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Sony Struggles To Define the PSP
Brian Crecente has a piece over on the Rocky Mountain site talking about Sony's struggle to make the PSP stand out. The failure of the UMD format, its de-emphasis as a media player, and the lackluster stable of games leaves PSP owners wondering exactly what to use it for. From the article: "While digital media is a key focus for Sony Computer Entertainment right now, the company is also working to expand other elements of the portable as well. In November, the PlayStation 3 will launch with built in PSP support. While [PSP Marketing Manager John] Koller wouldn't discuss specifics, he did say that the PlayStation Portable will be a 'remote control device' for the next-gen console. He says more details about that connectivity will be coming out in the coming months, perhaps at the Tokyo Game Show next month."
I bought mine at launch, have had it listed on Craigs List for almost 6 months and cant get rid of the thing so I guess my definition would be "paperweight".
The PSP is a brilliant piece of hardware, but 99% of the games suck, im not stupid enough to buy my movies over again and its too freakin big for an mp3 player, so most of the time it sits on the desk waiting for some game to come out that I might actually enjoy. Its pretty sad when the best game on the platform is the first one that was launched with it (Lumines). Oh well, at least there is Lumines 2 on the way.
It's a handheld games console, only too big to fit in your pocket, too expensive to be treated as a cheap Nintendo console with its huge back catalogue, with a large, easily scratchable screen, playing media that Sony has decided not to continue with, from a company who's pissed people off with shoddy, easily bypassable spyware which increases the risk of hackers easily taking control of your PC.
I'll take 10!
It's just a cool pocket movie viewer at this time.
Where were you when the voynix came?
How is that possible if it doesn't even have 100 games? Possibly you mean that 95% of all PSP games suck 100%, and the last one sucks 80%? :-D
I own a PSP. I use it for Puzzle Block Party, a game that uses about a fifth of its blurry battery-eating screen for actual gameplay (the rest is used for weird animated comic characters). I wish they made it for the PSP, then I could, uhm, try to sell my PSP on eBay or something.
They should offer it as one of the few handhelds that let you make your own games and share them with friends. Hell, I dunno, offer a simplified development kit for the price of a game with a way to import your own art and music. Allow people to create their own games on the damn thing. Then, for maybe a bit more money, offer an advanced user package that's basically a simplified SDK.
If they wouldn't try so damn hard to break homebrew apps, I bet people might buy more games. I know for a fact that before the ability to downgrade firmware, people wouldn't buy games because it required an update first.
Open the thing up (except the UMD format -- I'll give them that much to keep), let us make our own games without implementing roadblocks to homebrew, and the thing will sell more.
Oh, and actually release some damn games already.
"Apparently so, but suppose you throw a coin enough times. Suppose one day, it lands on its edge."
"A big issue for us has been the (Digital Rights Management) and how we can secure that content to the Memory Stick," Koller said. "The studios and the labels don't want their content floating around."
After you pay for it once, you should be able to float it around wherever you want to let it float. Grrrrr
...a $200 controller. I guess that fits the pricing scheme of a $600 console.
Outside of greed and lack of vision, there's no reason the PSP and mylo should be separate products. They are both WiFi capable, both have a small form factor, and both have a strong software development platform for them. If the PSP had been made with the slide-out keyboard (or had even been given a USB host capability so an external keyboard could be hooked up) the major hardware difference that matters would have been gone or greatly reduced. If they had allowed the strong home-brew community to keep functioning instead of constantly making things harder for homebrew developers with each firmware update, most of the software to do all of this would have been written for them.
It's probably plans to release mylo that prompted the crackdown on homebrew games and apps for the PSP. Now that there's little of the PSP's original promise left fulfilled, it's a struggling product. Now they want those of us who laid out $250 for the PSP to repeat the cycle with mylo at $350. I say tough shit, Sony. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I still have a working Betamax VCR, still have a Sony Walkman somewhere, and regularly use my Sony CD boombox from the late 1980s when I'm in the kitchen or the back yard. The Walkman and the CD boombox they got right -- they were interoperable and I could play homebrewed content on them. At least the Betamax I could get blanks for and it would take homebrewed content. I never bought a PS or PS2 but I'd been considering a PS3 or maybe a PS2 for now. At least with the PS2 they paid lip service to homebrew. It was never the homebrew system the Atari 2600 or the Sega Dreamcast were (and heck, still are). Sony says the PS3 will be able to replace a PC. If they think my desktop will be locked in to their vicious vendor lock-in and Sony's planned upgrade cycle, they are sorely mistaken. I'm not dropping that kind of money on another closed hunk of Sony crap.
