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PSP Go Debuts, Disappoints
Sony has now officially launched the new version of their portable game console, the PSP Go, and the Opposable Thumbs blog took it for a spin to see how they liked it. Their impressions of the new hardware are almost entirely negative, despite being fans of the original PSP. One major point of contention was Sony's removal of the UMD drive in this revision, making it so you need to access the PlayStation Store to buy games. This kills price competition and used game sales in one fell swoop, while also making owners of any original PSP games unable to play them on the new hardware. The review says the new device looks sleek, but the dimensions make it somewhat cramped and awkward to use unless you have small hands. They also decry the switch to proprietary cables, and sum up their opinion by saying, "When your older, cheaper hardware is better and more able than your new offering, you need to fire some designers."
It's Ridge Racer! Riiiiidge Racer!
This kills price competition and used game sales in one fell swoop, while also making owners of any original PSP games unable to play them on the new hardware.
Translation: they killed the PSP.
Do we expect anything other than a locked-down proprietary anti-consumer mess out of Sony? After all, these are the people who gave us MiniDisc and the infamous anti-piracy rootkit.
"When your older, cheaper hardware is better and more able than your new offering, you need to fire some designers."
No, you need to fire the managers who gave the specifications to the designers.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I can see what you mean, as the PSP Go is sorta like iPods (company uses their own cables and tries their best to lock out anyone else from using the device), but the problem is that the last version was more open. It's tough to give people an ability (pick up a cable anywhere, buy used games, etc.) then take it away in a later version. The iPod has always been like that so Apple is just adding features, while Sony is taking them away.
In the times we live in, everyone is attempting to nickle and dime you on everything. Airlines now charge for luggage (all but 1 in the USA), hotels charge for a phone line, whether you want it or use it or not, weird "fees" appear on various utility bills. The gaming industry has been attempting to stop used game sales by lobbying for legislation, but since that wasn't moving fast enough to yield short term profits, enter iPho.. I mean PSP Go. Why are we so surprised? Guess where the next generation of consoles are heading...
Sony is competing with multiple markets that people aren't going view as legitimate. To them, the PSP isn't directly competing to the DS. They see it as something that is better than an Ipod Touch [same price point for a 16 gb unit]. So they view that a wise consumer is going to see 'I could get a DS, and an Ipod, or I could get a Psp!' The real world isn't working out to be that way though. Sony has classic tunnel vision.
you need to access the PlayStation Store to buy games. This kills price competition and used game sales in one fell swoop,
Ahhh sweet, sweet capitalism. Manufacturers go to great lengths to eliminate competition. This is a big win for Sony, consumers won't care.
while also making owners of any original PSP games unable to play them on the new hardware.
That's the point. Buy expensive Sony hardware today! Yesterday's purchase means nothing to them.
They also decry the switch to proprietary cables ./ers will get one and tons more kids will have them.
ditto. Sony's not going to get rich on this, but they are taking advantage of consumers pleasure of owning expensive jails. Many
This will go over good-enough. Sony will certainly come out richer for it. We, as consumers, are poorer for it.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
They didn't kill the previous model, though, did they? This is just another model.
For now. Sony won't keep both models running forever.
*snicker* To bring in all the "OMG THE PIRATES ARE COSTING JOBS OF HONEST CITIZENS!" excuse the industries batted around a while back, I can't help but laugh at them all running to download only where possible. One of the "main jobs" affected by "piracy" they cried, were drivers in the transport industry who would not have as much product to deliver and thus would lose their jobs!
Let's see, removal of ALL game deliveries certainly affects the transportation industry a hell of a lot more than a few less of each particular game. ;)
Also, regarding the tougher design point - you had better hope it's more durable. Kid drops it, breaks it, and the entire library of games is ruined with it. Rather than just the system + 1 game in the drive.
To me, anyway -- the complete and (in some versions of the document -- there's more than one!) exclusive worldwide rights to any "user created content" -- any data you ever upload through the service -- are too much. I do not trust Sony on the other hand of an agreement like that. Conclusion: No PSN for me. Thus, no games for the PSP Go. Idiots.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
First the press claimed that the UMD format sucks and that the PSP is too bulky to be carried around. At that time they were probably right. Now the same people are claiming that getting rid of the UMD format sucks and that the PSPgo is too small.
When Apple came up with the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch the press was excited and rejoicing over the new age of digital distribution. Now it's Sony's turn and suddenly it's a bad thing.
Well, boo-hoo. It's always nice to be able to complain about something even if that would mean contradicting yourself. This is madness.
