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Sony VP Salutes DS, Promises PSP Can Still Compete
An anonymous reader writes "In an interview with Pocket Gamer, Zeno Colaço, vice president of publisher and developer relations at SCEE made some revealing comments about his thoughts on the DS and the future of the PSP. 'Some of the DS games have been fantastic. Where in hindsight we've been short is one or two killer apps that would have been able to drive PSP forward'. Despite being so frank on the merits of the competition, Colaço was still tight lipped on the subject of a PSP redesign, stating: 'The technology behind PSP is still top-end and so that doesn't need to be addressed'."
I am in no way a fanboy of any console. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sega...it doesn't matter. To paraphrase Pure Pwnage, Any machine that let's me play games I enjoy.
That being said. Yes, the PSP has it's issues...screen is prone to fingerprints/scratches, control stick takes a slight bit to get used to, low battery life...but you know what? It's still a bad-ass little toy. I can convert any movie/TV show/whatever, put it on the memory stick, and watch it directly on the device with no modding necessary.
I can download one of hundreds of FREE comics that are made specifically with the PSP in mind. Using one of many FREE programs, I can convert E-books into a format that makes them easily readable on the screen. I can broswe the internet with it (granted it's slow due to the b wireless connection it has, but hey it's still got wireless access)
All in all, despite it's faults, I still absolutely ADORE my PSP. If not for the games, at least for everything else I can use it for.
Living With a Nerd
Nintendo makes a great, cheap device that allows people who wouldn't normally play videogames to have fun with stuff that's simple to pick up, easy to understand what your aims are, and are chiefly great fun in short bursts, despite being graphically poor in comparison to the "competition".
Sony have an all-singing, all-dancing ninja device that plays more traditional games, but much prettier than before. Are they really "failing"? Or is the market for this just rather smaller than people who will buy a DS for Brain Training?
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
...when he says that the DS is great, the PSP is missing killer apps, but sadly not much else
Stick with my Sega Nomad, thank you!
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
The article's short but sweet. A curious thing he mentioned was that Sony had to tell developers that they wouldn't set the world alight by porting their PS2 games into it, which was what the first batch essentially was.
Meanwhile Nintedo's handheld power has always been behind their console power. While it didn't eliminate straight-ports, it quickly exposed ports for being gimped versions of full games... meaning a lot of portable development went towards unique games unlike their more homebodied cousins.
I'm not going to hand Nintendo that on a platter, though. It's probably just a side effect of trying to get rediculous battery life out of portable systems. Sony on the other hand just wanted to trump the competitors on brute force alone and win the checkbox wars. It's a neat gadget, though, and it's finally hitting its stride thanks to developers finally developing the right kinds of games for it.
So, as always, it's always comes down to the games themselves. With great power comes great responsibility.
More Twoson than Cupertino
... from its high price. The DS was $150, the PSP was $250. With the usual accessories (carrying pouch perhaps, etc.), sales tax, and a game, folks who bought a PSP walked out of the store down $320-$350. That is a LOT for a handheld. Considering the price of UMD movies and PSP games, Sony's handheld may have been one of worst systems to purchase ever in terms of value for the dollar.
Now that it's much cheaper, it's a wiser purchase to make. And yes, *now* it is its game library that's hurting it as well as its smaller player network. The DS has more good games and still costs less. Also, because of its success, it has better online play since there are more folks out there playing whatever you want to play via wi-fi.
I like basketball!!1!
As a comic artist, I'm interested if you'd explain which comics, if any, are 'designed' for the PSP.
The cynic in me says any comic that works off vertical scrolling would fit the bill just fine, but if there's a handheld-specific comic and a reason it 'must' be on the PSP/DS, I'd love to hear it.
I'd get one, but every time they update the firmware they break the features I'd want it for.
Wait, a Sony higher up spoke about their product and their competitor's product, and it didn't involve an arrogant spiel about how wonderful Sony's attempt was and how the competitor has nothing, is nothing, and will be ground into dust?
People better start looking for survival gear, I feel a second coming drawing near.