There will be no mylo and no PS3 in my home unless Sony fixes their "dumb consumer" thinking. I want my purchases to serve my needs and wants, not just theirs. I'll not buy another Sony product until they fix themselves. Right now, Sony is broken and so are all of their products.
By mentioning Nintendo only once as a competitor (in the last paragraph) and not mentioning the DS at all, it shows to me that both the reporter and Sony don't understand what the problem with the PSP is: people want a handheld game system and Nintendo has delivered on that front far better than Sony has... and worrying about Apple and Microsoft before figuring out how to compete against the DS will only hurt Sony even more.
And as for the PSP's non-gaming functionalities... You could cut UMD movie prices in half for all I care and there will still be an overflowing stack of unsold discs at the videogame store... and no ammount of add-on peripherals like GPS receivers will save the PSP, since the same devices can be easily developed for any other handheld.
Is it so hard to abide by the rule of Keep It Simple Stupid?
"...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
I've been bashing Sony with the best of them lately based on their DRM and PS3 pricing fiascos, and their arrogant attitude. That said, I bought a PSP at launch and actually get a lot of use out of it.
I will start out by saying I have the 1.5 firmware and refuse to upgrade. There is a wealth of homebrew emulation and other software out there that really makes this a pretty cool handheld platform. As far as playing newer games that require firmware upgrades, there is an easy and brilliant way around it thanks to the PSP hacking community.
The PSP is great for travel. I could care less about the failure of UMDs. The format was doomed from the start. It is relatively painless to convert existing DVDs to the PSP's format and load them onto a memory stick. I brought a movie with me to watch on the plane on my last business trip, and it was a very enjoyable experience. I also had a few albums loaded onto the same stick to listen to while I was on the road.
The screen is beautiful and great for movies.
Yes, the ergonomics suck for a handheld, it's not perfect.
As far as commercial games go, there are actually enough great games on it to make it a worthwhile platform including tight baseball, some good racers, Tekken, and a decent RPG to name a few. That situation should continue to improve.
I'm not happy with Sony as a company, but I'm pretty happy with my hacked PSP. I'm not sure why so many people are down on the platform; it's got the processing power of close to a PS2 under the hood.
El Tonerino
Do you know what else sounded cool?
Gamecube -- GBA connectivity.
I think we all know how that turned out.
The day that Sony Games rebels against the draconian wishes of the Sony Media division is the day the PSP will see success.
Well, this is the whole problem right here. If Sony hadn't tried to position this thing as a "multimedia" device in the first place, they wouldn't be in this mess at all. And they wouldn't be trying to fight on three different fronts - against both MS and Apple, as well as Nintendo - rather than one. They've set themselves up for failure.
Nintendo is beating them because the DS does one thing and one thing well. You've seen lately with titles like Brain Age and their translation titles how they're extending the idea of "game playing" into what used to be called "edutainment", and they've done it successfully because it's just organically grown out of the core function of the device. But they haven't even tried to tackle this idea of "convergence" or trying to create an "all-in-one" device - they understand that that's a losing proposition for precisely the reasons Sony is finding out now.
We'll see if Sony learns their lessons. So far, it doesn't sound like they have. But they've painted themselves into a corner; all the people who have bought the PSP expect it to play movies and music and do both of those things well (plus, of course, playing video games). They've got no choice now but to try to make those functions work and compete in multiple product categories. They'll never succeed being a jack-of-all-trades, though; not when their competition bests them with devices that perform each core function better.
