1. ouch... since when is current generation level gaming on a handheld, and abilities to do what no current consoles can yet do without ssome form of modding not considered innovation? [watch your own videos? browse the internet? play lan games via builtin wifi
2. i agree with you. IMO it seems as if the problem is overblown. ive read of other people with dead pixels, but i dont know of anyone nor have i met any psp owner with any.
its a gimmick due to the fact that it is something that has never been done by a strictly gaming handheld in an attempt to be different. the psp itself can be considered a gimmick as well. IMHO i dont really see it as a gimmick in the sense that the psp doesnt really do anything new. its just that sony has courted the studios and has given it to us consumers portable movies more superior than what we are used to, and it gathered up a bunch of ideas that people have put into use for consoles via modding in one sleek formfactor.
that said, the converse argument would be that handhelds are a gimmick in general. an attempt to put a console in the palm of your hands. the idea of gaming on the go is a gimmick in and of itself.
1. trying to play the fence. nintendos dominance has allowed them to continue to create technically difficent devices. are they fun? yes. are they solid? yes. but the innovation of the psp may finally get nintendo off of their laurels and put out a device that is stronger than what consoles could do two generations prior.
2. its the price of the higher quality screen. sigh. luckily i dont know of anyone with a psp that has dead pixels, but thats not the problem. the problem is sony's return policy on dead pixels.
3. i agree. the touchscreen has its use, and has been proven to work in some cases, but thats not to say that it isnt a gimmick nonetheless.
4. all systems experience game drought during these first few months after launch. thats why backwards compatibility is a huge draw for the ds and gba. i cant wait to see the next wave of titles for both.
i think that they have decided to stretch the street fighter license as far as they could, and im hoping that now they realize that they have to innovate. fighting games are more complex than ever. [obviously, a movement spurred on by SF2] particularly for a major release of one of its flagship IPs, i have alot of faith in capcom that they put in much time, effort and energy.
my question is whether it will be 2d or 3d. if it will be 3d it will definitely be a surprise. they have alot of playing catchup to do in terms of 3d fighting mechanics. but moreso than anything they need something innovative regardless. new moves? been there done that. super moves? done before... reversals? old hat... whats new? fighting games seem to have reached a limit IMHO. if capcom can pull out the old magic, i will be pleasantly surprised.
i agree, gunstar heroes [as do most games released by treasure] had more "soul" than most games in its genre. the only other company that comes close is i guess... working designs? both formerly sega only companies.
the sad thing about working designs is that they have been caught up in re-releasing lunar games for almost every platform since the segaCD.
unfortunately, treasure only releases its excellent side scrollers on GBA. how about a fullscale next gen game from treasure? thats what i want!!!! a rebirth of 2d? i can see it now: god of war with only guns! and all bosses!!!!
so i guess psp's are used by poor, mute, antisocial vampires with hearing problems. lololololol!!!!!!...wait a sec!!!! that could have defined ME during most of my undergraduate computer science days.
umd movies [not movies you can copy to the memory stick to play] are actually encoded at the same resolution as a dvd. if you were able to play them on a regular widescreen tv set, you would notice very little difference in resolution. the psp screen is much smaller, and/user created movies/ are limited to a smaller resolution, this has led to the erroneous idea that UMD movies are lower resolution.
in fact, due to the h264 compression used to store the movies, you could say that the UMD is superior to the dvd as far as video is considered. you have a 4gig movie compressed to under 1.8gigs on a smaller disk without any noticable quality loss.
the only difference is that people are adopting UMD quicker because sony learned that once people have the player already, people will buy the movies. take the ps2 for example. it helped the dvd become adopted by the mainstream rather quickly, all things considered. even if the psp only sold games, its a good enough standard for that. not to mention that proprietary formats used to be a standard when it came to handhelds and consoles. i mean, when was the last time someone complained that they couldnt play their ds cartridges on their dvd player? the fact that the psp also plays movies is an afterthought, and to many people [not all] apparently a pretty smart idea. they have the sales, and the movie studios behind them to prove it. whether it works out in the long term is anyones guess, but so far it has turned out pretty well.
there is a niche for the psp. maybe not the same niche that portable consoles have usually aimed for, but theres a niche still. mainly travelers, young american males, and japanese businessmen, not necessarily commuter travelers.
