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What's Up With The PSP?
1up.com has an article up examining the current state of PSP sales and interest. Frustrations are mounting regarding the lackluster monetary outlook and poor game selection. From the article: "The PSP has traveled the spectrum of being hailed as the greatest piece of hardware since the introduction of the original PlayStation to being treated like a Goodwill store where developers drop off bare-bones ports and shoddy, old games. Since the release of the PSP on March 24, 2005, to the time of this writing, there have been approximately 30 games released, 17 of which were released during the launch window. Around 10 or so of the games available could be considered ports of PlayStation 2 games, which is about one-third of the entire PSP library. And if you work out the math with the number of games released since the launch period, it comes out to less than one PSP game release per week--.76 games to be exact."
Exactly, a portable DVD player is a better purchase if you want movies on the go. You don't have to buy the movie twice, the batteries last longer and you can buy region free players (unlike the PSP).
I was quite disappointed to see that Harry Knowles of Ain't it Cool News was shilling the PSP proclaiming how wonderful it is and how he's quite happy to buy everything twice so he can play films on the PSP...
I own a PSP, and a friend of mine who's "on the fence" between PSP and DS sent me this article the other day. I really don't mind the current lineup with the PSP. I've owned a GBA, and played a friend's DS, and to be honest I tire of games on those platforms far too quickly.
By contract, I find I'm still playing my PSP games, and I'm not finding the novelty coming off. Wipeout Pure has had what, five updates by the developer downloadable with the PSP's wireless connectivity, one of many positive details the article doesn't focus on at all. I'm still playing Lumines like it's laced with crack, Midnight Club 3 is a blast (even with the load times) and has a ton of content in it.
Now the 2.00 firmware's out there (Japanese version at least) and I've been messing around with developing websites for it, right now only one public one with some backgrounds (winterblink.com/psp). Games, UMD movies, encoded movies, music, pictures... I'm definitely not getting bored of the device. I just find the 1up article focuses far too much on the negative, something you could easily do for the DS as well.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
I play my DS almost daily, what games have you been playing.
I've been playing Meteos non-stop, when I get bored of that, I'll get Kirby: Canvas Curse. After that, there's the new Advance Wars game (coming out in 2 weeks).
The DS's future is very bright IMO
I'm not disputing any claims that the games library for the PSP is "lacking", but the big picture that Sony is selling us is real. The PSP is revolutionary in that it does all the functions it does well considering its size and cost.
I have watched a TON of TV on my PSP that I would have never had the opportunity to watch. I've seen Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica twice, Into The West, Full Metal Achemist, Charlie Jade, and 25 movies of mine that I would have never had time or opportunity to watch at home. I own 5 PSP games, and frankly, I think they are the best out of the library for a number of reasons, but I won't buy anymore until something worthwhile comes out.
It's funny how quickly we forget that the PSP does personal video really well! Make use of it! We can homebrew yes, but if you like TV or movies, the PSP video playback takes the bite out of the lacking game library. Every day can be a new experience if you want it to be!
Regarding the DVD release, all I know is what my friends told me. Apparently they're wrong.
As I said above, the smaller game library is because the DS has been around for a while. Give the PSP till Christmas and its library will definitely be better. As for the battery life, I can get about 6-8 hours when playing a game such as Dynasty Warriors or Mercury. That's more than enough time for any roadtrip anyone will be taking their machine on. And finally, I've used the touchscreen on the DS. Sure, it's a new feature for handhelds, but is it really something that I like? Personally, no. The touchscreen is going to be a feature that some will like and others will find useless. I would rather have the contiguous screen of the PSP and have it divided up by the game then have the split screen of the DS and have an interface forced upon me because the developer has no other choice. The split screen is by far the stupidest feature of the system. Some might counter, "Two people can play on one system at once!" That's nice if you want to play Pong. I prefer to use my modern game device to play modern games.
Coming from somebody who bought a DS a couple weeks ago.... after selling their PSP, the DS already has more original games and has a much stronger release schedule. The PSP is a sexy gadget, and initially I couldn't resist it. But if at Christmas time this year you compare the number of quality, original, non-ported games, the DS is going to win, hands down.
