I know I'm getting one soon, since my parents actually ordered the Nintendo DS for me and my brother before Christmas, until I told her that the PSP was coming out in a few months and was going to be much less lame, and she canceled it with a promise to hook us up in a few months.
I dunno. Anyone else planning on buying?
from a friend of mine who works in a game store says its the most returned gaming console in history (faults/dead pixels)
of course anyone who knows Sony's gear thesedays its hardly suprising, their pro gear (broadcast) is still good but the consumer level gears build quality in the last 10/15 years has declined massively, i couldn't reccomend Sony anything for the average customer
still the concept is nice, until my mobile phone kicks its ass in 2006
I think a lot of people are suffering from buyers regret after purchasing the Nintendo DS system. I imagine after more games are released sales will increase for the PSP.
"Anything tastes good if you deep fry it."
Perhaps since nearly everyone who'd have a portable electronic device already has a cell phone that plays games, takes pictures, sends text messages, and makes phone calls, they didn't figure they needed to carry a PlayStationP too?
I know my days of carrying a machine for games are over, and I wouldn't want kids to have one over a book.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
All the news leading up to the release predicted a PS2-like availability after the first few days (read: sold-out), guess Sony fooled everyone.
You can say that again.
Well, I'd hope not at the Walmart I went to! They had at least 24 (that i quickly peeked at) stacked nice and pretty on shelves. And the entire time I was there, no one bought one.
I really don't think interest is THAT high. Then again, it may have something to do with the fact that the town where the walmart is in ain't that rich... borderline redneck and college students.
The thing's far too expensive to justify whatever niftiness it may hold.
My digital rights don't need management.
http://www.pspvideo9.com/
"PSP Video 9 is a free PSP video conversion and management application. It can convert regular PC video files (avi, mpeg, etc) into PSP video files, as well as manage/copy these PSP video files between your PC and PSP."
The market for the PSP could get a lot larger if the software keeps coming at this rate
Business Voyeur
"Out in the real world there is already talk of the opening weekend sales. Doomstalk writes "According to IGN sales of the PSP have been lukewarm, with many outlets selling as little as 10 out of the 80 units they received." The PSP is currently burning up the charts in Japan, though, where the console has been out for a while."
So how's it doing in other countries?
They're a subscriber. They saw the post minutes before you did. That is all.
I felt the same way. But the DS really doesn't have any games going for it right now either. The only way I could justify it was by reasoning that Advanced Wars DS will be out for it soon. That game alone was enough to get me to buy a DS.
But until then I'll keep enjoying my DS with this and this.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
I pre-ordered from EB and got mine. I was #30 on the list and they got 40. Everywhere else here is sold out....
except Target.
I'm convinced that no one shops at Target. Click here to see my picture commentary on it. I ended up getting Ridge Racer from Target, since everywhere else is sold out. Target has all the games and a few psp's left, because NO ONE shops there.
With that said, Sony has done a horrible job of mismarketing/undermarketing. Almost none of my non-nerd friends even know what a PSP is. It's really sad. I've seen maybe one commercial total for it.
They need to pimp it as the awesome media machine it is. I love mine, and I have Ridge Racer, Wipeout Pure, and Twisted Metal: Head-On.
Playing on the actual internet from a handheld via WiFi in Twisted Metal is a truly awesome experience. Hopefully Sony will market it, but I guarantee you, this thing will be marketed by word of mouth/view of eye. The PSP is dead sexy and I guarantee you people will be asking me about it at school, since I'll be playing it before class starts and in between classes.
That little star next to his name means he's a subscriber. That means he gets to see articles before they appear on the front page. So, no, it's not necessarily a copy&paste job...
"A blogger figured out how to batch convert e-books so they can be read on your PSP."
I mean, I like embracing new words as much as the next guy, but from the elections (where "blog" was the word of choice for the media), to talk of the PSP, I just don't *need* to see that word everywhere
My digital rights don't need management.
Because you *know* they're going to lower the prices in six months to wring every last dollar out of parent's bank accounts when the holidays arrive. But for now, Sony seems to be perfectly content with ripping off the general population. This isn't Japan - we don't have nearly as much money to spend on tiny electronic gadgets. Of course, part of that has to do with the fact that we're in a bloody war while our economy steadily slides down the pooper, but *still*.
My digital rights don't need management.
The DRM is annoying, if you record say, a lecture on the MD using analogue, it *deletes* your files on the MD on the 2nd upload, it randomly trashes tracks (ie breaks them into hundreds of 2-second tracks, which you have to manually join - and about 8% of those tracks are corrupted) - and because of the stupid encryption that Sony useds to prevent *gasp* copy protection (why they prevent analogue copies and not just digital is beyond me)
SonicStage itself (the interface software) is a piece of badly coded rubbish - and the random encryption and DRM only makes it worse - if they spent half the time coding software as they did DRM to supposedly prevent copyright breaches (who on earth would buy a MD player to copy music? Most customers, judging by the minidisc forums are musicians or those like me recording lectures).
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Sony has a history of , ever since MD over 10 years, Atrac3, then memory stick etc. pushing consumers into draconian, proprietary technologies that both rake in more money, and preserve their music sales (stupid idea, since people who copy music will just buy an mp3 player, which hurts them twice - they lose MD sales, and their original idea of protecting copyright is a failure right away).
I only hope that efforts to free up the PSP carry over into other Sony technologies, like the Vaio (don't own one, but I feel for those who have to put up wiht the SS/Memory Stick issues), MD, Clie etc.
"This is a classic case of supply exceeding demand. Just knowing that Sony is willing to go for such a price point was enough of a turn-off for me. For that price, I am willing to wait a year or two before getting one. "
Damn! Wish someone could set up a BitTorrent.
So that's it then - the thing's dead in the water.
At $249.99, there better be a handful of games I just can't live without. For me, there are none. This changes with the introduction of new titles and price drops on the PSP itself. At $149.99, I could see buying it for only 2-3 games (with the expectation of more).
"(Please continue to keep Terry in your thoughts and prayers this holiday weekend as she and the family suffers through this tragic time.)"
Might I ask *you* to please keep this propaganda (garbage) out of a thread for discussions about a *portable gaming system*. If you want to get political, submit a political story. If you're here to game, then bloody well game.
My digital rights don't need management.
Until I played Lumines for one minute on a PSP at my local gaming store. The sheer addictivness of this game alone makes me desperatly want a PSP, but without the financial means to aquire it. It is a wonderful system, it has a nice feel, as opposed to the slightly clunky nature of the nintendo DS...
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
less than huge launch. At my place of employment we recieved in 40 units, and sold 2 on Thursday. The company wanted us to sell out of them by noon, similar to the DS launch before Christmas. I know the local Best Buy, EB Games, Gamestop, were all sold out, but people do generally not come to Toys R Us for the big video game launches. So if you are looking for a PSP hit the local Toys R US, they probally still have some in stock.
The PSP would be a fantastic handheld with it's brilliant screen and fantastic hardware... ...except...
They need to make UMD-R. Seriously. I am not going to pay 50%+ more (versus SD) for a 1G Memory Stick Duo that will not work in any other device I own just so I can carry around some extra media. Come on Sony. Didn't you learn your lesson about propriatary formats yet?
Ah. This guy wasn't the first to think of this. There is another way to get text onto the PSP, which I've been using. It's through a program called "Jpeg Book" which works, although it takes a lot longer than the one the guy uses.
A cool device, indeed! I use it to take slashdot with me on the train to read every morning.
"The thing's far too expensive to justify whatever niftiness it may hold."
Just put it on one of the eight credit cards most people have.
I love Microsoft. Strike two.
Terry Strike three.
You must not be poppin your 'roids right.
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Apparantly this Lumines game is pretty hot - anyone actually played it?
I hope it runs linux in the near future. Even if it's only got 32 Megs of storage space, that's still enough room for a few libraries an emulator and a couple of roms, right?
When you go out in public and randomly tell girls/children/elderly couples "I've got something in my pocket, it's 7 inches, and I'm ready to play" they don't think you're a pervert...
Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
does it run Linux?
I bought a PSP so I could play Lumines. It's the only game I own for the thing, and will likely keep me occupied for some time.
Lumines is awesome. Hopefully more people will grok its awesomeness than did its predecessor, Rez (which is arguably even more awesome).
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
This isn't posted as the typical /. really lame gag, but an honest question.
The PSP has a great screen, built in WiFi and a USB 2.0 port. If someone can shoehorn Linux onto it, I'd consider one, along with a USB keyboard.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I'm not sure I'll ever buy either system. Portable gaming isn't something I must have really. But, on the unlikely chance I do, I think a DS is more innovative. The PSP has a boatload of cool gimmicks (and trust me, my roommate is trying to take advantage of all of them..he doesn't know how he lived without portable anime 2 days ago, heh) but the DS has the 2 screens which can lead to really neat ideas in games, plus the one screen is a touch screen. Also, I've always been about a system that does one thing and tries to do it well. The PSP might really play games well eventually but it's not worth the price. It's substandard as a movie player, MP3 player, etc so I would only buy it for games. It lacks here right now too and even if it didn't, the price is too high I think.
In the end, I think a DS will offer more innovation for game play.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
I've been to numerous stores today, and each place had plenty of the units. By the looks of it some places had sold as little as 2 or 3. Worse part still is the fact that at all the places I saw like 2 people maximum looking at them. It's release was front page news in the local paper with quotes such as "It's the biggest realease in seven years, since the Xbox" (this was a gamestop employee, who obviously can't count) and claiming they were sold out. Mabie they were, but no other place I was to were. The DS launch was far better sales wise, most places having only games but no units.
Very suprising, but that launch lineup wasn't exactly stellar. (DS was no better, but still...)
John 3:16 - The easiest way to a BETTER YOU.
As with many console launches, I think a big problem here is the games. This happened with the DS too since their selection was limited (Mario DS and Metroid are the only two good ones from what I've heard) even though they have their GBA games to fall back on. Since the DS is less expensive, can also do movies, MP3s and ebooks using Movie Player Advance, people don't seem to want to spend the $100 extra for it. Both companies want to create a new industry around downloading content over WiFi and other non videogame things so they seem to be holding out on their initial releases. It might be better to wait six months and see which side has better stuff.
