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Should Sony Team With Google On a PlayStation Phone?
donniebaseball23 writes "The PSP2 is already in the hands of developers, but will Sony take the right direction in the portable sector? Following a recent op-ed on fixing the PSP business, leading game industry analysts came to the consensus that the best avenue for Sony to take is to offer a PlayStation Phone, and a strong partner like Google would do just the trick. 'Sony has the opportunity to redefine the portable games category. I think the best move would be to get out in front of Microsoft's inevitable Xbox LIVE Arcade Mobile and take on the App Store and carrier deck portals. ... They could put out a proper PlayStation Phone (and a PlayStation Pad) but these should compete with smartphones and tablets, not dedicated gaming devices. To do this quickly, Sony could partner with Google and take advantage of Android's considerable momentum,' said Billy Pidgeon of M2 Research."
There is one major advantage that all Sony, Google and Android are missing - good support for game developers tools, availability of indie games and the support of 23 million Xbox Live subscripters.
However, the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 has all those advantages. You can easily develop for it using C# and Microsoft provides libraries and environments like XNA. Also, when you develop using C# and XNA, the game instantly works on all PC, Xbox 360 and the upcoming mobile phones. A huge advantage for developers.
On the other hand, Sony's PSP is just a gaming device. By this age it's way too much to carry around mobile phone, gaming device and everything else. Mobile devices are a lot more powerful now and you can fit everything in your phone.
Developers also hate coding for Sony's systems. I think both Gabe Newell and John Carmack have said developing for them is absolute nightmare and programming for them is completely different from other consoles. Microsoft here has huge advantage since the code you make works for big amount of other platforms. At most you only need to rewrite the graphics and maybe some game logic, but with indie games you may not even need to do that.
These are all the things that both Sony and Google are missing. iPhone developers also wont shy away from developing for Windows Mobile as it's practically the same and the market is/will be huge. I don't think the future of gaming will be PSP, it will be Windows Mobile.
Great idea, but not exactly very Sony-like... We're talking about the same company that pushed Blu-ray, an inferior standard to HD-DVD, on consumers with everything it had until they finally won... (disclaimer: I own two blu-ray players). Sony is much, much more likely to release their own phone with their own OS than team up with Google. All IMHO.
I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
No because Sony's stance clashes with Google's stance. Sony is all about control. Control. Control. Heck, Sony had a firmware update to break third party controllers not to mention Sony's recent moves of removing features.
Sony wants nothing more than control. Google wants open phones. The two clash in many ways.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
The iPod touch and iPhone already have better graphics, they just don't come with physical buttons. Update the PSP with the retina display and add enhanced graphics patches for older games and you got a better PSP.
Yes add more features surely playing movies music and games was not enough!!! They needed more features so they could outsell the DS!!!
The DS didn't win because it had features..... it didn't win because it had better graphics.... it won because it had more fun games to play and a bigger variety of games to pick from. Pesky consumers and there desire for choices!!!!
Sony just does not have the developer support for 2 systems, I suspect they would be better served by focusing on one or the other.
This message brought to you by Microsoft and the letters B and S.
BTW, what's the deal with the "Marketplace" slashbox? Any way to disable this?
If you design something new, you break all the existing software; but the existing hardware is so antiquated, it can't run games that people are expecting these days.
Seen Epic Citadel on the iPod Touch? The PSP is so dead.
Mark the price down and sell the remaining stock at a loss, while you can find anyone to buy it.
Large screen + cpu chewing apps is no good for something that meant to work unplugged at least close to a work day. In the N900 with the game gripper you already have a not so bad gaming console/smart phone, where you can play playstation/n64/mame/native games, but battery life wiill be pretty bad.
Sony frankly doesn't have a good track record with hardware in general. The hardware tends to be quirky, and after-sales support poor -- my friend had a Sony DVD player that *specifically* advertised firmware upgradeability on the box, it was very buggy.. no firmware updates ever came out for it, Sony's solution was to just buy the next model. They've done the same thing with other products.