OMG NINTEDO IS tEH SUXXOR!!!! SoNy 4 LIFE!! I CANt WAiT To SpEnD $600 4 GAME SeQUELS WiF PURDIER GRAFIX!!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I actually got some minor use out of the PSP format, for throwaway entertainment like Ghostbusters or Serenity that I didn't already own in another format. I was halfway through Zelda when I accidentally upgraded my firmware to play some game, and it broke. Strange that the most compelling content for the PSP was provided by some high school hackers, and was used to play twenty year-old games. The major disappointment for me was the total lack of online play. It was hilarious that Sony pushed the crappy browser and other online functionality like the RSS reader, then completely ignored actual online gameplay. After reading one last review that said "great game, you will enjoy it with up to four friends in ad-hoc mode," I sold the PSP to pick up a DS. Now I'm happily playing Tetris and Metroid online with the most elegant matching system I've ever seen, and enjoying innovative games like Trauma Center offline.
Linux: Free if your time is worthless.
I'm pretty happy with my hacked PSP. I'm not sure why so many people are down on the platform
It might have something to do with the number of PSP owners who have the wherewithal and the confidence to hack their PSPs without turning them into $200 bricks. If, instead of your PSP, you had a brand new one right off the rack with newer firmware and didn't know how to revert it, would you be able to get the use out of it you're getting out of the one you actually have?
I'm in the same position. Had the good luck to buy a 1.5 and never upgraded (what does it say for a product when everybody wants to downgrade the firmware and each upgrade further cripples it?). While the screen and audio makes for excellent memory stick movies I still barely use it, due to the huge form factor, fragility, bad battery life, and horrific memory stick costs.
On the other hand I've just upgraded to a DS Lite from my original DS Phat. I use it all the time especially in conjunction with the GBA micro. Both take the Play Yan cartridge providing excellent video and mp3 support. When on the run I use the micro for it's small size, but when I'm sitting down I use the DS Lite for the better screen and battery life.
The worst part of Sony's strategy is that they are actively supressing the two practical applications of the PSP memory stick movies and homebrew, while desparately looking for some practical application for the unit.
The PSP does have a potential killer app. Wireless downloadable movies. Exploit the WiFi function to allow users to download movies to a large memory stick with a firmware mod. Agressively market the service (in conjunction with recharge cables) at airports, Starbucks and train stations. Unfortunately the present leadership of Sony would never risk something as audacious as this, which is why Sony is cratering.
The PSP is wirelessly compatible with the PS3. The PSP is already compatible with the PS2 [Metal Gear Subsistence/ Socom...] It's not rumored, it has actually been done on the current generation PS2, and demonstrated on the PS3. I don't doubt it will happen, but the Wii compatiblity and function has still yet to be seen. So whats your point?
Huh? The PSP was and still is the underdog in the handheld market. Nintendo had a backcatalog of thousands of GBA games that were playable on the DS the day it was released. The PSP was released months after the DS in most territories I can think of. Even in Japan, it followed the DS release by a week or two IIRC. The PSP came from nowhere and ate up somewhere between ~30-40% marketshare from Nintendo. Not bad.
Sony providing solid competition for Nintendo is bringing out the best from both companies. There were alot of good games for GBA, but most of them were short and horrible, the other half were just mediocre. Many of the 'top' GBA games were games that would get crucified if they were released on PSP today. Both companies are bringing out their major franchises. In one year the DS put out more 'original' Mario games than the GBA has to this day. If left to nintendo, there would never be a portable version of a 'proper' GTA, fighting game, or Metal Gear title, so I say own both portables and be happy.
...then all it takes is for one enterprising company out there to produce a half decent game and they'll be raking in money. In fact, all they have to do is port a half decent game from another platform. Or maybe I'm just naïve in assuming that the market has any kind of efficiency like this.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Sony really doesn't pay attention to past failures. Atari tried to do this very same thing with the Jaguar and Lynx. You could use the Lynx to control the Jaguar via the ComLynx port waaaay back in '93. Back then, no one was really willing to pay for a $100 portable to go with a $250 game system, so there were no games developed for that feature (supposedly, Aliens vs Predator was going to include this functionality).
I don't really see how Sony, with it's terribly high priced PS3 and PSP with few games, would ever wish to make the same mistake that Atari did.
Fifty watts per channel, baby cakes.
Reguardless, it is true. Most technology should not be convergent.