i think of the story of how the walkman was created, and i imagine the psp was created in the same vein. some guy said, i love my playstation and the games, but i want to take it with me when i travel on business. i have a laptop already, but its huge, heavy and underpowered when it comes to triple A titles. he goes to the r&d dept and asks for them to whip up a playstation he can take with him, but he wants to stop carrying so many gadgets at once. so he gets them to add music to it so he doesnt have to always carry his ipod. he gets them to add the ability to play movies so he can copy the dvds he already owns to it so he can watch them on the go. and sometimes because he wants to watch something new in near dvd quality, he gets them to add the ability to play movies off the same discs that the games come on, since they are smaller and sturdier than his dvds. sure you can already do these things with some devices, but never all with one device out of the box.
no one needs yet another format, but if the psp was bought strictly for games, you wouldnt care; the games could only be played on the psp anyways, regardless of the format.
your sources: http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm this shows that sales during the first week of august the DS outsold the psp. cool, but if you look at the total numbers for the year, the psp is only behind by 100,000 sales.
also, your link shows that there is a very close gap in the japanese market, but we all know how nintendogs "supposedly" boosted DS sales in that region, so why is the gap so close still?
http://psp.ign.com/articles/637/637526p1.html the article doesnt cite any sources, or give a date for its figures. those could be figures from march for all we know. not your fault, you just didnt realize that is the mark of a bad reporter.
where i see the psp succeeding where others failed is also in the name[s]. sony is now known as a competent console creator. before now, only sega and nintendo had that general name recognition. you can say playstation and non-gamers know what youre talking about. people trust the playstation name for games. they trust that sony games [overall] arent all crap. sega did well against the gameboy, but various mistakes on their part as a company doomed the fledgling system [well, all their systems for that matter].
also, i agree with you about games. many companies will obviously try the ol' "lets port this famous series to the portable" trick. [which is one of the psps' current failures], but for now at least the psp has many big time developers devoted to making their nickels and dimes off of the psp. all it takes is a few more A level games for the system to push the psp out of the same category as the gamegear. we are still really only looking at the launch titles, more will follow and they will use the hardware much more efficiently [re: loading time, game length, and production values]
i dont understand why people claim that the system is so doomed for failure. as of june, the psp had already sold 5 million units at least, and thats before its even released in europe. the gamegear on the other hand sold 8 million during its entire lifecycle. to put it in perspective. that matches:
a quarter of the worldwide xbox sales total. a third of worldwide gamecube sales total.
keep in mind that those systems have been available for years now. the psp has only been available for four months in the us [at the time of the statistics] and isnt even available yet in europe! come on, its got a fight on its hands for sure, but dead? i dont foresee that... people said the same thing when sony announced the playstation.
yeah, exactly... the ds has rebounded from its early poor scores. it kills me that now that the psp is in its post-launch rut/ absense of titles period, you guys are writing it off. the ds faltered after the launch window and are pushing out some titles now and through the holiday season. the psp looks like its going to push out titles during the autumn-holiday season. then we can compare again.
just to comment on the umd sales. 100k for a single umd is excellent considering how long it took dvd sales to reach that point. to compare the psp to current console sales and current dvd sales is difficult to do. compare the install base and the amount of sales, and you understand how major that is.
as more and more AAA titles start appearing on the horizon, i think the psp will fare better, but until we start to see something other than the squareenix and capcom and konamis first attempts on a then-untested system, we have no idea what the psp is capable of.
i actually prefer sonys method of firmware updating. whereas other console updates occur behind the scenes, not always with your knowledge and rarely add features. sony has at least given us the freedom [and a very compelling reason] to accept their security upgrades.
i disagree with you on your second comment. at least in the case of the psp, you dont lose any data during an upgrade. who says that the psp wasnt functional out of the box? i know a couple million customers that paid for a psp without much problem. can you be mad that sony decided to give its customers even more for their money? i dont understand.
piracy is an ongoing battle for any software company. the firmware updates are a way of rewarding those that wish to play by the rules. keep in mind, most software companies give [read: send] you security updates without any form of additional features.
would i have bought a psp if it didnt allow me to browse the internet directly? yes. would i have bought it if it didnt support the filetypes? yes. FW upgrades arent mandatory! many wont upgrade until a game they want comes out that requires the upgrade. many people talk of waiting for GTA:LCS before they upgrade.
everything you paid for still works, and you still have access to everything you own. your average game [halo2 for example] will disable functionality that you PAID for [paid for twice actually: live membership, and the multiplayer aspect of the dvd] until you upgrade.
the fact that we now have a bunch of additional features just means more power to the consumer. you have a choice, and thats a great thing
not all the games suck. just do a little research before you plunk down your money. i recommend lumines and wipeout pure. two AAA quality titles. metal gear acid is good too, but was a lil too involved for me at the time, so i never got into it. its still in its infancy stage, so dont expect god of war on the psp just yet.