I have the original PSP-1000 but that didn't stop me getting a PSPgo. I can play those UMD games on the old system if I want but since it's so big I rarely carry it around. The Go!Explore GPS package, however, is very useful in the car.
The PSPgo is finally small enough to be carried around and I'm happy to buy new content over the air. I don't need the old UMDs or chargers on it. I can use them with the old system since that's what they're for. The system is very sleek and I really enjoy it.
I also have the iPod Touch. No matter how much Apple wants you to think it's a gaming device it really isn't - at least for all types of games. I've really missed the control buttons. Thanks Sony for bringing us a real gaming system that can actually be taken with you.
The PSP Go isn't grasped so much as it lies on the top of your hands. The reason is the sliding top and the shoulder buttons that are on the bottom part. So your fingers can't naturaly "grasp" the top because there the sliding top gets in the way. If you got big fingers, then the PSP Go is lying on top of your hand and that is really akward.
People are not saying UMD is suddenly a wonderfull format, but it is the format that PSP owners got their existing games in, with no way to transfer them. How difficult would it have been to allow transfer from old PSP's to PSP Go's?
The PSP Go is NOT a new platform, there is no generation difference. As said in the Ars review, this would be like making the PS3 Slim 250gb not have a bluray drive.
The problem AIN'T with the digital store itself, it is about the sudden removal of the all the existing games FOR THE EXACT SAME PLATFORM.
Apples iPhone/iThouch NEVER had physical media. And did Apple with the iTouch make it impossible to use songs previously bought with iTunes? No. For Apple to have pulled the same, they would have to create an iPhone store and make it impossible to use iTunes bought songs on it. Hell, for that matter to make it impossible to use mp3's. Has Apple done any of this? No.
But you are right, Apple gets away with far more then Sony does. iTunes and the App store have indeed also meant the end of the bargain bin and 2nd hand songs/software. Non-apple fan boys do indeed mention this from time to time, but get modden down by people who think Jobs is the second coming.
To get back to your main point. Sony had mentioned that there would be some kind of system to get the games you already paid for, to play on the PSP Go. To not allow this (and to have lied about it) means that you got to question who they are aiming at?
1. People who previously didn't buy a PSP? The Go is more expensive, the PS3 gots its sales boost from a price reduction. Does Sony think they can do the same with a price increase?
2. Old PSP owners. They want to play the games they already own and not pay for them again.
3. People with to much money. AKA You. An intresting segment of the market, but in todays economy?
Sorry mate, but I think Sony made a mistake here. The more money then brains market is rather shallow. Most people, especially now, want MORE value for LESS money.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
When Nintendo releases DSi without previous gen games compatibility (unlike DS) it's the best hardware ever made.
The PSP Go lacks *current* gen games compatibility. There is a difference. But I suspect you knew that.
Downloadable games - all kosher for Apple, Microsoft and Nintendo.
Downloadable games are fine. Being the only option and requiring customers to buy new copies of current generation games they've already purchased is the issue. But I suspect you knew that as well.
When Nintendo releases DSi without previous gen games compatibility (unlike DS) it's the best hardware ever made.
Arguably the DSi does have support for previous gen games... ds games, as the ds had support for it's previous gen.. gba games.
When Nintendo releases DSi without previous gen games compatibility (unlike DS) it's the best hardware ever made.
It's not the best hardware ever, but it is an improvement over the DS Lite in enough ways to justify its existence. More storage, SD card slot, cameras, etc. It can't play GBA games, which were obsolete years ago. Oh noes!
Proprietary cable for on iPod? It's Apple, stupid!
First, the cables aren't proprietary. They're standard USB cables with one proprietary connector. The other connector will work with any standard USB port. Second, no one praises Apple for doing this, it's just that the benefits of the iPod outweigh the drawback of needing a special connector for it.
Downloadable games - all kosher for Apple, Microsoft and Nintendo.
I can still play disc-based games on my 360 and Wii, and I can still play DS games in my DSi. As for my iPod, there were never physical media games for it otherwise, so who the fuck cares? The issue isn't downloadable games, it's having to pay to download games you already bought for the previous iteration if you want to play them on the new one. So far, I haven't had to re-buy any games for my iPod Touch or 360.
Sony, on the other hand cannot do anything right - UMD is lame, no UMD is atrocious. What do you want,a 8" floppy? A DVD? Does your Zune come with one? Your DS? Your iPhone?
If you want to play games from UMDs why do you buy PSP go? You don't buy an iPhone to play your Appple ][ floppies. You don't buy Zune to play MSX carts.