--
Want a free iPod?
Or try a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox. (you only need 4 referrals)
Wired article as proof
I went to Target in Burbank CA, at about 9:30 to pickup God of War, and they had about 20 PSPs. I went back after work, about 7:30 to pick up something I forgot, and I noticed one PSP gone from the display case. I asked the guy if they restocked the shelves, and he said no. But the weird thing was, the bestbuy two stores down was sold out. Maybe people didn't think to try Target. The way I see it, the PSP is going to be there tommorrow, the next day and next month, so I'm going to sit on it for a while and see how it plays out.
Why play on such a tiny little screen when you have 1-3 consoles plugged into your TV (plus a computer)?
Americans, as a whole, simply do not spend enough time on the train/bus/subway to justify the purchase of a $300 portable game system. At least cars come equipped with iPod cradles and such.
To lend credence to this argument: most folks I see using cellphones are doing it while *driving*.
"principal analyst", chief cook, bottle washer, and company bicycle, Rob Enderle.
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
from http://www.wired.com ...
.... ;)
Take Your Porn on the Road
Configure PSP Video 9 to work with Cherian's other program, Videora, and you can automate video transfers from BitTorrent to your PC to your PSP -- overnight.
No need to buy UMDs. Just sync your PSP with your computer and off you go, porn in hand.
Because this, of course, is a wet dream for porn fans. Once you get your porn on the PSP, delete it from your hard drive, and you can enjoy your porn in private while keeping the family computer freed up for other things. Like games.
Geek wags have already dubbed the device "PornStation Portable" and warned each other to be cautious when in public.
What, cuz it sold like 100,000 more units than the DS?
You realize the DS sold like 1,000,000 more units last year, right? That's an order of magnitude too little.
I wanted to get one, but last few times it wasnt out yet. Didnt even it was out, didnt see any commericals or news..
Maybe thats why? Guys at work all want one, been talking about it for awhile.
... thanks to Sony's choice to proprietarize the UMD rather than just using a mini DVD in a caddy. I can pretty much guarantee that nobody's gonna rebuy movies for this thing, at least in the US. Yeah, you could put movies on a mildly less proprietary Memory Stick, but teens aren't gonna have the $$$ for tons of 512MB sticks..
Of course, the geek bandolier squad will come out with the whole 'single purpose devices are better' argument, and I'm sure plenty of geeks and game fiends will buy the PSP and only play games on it. For me, though, $250 is a bit rich for that, and the so-called multifunctionality is a bit of a snow job due to Sony's longstanding format nonsensicality.
I just want to see Apple take that gorgeous LCD and wrap a star-killing PDA phone around it, using a scaled-up iPod mini look with touchscreen. Something with internal disk, HWR, 3G, voice recognition (for bluetooth headset/handsfree dialing etc.), the works. Adding the ability to run Dashboard apps even if you don't use a PPC full-blown OS X env would be super kewl.
from the article
c eI d=wipeoutpure_ingamesupport_main&hostId=ucus98612_ wipeoutpure_psp_umd_1M OVED>&skin=Default
http://ingame.scea.com/wipeout/index.html?servi
&hostLanguage=en&pspId=<RE
nice, embedding GUID's to tie your serial to your IP/ISP etc,
yeah take fucking liberties why dont they
What pushed me over the edge to buy it is definitely the potential. In addition to some of the things linked already, the register has an article about a potential email and web browser which, when combined with this keyboard that popped up, might just make me think twice about upgrading my laptop.
Email/web browser aside, I'd love to see writeable UMDs come out though some how I doubt sony would give up the memory stick market so easily. Still, that would definitely make this a killer gadget IMHO.
Oh, and the games are fun too.
Maybe because gamers like myself are tired of the same old rehashed games ported over. Basically what Nintendo and Sony have done is take their old game system and shrink it down to a portable. Port games = double profit for suckers.
Note: Sega did this with their GameGear. It was just a Master System compressed in a handheld. In fact, the hardware was so identical, you could get a PCB bridge and attach Master System carts to your GameGear.
Please *sigh*
Life is not for the lazy.
Why don't they release Mortal Combat I or some other really old game while they're at it.
And yeah - I like it a lot. However, it's quite apparent that the unit isn't selling like hotcakes. Every store I went to had plenty of stock available (Sears, Best Buy, EB Games, Target). What wasn't available were copies of Luminens and Ridge Racer, I had to poke through numerous stores in order to find copies of both.
The unit is beautiful and worth the money. Why isn't it selling? I don't know, but I'll hazard a few guesses:
a) No display units available. Not a single store of those four had a display unit to show potential buyers. Few people are willing to shell out $250 for a game device they've never seen perform.
b) It's a bit too expensive. Yes, it's worth the money for what you get, but it isn't cheap for a toy.
c) Game selection is limited. Yes, sixteen titles on launch. But only a few were selling well, and two (Luminens and Ridge Racer) were selling out.
So... am I glad I bought the unit? Yes! And oh yeah, did I buy the "rip off" Best Buy two-year protection plan? Yes! (hey, the damn thing has moving parts!) Now... time to check out that ebook thingy I saw in the article header. --M
"Didnt even it was out, didnt see any commericals or news..
Maybe thats why? Guys at work all want one, been talking about it for awhile."
Sounds to me like the "word of mouth" part of "new business model" isn't working out so well.
This website:
http://www.psphacks.net/ contains most of these articles, and even put up a copy of that blog yesterday.
They're raffling off a PSP as well.
Get your news there first!
. . .continue to keep Terry in your thoughts. . .
I believe relationships should be based on principles of reciprocity.
KFG
Audioscrobbler
It doesn't need more than 32 megabytes of storage space. It's a gaming machine. If you think of it as anything more than a gaming machine, you've bought into the marketing. That's the same marketing that used ROB to get the NES into electronics stores.
The PSP is a gaming machine. It's not a video playback device: when was the last time you bought a movie on UMD? Would you be willing to buy a moving on UMD knowing that it would look terrible on a full-sized TV? Where would you even get a movie on UMD?
The PSP is a gaming machine. It is not a web browser. Whatever you may have heard about it's browsing capabilities, the screen is tiny and has low resolution compared to a laptop, and it has no text input. Browsing on the PSP would be painful.
The PSP is a gaming machine. It is not an MP3 player. The archos Jukebox and iPod are MP3 players. If you want an MP3 player, you can get a CF-based one for 40 bucks these days. The PSP hasn't the on-board storage or the battery life to be a primary MP3 player. It can do it, but don't expect to throw out your current one just yet.
The PSP is a gaming machine. If you believe otherwise, you've bought into the marketing hooks. The only systems right now that can claim to be more than just gaming machines are your PC, any PS2 or Xbox that you use as DVD players, and the N-Gage (which is a halfway descent phone). But even those are basically just gaming machines.
The PSP may be capable of being your personal organizer. You may theoretically be able to run your 802.11b home automation equipment with it. You might be able to use it as a teleprompter, a floor wax, or to make Julianne fries. But the fact is that nearly everyone who buys one will use it as a game machine. Pretty much like all the other gaming machines in the world. Period.
That's not to say that it is "just" a gaming machine any more than a Ferrari is "just" a car, or a 6' plasma screen is "just" a TV. But don't expect the 6' plasma screen to improve your love life, and don't expect the PSP to do anything but play games really, really well.
And yes, we should all keep Terry Pratchett in our prayers. That poor, poor diskworld...
The ______ Agenda
(*Actually, Nessus is the Spawn of SATAN.)
Seriously, the consumer market has been saturated to the point of being overloaded in recent years. It does not help that America is clawing its way out of a depression that it may yet backslide into. There just isn't the disposable income to feed the games market in America.
I suspect that it might have been more prudent to invest in developing a killer console for when the markets can afford it. There is a lot of excellent emerging technology, but because development lifecycles are fairly long, the new PSP can't possibly be taking advantage of many of them.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The PSP had a piss-poor game selection on launch, in my opinion. The list I saw at my local EB contained something like 10 or 11 sports games out of the 20 available at launch. No thanks. If I want a sports game, I'll put down the portasystem, and go play with a ball. Funny, no?
The only game that looks promising is Grand Theft Auto, and that's not due out for another two months. Now, if that had come out at launch, I'd have spent 300$ on it (at the extreme behest of my significant other - so what, I wanna buy myself a birthday gift...). But no; there was absolutely nothing appealing about the launch.
Please note, the above statement completely disregards the fact that I barely have time to read slashdot, anymore, let alone play video games. World of Warcraft barely gets touched anymore. Thank you, school work, you're destroying my livelyhood...
Informatus Technologicus
PSP Garden looks like a good place to get news about Sony's new money-sucker, they are pulling news from all over about it. How much does it cost to get started with one of these? (memory stick, gamez, etc) I want one but am not ready to spend $600 for a handheld systme.
I bought one at the local blockbuster (GameSurge) and an very pleased with it thus far. I went into the purchase thinking that I was only going to get it for gaming. After watching a movie on it and downloading a few songs, I am even happier about my purchase. Everyone at work and my friends are amazed by it, unfortunatly not many people have heard about it. I have only seen one commercial for it, Sony really needs to step up the ad campaign. This is my 1st handheld purchase since the gameboy oh so many years ago, and in my opinion a worthy succesor. The potential of this device is quite impressive. I personally cant wait to get ZSNES on this thing and play chronotrigger and ogrebattle till the cows come home. Oh and from my experince thus far it runs 5+ hours easily on one charge, and thats way more time then I ever need when I out and about.
I had no interest in the PSP until my friend brought one over last night.
Minutes later we were on our way to Target and bought 7 of the last 8 that they had. There were a bunch left at the Costco next door though. Best Buy was sold out -- maybe they just didn't know where to get them!
cleverly disguised as a responsible adult ||
I agree, I think the only reason why Nintendo released the DS when they did was to get a jump on the PSP. I know I am going to get a DS because:
A.) There will be a new Mario for it
2.) Animal Crossing
D.) CastleVania (oh man, it looks good)
I am really intrigued that the PSP is looking more like a portable entertainment device than just a game machine but there's no compelling software yet. It was also cool at one time that the PS2 had iLink and USB. That went nowhere fast.
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
If the damn thing weren't so damn expensive I'm sure it'd be getting a warmer reception here in the States.