I'm all for multi-functional devices, but most of them can't do anything well enough for my standards. I'll celebrate the day they make the end all gaming/media player/camera/phone device, but by then i'll be too decrepit to even enjoy it. The PSP is a great little machine, but i prefer my DS, 8GB nano and 2mp Cameraphone combo. Sure, i paid close to $500 for all of it, but atleast they all have outstanding battery life and i'm still portable. Ok, the DS is a little hard to carry with other objects, but in my defense the nano fits (and stays) in my wallet.
You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.
Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies
... 19mb of it's firmware wasn't taken up with security to stop people hacking it for homebrew. In fact, it's been theorized that if Sony ditched most of the security then they would have space to implement the features that are being hacked into it by the homebrew scene.
I only buy pepper spray that's been tested on anti-vivisectionists.
I refuse to buy any Sony products anymore. I used to have all the great Sony gadgets back in the day... TV, Boombox, Walkman, Discman, Mini Tape-recorder, portable speakers, you name it.... and they all died. I'm not talking after 10+ years of use, I'm talking less than 2 years of use.
I do own a PS2 I bought off a friend for a ridiculously low price (needed my Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest fix).. but I've heard a ton of horror stories about the PS2's breaking down in a similar manner after only a years worth of use.
Oh, and don't get me started on the rootkit's Sony was installed on user's computers.
The PSP is a stupid design. I spent my $200 on a GP2X which is open-source, has a great battery life (which use AA's, not some proprietary gimmick), and I can watch video's on my system without having to "modify" or "hack" the firmware.
"If you can't open it you don't own it."
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The PSP has plenty of killer games. And with more to come such as upcoming Final Fantasy & God of War titles.
Sony have an all-singing, all-dancing ninja device that plays more traditional games, but much prettier than before. Are they really "failing"? Or is the market for this just rather smaller than people who will buy a DS for Brain Training?
Option 3: Perhaps people aren't too interested in playing the same games over and over, and want something different.
My gaming background is as a pretty hardcore PC FPS player, but that genre seems to have stagnated of late... Doom 3, Quake 4, Half Life 2 were all pretty much the same thing that we've played countless times before, except now the red key is replaced with an engineer or a security guard, and the graphics look prettier. Woohoo. And honestly, can someone please produce an FPS in which the AI understands that I can just circle strafe them into the ground? The most interesting FPS I've played lately was Far Cry, but that was a couple of years ago now.
On the other hand, I bought a DS last autumn, and have bought about 10 games for it, not all of which fall into the casual Brain Training genre that you cite. There's all kinds of games in my selection, and there's fun and different and some of them make great use of the stylus, even if it is just a glorified mouse.
As far as I can see, the most telling thing is that so many games on the PSP seem to be ports of PS2 games and re-hashes of things that people are tired of, which the Sony guy himself acknowledged.
If the only people that bought the DS bought it for Brain Training then the DS would have only sold about 1-2 million units world-wide. There are games for the DS that give the PSP a run for it's money as far as graphics are concerned. The graphics arent terrible, the price is right and the selection of games is amazing - there really is something for everyone.
It's unbelievable that there is a perception that the DS is for people who "dont normally play video games". I play video games all the time and have since 1978. The DS fills that need for me. My PSP does not, the lack of quality and quantity of games looms large. For a system that has sold so many units the software sales on the PSP are very poor. I have a feeling it's because of early adopters like myself that just gave up on it, playing games on the PSP is a drag. I havent been able to find a decent game since Lumines. Even Katamari Damacy was a letdown. Most games I've tried since then just grate with the load times, when you're used to playing games on the DS the PSP's load times and controls just make it seem clunky. The PSP is better used for other things.
Not every game for the DS is simple either, have you tried Etrian Odessy yet?
I use my PSP to play MP3's and to check out a homebrew app once in a great while. It's very cool but only when you use it as Sony intends you NOT to. I dont expect or need the DS to do anything like that, although there is definitely homebrew for the DS. I'm too busy playing commercial games on the DS to do anything else. I've built up a library of nearly 30 games and there's plenty I still want but there's just TOO MUCH.