Cons:
- The PSP is not a very good MP3 player because of its limited capacity.
- The PSP is not a very good movie player because of its size. However, if you don't believe me, I am considering selling a copy of Ghost In The Shell for UMD format on Ebay sometime in the near future. I recent rented the DVD version of GITS which has bonus features the UMD version did not. So much for using that extra capacity, Sony.
- The PSP is not a very good web browser. I hate to admit it but as far as web browsing outside the house is concerned, forgettaboutit!!! While the browser does have some good qualities such as being able to check news and weather from your home WIFI network, taking it to school, the coffee shop, or any other public WIFI area that requires HTTPS protocol is futile. And don't even bother with passwords or messaging. Also, so much for playing Flash movies or games. How there can be only 1 MB max memory for Flash but unlimited memory for gaming is beyond me.
- The people who designed the PSP only though of their programmers and not the hackers who could do better. On one hand, I could create programs for this device. On the other hand, I don't know jack about MIPS processors (I only made a couple weak programs in assembly. Everything else is C++ or PHP) that an I don't want to lose the ability to play games. (Death Jr. is awesome!)
- The people who designed the PSP only thought of the LCD and Addicted gamers not the casual gamers. I like video games. They are a joy to play sometimes after having a crappy day. But I don't buy every game under the sun nor do I play game 12 hours non-stop. Games are suppost to be fun, in my opinion. Sony's marketing staff only appeased to the Lowest Common Denominator (hence so many crappy games rather than re-releases of good games that can be ported to the PSP) and to the Addicted Gamers. There are certainly hundreds of good PS! and PS2 games that could be ported to the PSP if the evil demons who work at Sony's marketing department had thought about the classic gamers as well as the moderate gamers.
- LocationFree Player is a useless waste of space. Why does everything have to be a TV or TV-player? Since the programming TV offers fails to improve with the technology, the LocationFree Player is of no use to a person like me. That and the LocationFree Player device is not sold at any of the electronics retailers. If I want to watch TV, I'll go home and watch something AND ONLY if there is something good on. Anyone who buys an big screen HDTV to watch sitcoms or reality TV needs to DIAF. There is no reason to be bombarded with TV or Advertising everywhere you go. TV does not belong on my telephone, computer, or gaming console.
Pros:The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
I'm losing all respect for Slashdot's gaming section. When I come to Slashdot's game section I expect the latest industry news on all game platforms presented in an objective manner. Instead this section has become Zonk's personal anti Sony flame board. The PSP is a great gaming system. It seems lately the hot thing to do is jump on the anti Sony bandwagon with claims that are completely unfounded. The biggest being that their are no good games. If you say there are no good games that tells me you haven't looked lately or you don't know what your talking about.
Tekken: Dark Resurrection ign.com rating 9.2
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror - 9.3
NCAA Football 07 - 8.3
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories - 9.0
Burnout Legends - 8.5
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth - 8.5
Daxter - 9.0
MLB 06: The Show - 8.3
Field Commander - 8.4
Ultimate Block Party - 8.0
And these are just a few of the top games and it covers all gaming categories. If you look at the line up of games scheduled for release of the next 3-4 months you'll see the PSP has a lot of very good games about to be released. The PSP library isn't as big as the DS's which I also own but considering the DS also plays gameboy advance games which has been out much longer how can it be. People need to stop this mindless bashing of one system or another.
I'll gladly give you Lumines as a great game. Even Katamari. But Tekken on a handheld with lousy controls? Hot shots golf? Wipeout? Besides, only one of the games you mentioned was actually developed for the PSP. The rest are licenses shoe-horned into a small screen with bad battery life and bad controls. Your idea of what a good game is might differ from mine, but you basically listed one game as must-have for a console that's been out for 3 years. That's not a stable, that's barely mediocre.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
OMG CONSOLES IS tEH SUXXOR!!!! PC GAMIN 4 LIFE!! I CANt WAiT To SpEnD $0 oN PiR4T3D G4MES WiF tEH BEST GRAFIX oF AlL!!
Well then instead of using it as a rear-view mirror, they could use it for dashboard-type instrument cluster displays. That would be fairly realistic, since you have to remove your eyes from the windshield to view them in reality (unless you have a HUD).