- John
say... doesn't the PSP remind you of the Sega Gamegear?
That didn't do very well neither.
...why buy a PSP when you can get one for free?
10100111001
You can get a decent PC for that price, add in the $100 or so you need for additional accessories, and you can get a PC that you might not have to upgrade for awhile.
:)
:) )
Sure it isn't portable, but come on, your a parent trying to choose what to buy your son for his birthday;
"Well on this PC he can do his homework, surf the internet, access a wide range of academic material, and gain entrance into the digital era"
"On this PSP he can bl0w l04ds of sh!t up"
Compare and contrast.
(granted in the end both are going to be used to blow stuff up, but hey, don't tell momma that.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
I went out the other day to see if there were any and every store I went to had PLETNY. Infact, I wasnt sure some of the stores had sold any. Its pretty obvious why - The price.
Target is generally one of the better places to look when a game / system sells out. Their electronics department is pretty well stocked, and they always overestimate demand, as it doesn't cost them shelf-space. They're also good about sending stuff back, so it isn't much of a risk to them. And when a system fails, target clears out of a lot of them... cheap.
Another great place to look is Sears. Yes, Sears. Yes, most Sears sell games. Generally Sears has a random assortment of games that are old and frequently out of print. Not intentionally, mind you, it's just that nobody buys games at Sears. Hence, if you want a copy of, say, Ikaruga for the Game Cube, the chance that it will be at Sears is much higher than other places with a real software sales department and turn over rate.
Costco was also good for this reason, though I haven't been in one in years.
If you're willing to pay full price, a lot of big music chains decided to get into games, not realizing that there wasn't as much crossover as they thought. Many of their game departments are disused, and full of little gems that went out of print a long time ago. They're generally not cheap: full price or more, but if you're really looking for a copy of something out of print, they're a great place to pop in.
Newberry Comics also has very cheap games. Generally, look for stores that have no business selling games, but who might have thought games were "hip" and decided to try and sell them. Or big chains that have all departments, therefore electronics departments, therefore they sell games. Some of these cater exclusively to a 50+ crowd who by and large don't buy many games, and as such are frequently overstocked.
The ______ Agenda
The DS did so much better... To be honest, I too expected PSPs to sell like hotcakes, but of course, to my delight, they haven't sold well at all. O, well. Let's all go buy a DS... Nwizard.com
That the PSP hasn't nearly caught up to the DS in Japan. Remember when looking at those figures that the DS sold 1.5 million in 2004 compared to the PSP's 0.5 million. Ths DS isn't doubling up the PSP anymore, but it still holds more than a 800,000 unit lead on the PSP.
I don't know who the fuck "Terry" is. If you love Terri Schiavo so much you would stay the fuck out of her business and at least have the decency to learn how to spell her name. Or did you read it spelled that way on one those bible thumping websites since a lot of the people on slashdot who keep telling everyone to keep this woman in our thoughts and prayers cannot even spell her name right? BTW: Your review sucked. Also, what do you do that you have fans? I can't possibly imagine.
Googlewar puts "nintendo DS" well above "sony PSP" as well as "DS" far far above "PSP"
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
I agree with most of your post, except the part about it not being a good music player. If you're smart and turn off the backlight on your PSP, you can milk many more hours of life doing nothing but playing mp3s, and you can always buy another Memory Stick Duo. The 32 meg stick, I've found, is only good for save games, but load a higher capacity stick and it'll run mp3s like a charm.
I've also heard rumors that the web browser would use the analog stick as a cursor.
But in either case, yes, the PSP is a gaming machine first and foremost. It is adequate at mp3 playing (fine for my needs, at least), but shouldn't be used for anything else.
Someone wrote quite a convincing, on topic PSP article and brought up valid points as to why he decided to NOT purchase one.
BUT, he happened to mention "Keep Terry in your prayers..." and offended everyone at Slashdot.
How do I know?
The great post on the review has a 1 score.
The FLAMEbait post which berates this ONE line asking to keep Terry in your prayers gets a 4 score.
How is it that an off topic response gets a higher mark than a well written, on topic, concise article condusive to a purchasing decision regarding the product / article referenced?
Guys, please be fair. You don't have to PRAY for Terry. Heck, I don't. But I'm not offended that this person stuck it in there. If you are, maybe the problem is in your heart, not in the posters admotion.
Brooklyn.
I got my PSP on launch day and have a few things to day about it. First it needs more games. And no matter what people say, I think it's safe to bet that the system will be BIG once more titles (like the announced GTA game, for example) come out. There are many A list titles that are supposed to come out in a while or be in development.
That said, I bought 3 games. Lumines, Wipeout, and Twisted Metal. Lumines is fantastic. It should be bundled with every PSP. It should be built into the firmware. It should be a required purchase for anyone. The game is so simple and yet so fun. Wipeout is fun (not that good at it right now once you get past the first two difficulty levels) and Twisted Metal isn't bad.
Now there are some games I would like to see on the system. I'd love to have a PaRappa or Amplitude to carry with me. The PSP should be able to run a game like Gish without any problem too.
As for the hardware it's self there are a few things to say. First is the screen is AMAZING. Absolutly amazing. I looked at the pack in copy of Spider Man 2 and I can definatly see my self using the PSP to watch movies on an airplane or something. It looks better than most (all?) portable DVD players that I've seen. The only problem is that the screen (actually the whole front of the unit) are very receptive to fingerprints/smudges and such. Just a minor thing. My only other hardware comments are the WiFi and the analog nub. The WiFi doesn't support WPA encryption, which suprises me. I hope they add it in a future update of the firmware. As for the analog nub, it is VERY hard to make small movements from center, and very easy to make larger movements like around the outside of it's range. In short doing things like pushing the stick a little bit (like in Mario 64 to tiptoe) would be very tough.
As for the other features, they intrigue me. The music playing is interesting, but I don't think I'll use it for that. Most of my music is in AAC (ripped it myself, so it's unprotected) so without being able to listen to that the feature doesn't hold much use to me. Being able to watch videos that I make (say download off the 'net and put them on there) looks quite nice (although the 32mb memory stick would obviously have to be replaced). I can't quite tell but it looks to me like it is possible to run programs off the memory stick. If that is true it would be great for the hacker community. I would love to be able to program the PSP. Even if they charged $50 or $100 for the dev kit. This would not be out of the question as Sony has done it twice in the past (the Net Yahorzee PS1 and the Linux Kit for the PS2).
Over all it is a solid little system and very fun. I didn't have problems with flying UMDs when the system got the littlest twitch, and the square button feels exactly like the others. The design flaws from the Japanese launch have defianatly been fixed.
The system has a good future if you ask me. Sony will put their might behind it (the gaming magazines this month are about half PSP ads from Sony). Great games should be comming, and there are good games out now (plus the amazing Lumines). It has a USB port and Sony is supposed to release stuff for that (a littke keyboard for typing in games, they could make a GPS module, other interesting stuff). It should have a good future.
Note that I also have a DS and I really like that too. I've been playing Yoshi's Touch and Go lately. That is a simplistic game that seems kind of boring at first but after a few plays it becomes very fun as you get the hang of the controlls. It is quite unique in that respect. The DS has a good future too, for what it's worth.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I didn't find any of the games that were available in the store compelling. Add to that a high price, long load times, and a proprietary disk format, and it just doesn't add up.
This is probably the overall dumbest post on the PSP yet.
Yes it is a marketing ploy to include a MS that can only realistically store game data. But it's Sony. They do that shit alllll the time. Put a CF slot in the Clie? Great idea! Allow users to use it for storage? Never! It DOES play MP3s right out of the box, and mounts as a drive under WindowsXP, so at least they moved away from proprietary software.
I have a PSP sitting right in front of me. I got my gf one. The head of our web site got one. We all rated it 9/10. Yes, it is that good.
First off, sure it's a little pricey. It's tageted at 20-30-somethings with some disposable income. I can get a portable DVD player for $150-200, then an MP3 player for $100, then a Gameboy DS/Advance for another $70-$150, plus a case big enough to hold all those, plus power cords and maybe a cigarette adapter. That comes out to around $400 for 5 times the bulk. Sure I can't play DVDs, but I rarely find myself wanting to watch movies unless it's a special occassion - in which case, no problem dropping $20 for a UMD. Throw in a 1GB MS Duo and even the price, and you still have an very sleak system next to a pile of bulky junk.
And seeing as that you haven't USED a PSP, 2.5 hours of battery is ridiculous! I played Spider-Man 2 for 2 hours, full brightness, full volume. When it was done the battery was at 60%. My gf played for 4.5 hours (games only, while waiting at work), and had 41% left. The battery lasts as long as claimed, and even more so.
As for games, I've played 4. Loved them all. There's more than the DS launched with...
And you whine about UMDs being proprietary... and the DS uses...???
And the captain seems to think that because it has 802.11b, you MUST bundle a browser. Why? It doesn't come with a keyboard, which makes entering URLs a pain. There is a browser in WipEout Pure, that someone has been able to use, so you know it can be done. When will people understand that media != web browsing? I'm sure it'll come. Jsut doesn't seem like something the unit NEEDS.
God, this guy didn't even get the price right. MIT boy, let's see. $270+$100 = $500? Not unless you're paying 30% sales tax. And it's $250, plus $40-50 for games. Came out to around $370 for me with 2 games.
Yes, it is version 1.0, but I think Sony hit the mark this time. I don't regret getting it for one second, and I have had zero problems with it. Overall the thing is jaw-droppingly gorgeous and sounds amazing. Go get one and prove yourself wrong. I hemmed and hawed over it at first, too. Then I picked it up and played with it for the first time, and I was sold.
What's up with mods marking everything that criticizes the PSP as flamebait? The parent makes a very good poing that the PSP is NOT ready to take the place of a modern MP3 player. Sure, playing MP3's is a bonus feature and great for a few songs, but it's just too expensive to be an MP3 player. I also don't see people buying movies in a format that will only work on the PSP.
