The Future of the PSP

IGN has a longish piece up looking at the possible future of Sony's handheld. They examine the upcoming success of Sony's overshadowed creation via several excellent interviews from people with SCEA, first-party developers, third-party studios, and indies. I particularly enjoyed the comments by indie homebrew dev Fanjita, who had a great outsider's view of the little black dynamo. "I suspect there are 2 factors that make them especially resistant to homebrew on the PSP - the first is that point I just made, about not wanting to dent the already shaky platform image. The second is that we already know our way around almost all the PSP internals, and so they probably feel that there's a risk that a publicly endorsed, restricted homebrew platform would soon be cracked wide open, leaving them with an officially endorsed route to piracy. I like to believe that the capable homebrew devs would be respectful of a move from Sony to open up the platform, but it's obviously impossible to have any guarantees."

Comments

Re:To advance, correct errors rather than drag it.

[The MAZZTer]

Sorry, time to stop dreaming and wake up.

1. Then how would you be able to play all the old PSP games that are already out there? Sorry this simply isn't a viable option for Sony.
2. Ok... that will cost more.
3. That will cost even more.
4. Hello? I said MORE not less. Either you increase the price with more features or remove features (hard to do since the PSP already has a game library that relies on all those features) to cut price.
5. Can't profit when you'd be losing money on every machine. Oh wait, Sony's already trying that with the PS3... we'll see how that goes. But considering Nintendo is making more on every Wii (they actually make a profit on the machines) than Sony makes on their PS3s AND the Wiis are STILL hard to find in some places (it's rediculous!) while PS3s aren't nearly that bad, I think Sony's strategy isn't working very well unless they get a higher games-to-systems sell ratio (unlikely).
6. I think all your PSP2 stuff is a duh. If Sony continues it's "bigger is better" strategy that Nintendo is deviating, very successfully, from. I personally want to see some innovation from Microsoft and Sony in their next consoles, like Nintendo has been doing. That would be interesting.

Really that bad?

[Zelos]

Are things really that bad for the PSP? I just bought a second hand one, plus 5 games (Wipeout, Burnout, Daxter, Worms and Tales of Eternia) and it seems like a good handheld. There are maybe 8 or 9 other games I'd like to buy at the moment, plus more on the way (GoW PSP?). I mean, I own a DS+25 games as well and think it's fantastic, but the PSP has a load of great games too.

Myth that there are no good games

[grapeape]

I am so sick of the fanboy "my psp collects dust and I play my DS everyday" line. Its tired everyone has heard it. My primary consoles consist of a Wii, Ps2, 3 ds's (1 phat and 2 lites for a family of 5) and 1 PSP. Im definately not a Sony fanboy and play lots of DS games but to dismiss the PSP as being no good means either the person is not looking at the games available or they were so caught up in that argument a year ago when it was true that they are blind to whats available now.

No matter what genre there are good games these are just off the top of my head:

Advenure Games: Lego Star Wars, Metal Gear Solid Portable Op's
RTS Games: Pirates!, Field Commander
RPG Games: Dungeon Seige, Marvel Ultimate Alliance,
FPS Games: Socom 2, Medal of Honor Heroes
Rythym Games: Guitaroo Man Lives!
Racing Games: Burnout Legends, Wipeout Pure
Action Games: Daxter, Rachet and Clank
Puzzle Games: Locoroco, Me & My Katamari, Lumines 1&2, Puzzle Quest, Mercury Meltdown
Fighting Games: Tekken: Dark Resurrection
Old School Classics: Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins, Metal Slug Anthology
Sports Games: Madden 07, MLB 07, Winning Eleven

As far as actual numbers of games the PSP actually has a hundred or so more than the DS. It had a slow start but the PSP has delivered more than I ever expected and to say it has no good games is delusional.

A "casual gamer" speaks

[ed]

I am amazingly happy with my PSP

I play games at home and on the train

I watch films also when commuting

I can use it to check for WiFi hotspots, hit the web a few times and even check email

oh and play a bit of music and bore people with family photos

More fanboyism.

[dannycim]

I sat next to a guy playing his DS on the subway yesterday. I was playing Ratchet & Clank on my PSP. He stopped playing to look at my screen, with obvious envy. I listen to my MP3s (screen off, locked in my pocket, long battery life), I watch movies and anime, I read E-books, do a bit of web-surfing, and play a few games, so I'm really happy with the PSP.

I've had every type of gameboys and have always been frustrated by the displays. To me, the DS was a huge mistake. Instead of giving us two crappy small displays, they should have made it with one large one.

Re:A doorstop

[Mr_Silver]

About the only use for one. Just comparing the number of great games on the DS and the PSP, I'd never consider a PSP.

According to Metacritic:

• The NDS has 213 games with 49 rated 75% or more. (source)
• The PSP has 255 games with 83 rated 75% or more. (source)

I don't own either (or any console for that matter) but, based on the stats above, it looks like the PSP has more games and more that are considered "excellent".

Re:A doorstop

[Doctor_Jest]

Ridge Racer 2 (portable ridge racer is awesome...)
Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins (fun!)
Metal Slug anthology
Platypus
Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony (for everyone's slash/hack fix)
Generation of Chaos (very fun for those who like turn based strategy)
Gradius Collection (THIS is how you pass the time in the car!)
Wipeout Pure (fun fun... but hard!)
Valkyrie Profile (great game)
Legend of Heroes
Untold Legends (both hack and slash fun)
Tekken: Dark Resurrection (very nice... haven't noticed any smearing or anything...)
Capcom Puzzle World (Puzzle fighter!)
Namco Museum (the "reimagined" Galaga is dang fun)
SF3:Alpha Max
Sid Meier's Pirates (who wouldnt want to take that with you? )

Those are just off the top of my head. STILL not enough of a gaming device for you? You MUST be hard to please then... because there's more where those came from.... FF:tactics is getting a turn on the PSP... sounds like it'll be fun....

For the DS: (My DS)

FF 3, Tetris, Mario (of course) Advance Wars, Castlevania, and thats about all I've had time for... ;)

Eh.. I like 'em both.. but the sheer # of RPGs coming to the PSP, I'm more happy with that purchase....