Instead of the common (but fake) driving displays, where the dashboard is magically visible at the bottom of the driver's field of vision, perfectly in focus and clear, make the TV picture nothing but the view out the window, and then put the speedometer/tach/shift-indicator on the controller.
You could even do stuff like have the controller display blink colors, so that you'd catch it in your peripheral vision, just like you'd notice an instrument panel light in a car or plane.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
OMG PC GAMIN IStEH SUXXOR!!! BOARD GAMIN 4 LIFE!! I CANt WAiT To SpEnd $30 oN G4MES tO plAY iN tEH BA$EmEnT!! StAY oUT MOM!! YuO aRE s0 LaME LOL!!
For games (why else do you buy a gaming device) you can play Lumines, Katamari, or any of a half-dozen racing games. The DS Lite is better if you want to play anything else.
Linux: Free if your time is worthless.
How I use it: In flight entertainment. It's amazing what a flight attendant stopper it is.
Ingredients:
Options:
DVD backups (VOB files) that you save to another file server.
Converting FLV videos from YouTube or Google (a bit too much effort for the resulting crappy quality).
Basically, I take PSPVideo9, add a line to its XML configuration file to recognize a DVR-MS file (I have a Media Center), and then pick about 6 hours of Colbert Reports and Daily Show's I've missed in the past week or so. Anything with a DirectShow filter installed can be converted by PSPVideo9... it just takes an extra line of XML to recognize the file extension.
This process takes a while, so I start it the night before my trip...
In the morning, I copy the files to my Memory Stick during my shower (once a month, whether I need it or not). This can take some time depending on your card reader speed.
I then laugh my ass off on the plane all the way across country. You can do this with a DVD backup program and PSPVideo9 as well. A 30 minute TV program is about 60MB and a 2 hour movies chops down to less than 300MB. If you have a 16:9 aspect ratio movie, it fills up the screen as the director intended. If you have a 4:3 show, just zoom the PSP screen and it will fill it (you lose 10% off the top and bottom, but it isn't stretched out).
Now, here's the next part... there are 100's of ways to skin this cat, but here is how I did it...
Get TV programs remotely (extra credit):
So, on your remote computer:
I'd like to do the RSS route... that would be cool.
Everyone I've let use my PSP to watch video (even iPod users) are blown away with the quality of the playback.
Battery life for memory-stick based operations is *great*. I use 1 bar out of 3 watching movies or TV for 2 hours. iPod / iTunes video does work well.
Be sure to pick up a combination USB and PSP cable so you can charge your PSP and another USB device as well off 1 port.
Drawbacks and gripes:
1 GB Mem sticks are a small. 4GB will be great. Those can be had for $150 or so now.
You can't take a HUGE library of media with you (like a 60GB iPod)... which is fine for TV for me
File format for video has to be MP4... way lame, but you have to chop it anyway.
Volume for playing video back isn't great - it needs to get boosted during conversion
Playing audio through FM tuners is NOT good... too quiet for most cars with the road noise
But, I think it is a really nice piece of hardware... I dan't play many games, but the ones I have, I enjoy. I don't play a lot of other games on other platforms either, so I don't have a lot to compare it to...
TTFN
Forget that I run a DS podcast for a minute ... I'm not interesting in a verbal bashfest. What I AM interested in doing is helping people understand why the PSP was doomed from the get go.
... why do we WANT to take games with us? To fill in the gaps of time we have free during our regular day, since most of us have jobs, families and responsibilities. Now, assuming that the people WITHOUT lives are sitting in their mother's basement, with their Xbox blazing and an RJ45 plug up their asses - they are obviously not the target audience for portable gaming.
In fact, it is so blatently obvious, I can't figure out why someone didn't figure this out LONG before the project ever got greenlit.
Portable gaming. What is it? It is gaming you TAKE WITH YOU. And
Portable gaming is for "filler-gaming" - filling in free time; commuting on the bus, waiting for the movie to start, sitting at the doctor's office, throwing down on the toilet - you get the idea. Twitch gaming is another name for portable gaming, really.