I just picked one up at Target today; wow, it's got an incredibly nice screen, and Twisted Metal rocks as always. But immediately I've got some slight complaints:
No AAC audio support for music files? The hardware can clearly do this, as it can decode AAC audio in the context of an MPEG-4 file. This seems like straight peevishness on Sony's part to cut out iTunes AAC users. On the other hand, I knew I should have probably ripped all those CDs as
To get the unit into "USB Disk" mode, the user has to go to System Settings and put the unit into USB Connection mode. This seems overly complex. It might be better if the PSP just automatically opened a connection when it sensed a USB cable present -- that would open up all sorts of cool auto-sync possibilities i.e. the iPod.
But these are minor complaints. This unit rocks, the UI is well thought out, and the MPEG-4 video playback (which is what I was mainly interested in) is gorgeous. Nice job, Sony!
~jeff
AHAHAHAHAHH. YHBT.
d00d! j00 sp3@k d@ 1337! c@n j00 b my d@dd33?
all had units left near the end of the day in the DC Pentagon area - Costco had about 20 on display atthe door, and BB had about 20 left at the end of launch day.
Games such as Ridge Racer and Lumines sold out, but all the otehrs were avaliable.
Looks like Sony shipped enough to meet demand, and those who speculated on a shortage will not be making big bucks on eBay. Too bad..
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
I really think Sony made a mistake when it comes to promoting this in the US. The portable game markets belongs to parents with kids. A parent with 2 kids will slap down the $250 for 2 Gameboys and 2 games, but will might stall on just one PSP for the same price or dropping $600 on 2 PSP w/ games.
Now, if Sony pushed it as a PDA, MP3, Video, e-book, etc and add the ability to slap in a CF card or microdrive. Hotcakes! Of course, Sony fears losing control/money on non-proprietary storage.
First off at a glance this thing looks awesome. Tons of features, game selection at this point isn't the best, and the hacks seem to be comming.
Just wait till someone makes a disk full of tools. Phone book, notepad, better fully functional webbrowser... Fun.. oo maybe a chat thing. Everyone wants to use MSN or AIM on there PSP!
I agree... the price was definatly a turn off. I'm waiting for it to go down.
You have been warned.
What I think no one has stated loudly enough is that in the US mobile gaming is a kids-only affair. Japan is a land of long train commutes and small living quarters that lends itself nicely to a concept like the PSP with its adults-only price tag. In the US the car culture and the "Everything is Big in America" don't lend themselves well to adult portable gaming. They lend themselves to huge-ass TVs to plug consoles on (which helps explain why it's the country where the X-Box has seen the greatest success).
So the PSP won't be a dismal failure, but Nintendo will most likely end up selling more machines in the US thanks to its more kiddy-friendly price tag and image (so that stereotype might be useful for them in the end...).
I think it's the economic climate nowadays. Canadians are carrying more personal debt than ever (I'd imagine US is the same), taxes are higher and income hasn't kept up with the price of inflation. The PSP is the apex of superfluousness (aha, I found my subject heading) at a time when everyone seems to be cutting corners and pinching pennies.
And it's all just PS2 games on a smaller screen. Big whoop.
SEO Copywriter. Just Say ON
He stole a link from the grandparent's article in order to sell his stupid thing. Its not even in his sig, he pasted it in there.
Fucking spammers.
I was actually wondering that myself.
It's a little ironic, as I really want a PSP. Some of the guys at work were playing with a pair of Japanese units... trying to see how far away they could be from eachother while still staying connected (about 50 feet). The controls seem solid, the system looks super smooth, and the form factor is just right. If I hadn't had to fix my car this month, I may have picked one up already. I wasn't intending to flame anyone.
But it's clearly not a media player. Not that the portable media player market is doing terrifically well either, but the PSP is neither a portable DVD player or an iPod. Not by a long shot.
Maybe it was the Terry Pratchett comment. Maybe some people feel strongly enough about the-situation-that-will-not-be-named to mod down a comment. Or maybe people just don't know the history of convergent devices.
Honestly I'd rather it was the Pratchett comment: I'm more comfortable with people being fundamentalist about human life than I am with people being fundamentalist about a gaming system.
The ______ Agenda
> Mortal Combat I
If they were really keeping track of the number, this release would be Ridge Racer 42 or something.
A family is dealing with the certain death of their daughter.
She died years ago.
Playstation Twos have been out for years now, everybody's got one. Alright, so here comes a portable PS2...
My question is, where are kids going these days where there aren't any A/V inputs? PS2 portability was already achieved before the PSP.
Take all the 8-15 year olds in America, subtract the kids with TVs in their bedrooms, subtract the ones with A/V inputs in their parents' SUVs, subtract the ones with LCD extenders for their PS2s, and who do you have left?
The remaining 8-15 year olds go places, reluctantly, but they don't have 250.00 dollars to spend on a console they already own (and games they already own) except around birthdays and Christmas.
So that leaves the 16-25 year olds, but these adolescents don't play video games in the backseats of their parents' Volvos or at Grandma's house like 8-15 year olds; they play the classic PS2 on the big TV in the apartment/dorm/house they almost never leave. Furthermore, I suspect they're even less likely to be duped into repurchasing their 300 to 500 dollar software collections.
So this PSP thing makes a fancy gift, but I just don't see anybody running out in a frenzy to snatch one for themself. Sales will pick up around the holidays, but Sony should not expect kids in Springfield, Santa Barbara or Scottsdale will react like kids in Tokyo.
The only bummer is when they don't stock something timely. I go to Target all the time for near-release-day purchases. I went a couple days ago for God of War, but they weren't even carrying it yet. Thankfully, Best Buy had a couple copies left.
A $250 PC is going to be absolutely worthless for any modern games, so comparing the two is ridiculous; their functions are totally different.
The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
UMD is smaller than a mini DVD, though, isn't it? I mean, a mini DVD is 3", which is larger than the width of the entire PSP unit, and some people are already complaining about how large the PSP is.
I don't care for Sony at all. I'll admit I'm downright hostile to them at times but I have to say Sony are taking on a VERY big fish and have a very very small pond to do it in.
Nintendo have made several REALLY good handhelds we all remember and adore, we're loyal to Nintendo, this is the first factor.
Now in Japan all we heard was how poorly it was made, how it threw discs out if twisted one way and how buttons jamming and dead pixels were every where. Sony can't label mutton as lamb if you already know it's mutton.
I like muppets.
US$250!!! for a handheld?!
And why Japan can buy a basic kit for only US$200?
No wonder it isn't selling well.
I just want to see Apple take that gorgeous LCD and wrap a star-killing PDA phone around it, using a scaled-up iPod mini look with touchscreen. Something with internal disk, HWR, 3G, voice recognition (for bluetooth headset/handsfree dialing etc.), the works. Adding the ability to run Dashboard apps even if you don't use a PPC full-blown OS X env would be super kewl.
BTW, if Apple were to do that, the $250 you're complaining about with the PSP will seem like peanuts in comparison.
I think part of the problem is simply timing. It's the week before easter sunday. People are a lot more focused on the holiday and traveling right now.
I am planning to buy one following easter, but I just don't have the time right now, despite the plentiful stock of units in my area.
What's interesting though, is that the PSP already has a stronger library of games at lauch than the DS has had since it first came out nearly four months ago. Had Sony been able to introduce the PSP with the current selection of games back in december, I think we'd be seeing a much different picture.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Otherwise, the poster's content should be treated separately from his sig. As long as he as interesting posts, does it matter if he's selling snake oil in his sig?
Will the stupid press in britain all hail the PSP just like they did the PS2 and kill off the DS just like the Dreamcast was killed off even though the Dreamcast was the far better console at that time.
That saying i found a great little PSP news site over at http://psp-news.dcemu.co.uk/ some ads but great news coverage of the PSP scene.
Hmm... maybe my news is lagged, it probably is. But I was under the impression that Japanese youth(16-24'ish) have a good deal more disposable income for trendy electronics like celphones and psps because of the family/rent issue.
Goes something like this: The youths who work part time jobs are still living at home. The parents basically cover the rent and utilities, with the children kicking in some portion. This means that the bulk of what the children earn, which isn't taken up by the government in taxes, is disposable income.
I think this, along with the depressed economy in America, explains the level of difference in sales of the PSP between Japan and America.
I'm dying to get one, but I'm also looking at my bills/living expenses/etc and thinking... $300 can mean one PSP(w/one game, most likely lumines) or it can mean gas for the car, food at lunch, stuff I can buy for girlfriend's bday, bills, etc.
Not saying Japanese youths have it easy or that they don't have expenses. Just young wage earners who are living at home with their parents, where ever they live, will have more disposable income.
Although, as much as I want a PSP, I find myself wondering: why? There just isn't enough compelling games out for me to want one. That and the fact that I can't actually go and hold one to get a feel for it. :/
Winged Power Photography
My friend got his PSP the day it came out (reserved one at GameStop). When he turned it on, he noticed he has 2 dead pixels, but since he bought the insurance on it, he's gonna return it for another as soon as they restock them.
In this area (Northern NJ), all the stores pretty much are sold out. They're quite the hot item. In NY, they've been nearly impossible to find, but everyone seems to have plenty of games in stock.
The thing that surprises me is that, even though Sony says the PSP is region-free, the games have a region code on them. I got my PSP in january (ordered from japan) and I'm able to play US games without any issues, but I can't play that SpiderMan2 movie that came with my friend's PSP. It's quite depressing.
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
I can count several times this week that I've been playing my DS somewhere (Subway, Mall, etc), and random man off the street confused it for a PSP. Once was even about a week before the PSP release.
mc chris has a PSP.... He was showin it off at his Lancaster show.... which I WAS AT!
All your searching needs (and free money!) - 4Lancer.net
it only has 32mb memory?! is that right? The latest mobiles have more than that..
Wouldn't it be cool if they released an SDK for indie game studios, and other folks who want to write useful software for this thing. Even better, release UMD recorders and sell UMD media.
:0)
But no, this won't happen before hell freezes over, thaws and then freezes again, complete with flying pigs and everything. Except if Microsoft releases a WinCE based portable gaming console.
Great gaming, but on Portable Media Center!
I would definitely purchase a PSP if it had the ability to play mini DVD's (UMD) that I could burn on my MAC!!!
But I can see by your PSP FAQ that your more interested in selling your own content on UMD's then allowing us to transfer content we have already paid for to these UMD's.
I was very excited when I first heard of the PSP but after finding out about the inability to put my own content on a UMD I no longer have any interest in your product
P.S. Yes I know that I can put video on a memory card.