one thing i dont see ever praised about the psp is its ability to add content. i guess its always overshadowed by the homebrew explosion, but its something only pc and a few xbox games have taken advantage of. you can add your own music to games, and download expansion packs via internet or usb. a really revolutionary concept for a handheld, and something that needs to become standard in the console market. in theory, since you arent altering the content of the product, developers could release a devkit [for their game] and let users create their own mods [maps, skins, tracks, dungeons, etc...]
converting video on the psp is a breeze surprisingly. at first the tutorials make it seem like such a burden, but once you try it, its relatively simple. mainly you just need to make a folder and a subfolder in the root directory of your memory stick, download and install pspvideo9 http://www.pspvideo9.com/ and youre in business.
you just set it up to with your default video preferences [resolution/frame rate/ sound settings / etc] tell it where you want to store your movies, and the drive your psp connects as, and youre in business. it can queue jobs for you, so you can walk off while it does its business and have it process a whole slew of files for you.
when youre ready to go, you can just press sync, and it will transfer all [or some] of the files over for you. its all a breeze. it has a display for you so that you can see how the space on your memory stick is being used [how much is free, how much space is taken by game saves or music or video] it also has a size calculator so you can alter settings accordingly for a movie if you want a smaller filesize. its not perfect, but all around its a great program.
i wonder when they will rerelease it so that it can utilize some of the newer 2.0 mp4 formats?
well, i think that the bundles work well with those people who always have to have the hot new thing first: the fanboy/ fanatic with the deep pockets. they would most likely buy all of the extras on their own anyways, and pick up two or three of the bundled games anyways. so to the buyer who preorders and or camps out opening day for a x360, the bundle isnt a nuisance. its a convenience for them, since they can be assured that they can take the system home and not have to trek out and fight their way back to the store for the next launch game they want to buy after beating x game during the first night.
the nuisance comes for the rest of us. the budget gamers. the problem appears when they dont present us with the option. sonys psp bundle was the only option available. not really a problem, they didnt/really/ force you into buying anything the average user didnt want/ need anyways. if anything people were upset b/c they planned on buying their own headphones/ cases/ etc... anyways, and didnt want to buy them twice. im saying thats okay, because for the most part, those were accessories.
with the x360, you could shop around for someplace without bundles and for me thats fine; i live in a major city. but if walmart and EB are the only retailers in your town you can walk in on launch day and pick one up, you will get extremely shafted if they only offer $500+ bundles. with that the average buyer ends up with something he doesnt need/ want.
with the harddrive, you have to pay for the remote as well. with the remote you have to pay for the harddrive. you want dead or alive4, you get stuck with kameo as well. ad nauseum.
say you want an x360, and you love halo2... so you need a harddrive for backwards compatibility. cool. you cant mail order one since all you have is a P.O. Box. you walk into your nearest retailer, and find yourself stuck having to purchase a bundle. you wanted to get a game with the system already... thats fine. but not you get three other games you have no interest in, and your pocket is $150 lighter.
precisely my point. if they start saving money with the newer model, many companies would push the budget to start swapping them in and surplussing them earlier at that.
maybe thats nothing for you or me, but imagine running a business. nowadays your average company has several hundred users, and each with their own workstation, and a unknown amount of servers.
this could save you $10,000 per year for a company of say as little as 1000 people. for companies that run a bunch of servers and or have even more users, you start to get the picture and understand why this could be a big deal.
amen to that. its a shame that consoles are so locked that its nearly impossible to get new content without shelling out more cash. examples: ninja gaiden [xbox] and wipeout pure [psp]
if the console platforms werent nearly as locked in terms of modding, im sure we would still play alot of older titles that have fallen by the wayside. as console games slowly begin embracing in game advertisements and harddrives, i can see them loosening up on userbased modding.
from an marketing standpoint, if the publisher is getting paid by the length of time they can keep you exposed to an ad in a game, it would make sense that they would give you the tools to extend the life of games. the model in use today is, they make their money off the top. who cares if you play the game longer or not, they got your money already [subscription games excluded of course]
i dunno. it would be insanely difficult to have a smoothly emulated game that depends on hard drive caching.
im probably going to be echoing your idea. ill probably pick up a used x360. they will most likely start going on sale around the time of the ps3 launch.
i usually wait until a console has been around for a while before i pick one up. that way, you limit the chances of defective units. the more and more i look at the x360, im not sure if its going to live up to its own hype. the ps3 either for that matter. for all its shortcomings, MS is going to great length to make the ps3 look better and better every day.