Sony also LOVES closed systems, the antithesis of Android. They've done stuff like take a generic off-the-shelf DVD or CD drive, and put their own firmware in it, actually introducing bugs compared to the stock firmware while adding no features; some Vaios have fingerprint readers that WOULD be standard and work with generic Linux drivers, except Sony put custom firmware in so it ONLY works with Sony's (Windows-based) software. This also is something they've done again and again.
Would I buy a Sony phone? Hell no.
The reason I'm not porting my soon to be released Flash game on iPhone or Android is that the processing power is too low. If there was a serious chip in these phones, higher quality games can be made. I'm thinking in the future many high quality games will be made in Flash.
God spoke to me.
Given all the other problems with Sony thinking they continue to "own" the hardware after they have sold it to the customer, I would not take a Sony Playstation Phone if they paid me to use it.
That's a marriage that will never happen. Sony is all about control, and that focus on control precludes third parties and regard for what Sony's users want. See: removal of PS2 compatibility on the PS3, removal of "OtherOS" on the PS3, blocking of third-party controllers on the PS3 etc. ad nauseum. Sony wants absolute control of the eco system, but they don't get it like Apple and even Google/Android does in regards to applications and features. Hell, even Microsoft lets anyone write apps for the Windows platform. Until Sony 1.) merges the PSP into a smartphone platform; 2.) loosens their control or at least modifies it in regards to applications and monetizing their platform, and 3.) opens up to partnering with companies that understand how to work with user's needs and wants, they're dead in the water. I speak as a PS3 owner who uses his PS3 95% for streaming media to the entertainment centre, as an owner of a PSP 3000 who uses it primarily for watching movies and documentaries while traveling as well as running old console games in emulation, and I have a PSP Go that I won at a vendor event (a lucky colleague won a 32Gb iTouch AND an Xbox slim! I got the shitty end of that deal).
These companies have different DNA:
Sony's instinct is to use proprietary formats and lock stuff down. I bought a PS3, but psbuntu on it and intended programming it. Couldn't do anything could since Sony locked me out. I learned my lesson not to use their stuff.
Google on the other hand are the opposite. They are pretty open with their technologies and using them is a joy in comparison. While there are restrictions on some stuff (Map API) the rest of it can pretty much be used as you wish and for no cost.
These two collaborating would probably work as well as a marriage between a neurotic, secretive but immaculately coiffured woman and a hippy.
The reason I'm not porting my soon to be released Flash game on iPhone or Android is that the processing power is too low. If there was a serious chip in these phones, higher quality games can be made. I'm thinking in the future many high quality games will be made in Flash.
Or, perhaps you could take Adobe's dick out of your mouth long enough to learn how to program in a REAL LANGUAGE that doesn't need to max out 4 3GHz cores to run a fucking animation. Failing that, maybe go play in traffic.
On the other hand, it seems to me that a phone with a spare battery in your pocket is still smaller than a phone + a Gameboy or PSP.
Sony can't even partner with Google to bring out an Android 2.x phone. How are they going to create a PlayStation phone when Sony can't seem to move beyond Android 1.6?
If the last generation of video game consoles has taught us anything, it's that game companies should stick with what they do best. That means making great gaming experiences. You would think that Wii and DS would have taught us that. What happens when the focus shifts to grander goals. Well not only does the gaming experience suffer, but it's bad for the bottom line. Sony since PS2 and original PSP ...
Cell Processor - Develop processor that will allow for new entertainment experiences and be included across the range of Sony electronic goods. This hasn't happened, they've lost market share to Korean companies, and hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
Blu-ray - Spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and market a new format that is already obsolete thanks to streaming.
PS3 - Focus on the above two technologies to make the platform more than just a gaming console, which led to delays that caused the platform to be expensive, difficult to program for, less popular, and unprofitable.
PSP GO - Desire to get in on the App Store craze leads them to create their biggest bomb. In the Japanese market it sold fewer than 50,000 units so far this year compared to 1,500,000 PSP-3000 and 64,000 PS2s.