Which brings me to the biggest mistake your company keeps making, its one little word "proprietary"
I'm sticking with my iPod and will enter into the world of a PMC when Apple releases one that plays there proprietary videos along with ones I can create myself and besides I like the idea of a 40gb HD compared to a 1.8gb mini DVD that I can't use.
As for the price difference I'm willing to pay double.
What is the point of releasing a expensive media/game player when all you can see is your own reflection in the glossy screen? Don't even think about trying to watch something or play a game under the fluorescent lights at your job or school let alone outside on a sunny day.
:)
Or maybe every one is tired of the Sony's proprietary crap and prefer devices that can play a multitude of file formats without having through jump through hoops to do so.
I could be wrong though...
From the summary:
:)
The PSP is currently burning up the charts in Japan, though, where the console has been out for a while. Early adopters on a holiday weekend may not be the best yardstick. Official numbers from the first weekend of sales likely available on Monday.
Translation: As a former editor of the Slashdot games section, I spent hundreds of dollars on a PSP last week and feel the need to defend it in a front page article.
In the article linked, it says "PSP is kicking some major butt right now, besting its bigger brother, the DS, the GBA, everything."
That link completely ignores 2004 sales, where the DS sold about 1.5 million.
Over their lifespan of the systems (which launched a couple of weeks apart), the DS is outselling the PSP by around 1.3 million.
If it had been sold for 50 bucks less at $199, I guarantee it would be selling a lot better this weekend. I can justify 200, but getting up to 250 has crossed that invisible line for a portable in my mind.
The full standalone consoles don't even cost that much at my local store, particularly the PS2.
All they need to do to improve sales is provide the following system software with every PSP:
Web browser
E-Mail Client
Wireless Sniffer
WEP cracker
Now, getting their console back on target (gaming) may be a little more difficult, but involves nothing more than lowering the price of games a little.
The most important feature of the PSP for me anyways is the battery life. Can someone that owns it comment on this? If it doesn't get at least 5 hours I'll be sticking with my Gameboy SP thank you very much.
Hacker Media
What if you've got a DS and tell them it's got two heads?
The 16-bit Jaguar was not ahead of its time.
The Atari Jaguar console wasn't "16-bit" in the same sense as the Sega Genesis, Super NES, and Sega CD. For one thing, the Jaguar had a 16-bit MC68000 I/O processor, two 32-bit DSPs, and a 64-bit data bus. Some games ran game logic on the IOP; others ran it on the DSP that sat next to the video chip.
As I recall, the 3DO, SegaCD, 32X, Saturn and PlayStation were all around at that time.
The 3DO console also sold for well over double the typical introductory price of a game console. Most 3DO and Sega CD exclusive titles were based on FMV gimmicks. The Jag may have been as powerful as the 32X, but neither system had a lot of good exclusive titles, and was 32X even sold in Japan? Saturn and PlayStation came out much later.
I'll second that. For christ's sake, it was one little line. Is Slashdot really that political that a single line brings people's wrath upon them?
It didn't bother me. What's funny is the people criticizing the post for being political. However, if the critics were really so apolitical, they wouldn't have batted an eye at the remark. It's like preaching tolerance while being intolerant. I don't get it. Whatever.
Still, it sounds more appealing than yet another mario/donkey kong/zelda rehash.
a PDA manufacturer needs to realise that 8-way pad & analog stick and a couple of fire buttons would go a long way towards making the PocketPC the mobile gaming platform of choice
Only now is Nintendo's patent on the D-pad running out.
entry-level models that are full-featured (3D accelerator and such), affordably priced - and also aimed at gamers.
In general, the wholesale price of a new video game system is pretty close to cost of goods sold. Console makers typically fund research and development with bootloader royalties paid by publishers. Do you expect the entry-level models to restrict the 3D accelerator such that only licensed titles can access it?
What Slashdot's summary fails to mention is last year's DS sales were 1.5 million......
So, let's see here. For $250, you get a cool-looking but big and chunky thing that's a closed platform with proprietary media formats and only a handful of games.
On the other hand, for just $20 more, you can get a Tapwave Zodiac with:
It also supports Web browsing and POP/IMAP email via Bluetooth networking or an 802.11b SDIO card (sold separately).
All new platforms have teething pains, and Sony will undoubtedly be addressing the PSP's shortcomings over the following months (including its rather high price). But if you don't want to wait, or you'd rather have something you can actually comfortably carry around with you, you might want to amble on over to CompUSA or Fry's and take a look at the Zodiac.
And I'm not just saying that because I work for them :-).
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
How many of you saw TV spots for the PSP in the weeks leading up to the launch? Lemme guess, zero. Somehow Sony's (SCEA's) really big marketing department totally dropped the ball on this one. How can you launch such a sweet product and the only marketing is a cardboard cutout at Walmart. The Japenese launch had a huge media blitz. America, zilch.
Also, you gotta wait awhile for some of the non-game apps to roll in. Sony has already confirmed they'll be selling a cell-phone upgrade and a future free firmware release will include a web browser, email client, and other miscellaneous PDA-esqe features.
I have never had the urge to play video games while I'm out and about in the world. I just don't get the deal with it. I can see why kids might have an interest because they have zero attention span and little control over what they're doing when their parents need to go somewhere but why do adults want this?
Read my short stories - You won't regret it.
Seriously, people.
We should be ashamed of ourselves! The least we could do for those poor bastards who stayed in line for three days was to rush and buy the little thing until there was none left.
At least they would feel their hardship counted for something...
Okay, I just have to speak up.
It was one fucking statement, at the very bottom of a well-written review, tucked away in parentheticals. It didn't even advocate a position either way and was non-inflammatory, despite its current "0 Flamebait" moderation.
If you guys are so non-political, you wouldn't even bat an eye at such a statement. Are you so insecure in your position that you see someone dare mention something in a parenthetical at the very bottom of their post and jump to the forefront in a firey political rage? You're the one being political. If you were really so apolitical, the statement wouldn't have meant anything to you either way. It's like preaching tolerance through intolerance. I mean, wtf?
It was a well-written review. It was one little non-relevant statement tucked away at the bottom. You know, just like everybody's signatures. Get over yourselves! And why do I have a feeling if the position had been more toward the side of the husband (i.e., the "left-wing" position), fewer people would be complaining and the post wouldn't have been modded down so much?
Just had to get that off my chest. It was a harmless apolitical statement at the bottom of a long, well-written post. Only on Slashdot will that get a bunch of knee-jerk downmods and flames from people yelling at you to be non-political. Meanwhile, any Bush joke gets +5 funny in any article, no matter the topic. Lame.
There aren't any standard, cheap, available micro-hard-drives to download on to
Not even a Hitachi Microdrive, a 4 GB hard drive that fits in a standard CF type II slot? It'll cost you about 200 USD, about one-sixth of the $150/GB figure you quoted.
So, because Sony decided to can the Euro launch for a while and made sure that there were 2x-4x the amount of consoles than a usual launch, it's suddenly unsuccessful when you're able to buy one off the shelf?
If Sony had decided to limit the first day available amount to less than what they sold, would it suddenly be a massive success, even though they still sold the same amount?
No need to mess around with BIND/DNS. Just use a squid proxy server. Use the redirect_program option and write a simple perl script to replace the scea address with your own portal page.
Bother.
I dunno how much this factors in to the low sales, but I personally have no interest in this thing simply beccause there is no reason for me to ever play a portable machine. I don't travel ever, and I'm never in a long car ride/air plane rides or anything. That is the only time I would ever play one. Gaming is like a sit down experience for me, and if I'm out of my house I'm pretty much not looking to play a video game. At home I would never play it, because I'd prefer not to be staring at some tiny little screen when I could use my TV or PC instead. If the thing ever gets a composite video adapter maybe I'll bite.
As compared to the open format on the DS? Or the GBA?
Officially, the Nintendo Playan adapter for GBA lets you play MPEG-1 layer 3 audio and MPEG-4 video stored on common SD memory cards. However, because it has an onboard decoder that draws a significant amount of current, it's recommended for use only in those GBA devices that have a rechargeable battery (GBA SP and Nintendo DS).
Unofficially, GBA has been busted wide open with third-party flash memory devices such as the EFA-Linker and the SuperCard. You can play music on them with the GBA GSM Player, or you can play video with the Meteo codec. Work continues on making the Nintendo DS homebrew-friendly.
At Fred Meyer in Auburn WA, they have dozens of PSPs on display at the moment. And @$250 a pop, why buy one when you can get consoles @$99-$150, or Gameboy Advance/Nintendo DS for under $150?
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
IF there was a way to convert old PS1 games that you can get for like $3 a peice at the pawn shop down the street, THEN I would be interested.
AND if there was a burner for that stupid propeitary media format they used on purpose to try to thwart this sort of thing then I would be interested.
Seems to me like a way to sell the exact same games but in a different format... Imagine that you bought a bunch of music CD's, but in order to play them in your car you had to REBUY them all in a different type of CD format...same thing.
-- Given enough time and money, Microsoft will eventualy invent UNIX.
The last numbers I saw, showed that Nintendo had sold about 2.8 million DSs in 2004.
OK. I've said this before in a prior post, but I just can't get the idea out of my head. I want Quake III Arena ported to the PSP! I mean, how many times can Id get my money for that damn game? Bought it for Linux - check; bought it for the PS2 - check; bought it for the Mac - check. And each time I plunk the money down I feel ashamed for buying the same thing on another platform. Until I begin fragging, that is. Then I get all warm and fuzzy inside. :) Why do I love that old game so?
Will someone please port Q3A to the PSP? Pretty please?!?!?!
I think that the major problem with their launch is lack of marketing. I had heard a little bit about the PSP, but always assumed it was a miniature version of the Playstation. Wrong. It wasn't until after I downloaded a video of a guy showing his Japanese import off that I decided to buy one: video capabilities (MPEG-4), MP3 capabilities, 802.11b connectivity, and of course, the games sold me on it.
Anyhow, the guy that taught me the secret ways of gagdetry -- let's call him "Dad" -- came by tonight and I showed him a couple of movies I had encoded (Hellboy and Blade). He was extremely impressed I was able to get decent video running on the thing. The first thing he said was "How come I haven't heard of this before?!" I really think that Sony screwed the pooch on marketing the PSP.