I didn't mean to say that they didn't exist full stop, just that the three stores I visited, all in Fort Wayne, Indiana, have none of them. And if they're not in stores, they don't exist to most consumers of media.
> try visiting your local blockbuster or video rental store. ive seen umds for rent. they are coming out of the gate slowly, but steadily.
Isn't converting a CSS-encrypted DVD Video to MPEG-4 video for PSP Memory Stick Duo a crime in the United States, which is where Slashdot's server is located? See 17 USC 1201 and Universal v. Reimerdes.
> depends on what kind of movie you are trying to convert. some people make their own movies, own their own properties, etc... dont forget VOD for the psp too.
My music collection is mostly in FLAC, Vorbis, tracked (mod/xm/s3m) formats, and video game rip (nsf/gbs/spc) formats. Does any PSP sold at retail in the United States play those? Or would I have to pay for a piece of proprietary software to convert them to MPEG or ATRAC audio?
> if you read slashdot regularly, i would be surprised to know that you arent aware of the fact that there are a great many free mp3 converters out there. there is also a media player for the psp which will play many of your filetypes there. and eventually i assume their goal is to play them all.
> sony is not keeping the psp out of europe at all costs. they are working on localization issues. unfortunately, the world continues to treat all of europe like one region that speaks a completely different language than the rest of us. unfortunately, they are cracking down on the import trade. if the slew of europeans import their psps from america or japan, then when it debuts and most users over there already have their psp's and it doesnt sell like hotcakes, then everyone will start trumpeting on and on about how big a failure it will be.
ah, good old tepples. every psp/ ds post i seem to find you. are you stalking me?
anyways, your facts are wrong. i know of at least one personally. and there are plenty of imax converted movies. they arent rated, but certainly not all, but most would be considered g rated.
as for the time you spend, that time is only as long as it takes to convert your movie to mp4 or h.264 and play it on your psp.
i understand that you can play music on your GBA/DS as well, but the point i was making was that the psp doesnt require an additional piece of equipment, or to convert your music collection.
dually noted on your last point, but once again my point was that with the psp, you dont need that extra step. nor any additional equipment save for an off the shelf mini-usb cable.
just as there are mod chips for pretty much every console. every piece of electronics is capable of being hacked.
the psp is different in the respect that the security is only within the firmware itself; allowing software hacks to bypass the security checks. an actual chip or bypass cable is not necessary.
the 1.51, 1.52 and 2.0 firmware has not been hacked as of yet, however just as 1.50 was cracked, so will 2.0 be. it just takes a matter of time. im not advocating that all psp's will be able to run homebrew as of this exact moment, but restating the fact that the majority will... in time.
ds's are actually only slightly shorter but much thicker than PSPs.
to address the GP post, and the other replies. yeah, the psp is a bit expensive and you/could/ just buy a portable dvd player, a video game player, an ipod and the various accessories, or you could have it all in one sleek package. you come out cheaper with the psp. you dont have to carry around all those different pieces of electronics, nor their accessories, batteries and power cables. all you need is the psp, whatever game is in it at the time, and whatever you loaded onto your memorystick the night before. maybe you can get a case, or just a screen protector, if youre concerned. and if its a very long trip maybe you can pick up a "power brick" from pelican.
you come out cheaper with a psp. UMD vs DVD movies will look much better on psp compared to your average portable dvd player, as will your 3d gaming options. as far as music is concerned unless you are talking about the pretty useless [for me anyway] ipod shuffle, you will have to shell out more than the PSP itself. and that is to/just/ play mp3s and have a spare harddrive. once you talk about emulators and homebrew, you will need a flashcart, or one of those awkward looking passthru devices for your ds. there goes the form factor right there.
yeah, but i think the point is that that is all possible already on the PSP without the need for too much additional hardware, and at higher quality.
the battle for emulator supremecy is almost tied, but there seems to be a substantially greater number of releases and development projects for the PSP at this time. theres like five to ten new projects daily if you go by pspupdates' site.
what really matters is where the software libraries will be two years from now. my honest opinion will be to say that they will be tied too. the race is still very early on, its hard to spell out the demise of the psp before its gotten a chance to shine. for the record, umd movies are not for everyone, but buying or renting a movie in anticipation for a trip is a worthwhile expense.
Slashdot Mirror
1. ouch... since when is current generation level gaming on a handheld, and abilities to do what no current consoles can yet do without ssome form of modding not considered innovation? [watch your own videos? browse the internet? play lan games via builtin wifi
2. i agree with you. IMO it seems as if the problem is overblown. ive read of other people with dead pixels, but i dont know of anyone nor have i met any psp owner with any.