In summary, please focus on what you know how to do. You are not Google, Apple, or even Microsoft (who somehow makes better software than you). You are an electronics company. Focus on being the best electronics company, and not the next Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Disney, Blackberry, Netflix ... Samsung and LG, who are just copying your past model and successes seem to understand this and are reaping the rewards. Even Microsoft's efforts to be more like you have been a financial disaster from the inception of their Xbox program. Apple seems to have branched out from being a computer manufacturer, but the company has been an iDevice manufacturer first and computer maker second since Steve Jobs took over. Therefore they haven't really entered new markets, but are really just Apple 2.0 and this is their core business and competency.
Especially considering your company is based in Japan where shareholders have few rights, it's time to get back to the basics and stop trying to chase growth outside your core competency. Make an awesome platform for gaming entertainment that Apple and other phone manufacturer can't match because of their utilitarian functionality. With that the masses will come and you might even be able to help the company's bottom line at the same time.
Google would make Android part of the deal, and it's apparent that Sony wants nothing to do with Linux.
Sony = closed system.
Google (Android) = open system.
Therefore either google will break sony's model or sony will break googles model.
The only good result would be if Sony relaxed their model but I can't see that happening.
Google phone: Failure
Sony PSP: Marketshare loser
But what if we combined them?!
Why, we'd have a Nokia N-Gage gaming phone. Brilliant.
Hey clueless analysts, 2003 called and they want their shitty ideas back.
What's this? Would you call Microsoft a strong PC maker? Google just provide the OS, they are a NON-PLAYER in the mobile market, both in terms of name brand recognition and manufacturing/distribution capability. Partnering with HTC or Nokia (while still not have much sense) would make more sense than picking Google.
This is pure Google fanboy wishful thinking.
An Android that plays PSP Games? It need to be so locked down for Sony to accept, that you would not be able to run any non-Sony approved Android apps, that it make no sense to buy one.
With Google's lack of emphasis on user experience, Sony will need to make major changes to the UI that you would not recognize it is an Android device anyway.
This whole idea makes no sense at all.
Oliver.
Pretty sure they've tried this idea before and it failed miserably
If there's one thing I love about this site, it's that between all the Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Linux bashing, the one company we can largely come to despise is Adobe, and the one product we can all hate on is Flash. The only dissenting opinion you ever see here is by Adobe-suite 'developers' grown indulgent by Adobe's motherly coddling and embrace.
I like to smoke weed. It's good. It's much better than alcohol and less toxic by a long shot. The buzz is great. No hangover in the morning. Why isn't it legal?
It might be a good idea for them, but Google should clearly say no. Sony are a bunch of closed sourced bastards who have no idea of how to please the market (and to those who say they are making a mint - sure - but they could make even more if they opened their minds)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
They never have, and I don't think they ever will. True collaboration with google/android is therefore not possible.
Look at the PS3. Could one imagine a sorrier excuse for an online store or game community? They never took online gaming seriously. Whereas msft built in standardized online/community functionality, Sony left it to each developer. Integration with the online store is an after thought and is truly crude.
With their phones and android they trashed most of what was inherent to the os and replaced it with a crudely implemented custom UI/skin.
Memory sticks, proprietary, etc.
Community driven, collaboration, open, Sony doesn't do that.
Well, seeing as they couldn't keep the first PSP closed to hackers, what makes them think they will keep a Droid based one better protected.
If I thought Google would get Sony to open a jointly developed phone's OS, Android with full access to the phone's HW, I would support such a development. But Sony has proven over and over that it's committed to closing and locking its products as much as possible. The latest stunt with firmware upgrades stealing away Linux/OtherOS from the PS3 is the clincher, but everything Sony does is DRM/closed/locked. Google also does business with China's mafia government, even after making a big noise about quitting the country instead. So I expect it would only drag Google further from being open - and Android isn't even open enough.
Google should team with Nintendo on a totally open Wii phone. Nintendo is the innovative console maker, finally introducing motion detecting controllers to the industry. Meanwhile motion detection and location are some of the biggest drivers of innovation on mobile phones. Nintendo is the only console vendor that doesn't have a phone. A Wii phone/controller/mobile would ratchet Nintendo up another notch. And indeed Nintendo has since 2007 developed ES, an open source OS.