Are you trying to convince us that the PSP isn't a failure or yourself? Because I know that if I dropped $250 on a product, I'd be in denial about the impending demise of the system as well.
The same was true for the first 5ish months of DS' life too, with only the odd crap being released. Only a few months ago did this start to change, with some actually alight games finally coming out for it, but it didn't last long.
This time for PSP also falls in a good game dry spell. Honestly, they've been few and far between for all systems systems, just look at the consoles.
Finally, PSP just had such a huge launch line up that there wasn't enough to stretch over the next months. Poor planing, and dissapointing, but looking at September and Octobers releases, it's looking a lot better.
the smaller game library is because the DS has been around for a while.
It's been released two weeks before the PSP in Japan and apparently the PSP had devkits out first. What makes the DS have more games available is because it has lower standards for game graphics, you can make a 2d game for the DS and noone but IGN will complain. Do the same with the PSP and a sizeable chunk of the userbase will be unhappy because they bought the PSP to play 3D games, not something the GBA could have done just as well.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Alas, you do make some points, but I especially find your rehtoric laughable.
Agreed, I could use a Pocket PC, but I choose not to. I can't play the level of games on a Pocket PC that I can play on the PSP, even with the PSP's currently limited library. I have worked on converting videos to Pocket PC, but if I want to play decent framerates and have decent battery life, I have to pay more for a powerful Pocket PC. I can't justify the extra features of a Pocket PC, as I just plainly don't use them. I tried using a Pocket PC for 6 months, and I found it more cumbersome to use it for my needs. Compare that to the countless hours of enjoyment out of the PSP.
I was using an iPaq, and the earphone jack was 2.5"... try to find headphones to fit that without a clunky adapter. I would lose my data on it if my batteries were too low. Of course I didn't have any wireless access or web browser I could use, and I would need to sync my device all the time to get content. The games were limited, and converting movies was a pain. I'm sure now that if I had spent $500 I could have gotten the Pocket PC that did everything, but I chose to spend $300 and get a platform that suits my needs just fine.
Of course, my arguments aren't well formed, but everyone should get the point. It is based on personal experience, but there's no reason to be a snob about your Pocket PC if the Pocket PC, its features and price are not really necessary for many people, myself included.
I'll stick with my enjoyable PSP, and I'll be watching Carnivale, BSG Season 2, and the rest of Charlie Jade in the months to come! Maybe I'll even watch Sin City on the subway!
I still haven't seen a PSP. Until I see one, I'm not likely to want it, am I?
.com 90s, but not any more.
Come on, Sony, get that clue you so desperately need. Start having PSPs on display in stores. I know this will sound strange, but people tend not to buy $300 gadgets sight unseen. Maybe they did in the
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
What are you talking about? A quick jog to my local Sam's Club finds a portable DVD player with a much bigger screen for $150. You don't have to buy an expensive memory card, and it plays the DVDs you already have. I have never understood the lure of PSP video. Even less the lure of the UMD format.
Three words: Cost/Benefit Analysis.
There was a reason backpacks were invented. Though I seriously doubt that you could carry your wallet, keys, cell phone, PSP, PSP charger, and PSP games and movies in a typical pair of pants.
Here's what I'll complain about. A game that I spent money on that isn't fun. People need to detach themselves from the graphics. We will have to soon, because we are reaching the peak at which most people can tell the difference in graphics.
Play Kirby:Canvas Curse. It's the most fun I've ever had doing something so simple as drawing lines. Wether it's 2 or 3D isn't fundamentally make things more or less fun. Crash Bandicoot:Wrath of Cortex was fully 3D, and the worst hour and a half of my gaming life.
-- I have fans? Wow.
I'm a gamer. No, not the play 149 hours a day gamer and use l33t speak gamer. The kind of gamer that loves the art. The play every game which "redefines" gaming or even simply "defines" a genre type of gamer. Here's how it breaks down for a real guy with a real job who loves games.
DS
1) Great first month, just for the novelty
2) Now great for those unique games. Kirby:Canvas Curse has brought back "what is a fun game?" where we had lost sight of that.
3) Dual screens are mostly useless. Great in those rare situations, but 99% of the time it is simply fluff on screen 2.