3. its a gimmick because that is what it is.
gimmick: An innovative or unusual mechanical contrivance; a gadget. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gimmick
its a gimmick due to the fact that it is something that has never been done by a strictly gaming handheld in an attempt to be different. the psp itself can be considered a gimmick as well. IMHO i dont really see it as a gimmick in the sense that the psp doesnt really do anything new. its just that sony has courted the studios and has given it to us consumers portable movies more superior than what we are used to, and it gathered up a bunch of ideas that people have put into use for consoles via modding in one sleek formfactor.
that said, the converse argument would be that handhelds are a gimmick in general. an attempt to put a console in the palm of your hands. the idea of gaming on the go is a gimmick in and of itself.
1. trying to play the fence. nintendos dominance has allowed them to continue to create technically difficent devices. are they fun? yes. are they solid? yes. but the innovation of the psp may finally get nintendo off of their laurels and put out a device that is stronger than what consoles could do two generations prior.
2. its the price of the higher quality screen. sigh. luckily i dont know of anyone with a psp that has dead pixels, but thats not the problem. the problem is sony's return policy on dead pixels.
3. i agree. the touchscreen has its use, and has been proven to work in some cases, but thats not to say that it isnt a gimmick nonetheless.
4. all systems experience game drought during these first few months after launch. thats why backwards compatibility is a huge draw for the ds and gba. i cant wait to see the next wave of titles for both.
5. welcome to gamefaqs-dot!
i think that they have decided to stretch the street fighter license as far as they could, and im hoping that now they realize that they have to innovate. fighting games are more complex than ever. [obviously, a movement spurred on by SF2] particularly for a major release of one of its flagship IPs, i have alot of faith in capcom that they put in much time, effort and energy.
my question is whether it will be 2d or 3d. if it will be 3d it will definitely be a surprise. they have alot of playing catchup to do in terms of 3d fighting mechanics. but moreso than anything they need something innovative regardless. new moves? been there done that. super moves? done before... reversals? old hat... whats new? fighting games seem to have reached a limit IMHO. if capcom can pull out the old magic, i will be pleasantly surprised.
lol, i would mod you funny but... seems like we are the only ones that get the joke.
i agree, gunstar heroes [as do most games released by treasure] had more "soul" than most games in its genre. the only other company that comes close is i guess... working designs? both formerly sega only companies.
the sad thing about working designs is that they have been caught up in re-releasing lunar games for almost every platform since the segaCD.
unfortunately, treasure only releases its excellent side scrollers on GBA. how about a fullscale next gen game from treasure? thats what i want!!!! a rebirth of 2d? i can see it now: god of war with only guns! and all bosses!!!!
LMAO!!!
...wait a sec!!!! that could have defined ME during most of my undergraduate computer science days.
so i guess psp's are used by poor, mute, antisocial vampires with hearing problems. lololololol!!!!!!
umd movies [not movies you can copy to the memory stick to play] are actually encoded at the same resolution as a dvd. if you were able to play them on a regular widescreen tv set, you would notice very little difference in resolution. the psp screen is much smaller, and /user created movies/ are limited to a smaller resolution, this has led to the erroneous idea that UMD movies are lower resolution.
in fact, due to the h264 compression used to store the movies, you could say that the UMD is superior to the dvd as far as video is considered. you have a 4gig movie compressed to under 1.8gigs on a smaller disk without any noticable quality loss.
dvd vs divx? you mean vcd?
the only difference is that people are adopting UMD quicker because sony learned that once people have the player already, people will buy the movies. take the ps2 for example. it helped the dvd become adopted by the mainstream rather quickly, all things considered. even if the psp only sold games, its a good enough standard for that. not to mention that proprietary formats used to be a standard when it came to handhelds and consoles. i mean, when was the last time someone complained that they couldnt play their ds cartridges on their dvd player? the fact that the psp also plays movies is an afterthought, and to many people [not all] apparently a pretty smart idea. they have the sales, and the movie studios behind them to prove it. whether it works out in the long term is anyones guess, but so far it has turned out pretty well.
there is a niche for the psp. maybe not the same niche that portable consoles have usually aimed for, but theres a niche still. mainly travelers, young american males, and japanese businessmen, not necessarily commuter travelers.
i think of the story of how the walkman was created, and i imagine the psp was created in the same vein. some guy said, i love my playstation and the games, but i want to take it with me when i travel on business. i have a laptop already, but its huge, heavy and underpowered when it comes to triple A titles. he goes to the r&d dept and asks for them to whip up a playstation he can take with him, but he wants to stop carrying so many gadgets at once. so he gets them to add music to it so he doesnt have to always carry his ipod. he gets them to add the ability to play movies so he can copy the dvds he already owns to it so he can watch them on the go. and sometimes because he wants to watch something new in near dvd quality, he gets them to add the ability to play movies off the same discs that the games come on, since they are smaller and sturdier than his dvds. sure you can already do these things with some devices, but never all with one device out of the box.
