Slashdot Mirror
Sony Winding Down the PSP
Linnen writes "Sony has started the process of phasing out its PSP handheld console. From The Guardian: 'Shipments to the U.S. ended this year, and they are closing in Japan soon. European stores will see their last arrivals toward Christmas. Launched in Japan in December 2004, it is almost 10 years old – not a bad achievement for a handheld that was almost written off early in its lifespan. ... The console struggled with high piracy levels of its titles, which meant the likes of EA, Activision and Ubisoft were reticent about committing to major development projects. However, the ease with which hackers were able to break the device's security system also meant that it became a favorite with the homebrew development scene, and amateur coders are still producing games and demos for the platform. Some look back on the machine as a failure beside the all-conquering Nintendo DS, but this is unfair. The console sold 80m units, a figure boosted by a series of excellent hardware and featureset updates, including the slimmer PSP-2000 and PSP-3000 models. '"
The console struggled with high piracy levels of its titles, which meant the likes of EA, Activision and Ubisoft were reticent about committing to major development projects.
"But no one loses anything, when you just make a copy."
Right, guys? Isn't that what you always say?
Apparently, I thought the console went away years ago personally. I haven't seen or heard of it in years.
Not just from Nintendo, but from pretty much every smartphone and cheap tablet out there.
The Internet King? I wonder if he could provide faster nudity.
Sony released the ps vita like 3 years ago. This is not exactly news.
The PSP was NOT written off early into its lifespan. Approaching launch, every major media outlet championed it as the obvious victor in the portable space, expecting the DS to get absolutely fucked. The DS didn't take its first significant lead until the end of 2005, and it wasn't until 2007 that the PSP was written off.
Selling 80 million units doesn't mean shit when you're selling below / near cost and you're not selling software.
Subsequent PSP models were not easily hacked (and I believe the later models remain unhacked today). But if you still want to blame the failure on piracy, how are you going to explain the DS? All DS models, including the DSi, are easily hackable, and piracy was (and still is) absolutely rampant.
The later PSP models didn't represent "excellent hardware and featureset updates", they represented haphazard attempts to lower costs while sacrificing build and component quality, while providing only minor improvements. It took 3 years to get the first revision out and it's main claims to fame were the smaller size and shittier quality screen. And what about the abortion that was the PSP Go or the time wasted on PSP Phone attempts? The Go was roundly rejected. I believe there were a few models of phones branded with Playstation, PSN, or "Xperia Play" that actually got released in various markets, but they obviously bombed as well - none of them actually played PSP games despite the hardware ability and obvious design "similarities" between them and the PSP Go. It was just a sub section of stuff available through PSN (but not the real PSN).
Sony's failure with the PSP was due to ridiculous proprietary storage format and the overall price of the system. Because of the costs, they simply could not get an install base worth developing for. Developing a major title for Vita was a huge risk that rarely paid off. On the other hand, the DS had a PS2-like install base - you could release utter trash and expect a profit.
The PSP was actually a pretty nice piece of hardware, at least for those of us that grew up when a black and white portable system was a big deal. My old PSP1000, long since hacked, is now mainly used when I get a sudden urge to play FF7. Which is still awesome. If they had come out day one with a bunch of ported PS1 titles available on PSN I think things could've been different.
Lack of games killed the PSP. I had the console from day one and I bought Loco Roco 1&2, Jack&Daxter, Lumines and Killzone for it. And never saw a single game beside them that I would like to have. Sony also ruined the console by forced system upgrades, so whenever one opened console, there was a 30min upgrade session, just as is the case with PS3. No more Sonys for me, I will updates to my PCs when I like, not when console manufacturer decides to remove some feature.
As far as I'm concerned, the console "went away" when they came out with driveless units. All those PSP games I had bought? Useless.
So the only PSPs of interest to my family were used early models. Way to do yourself out of sales, Sony. Again. Now they're doing the same kind of thing with the PS4. PS2, PS3 titles? Nope, won't run. Customer? Nope, won't buy. :)
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
So long Metal Gear Acid.