4) Game lineup is adequete for a console of it's age. The few quality titles (4 maybe?) are rare, the others are simple time wasters
5) Future looks very promising (Advance Wars, Nintendogs, Animal Crossing)
6) Wireless is a waste for someone without gamer friends. No internet connection seems unwise at this stage
7) The games that are good (Kirby, Pac-Pix, Wario Ware) are *very good*.
8) Touch screen is almost always put to good use in user interface, and usually in the really good games too.
9) Battery life is a non-issue. My girlfriend managed to kill it playing animal crossing for 4 hours or so after not charging for a couple of days. It was the first time that's been done to it.
10) Price is great. $150 is not that bad for the hardware you get, and the games rarely go above $35.
11) My girlfriend loves the DS, and she's had sole possession of it for the last two months. I've got too much PSP emulation to deal with the DS...for now.
PSP
1) Very cool, extremely limited games. I own 4 games, 3 of which I play (MGS, Lumines, Wipeout). They are perfect for the device, and "define" their genres, but are not revolutionizing the world.
2) Other than the 3, there are almost *no* new games coming which interest me. GTA and I'm looking into burnout maybe.
3) Pricetag is high. Both for the system, *and* the games. We are talking PS2/Xbox/Cube prices for a portable game
4) Bigger memory stick is necessary. You can't really even fit the extra wipeout bonuses on the 32MB stick and still put anything else on it.
5) Memory stick almost doubles price (I went for a 1GB)
6) Memory stick QUADRUPLES value. This *one* device is now my favorite MP3 player, holds a couple of Vids from my mythbox, and a ton of ScummVM games. I haven't even scratched the surface of the other emulation games.
7) Emulation is mostly painless. Once you get a mem card, you're good to go (on 1.5 firmware). There's no flash-cards or crazy hacks. I run one program to load the game to the card, done.
8) I only own Spiderman on UMD (included free at launch), and don't think I would ever buy a UMD. Why would I? My mythbox has a lot of great television (galactica/mencia/24) that I can easily transcode and watch on the go if need be.
9) Battery life is not great, but is not bad either. I've played ScummVM games for well over an hour, and only lost 1/3 bars. I then played some Mp3 podcasts for an hour and still had 2 bars. I don't need the thing to last 8 hours without charge. Some may, I do not.
The bottom line is the DS has a lot of potential to make some truly revolutionary games. This, for me, is extremely attractive and makes the DS a true portable gaming system. The price for the system and the games is perfect. The games themselves feel like they were meant to be played "on the go". You can stop/start as you like.
The PSP on the other hand, is a wonderful media device that happens to play some good games. It's like what the ngage promised to be, but never was. It is almost like being able to play PS2 quality games is a bonus. It's the other qualities that make the PSP shine.
It's the first time I actually believe what the market-droids said when the devices launched. They are *not* competing with each other. If you love unique games, and want to replace your GBA, go with a DS. If you want a portable media hub, that plays some nifty games, go with a PSP.
As a sibling poster said though, you don't have to have just one. I don't have a lot of disposable income, but I knew the launch dates a year or so in advance, and simply plopped $10 every week or so in jar. Spare change took care of the rest.
-- I have fans? Wow.
I find myself in the same situation. There just aren't any really good games in the PSP's library yet. Part of the problem, I believe, is that the titles available just aren't tailored to a "portable experience". A portable system really should be something you could whip out and play a for a few minutes while waiting in line at the bank, or for a bus to arrive.
But somehow, we wind up with titles like Wipeout Pure, which require us to sit through a ten second UMD load, and mash buttons through logo screens, confirm loading of user data, select game mode, and wait another ten seconds for a track to load. After that, you have a three minute stretch of white-knuckle racing that you can't pull your eyes from without ruining. The game itself is *great* sure. I agree with that. The only problem is, it's not portable.
My experience with other titles has been similar. It's gotten to the point where I've downloaded a copy of the Wipeout Pure UMD dump and put it on my memory stick just because it loads so much faster that way. The hacked/pirated version of Wipeout I have requires that a UMD be in the drive. Guess which UMD I use? The Wipeout Pure UMD. Ha Ha Ha.
Running emulators on the PSP makes it portable, for me. SNES games are just so pleasantly no-nonsense.