no one needs yet another format, but if the psp was bought strictly for games, you wouldnt care; the games could only be played on the psp anyways, regardless of the format.
lets take a look at your cited sources.
u mbers-001026.php
your sources:
http://www.the-magicbox.com/topten.htm
this shows that sales during the first week of august the DS outsold the psp. cool, but if you look at the total numbers for the year, the psp is only behind by 100,000 sales.
also, your link shows that there is a very close gap in the japanese market, but we all know how nintendogs "supposedly" boosted DS sales in that region, so why is the gap so close still?
http://psp.ign.com/articles/637/637526p1.html
the article doesnt cite any sources, or give a date for its figures. those could be figures from march for all we know. not your fault, you just didnt realize that is the mark of a bad reporter.
for example:
http://www.pspworld.com/sony-psp/psp/psp-by-the-n
five million handhelds sold and it hasnt been launched in europe yet. compared with 6, almost 7 million DS unit sales worldwide.
psp software sales are around $11 million.
there are about 40 games available for the psp. i dont recall DS game numbers
i agree with you to an extent.
4 98&page=2
where i see the psp succeeding where others failed is also in the name[s]. sony is now known as a competent console creator. before now, only sega and nintendo had that general name recognition. you can say playstation and non-gamers know what youre talking about. people trust the playstation name for games. they trust that sony games [overall] arent all crap. sega did well against the gameboy, but various mistakes on their part as a company doomed the fledgling system [well, all their systems for that matter].
also, i agree with you about games. many companies will obviously try the ol' "lets port this famous series to the portable" trick. [which is one of the psps' current failures], but for now at least the psp has many big time developers devoted to making their nickels and dimes off of the psp. all it takes is a few more A level games for the system to push the psp out of the same category as the gamegear. we are still really only looking at the launch titles, more will follow and they will use the hardware much more efficiently [re: loading time, game length, and production values]
i dont understand why people claim that the system is so doomed for failure. as of june, the psp had already sold 5 million units at least, and thats before its even released in europe. the gamegear on the other hand sold 8 million during its entire lifecycle. to put it in perspective. that matches:
a quarter of the worldwide xbox sales total.
a third of worldwide gamecube sales total.
http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=8
keep in mind that those systems have been available for years now. the psp has only been available for four months in the us [at the time of the statistics] and isnt even available yet in europe! come on, its got a fight on its hands for sure, but dead? i dont foresee that... people said the same thing when sony announced the playstation.
yeah, exactly... the ds has rebounded from its early poor scores. it kills me that now that the psp is in its post-launch rut/ absense of titles period, you guys are writing it off. the ds faltered after the launch window and are pushing out some titles now and through the holiday season. the psp looks like its going to push out titles during the autumn-holiday season. then we can compare again.
just to comment on the umd sales. 100k for a single umd is excellent considering how long it took dvd sales to reach that point. to compare the psp to current console sales and current dvd sales is difficult to do. compare the install base and the amount of sales, and you understand how major that is.
as more and more AAA titles start appearing on the horizon, i think the psp will fare better, but until we start to see something other than the squareenix and capcom and konamis first attempts on a then-untested system, we have no idea what the psp is capable of.
i actually prefer sonys method of firmware updating. whereas other console updates occur behind the scenes, not always with your knowledge and rarely add features. sony has at least given us the freedom [and a very compelling reason] to accept their security upgrades.
i disagree with you on your second comment. at least in the case of the psp, you dont lose any data during an upgrade. who says that the psp wasnt functional out of the box? i know a couple million customers that paid for a psp without much problem. can you be mad that sony decided to give its customers even more for their money? i dont understand.
piracy is an ongoing battle for any software company. the firmware updates are a way of rewarding those that wish to play by the rules. keep in mind, most software companies give [read: send] you security updates without any form of additional features.
would i have bought a psp if it didnt allow me to browse the internet directly? yes. would i have bought it if it didnt support the filetypes? yes. FW upgrades arent mandatory! many wont upgrade until a game they want comes out that requires the upgrade. many people talk of waiting for GTA:LCS before they upgrade.
everything you paid for still works, and you still have access to everything you own. your average game [halo2 for example] will disable functionality that you PAID for [paid for twice actually: live membership, and the multiplayer aspect of the dvd] until you upgrade.