You can't lose without competing.
The whole thing is silly. Remember when Sony introduced a games machine more powerful than any other machine ever released in its form factor, which also cost more than any other machine ever released in that form factor, partially due to their decision to try to use it as a platform to promote their own media format and sell movies, and Nintendo released a much weaker games machine with an unusual interface that people thought was a gimmick, but it sold more than twice as well as the Sony system?
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
I've spent many, many hours playing games on my PSP. Games I've spent more than 20 hours playing: Loco Roco, Katamari, Lego Star Wars, Puzzle Quest, Ridge Racer, Tekken 6, Mercury Madness, Field Commander.
I bought mine a bit over a year ago (and so missed the early game drought), and there's never been a time where I've felt like playing but not had something to play on it. (Partially a function of my limited free time and free spending ways, admittedly.)
I've never understood the "must have" game thing. In 25 years of gaming, I've never come across a game I'd pay >$100 for. I buy systems not for one "must have" game, but because it has a good variety of good games. In my mind, bouth th PSP and DS meet that criteria. (I haven't bought a DS mostly because I don't really feel the need of a second portable when the first essentially fills all the time I have for portables. If I had a DS, I probably wouldn't bother with a PSP.)
The cake is a pie
Spelling and Grammar died the day I started seeing driving school cars with "lrn2drv" written on the side of them I'm afraid. The english language has been brutalized and bastardized in far worse ways than in my post. Care to comment on the PSP, or are you just grammar-trolling?
I only buy pepper spray that's been tested on anti-vivisectionists.
Yeah, the PSP is useful, but it doesn't let me play the games I enjoy :/ The DS has by far more fun games.
Even the DS has rumble.
Mostly just grammar-trolling. You're right that Sony's DRM shit is hurting them more than it's helping, though.
Ultimately the DS wins because it's just a game platform.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I have both a DS and a PSP. I love them both, but they are completely different and I use them differently. The DS is great for quick gaming sessions you can pick it up and play for five minutes here and five minutes there. The PSP on the otherhand is for longer gaming sessions and has more console like games. I like the ability to play longer games in a mobile format, I can play without hogging the TV and its great for extended travelling. When I have a decent amount of time I always choose my PSP over my DS but for quick gaming the DS cant be beat.
I have a PSP. It is the most boring game device I have ever owned. I keep buying games for it, stupidly forgetting that all these games are just PS2 ports. I never enjoyed any PS2 games, why would I enjoy them on the PSP? You gotta hand it to Nintendo for creating a unique device and developing games specifically for that device.
Nintendo clearly understands that if you create a fun form that when develop games that use that form you're going to end up with a fun exclusive that you can't get anywhere else.
They did it with the DS, they did it with the Wii, and you could argue they did it with the analog stick on the N64.
The Generation
I'd say something witty here, but I'm not that bright.
How can a device with the battery life of the PSP possibly be considered "great for extended travelling"?
...but the interface and OS is god-awful: One lousey control stick and D-pad that are so poorly disigned that it makes gameplay frustrating and causes cramping after relatively short periods of use and the OS' menu layout is obnoxious and requires tedious clicking up and down long menus... not to mention every new firmware update (usually required by most new games) kills all homebrew apps.
Most hotel rooms have outlets, unless your a hobo electricity isnt hard to find. Car/Airplane power adaptors are cheap as well so keeping it juiced while flying, camping or on the road isnt very difficult. As a sidenote the battery issues with the PSP have been greatly exaggerated, if your worried about it turn down the brightness and turn off the wifi and you can generally get around 6 hours out of it.
And yet only the games help Sony, since they lose money selling you the hardware in hopes of you buying games for them to receive licensing fees on. You and every person like you who only uses their PSP for non-game related stuff is a Sony exec's nightmare. You're the reason their games division is hemorrhaging billions of dollars as we speak. (Well, you and Ken Kutaragi... But I digress...)
Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
God, I hate Field Commander. It's like Advance Wars with all the stuff that makes it fun taken away. Instead we have choppy 3D graphics that makes it hard to discern between units and has severe framerate issues. Also, after playing GTA on the PC, the gamepad versions seem unplayable, and the PSP versions - with only one analog stick - doubly so. But I have to admit, I'm also still mainly using my PSP for Lumines if I play games on it.