You don't have to. It just would be a great thing for indie game publishers.
1) its extreamly expencive and you are forced to buy a bundle at launch 2) poor advertising, most people dont know what the PSP is or that it was coming out. 3) no must have game 4) reports of 6% defective rate from the japan launch. The claimed .6% was way to low as some stores have stated almost 10% of return rater in Japan after launch. (dead pixles, dust behind screen, defective buttons, UMDs poping out, even a few PSP fires)
5) people know better then to buy a Sony product before the first revision.
5) No must have game.
Sadly, Sony doesn't allow non-indie developers to burn UMDs. They have to burn their games to DVD and send them to Sony for printing.
I bought one and I'm very disappointed there is no WPA support for the wireless on the PSP. Talk about dropping the ball.
Yeah, or yet another game featuring an Italian plumber.
Canadian sales of the PSP have been quite interesting with the requirement of having to stock and sell the "Gretzky Bundle". For most stores: Future Shop, Best Buy, Real Canadian Superstore, Wal-Mart, the split was 60/40 (Gretzky Bundle/Value Pack); for others: EB Games, they only got the Gretzky Bundle (which pissed a lot of pre-payers off). Ten titles were available at most places for the launch. There were no line ups and by the end of the day all stores still had stock. I was the second to get a PSP from a Future Shop from their stock of 110 units; while my buddy was first to get his from a Wal-Mart that had a stock of 200 units. Both stores sold about 20% of their stock the first day - 80% of those were the Value Pack and 50% of those with two games, 25% one game and 25% no game! Oh... and the Value Pack was $300cdn, and the Gretzky Bundle was $350cdn; games were priced at either $50cdn or $60cdn.
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/181/4316/640/628065 07397_3300.jpg
Who thinks that converting an ebook into a series of images, doesn't constitute "hacking" a psp? Granted it's cool that someone can turn a 519k ebook into a 100mb+ ebook and view it.
Spiffy idea, but at the price sony charges for their wonderfully proprietary sticks, I could buy a couple ebook readers for the same price.
As a PSP owner living in Japan, I've been looking forward to the US release of the handheld for entirely the reason that it'll bring forth a wealth of 3rd party / open source / freeware apps, and hacks. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but the "amateur" development community doesn't have the same strength in Japan as in the US or Europe.
One thing I noticed that was particularly unsettling when looking at the PSP Vault website was their front page poll ("How many dead pixels does your PSP have?") Given that nearly 45% of owners are reporting at least 1 or 2 dead pixels, this is a pretty damning indictment of Sony's manufacturing & quality control. I know that when the PSP was released here, many people considered taking their units back to the store, but decided against it because of the huge shortages around the time of the Japanese release (i.e. we'd rather accept the minor fault, rather than losing our new toy for a month or two).
I had mod points, but this was too stupid to just mod down.
The XBox isn't that big, and you don't have to have room above it to open the CD slot. You can tuck it under something and still have access to it.
All these people say "Wow, it's big" and sure, it's slightly larger then some game systems have been in the past. But it's hardly bigger then the original Nintendo, it requires a lot less space above it then the Game Cube (not to mention any of the older systems like the Genesis, SNES, etc,) And it's only an inch wider then the PS2.
Saying "I don't have room for that" when you DO have the room for the game cube is just a load of crap.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
mini Dvd-r would increase the size of the psp substantially. And at the same time it's capacity would be 300megs less. Going with mini Dvds would not have been a good choice for anyone.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/metricmusic
So make 'em dual-layer. Doesn't change physical size, but almost doubles the capacity.
Everyone seems to like the game, so why pay $249+? Play a Lumines clone for free. Requires Java.. php3
http://www.rit.edu/~jhb4598/jblog/archives/000598
Prove it
I work for a little more interesting. A security is a four winged stinging insect. Perhaps you should just try to make this memorable then drink about a gallon of gasoline and eat a light match. Take my word for it, you're going to be just front-ends for ffmpeg. Data is information, especially that stored in a battle to the muzzle of a firearm. I work for a gigantic ass suv that i do what i am about to describe is one of us is the slickest and the phonograph. One of the bare back of a talen; and men blasphemed god because of reasons that i indeed support the ones producing it. But the file when played on the psp crashed. You are the biggest dunderhead of all the other programs which crash while still on the computer.
I really like the unit. Its got an amazing display and the controls work well. The games are being made for 10-20 minute fixes so its fun to pick up for a bit and put it back down...hard to do that with console games and PC games for the most part.
Everything is working as advertised. Movies look amazing, games are fun. Its odd becuase you compare things to PS2 and then you go - but wait this is a console!
I don't think any games will make you like a genre...ie if you like racing get racing games, RPG get UL, dynasty warriors...
Lumi is great, its like tetris from hell with electonic dance music pumping.
The bottom line is this - the day after I got it I passed the CEO of my company walking to a resturant - he stopped me and we talked about it for abit because the unit is flat out sexy and looks high class...I bet he goes and gets one he can't check his email very well lol.
If you dont mind blowing some cash on games...just buy one - its sweet.
I bought a PSP on Thursday (launch day) at Wal-Mart. No one was camped out and I was the first person to buy one at that location. No dead pixels, but I think I'm going to exchange it as the left d-pad button is sticking when I play Lumines every once in a while (typically during "oh crap, I need this block way over THERE moments).
After a few days of playing, I love it. Is it worth $250? That's very subjective, but I think so. I almost wish I had daily commute time that didn't involve driving because the PSP would be a no-brainer if you have an hour or so to kill on a train each day.
I have 3 games, including the 2 which seem to be the 'hot' titles, Lumines, and Ridge Racer. I wanted to trade in some old games for Ridge Racer at EB Games or Gamestop, simply because I felt guilty for spending so much money on the PSP and 2 other games, but it was so hard to find that I jumped on the opportunity to pick it up at Target tonight.
While shopping for other things with my wife this weekend, I came to the conclusion that it's safe to say that people who bought multiple PSPs with the intent to make a buck on eBay wasted their time and money. I've seen multiple PSPs for sale at Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Target and BJ's. Maybe the demand just isn't there, or maybe we can thank Sony for shipping a million of these things at launch to prevent eBay hoarders from ruining it for the rest of us.
I have an iPod so music on the PSP wasn't that compelling to me. However, I did want to see how it handled music files, so I downloaded iPSP for the Mac and created a 'PSP' playlist in iTunes, consisting of an iTunes purchased song along with a regular mp3 file. I had added an album cover image to the mp3 by dragging an image from amazon.com to the song via iTunes. The DRM protected iTunes song wasn't even transferred over when I synced. At least it didn't show up in the PSP's music/memory card menu. The mp3 was there along with the album art. Sound quality was acceptable to me, but I didn't put too much thought into it as I knew I wouldn't be using the PSP for music anyway.
While I probably won't use my PSP for viewing picture slideshows that often, it's a feature I'll use more than music playback. Much like music, iPSP uses iPhoto albums to transfer pics over to the PSP (you can't transfer individual photos over as far as I can tell). So, I transferred over a 'vacation favorites' album via iPSP. Along with video playback, viewing pictures on the PSP is where the LCD display really shines. Displayed pictures look incredible, although the widescreen format of the PSP means you'll have bars on the side unless you zoom the image. That's no fault of the PSP though.
I only have the 32 meg memory stick that comes with the PSP, but I had to see what video looks like, so I downloaded a Star Wars Episode III trailer. Much like viewing pictures, the PSP display does not disappoint. Even more impressive is the Spider-Man 2 full-length movie that is bundled with the PSP. I can't see myself buying UMD movies, but the image quality is breathtaking. It looks as good as DVDs on my plasma although obviously in a smaller form (which might help hide any image quality issues). My wife, who doesn't care about this stuff but tolerates my gadget obesssion, commented about how she can't believe how good the image quality is.
That leaves games. As I mentioned earlier, I guess I'm lucky to have found Lumines and Ridge Racer on release weekend. While the PSP is easy to find, these 2 titles seem to be somewhat hard to track down.
I'm not a big fan of puzzle games. Tetris always seems to blow my mind once the pace picks up a bit and I can't think quick enough to move pieces into the appropriate place. The only 'puzzle' game that I really like is Bejeweled, probably because I can stop to think of what my next move is. I couldn't dismiss Lumines however after reading all of the great reviews. My first couple of games were frustrating, my brain refusing to think in terms of which way to f
What if the Hokey-Pokey really is what it's all about?
And a $250 portable gaming unit is going to be playing games that are a few years old anyways, your point is? Drop an $80 video card in the PC and your good to go for the current generation of games, all previous Windows games, and the next generation of games, albeit at 800x600.
:-D A $250 PC can emulate:
:)
And besides, modern game suck.
NES
SNES
PSX
N64
crudloadofotherplatforms
just fine.
Ok ok not what little Bobby is going to want, but whatever. Its an entrance drug man, just wait, in 5 years he'll be pushing out the $500 for a new video card to play Doom4.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
I went around to a few shops in LA on Friday after the launch, and I really couldn't find any PSPs anywhere. All the EBs had sold out, the indie-Jap import stores had sold out, Best Buy didn't have any--the only place that had them was Acme Game Store in Hollywood, which is the Armani of video game stores, and they only had them because they were selling them with a $100 markup. $350 FREAKING DOLLARS!! AND NO GAME!!! At least the guy at the store let me try out a bunch of games before I told him I wasn't interested. It's an amazingly beautiful device. If I win any money in Vegas this week, I'm getting one.
Sony won't be replacing systems with dead pixels, they do not feel they are a manufacturing defect, no matter how many there are, while the manual doesn't actually come out and say this it is implied (I checked), here's the relevant link: http://www.us.playstation.com/hardwaremanuals.aspx It's in the manual on page 13 under the section for LCD screens. And the text:
Red, blue or green spots (bright spots) or black spots (dark spots) may appear in certain locations on the LCD screen. The appearance of such spots is a normal occurrence associated with LCD screens and is not a sign of a malfunction.
and there is also this e-mail:
"DEAD PIXEL WARRANTY AND TESTING...