Just to buy no games for it? Of course piracy kills sales ON A HANDHELD. There's lots of people out there with a PSP and no games actually bought.
sadly lots of good games (yeah Valkyria Chronicles 3) never left Japan.
Truly. It is awesome. There are only a few small problems with it.
1) UMD disk is proprietary shit. Had they instead used a mini-dvd, the handheld would have been fantastic. But I realize that this is sony, and that they have delusions of owning the media market, despite having CLEARLY lost on all fronts. No Sony, your memory stick tech will NEVER be more user friendly than SDcard. No Sony, your UMD was never going to surpass mini-DVD. No Sony, your MagicGate bullshit for the vita will never catch on. Sorry. Users have the choice of non-sony things that work with all other non-sony things--- which are just as good if not better, than what you offer-- and are perfectly content to let your bullshit die on the vine. Like Vita is.
You SHOULD have used mini-DVD.
You SHOULD have used Micro-SD.
2) Sony dropped the ball bigtime on game selection for the PSP, and further shot themselves in the foot by failing to give proper dualshock type thumbknobs-- Even the (very excellent!) PSONE emulator (which works with basically every PSONE game, with some tweaking!) is rendered less than fully useful because of the lack of the other thumb knob. I bought my PSP fat explicitly to run CFW on it, so that I could play emulated SNES and NES games on it, and to run homebrew apps on it. (It works just fine as a small ebook reader, and as an email reader. Used it for quite some time before I bought a smartphone. Could check my emails anywhere there was open wifi!)
The reason why this was the SINGLE, ONE AND ONLY reason for that purchase decision? THERE WERE NO GAMES RELEASED FOR THE PSP WORTH BUYING, OR EVEN PLAYING. I have had my hacked PSP for.. Jeeze--- YEARS now. STILL, NOT A SINGLE PSP TITLE ON IT. PIRATED OR OTHERWISE. My choice not to buy games, was because there were no games worth having!
BUT-- Again-- the handheld itself is fantastic!
The screen is behind a very robust and thick slab of plastic that keeps it from getting screwed up. The FAT has an out of this world battery life. I could play an emulated snes game for literally 8 hours straight on a single charge! FANTASTIC! I STILL take the hacked PSP on vacation!
Where Sony screwed up?
Again, where they always screw up, and where they have always historically screwed up, and where they will consistently and forever screw up, until the day they collapse from the inside:
1) They were and still are delusional. They want to believe that we will buy something just for the Sony name. We wont. This carries over on anything tied exclusively to Sony products-- be it MagicGate or MemoryStick memory cards, proprietary spinning disc formats, audio CDs with extra special rootkits--- whatever. Does not matter. If it only works in SonyWorld, while everyone else plays in REALWORLD, SonyWorld will always get the attendence that EuroDisney gets-- which is to say, it isn't really in your best interests to try it, sony. If you want us to invest in something, you have to MAKE it WORTH our while. You have to present something tangibly better than what everyone else offers; It MUST be bigger, better, faster, and be all that and a bag of chips; Complacency will NOT work. This should be immensely apparent to even you guys by now. That means if you offer a console to compete with another quality product released by a competitor, YOU NEED TO OUTSHINE THEM IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY. Do any less? You will lose. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. That means having bigger selection, better loading times, better quality gameplay, and all that ball of wax. Giving us a porche that runs on refined plutonium, when there is no real way to get that plutonium, is a good way to waste money engineering a very sexy looking product that nobody will buy. That's where you fucked up with the Vita. Sure, it looks sexy, and probably is a very well designed handheld. BUT YOU DONT HAVE A BIG GAME CATALOG FOR IT. Why spend money on a porche that runs on plutonium, when you can never get the plutonium? Why spend money on a porche that runs on plutonium when you have to deal with deadly ionizi
The obvious reason being that you're full of shit and shilling for the MAFIAA.
If a game can be designed/redesigned for a touch-screen interface, great.