Now, let's look at the PSP, designed and content fed in the EXACT opposite manner in which it should be.
1) Poor battery life. There is a reason that the B&W crappy as hell looking Gameboy kicked the crap of the Atari Lynx; it ran 10x longer on a third the batteries. Forget that the Lynx had a near perfect port of Road Blasters, Joust, Xybots and other great games. If you can only play them for 3 hours on 6xAA batteries, you lose the 'handheld war'. Nintendo smartly build the capabilities of their handhelds to ensure maximum on-the-go time.
2) Sponsoring a non-condusive, over-priced, fragile closed format; UMD. Every time I see the term "UMD", I instantly think "WTF?". They can cost up to double the price of DVDs (you know, the movies you ALREADY HAVE in you collection). They don't hold as much, you can't write to them, the mechanical power required to spin a disc (IN A PORTABLE NO LESS) makes no sense, and the list pretty much goes on and on from there. I say non-condusive because MOVIES violate the concept of a portable gaming device (in so many ways it isn't even funny). Twitch gamers have 15-30 minutes to game (above mentioned commuting, waiting in lines, etc) - a 90 minute content block makes no sense. The LEAST that Sony should have done was declare the UMD format for twitch style content - 22 minute sitcoms and goofy MTV reality shows (seemingly their target audience anwyay). Sell episodes of Friends, American Idol, and Simpsons. Make it HELLA affordable - for God Sake's, Google is about to offer this content for FREE with basic advertising support. I shouldn't be paying $29 for 3 episodes of Survivor. Let's go ahead and invoke the 6+ minute load time video while we're here. I can be playing Mario Kart before the first boot screen of half the PSP games I've seen. Console kiddies are used to god unforsaken load times (been there - hey, Beachhead II, Commodore 64, tape version, 22 minutes to load). When I'm on the go - I want it NOW.
3) Portable gaming ain't console gaming. Look, man. Maybe you have 5 hours to tromp through a dungeon every day - I don't. Most of the people that do portable gaming don't. That's why they HAVE portable gaming, dammit - because console gaming doesn't fit their lifestyles. Why do you think there are 500+ 'portable pocket sudoku' games on the walls of Target, but strangely no stand alone pocket version of Final Fantasy? People can play a game of Sudoku in 10 minutes; you aren't even through the first goddamn CUT SCENE in FF in the 10 minutes. I'm willing to put up with a HELLUVA lot at home when gaming. I'm NOT willing to put up with it when I'm trying to block out some screaming kid at the clinic with a little Electroplankton time.
4) Lack of innovation. Great, you can play GTA on the go. Been there, done that. In fact, looking at the list of PSP games (old, new, and forthcoming) I'm seeing basically the same thing I've seen on consoles for the past couple ye
No, it's not. Sony went after two properties when choosing a screen: Big and Bright. They got those two, but they messed up the rest. First of all, it's blurry as hell. When I first played Ridge Racer on my PSP, I thought they had actually managed to implement motion blur on the PSP. "Wow, didn't think it could do that", I thought. Until I played some other games. All of them had motion blur. It's not the games, it's the sucky screen. It's especially visible in games like Lumines, Loco Roco or Puzzle Block Party. Watching dark or high-contrast movies becomes pretty much impossible. In some scenes in Advent Children, all characters have purple shadows following them. It's not the movie, it's the screen.
Second problem: It sucks batteries like, well, I was going to make a porn reference, but then I changed my mind since that would be a positive association. The screen, together with the disk drive, simply kill batteries. And since you have your own fricken hand over the battery light while playing, you usually don't notice it until the PSP simply suddenly goes to sleep. Great design there, Sony.
Third problem: Glare. You can't play PSP games in a Train or anywhere where any kind of sun is involved. It reflects like a mirror. What the heck were they thinking? Shiny looks nice when on display in a shop? Well, thank you, but did you actually think of the people who want to do crazy stuff like using your product? Guess not.
Also, the screen scratches very easily. I was very careful, but I got a scratch on my screen simply from accidentially dragging the little wrist band over it. Gah.
So, in conclusion: They managed to hit "bright" and "big", but they missed pretty much everything else. This makes the screen average to sucky for a portable.