We have just been infomned by Sony that they will not be warranting any dead
pixel units. They are only warranting hardware defects ie broken buttons,
malfuction with drive and so on. Dead Pixels are not considered a defect by Sony
of America and will not be warrantied."
Here's the link for that one:
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/4461/
I didn't actually call Sony to check on this, but until I hear otherwise, I won't be buying a PSP if I cannot get a system with dead pixels replaced. Though it is nice to see that the warranty has been increased to one year out of box from the usual 90 days.
As a former Rez player, I can say with confidence that it would be quite easy to be addicted to Lumines after only one minute.
For me the PSP is basically a very expensive Lumines player. I have not bought a PSP because I don't want to pay that much for just one game, and also have not saught to play Lumines myself for the same reason.
Sometime in the future I'm pretty sure I'll own one in order to play that game. Just not yet.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Ahh, so this handheld uses that crap of "We control what we sign" measure?
Soo fun. Thanks for the warning, matey.
Meteos got a surreal Famitsu score, something like all 9's or close to it. It's looking like it might be something really awesome.
That said... what's it about? I have no idea.
This is informative, you retard moderator that modded this down. Go back to playing your DS, you biased dipshit.
My local CompUSA in Fountain Valley was sold out as of 6:00PM Friday night.
They accepted email from anyone, who gave no proof they worked for EB. The article is based off of unreliable data, and anyone who accepts it is obviously a fanboy.
Well I still prefer Nintendo's games more, I can't say that I like games like Twisted Metal, Lumines is great but it's just one game, what does the market know after all, and--
Wait a second. Hold on... (scrolling up and reading the article again)
The PSP isn't selling well??
Wow. I'd gloat, except I'm too busy being in shock. Iwata must be on cloud nine right about now!
My cousin/roommate is in charge of security at a Target store. They had him come in early to do (his words) "crowd control" for the PSP launch. Not only was no one there for the launch, but they sold two that entire morning. He's not even sure what a PSP is.
Sony dropped the ball when it came to marketing this thing, and they dropped the ball on the price tag. Sure it's a bargain, and it's probably got $400 worth of actual hardware in it, and it has a lot of potential, but at the end of the day you still have to convince Joe-sumer to spend $250 on a big game boy.
http://www.walkingtaco.com
Laughable....
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
I actually had a couple of hours on my friends PSP and I will tell you the thing totally rocked.
/. crowd to check out the many, many holes around the DMCA.
My friend suddenly turned enemy wanted to reclaim his property an I honestly considered clubbing him over the head and running for the door.
He is my LAN buddy AND my bartender.
Sony did very good.
I invite the
I am in love.
where I'm from does this from time to time. They haven't grown, they haven't worn out the old clothes, they don't need new ones... but...
Those shoes, that dress, that new style blah blah blah. The new purse that looks exactly like the 5 dollar knockoffs but costs $150.
Why is it socially acceptable for women to do this in order to keep up with fashion trends but not socially acceptable for someone to do the same thing for video game 'fashion' reasons?
Also, why is it acceptable to blow money on gifts during Christmas or Channukah, but not on impulse?
The point I'm trying to get at is "yes, it must be nice to be able to spend $300 on a console and a video game on impulse". But that's no reason to be uncivilized about somebody else's good fortune. That's like cursing the guy with the coin collection, or shouting at someone with a Gucky purse, or crticizing someone for buying a pair of crosstrainers or a bike on the impulse to "get in shape."
Just be glad he spent the money instead of hoarding it up. More money in the economy for everyone else, right?
UMD games DO have regions. But the bits are not set by default, and may or may not ever be.
My point is that it is technically capable (within spec) for a PSP game to be prevented from playing in a certain region's hardware, and Sony has the right to set that bit at any time. They did not create a door without locks, they just left the door unlocked FOR NOW.
The Americans are being savvy. After all, the screens and graphics drivers on Pocket PC, Palm and some of the latest phones may not match the PSP but they are good enough quality to play games. And not to mention the more versatile touch screen equipped Tapwave Zodiac. The issue here is people do not want to carry around yet another device. The PSP is not versatile enough. There is no hard drive (silly), no Bluetooth to allow for phone functionality and without a communications OS infrastructure, no way to manage your contacts for multiplayer gameplay, something 'phones' do out of the box. The phone will become the game platform, not the other way around. Why? Cost of entry.
O'WONDERWe're working on it.
Maybe a stupid question, but I couldn't find much info on the UMD format online. First off, the firmware is upgradeable through 802.11 or mem stick, which means hacked firmware will be along soon. The question is, can a UMD reader also read mini-DVDs? If so, the PSP is going to be bent over like a cheap whore (and I'll get one). If not, Sony has announced they're opening the UMD format, so burners may not be far off anyway. In which case, see "cheap whore" note earlier in this post.
It is also insulting to the concept of self-publishing, which has been around for a long time. It makes it sound as if "bloggers" invented the idea. The other aspect that annoys is the vanity aspect - all those wankers who call themselves part of the "blogosphere" or the "blog revolution." It is damaging to a reasoned analysis of self-publishing.
... and then they built the supercollider.
This thread is quite amusing. I got myself a PSP a couple of days ago (although I'm in Europe, so I got a Japanese one), and I've yet to get a game for it yet. First thing I did was rip Star Wars to a 512MB MSDuo. Fantastic, and apparently it's not a media player, but a gaming machine! If this isn't a media player then I can only imagine how good the games are.
Dude, you need to sit down for a while.
1.5, 2.8, I forget the exact number. Something like that, yeah.
Either way, the DS had a massive lead in 2004, which, despite the PSP's small lead in 2005, still means the DS is in the overall lead by a large amount.
Well, I'm no Sony "loyalist". I bought this thing because it does stuff that the other handhelds can't. I've been waiting for a unit with this kind of screen quality and raw CPU power for several years. So I've never bought a Nintendo handheld simply because it doesn't do what I want, not out of like or dislike for Nintendo products. And I bought this on features alone, not love for Sony (who are just another company with some good and some bad products).
That said: I'm 37, not 10. If I had kids there's no way I would buy this thing for them. It's not just the price, but the thing is quite delicate. Between moving parts for the optical drive and the large (do NOT drop!) screen, there's no way this thing could survive the kind of damage a kid wealds. And just the image of this thing in a sandbox makes me cringe. For the 6 - 12yo crowd, yeah the GBA looks very durable and cheap enough to replace when the kid runs it through the washer or steps on it.
I actually feel fairly confidant that the PSP will do well enough among the 20s - 30s crowd to build a successful market. Next Christmas will be an important test of its viability. With a decent title selection and a drop to $200 it should sell well. If not, well I may have made a bad long term purchase. We'll see... --M
This sounds like a job for the Apprentice.
Apprentice 4 : Candidates tries to sell Sony PSP.
It costs about $300-$350 to build for sony, and they are selling at $250 because they think they can make it up from software sales. On top of that,Im guessing about 3/5 of PSP are defected and returned. If sony made 3/4 a mil, their profits on the hardware would be: ~-$112,500,000. wow, nice going sony! (Yes that is negative 112.5 mil)
In Canada (where file sharing is soon to be outlawed!) the PSP retails for $399.99 CDN - That's $328.73 US with taxes etc, the price is above $500 CDN over $400 US which is just too damn much for yet another handheld that is going to not only trot out all the coolest PS2 games I've ALREADY PLAYED (for a hefty price), and allow me to watch moives I've ALREADY SEEN (for a hefty price) and listen to music I will no longer be to download for FREE... talk about three great reasons not to waste your money on this gadget!
Sorry but the whole idea of convergence was to create devices that would be more then glorified gaming gadgets with a few extra uses.
>not a video playback device: when was the
>last time you bought a movie on UMD
The PSP plays movies off of it's memory cards as well. I usually rip all my DVDs for my laptop to play anyway since carrying tons of discs around with you is stupid. So the PSP format is just one transcode away.
>it has no text input
It does have a text input method that pops up when you enter a textbox and press X. Please RTFA.
Speaking of that, is it possible for [Nintendo] to renew that patent?
Not anymore. A patent starts out lasting 3.5 years from grant; if the assignee keeps current on maintenance fees, it is renewed to 7.5 years from grant, 11.5 years from grant, and finally 20 years from filing. Practically the only U.S. patents that last significantly longer than 20 years from filing are patents on drugs and other products whose sale needs approval from a government regulator. In these cases, the USPTO may grant an extension of up to five years to match the time the invention sat in regulatory limbo.
I seriously understood none of what you just said. Are you high?
According to this article, Meteos is supposed to come out in North America in late April early March. I was gonna do the import thing, but will wait for the cheaper localized version since it should be coming out soon.
Its the price of the device and the absolutely crazy price of the games that totally turns me off to this thing. I mean come on...$40 for a portable game? I don't care how cool it looks I refuse to pay $40 a game for a portable. $40 for a normal console ends up being on the cheap side but on the portable side thats absolutely crazy.
Maybe if the device drops to $99-$150 and the games down to $30 I'll bite. But not at its current prices.
You sound like one of those people that said that iPod had no significant value over the phone and that people didn't want to carry that around too. And the Nokia Ngage really sold out ....
... that's not too far away you know and TV on demand. TV on demand over UMTS? Hahahaha, I'm from Europe, I do UMTS professionaly, but TV over UMTS is not an option right now. Not even over full cell UMTS PCMCIA cards, let alone stripped UMTS telephones. It will take UMTS 2 (next year) and enough capacity to at least deliver something with enough frame rate, colors, etc.
...
... There are enough people who want to carry such a thing around.
What about the wireless in the PSP and then with VOIP
The PSP is versatile enough (I have one for over a month now). It is a great device and not just for gaming. You can't compare it to the low end specs of the mobile phones, not now and not the ones that will be on the market the next four years. Till then, Sony will rule the waves.
The PSP has just been put on the market (few months) and look at all the stuff that's available for it. A HD through UMTS can't be that far off, through Sony or the community. There are keyboards, films (Godfather, Disney stuff, Star wars), etc. Which phone has a decent enough screen to watch TV or a movie on? The Zodiac? Come on
There are already plenty of PSP communities out there that allow easy and free game play with groups
Seriously, just tell me why.
I can pretty much guarantee that nobody's gonna rebuy movies for this thing, at least in the US.