That's a red herring.
I'd rather buy downloadable games for PSP since I can install them on multiple PSPs and PS3s than buy multiple UMDs to play multiplayer but I must be a crazy one.
If you sincerely want to to that, knock yourself out. You are one of the rare few with an interest in the PSP Go who isn't getting shafted by it by making you have to re-buy your games if you want to play them on it. By all means, enjoy your handheld that costs more than a brand new console.
By reading this you acknowledge that you have read it.
As long as Sony was going to a new design, why oh why did they not add a second thumbstick? Shooters and other console games tend to use two joysticks. in the case of shooters, one stick is used to control movement, while the other is used to control the camera angle. In PSP games, because there's only one joystick, each shooter series uses its own scheme to get around the lack of a second joystick. For what it's worth, I think the best control scheme in a PSP shooter is the one used in the Syphon Filter series. But what sucks is that when you switch games, the whole control scheme changes. It's frustrating when you push just the right buttons to do what you want... in the wrong game.
They put a little depression on the face of the PSP Go in exactly the right place for the second thumbstick, but they put the START and SELECT buttons there. If they had put in another thumbstick and moved those buttons elsewhere, they might have revitalized the whole PSP playform. Ports of console games would have immediately become much easier, allowing the number of games for the platform to grow more quickly. New games could be written with more standard (read: better) control schemes. Backward compatibility would be trivial. The second joystick could simply be ignored by old games. Playing the old games would then be unchanged, while many new possibilities would be created.
I have a PSP 1000, and even that is too small for me. When I try to play with just the PSP 1000 in my hand, it feels too small and fragile. I have an acrylic case that holds the PSP and protects it, and most important for me, gives me a big sturdy thing I don't feel like I'm going to break every time I play (yes, the DS was immediately rejected in part because of how flimsy it looked). I like the video out introduced in the PSP 2000, and I figure that with a good case, the 2000 might be decent.
So to summarize, as Sony has made new versions of the PSP, they have focused on making it smaller and flimsier, a feature I do not want. They have removed the UMD drive, which does away with used game sales and price competition. But they have failed to correct the most glaring defect of the PSP platform since its inception: the lack of a second thumbstick. Well, I'm not a hardcore gamer, so Sony doesn't give a rat's ass about me or my opinion, but I'm keeping an eye on the Pandora. It's a platform that appears to have been, y'know, designed for gaming. It won't have firmware updates to block homebrew games, and no, that doesn't mean I'll only use free or pirated games. I'm perfectly happy buying PSP games, and I'll almost certainly buy some good games for the Pandora too.
"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too." --Eugene Wigner
Sony is far too interested in their media protection than in the products they sell to access the media.
I don't disagree with the removal of the UMD from the machine. I think it made the PSP heavier than it needed to be. However, the UMD should still be available as an external or clip-on device so that games that users already own can be effectively transferred to memory stick or internal storage.
I think Sony over estimates the harm done by copyright infringement. Infringers are still an elite few. It's not likely to be a number higher than 10% by my guess. And yet they assault their entire customer base with changes and revisions and updates trying to stop PSP modding and game copying and all that. I have had problems with nearly all Sony consumer devices I have owned except those that are exclusively A/V. (TV, Camcorder and a DVD player) Their computers suck, their Clie' palm devices die with non-replaceable batteries making them useless after a while. I just don't buy Sony gear.
I have broken with my own rule regarding Sony not long ago, however. I was trying to sell my XBox360 what had a red ring of death condition, code 0102. It was already a refurb unit so I don't expect that MS would support it, so I listed it on craigslist. Someone responded with an offer to trade his PSP 1000. It works fine, has some scratches, the X button is mushy, many of the printed/painted details are worn. The UMD works fine and this is my first experience with PSP and it is a surprisingly powerful and cool device. I modded it, of course, and now play everyone off of an 8GB memory stick.
The PSP Go then became an interest for me as removing the UMD doesn't bother me as long as there are modders out there figuring out how to get my games on it. I think that by removing the UMD completely, Sony just encouraged even more hacking of the PSP and have discouraged the other 90% of their good base of users with what ultimately amounts to their prioritizing content control over the quality of the user experience. Sure, the content is all the more tightly controlled now... the problem is, fewer people care about the content because it will be harder to access.
You'd think that, but it does - bizarrely - appear that, for example, Blu-ray is taking off, despite being arguably the most user hostile media format released in the last forty years with the possible exception of DIVX.
