Developer Panel Gives Its Verdict On Sony's PSP Go

An anonymous reader writes "A panel of games industry veterans have given their final verdict on Sony's PSP Go. David Perry thinks the handheld is an excellent step in the right direction, though he wants it to include free-to-play games. Andrew Oliver of Blitz Games Studios was also optimistic: 'The iPod has demonstrated that, given a nice small device and a good interface and easy buying process, people are happy to download content. I think this will work and move gamers to accepting legal digital downloads, which is the way we want the market to go.' In total, a panel of eight developers discussed four key issues surrounding the handheld, including whether or not they will develop for it."

Comments

Terrible.

[LWATCDR]

With the go you pay more for less.
You loose the UMD so you loose access to all the cheap used games and the old PSP will get a software update to allow you to get games online just like the go.
The features of the Go are good. The actual device I think will be a bust.

Re:Terrible.

[Jim Hall]

You loose the UMD so you loose access to all the cheap used games and the old PSP will get a software update to allow you to get games online just like the go.

I don't know that you actually have a PSP, or you'd know that the current PSP can already access the PlayStation Network online store to buy games (not movies, though ... probably too big to download over wifi?) I've downloaded some demos directly to my PSP-1001 using PSN, and it works fine.

I haven't purchased PSP downloadable games on my PSP through PSN, though. That's because I have a PS3 also, and I'd rather buy games via the PS3, and use the PS3's hard drive as a "repository" of my purchased downloadable games. I push purchased games to the PSP when I want to play them.

And yes, I've bought a lot of PSP games through PSN. Cuboid, SOCOM Fire Team Bravo, Puzzle Quest, etc. Actually, I probably wouldn't have bought SOCOM FTB except that it was pretty cheap on PSN, and I figured what the heck. (Turns out, I liked it.)

Yes, you lose access to all the used PSP games that are already out on UMD. That matters (somewhat) to people like me who already have a PSP and have a (small) library of PSP-UMD games that I occasionally re-play: Daxter, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Star Wars: Battefront 2, SOCOM Tactical Strike, Lumines, Loco Roco. (A few of these are now available via PSN as "UMD classic" downloadable games, for less $$ than the cost of the game on UMD.) And I buy the occasional PS1 game from PSN: Spyro the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot. (I still have my original Spyro trilogy on PS1 discs, but re-purchased it anyway so I could play it on my PSP.) When my current PSP-1001 dies, and I replace it with a PSP Go, I'll probably have to re-purchase any of those old (great) games that I still want to re-play. Or, I could look for a (used?) PSP that supports UMD. So here's hopin' my PSP-1001 outlasts the "replay value" of those old PSP-UMD games.

Aside: I also still have a few UMD movies. To be honest, though, I don't really re-watch movies. I only watch(ed) UMD movies when I went on business trips, but as soon as the PSN store offered movie rentals (where the SD version could be "pushed" to a PSP to watch there) I only watched new stuff that were rented. Not that there are any new UMD movies, anyway ...

But back to the point - Sony isn't making the PSP Go for you & me. They are making it for people who don't (yet) have a PSP and would be willing to buy one. That's why Sony is making such a big deal that the PSP Go can purchase games from PlayStation Network. It will attract more people to the PSP Go. It's the same crowd that buy apps for their iPhone. Or PC games from Steam. Same concept, different price points.

When Slashdot discussed the PSP Go a few weeks ago, I posted a bit of advice for Sony, to help with immediate adoption of the PSP Go. I'll repeat it here:

Hint to Sony: When you release the PSP Go, please also release [at least] the top 50% of games from your UMD PSP game catalog as digital downloads from PlayStation Network, so PSP Go owners can buy older, popular games. Really, I'm telling you to make half of your "UMD classic" games available on PSN. Just do it. It's the only way you'll build traction for the PSP Go.

Re:Terrible.

[LWATCDR]

But they are still selling the old PSP for less than the Go. There is no reason for anybody to buy a Go. Unless you want less for more.

Do they need to compete with Nintendo??

[stratman4300]

It's curious that the Go is really making as many waves as it is. From what I've seen there really isn't that much difference between the Go and the standard PSP. The PSP is still a valid gaming platform, so i don't really see Sony's need to push this out unless they feel the need to release a new hand held every 6 months like Nintendo tends to do with the DS.

Properly Pricing Digital Downloads

[rsmith-mac]

The PSP Go can enable the industry to sell games cheaper - while not dropping quality

Sure, it can, but will it? One of the issues with digital downloads is that they don't necessarily respond to pricing influences like physical products do, and as a result prices are insulated and tend to stay higher. If we take a look at Steam for example, Valve wants $40 for Left 4 Dead, while Best Buy will sell it to you for $30. Or if we take a look at PSP games on the PSN store, they'll sell you the 1st-party racing game Wipeout Pure for $16, but even those evil bastards at Gamestop will sell you the game used for $7, or $15 (still $1 cheaper!) if they have new copies in stock.

Sony does not currently price digitally distributed PSP games at a reasonable level. A physical copy can virtually always be found for cheaper than a digital copy, and sales in the real world can drive that down even further. For the most part, it's foolish to buy from Sony's store so long as you have a UMD drive to play games with.

If Sony wants to go the iTunes Store model, they need to reevaluate their pricing structure. The iTunes model works because even though there's lot of crap, there's still a lot of good stuff that's competition to force down prices, and Apple's liberal pricing model will let you do that. A store and system that does little beyond locking you in to paying retail prices for new games for the rest of all time is going to be a hard thing to sell to people that know they can do better.

OMG! Some Anonymous Coward On Slashdot Has Spoken!

[Anonymous Coward]

If you say anything against a Sony product you're instantly a Nintendo Fanboy.

Re:The PSP Go is DOA

[ucblockhead]

They probably thought that by releasing the PSP Go without a UMD drive while not discontinuing the PSP 3000, which does have the UMD drive, they were giving consumers a choice.