New PSP

**#BROKEN Hasney** · 06-01-2009, 06:22 PM

I've ripped this from a poster on another site because I completly agree with it

This is probably the stupidest thing that Sony has ever done.

Essentially, it's a PSP with a smaller screen, no UMD drive, and a different memory card port. As far as I can tell, the hardware itself is the same as the current PSP versions. If it's not, that's an even bigger problem.

What this is going to do is split the platform right down the middle.

The PSP Go is completely incompatible with the PSP. It will not play any existing PSP games, and you can't even use content from a PSP via a memory card, because it doesn't use the same memory cards. This means you're going to have a complete split between the PSP and PSP Go.

So, we're taking a moderately successful platform, and creating a completely separate version of it. We're throwing away all of the install base they've managed to gain, and we're also throwing away the entire back catalog of PSP games.

It's pretty obvious that nobody who actually bought a PSP will be upgrading to a PSP Go if none of the games will work on the bloody thing. They're obviously going after people who don't already own a PSP. From a developers point of view, this is bad. No upgrade path means that anyone who has a PSP will be forced to keep it, so you'll have to keep making games for it. Since the PSP Go is where the growth will be, you have to make games for that as well.

There's a pretty big difference between downloadable games and games delivered on a disc. 1.5GB is really too much to download on a portable, especially one with only 16GB of storage to work with (and extra storage costing more than it did on the PSP, and something like four times as much as an SD card). So the storage is scarce and, outside of the US, bandwidth is kind of expensive too. So that removes one of the only advantages the PSP has. Outside of piracy, images of UMDs just aren't going to cut it.

You could turn this into an advantage, and make games bigger than a UMD, of course, but then it would be impossible to release them for the old PSP. It might limit the number of people who would be able to download it.

So... Fewer features, a single added feature of limited utility (bluetooth), and a control layout that suggests they looked at the original DS, and took entirely the wrong lesson. The PSP is uncomfortable enough as it is, but this thing...

Speaking of taking the wrong lessons from the DS - we have a design that you can open to play games, or close to make it smaller to carry around. Fine. Just missing one of the more important features of the DS design - it protects the screens. This thing just leaves the entire exposed surface as the screen. It's not even recessed or anything. It's going to get scratched to bits.

06-01-2009, 06:22 PM	#18
#BROKEN Hasney BAY BAY Posts: 36,524	I've ripped this from a poster on another site because I completly agree with it This is probably the stupidest thing that Sony has ever done. Essentially, it's a PSP with a smaller screen, no UMD drive, and a different memory card port. As far as I can tell, the hardware itself is the same as the current PSP versions. If it's not, that's an even bigger problem. What this is going to do is split the platform right down the middle. The PSP Go is completely incompatible with the PSP. It will not play any existing PSP games, and you can't even use content from a PSP via a memory card, because it doesn't use the same memory cards. This means you're going to have a complete split between the PSP and PSP Go. So, we're taking a moderately successful platform, and creating a completely separate version of it. We're throwing away all of the install base they've managed to gain, and we're also throwing away the entire back catalog of PSP games. It's pretty obvious that nobody who actually bought a PSP will be upgrading to a PSP Go if none of the games will work on the bloody thing. They're obviously going after people who don't already own a PSP. From a developers point of view, this is bad. No upgrade path means that anyone who has a PSP will be forced to keep it, so you'll have to keep making games for it. Since the PSP Go is where the growth will be, you have to make games for that as well. There's a pretty big difference between downloadable games and games delivered on a disc. 1.5GB is really too much to download on a portable, especially one with only 16GB of storage to work with (and extra storage costing more than it did on the PSP, and something like four times as much as an SD card). So the storage is scarce and, outside of the US, bandwidth is kind of expensive too. So that removes one of the only advantages the PSP has. Outside of piracy, images of UMDs just aren't going to cut it. You could turn this into an advantage, and make games bigger than a UMD, of course, but then it would be impossible to release them for the old PSP. It might limit the number of people who would be able to download it. So... Fewer features, a single added feature of limited utility (bluetooth), and a control layout that suggests they looked at the original DS, and took entirely the wrong lesson. The PSP is uncomfortable enough as it is, but this thing... Speaking of taking the wrong lessons from the DS - we have a design that you can open to play games, or close to make it smaller to carry around. Fine. Just missing one of the more important features of the DS design - it protects the screens. This thing just leaves the entire exposed surface as the screen. It's not even recessed or anything. It's going to get scratched to bits.