It's hard to tell if Sony will actually fail here, or just not be wildly successful. Many of their technologies considered "failures" by consensus on Slashdot were often relatively successful. Minidisc, for example, was until recently very popular outside of the US as a consumer technology, and popular as a pro-audio recording system within the US, but its lack of success as a consumer format within the US means it keeps being cited as a failed Sony technology. Betamax, for all of its faults, was actually successful for a number of years, it was just supplanted by the more usable VHS.
Looking at the complaints: proprietary connectors? Well, my DS has only one non-proprietary connector. Downloaded games instead of UMD discs? That only definitely hurts existing customers. Whether it hurts future customers depends upon whether Sony recognizes it cannot price games the same way as it can for "transferable content". Until we see Sony's pricing, we can't really tell whether a download-only world is a negative, but what I can say is that anything that reduces the weight, price, and complexity (and thus "number of things that can go wrong") of the PSP is a good thing. If I were to design a portable console today I wouldn't stick a disc drive in it either.
I'm the last person to defend Sony, I think they're scum. But I think there's no reason why what Sony's doing with the PSP Go shouldn't work. The complaints are with the existing user base. The PSP Go isn't being sold to people who already have PSPs, it's being sold to people who don't have them. Treated as a "new" console rather than a rehash of an existing one, it's theoretically a good concept, as long as Sony doesn't overprice the content.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Betamax, for all of its faults, was actually successful for a number of years
Yeah. 2. Two years. Once RCA got permission from Matsushita to produce 4-hour-capable VHS recorders (1976), the Betamax 1-hour limit looked like a joke to consumers. VHS quickly became the number one brand. By 1980 Betamax barely held 1/5th of the market.
Minidisc is only "popular outside the U.S." if you define popular as holding 10% of the market, which I consider to be a flop (along with Super CD and DVD Audio). The only formats Sony has successfully parleyed as the dominant standards of their time - Umatic (for professionals), Betacam (pro), Compact Disc, and Playstation 1 and 2.
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
not buying any hd media is a choice...
You (as well as the reviewer in the article, yes I read it, sue me) seem to be under the impression that the PSPgo is for the current PSP owners. It's not. It's targeted at new customers who don't already have UMDs.
Mada mada dane.
I'm convinced the single largest mistake Sony made with the PSP Go was charging too much for it. If it had cost roughly as much as a regular PSP people would be complaining less about the other changes. I realize, however, that the new form factor has likely added to the price of this thing, but then therein lies the source of this problem.
What Sony should have done was offer an updated PSP in the same form factor as the original, but simply eliminate the UMD drive and then promote the functionality they're currently pushing with the Go. This would ensure costs stay down, and in fact, probably give Sony the opportunity to charge even less for this new PSP. Additionally, it wouldn't make existing PSP owners feel like they're being left behind.
While I prefer owning physical copies of my games, going to a download only model doesn't bother me. I personally think not being able to purchase used games is a non-issue because I never do so. I feel that, with the exclusion of buying from an individual, the used games market is a scam anyway. You're not paying much less than full price for a used game. I can go online, and sometimes retailers like Target, and find new games for the same or less than what places like Gamestop are charging for a used game.
And that's where the problem lies. With the PSP Go will we only be able to buy games via Sony? This pretty much ensures Sony has complete control over pricing. In the very least, I expect downloadable games to cost $5 to $10 less than an actual physical copy. And will games be discounted as they age and decline in popularity? I should hope so.
Unfortunately, I think this is the way of the future. It's already starting and Sony was simply the first to take such a bold step in that direction. Too many people have grown comfortable with micro-payments and overpaying for products and services. It's going to be next to impossible to stop this tide. The PSP Go might flop simply because it entered the market a bit too soon.
Who is forcing you to re-buy all your games, do you want to play UMD games?, buy a new PSP-3000 if you do not have one, both models are being sold. Do you scream because when you buy a netbook it does not have a DVD drive to see you movies?, no because the target user for that device is not the same to laptop owners, it is about extra mobility. I own a PSP-3000 and have no interest on the PSP Go (with the exception of the bluetooth support), new games are sold in physical and dogotal distribution, your choice
Is the battery life better now that the UMD drive has been removed?
If you're running custom firmware on the x000 models, using an ISO of your game preserves a chunk of battery life. (not to mention loading times)
Despite the fundamental importance of operating time in a portable, Sony seems has no interest in improving it. They improve the efficiency of the console each revision and LOWER the battery capacity so the lifespan remains unchanged. The 2000 series weighs almost nothing so I don't understand what they're thinking by doing this.
Compact Disk is actually a Phillips invention (in the Belgian branch no less)