They're just $13.97 retail. Probably $9.99 on Newegg soon. Don't expect anything but action/thriller movies. Look at the audience. Why release "House of Sand and Fog" for the PSP, LOL.
I just want to see Apple take that gorgeous LCD and wrap a star-killing PDA phone around it, using a scaled-up iPod mini look with touchscreen.
Been there, done that, didn't get a T-shirt. Verizon and T-mobile won't support the iPod phone Apple and Motorola have already developed. There is no revenue for the mobile carriers in a device that can aquire music without connecting to the mobile network. Forget your dreams of a iPod phone, it won't happen unless the only way to put music on it is by burning up your airtime minutes and purchasing tunes exclusively from T-mobile or Verizon's partners. And you would not like an iPod crippled in that way, so forget all about it. Not happening.
Edith Keeler Must Die
I was reading about the PSP a couple days before its launch and was ready, willing and able to plunk down my hard-earned cash for one and a couple blank discs when something occurred to me: I hadn't seen any mention of how I was supposed to get data onto the discs. So I started looking.
You CAN'T get anything onto the discs. They're READ-ONLY. Which effectively ended my interest in the PSP. A 1gb Memory Stick Duo is $210 at Amazon. Are they out of their minds? If I could encode my DVDs to whatever format it uses (H.264?) and then stick those files onto a UMD I would have a fantastic portable video player.
Since I have to use the horribly expensive MSDs I'll take a pass and look into a portable DVD player that can play Divx files instead. It'll have a bigger screen anyway.
Games? The PSP has games? Feh. I have a PS1 that I'm selling on eBay soon because I never use it, and a PS2 that I got at Christmas which my wife plays with occasionally. I don't give a rat's ass about games. I just wanted it to be a portable video player. I'd probably do better with an Archos Jukebox anyway.
but I ask how a company can market something as the be-all-end-all of portable entertainment and ship it with 32 Megabytes of storage space. My friend says he thinks the Sony PSP developers are stuck back in 1993 or something.
Maybe stuck in 1998. In 1993 32MB was an ocean of memory.
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
The PSP and Portable Media Centers won't sell anytime in the near future in the US.
There's a key difference between the US and Japanese markets. In Japan, most people take the train or bus to work every day - often for over an hour. In the US, people drive.
These products are aimed at an older market than a Game Boy. The Game Boy takes hold in a market consisting of people who aren't operating the vehicle they're riding in - kids, college students. It can expand from there. The PSP/PMC don't have this base market with which to take hold. You can listen to music while you drive, while you run, cycle, etc - you can't watch a screen, and interact with it.
The key here is less cultural and more in urban planning. The US simply doesn't plan to move people using transit, but Japan does. We, here, are early adopters - we tend not to see the general trend, which is that most of the US doesn't have access to commuter rail, but most of Japan does. We have to pay attention to the road, and they don't.
uh-huh? Just look at how well the N-Gage sold!
Yes the DS is definitely a re-hash, I remmeber playing wario-ware with my N64 micrphone and touchscreen in 1996 and I don't see the point in buying it again! ;)
The great parent poster is still correct. No matter how much you trust your intuition, lighting your wallet of .25 Kilo US$ for 1 minute of play is impulse buying of the worst class.
An adult buyer will check carefully that such expense is justified, but of course many companies count on mindless teenagers (or people behaving like such) in order to keep peddling their wares.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
For whatever reason, people seem to have forgotten one important detail:
Christmas isn't for another nine months.
Just as DVDs are encoded per region, so are the movies for the PSP. The games, however, remain region-free, so there is no worry there. Apparently, movie companies are worried more about imports than game companies, though I don't see the difference myself. But then again, it seems that while handheld gaming has always been region-free, the home consoles are not. It's a crazy mixed up universe, but there's still a little place... called Albeqerquee!
Most men are not thought unwise until they speak.
I was right. Different competitor, but same end...
Nintendo is the king of handheld gaming. Sony is going to get its ass kicked.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
What? That seems strange, given everyone's statements here and on the IGN page on the issue. If they sold them to stores then... well, then how is that even news?
I'm confused by this. Maybe there'll be hard details tomorrow.
Nobody's said it yet but Tetris justified the purchase of a Gameboy when it first came out. Does Lumines justify the purchase of a PSP?
But I don't know how many units they actually shipped here.
The completely sold out of the small number they shipped to Japan, which is why the "heating up the sales charts" is kind of misleading. They're still at under a million sold in their home country, and at these numbers they won't come close to GBA penetration for a decade.
The DS has hit just under 2 million units in Japan for example, and the PSP is still at under half that, albeit catching up.
As it stands right now, the PSP is a distant third(sold less than half what the DS has), with the DS being a very distant second(selling under a tenth of what the SP sold), and saying anything else is just being dishonest at best.
Failure? No, too soon to call anyway, but definately not nearly as successful of a launch and early period as the GBA was and the DS is... yet anyway.
The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
I own Polarium. It's ok, not great. I did all the puzzles, but then I was left with just the challenge mode, and I'm not very good at that. It's race against the clock, which ends up being more of a race against your inaccuracy with a stylus. Oh well.
I'm living in Japan though, and I think someone, somewhere in Nintendo HQ decided this is the month to alleviate the no games problem (at least domestically). You mentioned Meteos, which shipped to raves, but there's also a couple short but good games that just came out, like Yoshi's Touch and Go and Pac-Pix. If you want a Bejeweled clone, Zookeeper's been out for a while.
Touch Kirby's Magic Wand just dropped and based on reviews, it's the first original, full length game for the DS. The concept sounds pretty solid-- tap Kirby to make him charge, draw rainbow tracks to direct him on the screen, tap enemies to stun them before you kill them. It's definitely in my mental shopping cart.
Coming soon is Electroplankton, a crazy art-music project which I absolutely must buy based on the Game Developers' Conference demo, and Nintendogs, a DS tamagotchi with which to keep one's girlfriend or niece busy.
With software for the DS finally in stores or there soon, my problem has become which ones to get and when. My current plan is to get Pac-pix tomorrow then Electroplankton when it comes out, then Kirby, then possibly Yoshi. Who knows, I may even try Nintendogs after that.
It may sound strange for me to start with Pac-pix, but I've already enjoyed doing the demos in store and something about it really appeals to me. Yoshi got good reviews, but I wonder if it isn't just too short for me. Pac-pix should be short enough for me to beat it but long enough to be interesting, making it a good reintroduction to a system I largely put down after beating Mario 64 twice.
I would highly consider getting one if it wasn't so expensive. I'm not willing to spend $250 on a regular console let alone a portable one. If they lowered the price by about $100 I *might* get be willing to get one. Although even asking $150 is pushing it (which is why I don't have a Nintendo DS).
find . -name "noobs" -print | xargs rm -rf && echo "pwnd."
I'm guessing that post was generated by a program that was fed the post he was responding to in addition to a large body of unrelated text.
I'm looking forward to the Castevania as well, but more than that, I can't wait for Jam With The Band. Nintendogs looks cool too, though it reminds me vaguely of those old Dogz and Catz things.
Well actually, Internet capable Animal Crossing could also be cool. (Can you use it as an email client?) Pac Pix is a cool premise (the player draws both the Pac Men that actually clear each screen and the board itself that they travel through). Polarium looks to be yet another interesting Nintendo puzzle game. And Meteos got that incredible Famitsu score (38 out of 40!). Bomberman DS is supposed to support up to eight players, and with actual 2D gameplay and graphics again it might be the game to put it back on the multiplayer map. And the Kirby thing they're working on looks like it may have similar gameplay to Yoshi Touch & Go but a longer game. Then there's a new Advance Wars, and Electroplankton, a new Mario Kart....
Heh, I didn't mean to turn this into a release list, but it does seem like its game drought won't last long, especially when you consider that GBA releases are still rolling out: coming up are WarioWare Twisted, another Fire Emblem, and a new game from WayForward (the Shantae people).
Yeah, and a 21" tv is good enough to watch sports, but I got a 55" instead. People like pretty screen, espeacially gamers. How is not having a hard drive silly? Where are you going to fit a hard drive in that thing? A simple app can add contacts...but seriously, who cares, you aren't going to need contacts...it's a game machine, not a phone. Phones SUCK for gaming. Their screens are too small and the controls are akward. This thing is designed for gaming with other features added on top. If you think Americans are not buying these like crazy because they are waiting for phone games to get out, then you are pretty messed up. If anything, the unsure economy is making $250 + games seem a little too much for an impulse buy. If you want a touch screen, get a DS. But phone gaming has been a flop and always will be because they are designed to be phones. Everyone will prefer a GB SP or a PSP for screen size and its design to play games. No one is going to want a phone the size of either of those systems.
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Assuming that they ever make games worth playing on the DS. Sure, there are going to be a few fun games, but really, it's silly. It's like the game glove...you could do all kinds of cool stuff with it, but it will get a few games and then the concept will die off (I think the system will survive just because it can play SP games as well). I do agree that it is more innovative. But I don't think it is innovative in the sense that every other portable from here on out will have 2 screens and a touch pad. Why? Because you don't need those to have fun games. I am not sure where you get "substandard" for movie playing or MP3 playing. It is a gaming system that allows you to do those things as well. It's screen is far superior to other portable DVD players, so certainly not substandard there. And as far as MP3s go, is it as good as an ipod? Nope, but I'd like to see you play ridge racer on an ipod. The price is high, I am with you there. Maybe the price will drop if it catches on and manufacturing prices drop.
In the end, I would rather have a PSP over a DS because I doubt there will be many good games coming out for it that take advantage of the DS. I already have a GB SP which I love and can get all the good nintendo games I need for that. I just see the PSP to be a more powerful, next gen portable with some great games out already. I like to wait to buy these things because invariably the price will go down and the bugs/problems get fewer in laterl revs.
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You're comparing a tapwave zodiac to a PSP.... you're not a gamer.
And you whine about UMDs being proprietary... and the DS uses...???
The DS uses Compact Flash, up to a gig.
Go get one and prove yourself wrong. I hemmed and hawed over it at first, too. Then I picked it up and played with it for the first time, and I was sold.
Yeah, As much as we'd all love to go blow 400 bucks on a bundle that we might not even like, I think I'll pass on this amazing offer.