the fact that we now have a bunch of additional features just means more power to the consumer. you have a choice, and thats a great thing
not all the games suck. just do a little research before you plunk down your money. i recommend lumines and wipeout pure. two AAA quality titles. metal gear acid is good too, but was a lil too involved for me at the time, so i never got into it. its still in its infancy stage, so dont expect god of war on the psp just yet.
one thing i dont see ever praised about the psp is its ability to add content. i guess its always overshadowed by the homebrew explosion, but its something only pc and a few xbox games have taken advantage of. you can add your own music to games, and download expansion packs via internet or usb. a really revolutionary concept for a handheld, and something that needs to become standard in the console market. in theory, since you arent altering the content of the product, developers could release a devkit [for their game] and let users create their own mods [maps, skins, tracks, dungeons, etc...]
converting video on the psp is a breeze surprisingly. at first the tutorials make it seem like such a burden, but once you try it, its relatively simple. mainly you just need to make a folder and a subfolder in the root directory of your memory stick, download and install pspvideo9 http://www.pspvideo9.com/ and youre in business.
you just set it up to with your default video preferences [resolution/frame rate/ sound settings / etc] tell it where you want to store your movies, and the drive your psp connects as, and youre in business. it can queue jobs for you, so you can walk off while it does its business and have it process a whole slew of files for you.
when youre ready to go, you can just press sync, and it will transfer all [or some] of the files over for you. its all a breeze. it has a display for you so that you can see how the space on your memory stick is being used [how much is free, how much space is taken by game saves or music or video] it also has a size calculator so you can alter settings accordingly for a movie if you want a smaller filesize. its not perfect, but all around its a great program.
i wonder when they will rerelease it so that it can utilize some of the newer 2.0 mp4 formats?
well, i think that the bundles work well with those people who always have to have the hot new thing first: the fanboy/ fanatic with the deep pockets. they would most likely buy all of the extras on their own anyways, and pick up two or three of the bundled games anyways. so to the buyer who preorders and or camps out opening day for a x360, the bundle isnt a nuisance. its a convenience for them, since they can be assured that they can take the system home and not have to trek out and fight their way back to the store for the next launch game they want to buy after beating x game during the first night.
/really/ force you into buying anything the average user didnt want/ need anyways. if anything people were upset b/c they planned on buying their own headphones/ cases/ etc... anyways, and didnt want to buy them twice. im saying thats okay, because for the most part, those were accessories.
the nuisance comes for the rest of us. the budget gamers. the problem appears when they dont present us with the option. sonys psp bundle was the only option available. not really a problem, they didnt
with the x360, you could shop around for someplace without bundles and for me thats fine; i live in a major city. but if walmart and EB are the only retailers in your town you can walk in on launch day and pick one up, you will get extremely shafted if they only offer $500+ bundles. with that the average buyer ends up with something he doesnt need/ want.
with the harddrive, you have to pay for the remote as well. with the remote you have to pay for the harddrive. you want dead or alive4, you get stuck with kameo as well. ad nauseum.
say you want an x360, and you love halo2... so you need a harddrive for backwards compatibility. cool. you cant mail order one since all you have is a P.O. Box. you walk into your nearest retailer, and find yourself stuck having to purchase a bundle. you wanted to get a game with the system already... thats fine. but not you get three other games you have no interest in, and your pocket is $150 lighter.
precisely my point. if they start saving money with the newer model, many companies would push the budget to start swapping them in and surplussing them earlier at that.
maybe thats nothing for you or me, but imagine running a business. nowadays your average company has several hundred users, and each with their own workstation, and a unknown amount of servers.
this could save you $10,000 per year for a company of say as little as 1000 people. for companies that run a bunch of servers and or have even more users, you start to get the picture and understand why this could be a big deal.
amen to that. its a shame that consoles are so locked that its nearly impossible to get new content without shelling out more cash. examples: ninja gaiden [xbox] and wipeout pure [psp]
if the console platforms werent nearly as locked in terms of modding, im sure we would still play alot of older titles that have fallen by the wayside. as console games slowly begin embracing in game advertisements and harddrives, i can see them loosening up on userbased modding.
from an marketing standpoint, if the publisher is getting paid by the length of time they can keep you exposed to an ad in a game, it would make sense that they would give you the tools to extend the life of games. the model in use today is, they make their money off the top. who cares if you play the game longer or not, they got your money already [subscription games excluded of course]
i dunno. it would be insanely difficult to have a smoothly emulated game that depends on hard drive caching.
im probably going to be echoing your idea. ill probably pick up a used x360. they will most likely start going on sale around the time of the ps3 launch.
i usually wait until a console has been around for a while before i pick one up. that way, you limit the chances of defective units. the more and more i look at the x360, im not sure if its going to live up to its own hype. the ps3 either for that matter. for all its shortcomings, MS is going to great length to make the ps3 look better and better every day.