Nintendo's is the sensible path for Google to operate in this space, not Sony's.
--
make install -not war
The only dissenting opinion you ever see here is by Adobe-suite 'developers' grown indulgent by Adobe's motherly coddling and embrace.
---- and the developers who know who to use Flash and Adobe's development tools effectively:
Machinarium
Oh yea, that thing I used to enjoy playing games on
I have a psp phat, I have bought maybe 15 games for it over its lifetime, I still own 4...
Maybe if they focused more on making / getting content for it instead of trying to get me to buy a new set of cables every revision of the machine, Then I could say I have found more than 4 games I honestly enjoy since I got the thing back in 2006 (versus my big binder of ps1 and ps2 games)
I don't even know where the silly thing is, I think its under my desk, I don't know I haven't touched it since I beat Chinatown wars
Yes, and everything should be programmed to run on the Dalvik jvm so it can achieve a blistering 5 fps.
Got Code?
Yea program it in a REAL LANGUAGE like java so it can run at a blistering 3 fps.
Got Code?
the only truely awesome thing to come from adobe was postscript and pdf.
It was called the N-Gage, and no one should ever ask for something like that ever again.
Born to Play
... and people who just want to watch some video from CBC on their iPad, who don't give a shit about format and only care that it "doesn't work."
Google can skirt around their "Don't Be Evil" motto, by taking on an evil partner like Sony that can do the dirty work while letting Google keep their hands clean! ;-)
Sony Ericsson has recently moved to only use android in their smartphones, and apparently they are already considering mixing PSP and android 3.0 (gingerbread).
There is so much fud on slashdot that some have created their own reallity distortion field. Its sad if you think about it. To al those saying that they couldnt partner up. Look who is very active regarding Google TV....
Who cares about advanced gaming capabilities if the current line of smartphones if they can't even provide a sufficient battery-life so that one can actually *use* those gaming features for longer than a few hours?
You look like a million dollars. All green and wrinkled.
Sony already has a gaming division and a 50% share in a mobile phone company. Sony also has good contacts with game developers. The only non-games software most of their potential customers absolutely need would be email, web and media players. Posibly a text editor. Sony can develop that lot in-house.
There've already been reports about a PlayStation Phone under development by Sony Ericsson: http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/11/exclusive-sony-ericsson-to-introduce-android-3-0-gaming-platfor/.
Also, if you think Sony and Google have different corporate philosophies and could never partner you haven't been paying attention to recent events. Their partnership has grown quite close. Sony is Google's (temporary) exclusive TV manufacturer partner for Google TV: http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/20/google-tv-turns-on-at-i-o/. Sony Ericsson is focused on Android, dropping Symbian (http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/10/06/nokia-sticks-with-symbian-as-rivals-turn-away/) and not launching any Windows Phone devices. Unlike Samsung, it is not developing its own smartphone operating system alongside its Android offerings. I agree that Sony in the past has been obsessed with control of its platforms, but things are changing under Stringer.
That's a marriage that will never happen. Sony is all about control, and that focus on control precludes third parties and regard for what Sony's users want.
Except when it did? Like earlier this year when Sony became Google's exclusive TV manufacturer partner for Google TV (http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/20/google-tv-turns-on-at-i-o/)? Or when Sony Ericsson dropped Symbian and ignored Windows Phone to focus 100% on Android? Slashdot: where rank misinformation is +4, Insightful.
See: removal of PS2 compatibility on the PS3, removal of the "OtherOS" on the PS3
What does that have to do with Sony's being wiling to partner with third parties?
Sony wants absolute control of the eco system, but they don't get it like Apple and even Google/Android does in regards to applications and features. Hell, even Microsoft lets anyone write apps for the Windows platform.
Um, can't anyone write apps for Sony Ericsson's Android phones? The gaming consoles are different - all of the big three require licensing fees to publish games and apps since that's how the business model works.