Some people would claim that all worthwhile games can be "redesigned for a touch-screen interface". For example, one could redesign a platformer by removing the exploration element, resulting in Canabalt or Rayman Jungle Run.
If you put a huge ass list of silly secret handshakes involving dancing while naked and slathered in peanut butter-- JUST to get the SDK for your platforms-- NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND THAT ISNT A PEANUT BUTTER NUDE DANCING FETISHIST IS GOING TO DEVELOP FOR YOUR PLATFORMS
I guess the console makers' rationale is that if a developer has the resources to work around "absurd" requirements to get an SDK, it's more likely to have the resources to make a game that's better than Action 52. Perhaps you don't remember the crapfest that was the Atari 2600 library in 1983-1984, but it nearly brought down video gaming entirely in North America. Being selective about who is allowed to develop for a platform is console makers' way of ensuring "better quality gameplay, and all that ball of wax." That said, Sony has reportedly dramatically loosened up who's allowed to develop for PS4 and PS Vita; searching the web for "Pub Fund" will pull up articles about its recent indie developer outreach efforts.
[Android] IS FREE TO DEVELOP FOR, WHICH IS WHY THERE IS AN APP FOR FUCKING EVERYTHING.
Including an app for stealing users' personal information. Whenever mobile malware makes the news, it's almost always on Android, not iOS, and not the game consoles (except for "taihen" and "r0mloader" way back in the early DS homebrew days).
One practical problem is that Android has far longer audio latency (minimum time between touch and audio feedback) than the dedicated handheld systems. This screws with the rhythm of certain activities in certain games. For example, the NES game STREEMERZ: Super Strength Emergency Squad Zeta is a lot harder on EMUya (NES emulator for an Android-based set-top box) than on an NES due to audio latency messing with grapple timing. Rhythm games are right out. Or does the Shield have a low-latency audio API that some other Android devices lack?
well winding it down makes sense they haven't made any first party games in years not sense vita. and its been off the shelves nearly as long. the main issue of course was in its 10 year run it had very few must buy games. the hardware for the time was epic it pretty much was a low res ps2 in terms on how far they could push the games stomping the gba and ds into dirt in terms of raw power. the main issue was in fact sony when something good did come out sony never even tossed ads it was for the psp. some of witch where games like crises core metel gear peace walker Resistance god of war and so on thers a pretty good slecten of awsome ones. it also had tons of jrpgs and even a phantasy star mmorpg well 2 of them and portable 2 was pretty dammed good. but it also got alot of trash that nobody would whant to buy or play much like the original ds did. also the main reason psp kept getting titles end of life was the fact vita sales suck and still do and most vita owners are playing original psp titles due to its own lack of games. and yes fps fans did hate the fact it lacked dual anlong or so they calmed yet i don't see vitas flying off the shelves lol.
just leave a way to sideload, and all is golden.
Publishers see "just leave a way to run illegal copies, and all is golden."
the point is to build up the desirability of the console, so that AAA game studios have incentive to target the platform.
On the other hand, perhaps some AAA publishers don't want to share a platform with "the riff-raff" for fear of their products being lost among the me-too knockoffs that flood both Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. Case in point: Try searching these stores for "Flappy" and seeing which games other than dB-Soft's show up.
This is what qualifies for insightful these days? Really, this is just a spastic rant at Sony by someone who readily admits they buy no software for the system and use it as nothing more than a portable emulator for pirated 20+ year old console games.
The PSP had some amazing titles for it... some examples of just UMD releases to name just a few (and I'm not even counting several Mini's and other digital only titles, including PS1 games):
Patapon 1 & 2 (3 not so much) ...and best of all, you can get a component cable for the PSP and hook the system directly to your TV to play at 480P.
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (3 excellent Casltevania games in one)
Gunpey
Little Big Planet
Phantasy Star Portable 1 & 2
Ridge Racer
Space Invaders Extreme
Ys series of games
As for the rant about the Vita memory cards. The idea is not to get people on a new standard. The idea is to completely lock the Vita down and put the breaks on the rampant piracy the PSP had regardless of the reasons for the piracy.