I've not heard of Etrian Odyssey before, no, but I do have both a DS and a PSP. It looks like another Japanese RPG of the "read lots of text, level grind for a few hours, read more text" variety that makes me want to break things, though, so I'd rather play Mario Kart.
I suppose that means you're right, to some extent - because I play my intense 3D games like WipEout and Outrun on the PSP, my DS is where I go for simple stuff and miss the really clever things. NSMB is gorgeous, but not really what I meant about graphically complex.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
He's talking about homebrew. Sony screws that up with each Firmware upgrade.
I also own both a PSP and a DS, and on a basic level, you're right. I use them for different things, too. However, I think Sony's excuse that "we're in a different market, and our market just happens to be smaller" is pretty cheap either way.
Have they fixed the wifi battery issues yet? One of my main gripes with getting a PSP is that the wifi drains the battery faster than it can be charged.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
So, just because you're behind first place, you've "lost"? Let's see, then Macs have lost, Yahoo has lost, Firefox has lost, Nissan has lost, Burger King has lost, Pepsi has lost... ... or maybe, just maybe, you don't have to be in first to be successful.
How can a car with the gas mileage of the Mercedes S500 possibly be considered "great for extended travelling"?
Different people have different needs. One person's "great" may mean "versatile" while another's may mean "long battery life".
One of my favourite games on the system is Chou Soujuu Mecha MG (not released outside Japan), it's a 3d mech battle game but the hook is that the mech's controls aren't mapped to the buttons but instead you get the mech's dashboard on the touchscreen and have to manipulate the controls there. Since the designs are pretty out there you actually get mechs where you have to shovel coal into the combustion chamber to keep the thing running or mechs where you have to manually load the shells into your gun or flip a row of switches like they do in movies before their doomsday laser shoots making your attention and stylus a resource to manage as well. It looks pretty good for a DS game but has slowdown when there are more than 3-4 mechs in play. On the other hand it has cities where you can pluck and throw everything you see with some decent physics going on. Certainly got me to the point where I reacted to Custom Robo DS with "bah, ugly".
I'm wondering, the oppinion on the PSP's graphics seems to be split: Some claim it's near PS2 quality, others say it's barely better than the DS. Is the DS-PSP gap really that big or was it just the games available at first that made it look so?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
The price of the unit itself and the need to have an expensive TV etc to get anything approaching "good value" out of the PS3 has meant there are simply less people interested in it.
While the quest to be the "center of the lounge room" is all well and good it does nothing for a huge number (maybe even a majority) of traditional gamers who are kids and young adults who have their consoles hooked up to a second TV (probably in their bedroom) so they can play whenever they like, regardless of what the rest of the family is doing in the lounge room.
This is the first generation of consoles where the consoles themselves output video of a higher quality than most people have for their TV (let alone secondary TVs). This is a huge issue which isn't going to change particularly rapidly.
The Xbox has the problem to a lesser degree because the lower price means people won't feel like they are wasting money so much.
Nintendo have avoided the problem entirely by deciding that the environment isn't ready for large scale uptake of high def gaming yet. As far as I can see they are right and it is difficult to see that changing substantially for a good five years.
Rather perversely although the Wii is the one console that isn't demanding to be in the lounge room it is probably the one that is having the most success at appealing to everyone in a family and thus earning a place there.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Glorified mouse? Sorry, but the mouse is more like a glorified stylus. A pen is much more intuitive than a mouse - just compare Puzzle Quest on the PC (with a mouse) to Puzzle Quest on the DS.
I live and work in Japan teaching in Elementary schools. Based on my observations of people in coffee shops, trains, and buses, the PSP/DS ratio is actually about 60/40. But these are adults. About 8/10 kids I teach have a DS. -Mike
"Haven't you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclaimation?"
"I don't listen to Hip-Hop!"
A hippo and an asteroid are completely different. A PSP and a DS are actually quite similar.