Gonna be hard for Google to 'do no evil' if they partner with SONY. There aren't a lot of tech companies with the evil track record that SONY has.
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But then I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain
Jeez! So, according to the collective "wisdom" of Slashdot:
No company should release anything, ever.
Nor should they try anything new, ever.
Nor should they be allowed to learn from their mistakes.
Nor should they spot a weakness in their DNA and get another company on-board to help address it.
Oh, and everything, every company has ever done has also been shit!
Cheers commenters one and all (apologies to anyone who made a positive contribution here). My PSP has provided years of fun on trains, planes and those odd snippets of downtime and I'd like something with deeper-than-five-minute games on a phone, so why not. No one is forcing people to buy it?
Glad we've got that cleared up, I'll head off to my cave with my Colecovision now.
If he's the Walrus then can I be a penguin please?
This is why we should never, -ever- let people who don't play games make decisions about games. Especially "experts".
People who want portable gaming have a PSP. People who want to play games on their phones have iPhones and Droids and any number of other smartphones. They are two separate markets with two different demographics. Leave them alone.
Or python, as it saves you development time!
The Java hating kinda has to end when Minecraft is doing so well.
But some people never update their memes.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
So if I want to game on a platform, I have to buy a specific phone for an asston of money only for an inferior product? Excellent job removing 30% of your potential customers. There's a reason all printers aren't all-in-ones and shampoo and conditioner still beat 2-in-1s: they suck.
I wonder what world these marketoids live on, this crap reminds me of hollywood.
We already know what is going to happen. Sony is going to make a righteous little gaming device (that just so happens to be a phone too) and for about a year, everything will go smashingly well with it. Game developers will fawn, coo, and write code for the ubiquitous new gaming interface, and all will seem just peachy. Gamers will game to their hearts content and laugh hearty belly laughs at their "non-Sony-gaming/wunderkinder-devicenonhavenum contemporaries". Almost unnoticably (at first) a cancer will start growing. It seems that some of the users (not content with just playing SoCom 14: Shadow Recon and talking to their team- mates in both Guam and Amsterdam online while.... driving) will find something inherently wrong with the fact that they can't seem to get their car started and warmed up without having to go out there, put the key in the ignition and turning it. Yep, despite all of the other wonderful things the device was designed to do, it seems the dev-teams at Sony neglected to add the libs and drivers for "their" iCar that would have allowed the device to perform this task out of the box. "Shame on you Sony" will be the rallying cry, and droves of users dissatisfied with this device's lack of support for "remote" speed-control on their girlfriend's iVibrator, will come out of the woodwork, and begin conspiring to home-brew their own firmware that would facilitate such functionality. Unfortunately, Sony's firmware will be intrinsically woven into the DNA of the Cell processor, thus requiring the use of such workarounds as after-market Rogue-Cell flash-cards, and virii that invariably "brick" a solid third of all devices they are initially introduced to, (and infect another third of Cell'd devices wirelessly). The lawsuits will abound as users attempt yet more uses not covered in the original EULA, and under the burgeoning weight of the ensuing lawyer fees, Sony will drop all support within the following 2 years
BTW: iCar, iVibrator, and all other words made up by Ozlanthos are mine, so don't use them in attempts to make money unless you intend to give Ozlanthos some of it!
-Oz
Yeah, because if you are not manually flipping physical switches to set your memory, you are not a real 'developer'. Honestly, the Flash hate is stupid. Flash works, and it works well while being cross platform. The only real complaints that I have with Flash is the lack of gamepad support, and the fact that the have not put out their own game console to play all of those games and watch all of the media on.
knows just the right company for Sony to buy?
Granted minecraft is a popular java game. However java is holding it back from it's true potential also.
Got Code?
Nonsense.
For one, the programmer is obviously familiar with Java; therefore you might not have Minecraft at all without it being written in Java.
Secondly and more importantly, the game isn't in any way limited by being in Java. Java also has the advantage of allowing the game to run on any platform with Java support.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)