I didn't mean to say that they didn't exist full stop, just that the three stores I visited, all in Fort Wayne, Indiana, have none of them. And if they're not in stores, they don't exist to most consumers of media.
> try visiting your local blockbuster or video rental store. ive seen umds for rent. they are coming out of the gate slowly, but steadily.
Isn't converting a CSS-encrypted DVD Video to MPEG-4 video for PSP Memory Stick Duo a crime in the United States, which is where Slashdot's server is located? See 17 USC 1201 and Universal v. Reimerdes.
> depends on what kind of movie you are trying to convert. some people make their own movies, own their own properties, etc... dont forget VOD for the psp too.
My music collection is mostly in FLAC, Vorbis, tracked (mod/xm/s3m) formats, and video game rip (nsf/gbs/spc) formats. Does any PSP sold at retail in the United States play those? Or would I have to pay for a piece of proprietary software to convert them to MPEG or ATRAC audio?
> if you read slashdot regularly, i would be surprised to know that you arent aware of the fact that there are a great many free mp3 converters out there. there is also a media player for the psp which will play many of your filetypes there. and eventually i assume their goal is to play them all.
> sony is not keeping the psp out of europe at all costs. they are working on localization issues. unfortunately, the world continues to treat all of europe like one region that speaks a completely different language than the rest of us. unfortunately, they are cracking down on the import trade. if the slew of europeans import their psps from america or japan, then when it debuts and most users over there already have their psp's and it doesnt sell like hotcakes, then everyone will start trumpeting on and on about how big a failure it will be.
[sorry, im too lazy to convert to html]
ah, good old tepples. every psp/ ds post i seem to find you. are you stalking me?
anyways, your facts are wrong. i know of at least one personally. and there are plenty of imax converted movies. they arent rated, but certainly not all, but most would be considered g rated.
as for the time you spend, that time is only as long as it takes to convert your movie to mp4 or h.264 and play it on your psp.
i understand that you can play music on your GBA/DS as well, but the point i was making was that the psp doesnt require an additional piece of equipment, or to convert your music collection.
dually noted on your last point, but once again my point was that with the psp, you dont need that extra step. nor any additional equipment save for an off the shelf mini-usb cable.
just as there are mod chips for pretty much every console. every piece of electronics is capable of being hacked.
the psp is different in the respect that the security is only within the firmware itself; allowing software hacks to bypass the security checks. an actual chip or bypass cable is not necessary.
the 1.51, 1.52 and 2.0 firmware has not been hacked as of yet, however just as 1.50 was cracked, so will 2.0 be. it just takes a matter of time. im not advocating that all psp's will be able to run homebrew as of this exact moment, but restating the fact that the majority will... in time.
ds's are actually only slightly shorter but much thicker than PSPs.
/could/ just buy a portable dvd player, a video game player, an ipod and the various accessories, or you could have it all in one sleek package. you come out cheaper with the psp. you dont have to carry around all those different pieces of electronics, nor their accessories, batteries and power cables. all you need is the psp, whatever game is in it at the time, and whatever you loaded onto your memorystick the night before. maybe you can get a case, or just a screen protector, if youre concerned. and if its a very long trip maybe you can pick up a "power brick" from pelican.
/just/ play mp3s and have a spare harddrive. once you talk about emulators and homebrew, you will need a flashcart, or one of those awkward looking passthru devices for your ds. there goes the form factor right there.
to address the GP post, and the other replies. yeah, the psp is a bit expensive and you
you come out cheaper with a psp. UMD vs DVD movies will look much better on psp compared to your average portable dvd player, as will your 3d gaming options. as far as music is concerned unless you are talking about the pretty useless [for me anyway] ipod shuffle, you will have to shell out more than the PSP itself. and that is to
yeah, but i think the point is that that is all possible already on the PSP without the need for too much additional hardware, and at higher quality.
the battle for emulator supremecy is almost tied, but there seems to be a substantially greater number of releases and development projects for the PSP at this time. theres like five to ten new projects daily if you go by pspupdates' site.
what really matters is where the software libraries will be two years from now. my honest opinion will be to say that they will be tied too. the race is still very early on, its hard to spell out the demise of the psp before its gotten a chance to shine. for the record, umd movies are not for everyone, but buying or renting a movie in anticipation for a trip is a worthwhile expense.