The Future of the PSP

IGN has a longish piece up looking at the possible future of Sony's handheld. They examine the upcoming success of Sony's overshadowed creation via several excellent interviews from people with SCEA, first-party developers, third-party studios, and indies. I particularly enjoyed the comments by indie homebrew dev Fanjita, who had a great outsider's view of the little black dynamo. "I suspect there are 2 factors that make them especially resistant to homebrew on the PSP - the first is that point I just made, about not wanting to dent the already shaky platform image. The second is that we already know our way around almost all the PSP internals, and so they probably feel that there's a risk that a publicly endorsed, restricted homebrew platform would soon be cracked wide open, leaving them with an officially endorsed route to piracy. I like to believe that the capable homebrew devs would be respectful of a move from Sony to open up the platform, but it's obviously impossible to have any guarantees."

Re:To advance, correct errors rather than drag it.

[sanosuke001]

You want a bigger screen yet make it lighter? You must be a PR person where you work....

"Well, we just promised that this device will manufacture gold. Make it happen"

A bigger screen would be nice but I like the slight heft it has and UMD really isn't that big of a problem. Honestly, I see more problem with memory sticks being erased. And just because you'd rather use a different type of memory stick doesn't mean Sony will put in an 8-1 reader for whoever is out there that doesn't like the format they choose.

Re:To advance, correct errors rather than drag it.

[The MAZZTer]

Sorry, time to stop dreaming and wake up.

1. Then how would you be able to play all the old PSP games that are already out there? Sorry this simply isn't a viable option for Sony.
2. Ok... that will cost more.
3. That will cost even more.
4. Hello? I said MORE not less. Either you increase the price with more features or remove features (hard to do since the PSP already has a game library that relies on all those features) to cut price.
5. Can't profit when you'd be losing money on every machine. Oh wait, Sony's already trying that with the PS3... we'll see how that goes. But considering Nintendo is making more on every Wii (they actually make a profit on the machines) than Sony makes on their PS3s AND the Wiis are STILL hard to find in some places (it's rediculous!) while PS3s aren't nearly that bad, I think Sony's strategy isn't working very well unless they get a higher games-to-systems sell ratio (unlikely).
6. I think all your PSP2 stuff is a duh. If Sony continues it's "bigger is better" strategy that Nintendo is deviating, very successfully, from. I personally want to see some innovation from Microsoft and Sony in their next consoles, like Nintendo has been doing. That would be interesting.

Really that bad?

[Zelos]

Are things really that bad for the PSP? I just bought a second hand one, plus 5 games (Wipeout, Burnout, Daxter, Worms and Tales of Eternia) and it seems like a good handheld. There are maybe 8 or 9 other games I'd like to buy at the moment, plus more on the way (GoW PSP?). I mean, I own a DS+25 games as well and think it's fantastic, but the PSP has a load of great games too.

Why no love for the multimedia?

[PikachuMolester2007]

I understand some are just looking for a gaming-only handheld, but why no love for the multimedia aspect? Man shall not live by gaming alone; sometimes it's nice to kick back with some music or movies to enjoy.

Myth that there are no good games

[grapeape]

I am so sick of the fanboy "my psp collects dust and I play my DS everyday" line. Its tired everyone has heard it. My primary consoles consist of a Wii, Ps2, 3 ds's (1 phat and 2 lites for a family of 5) and 1 PSP. Im definately not a Sony fanboy and play lots of DS games but to dismiss the PSP as being no good means either the person is not looking at the games available or they were so caught up in that argument a year ago when it was true that they are blind to whats available now.

No matter what genre there are good games these are just off the top of my head:

Advenure Games: Lego Star Wars, Metal Gear Solid Portable Op's
RTS Games: Pirates!, Field Commander
RPG Games: Dungeon Seige, Marvel Ultimate Alliance,
FPS Games: Socom 2, Medal of Honor Heroes
Rythym Games: Guitaroo Man Lives!
Racing Games: Burnout Legends, Wipeout Pure
Action Games: Daxter, Rachet and Clank
Puzzle Games: Locoroco, Me & My Katamari, Lumines 1&2, Puzzle Quest, Mercury Meltdown
Fighting Games: Tekken: Dark Resurrection
Old School Classics: Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins, Metal Slug Anthology
Sports Games: Madden 07, MLB 07, Winning Eleven

As far as actual numbers of games the PSP actually has a hundred or so more than the DS. It had a slow start but the PSP has delivered more than I ever expected and to say it has no good games is delusional.

Re:To advance, correct errors rather than drag it.

[Xymor]

As I see, DS and PSP don't even compete for the same crowd.

Is it impossible to believe that there's a High-end gaming market and a Low-end gaming market?
Same with Wii vs Ps3/360, when you compare them, they aren't even in the same league.

Wii and DS will be successful because they are cheap and simple, something new that appeals to a mass market. Let's face it, most people are too overwhelmed by hardcore uber complex games where they can't even understand what's going on.

PSP

[boyter]

I don't see why the PSP gets bashed so much. For what you pay you do get a nice bit of kit. Even without hacking it there is a large amount of functionality there. I have one, which yes I did hack, but I would have no problems with using it as Sony wants me to.

Re:DS homebrew gives you all the multimedia shit

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The DS has a great lineup of motivated, inventive, and fun titles. The DS Lite is a slick unit that was built for and does exactly one thing - to play fun games.

The PSP is vastly superior as a multimedia device, something it DID set out to be. The screen resolution is much more accomodating of a cinematic (and widescreen) experience by mere size. FUD with respect to "ghosting" and poor refresh rates was true in the case of launch PSPs, but has long since been remedied with any PSP even remotely modern. The audio quality of the PSP itself leaves some to be desired (but not much, I'd say that the audio quality is at least as decent as the DS', possibly a tad more). When you use a PSP, you're not jumping through hoops to get everything going and worrying about what solution you've used and if it supports whatever obscure configuration you have going. I'm not saying the DS is a technical jumble that nobody will ever figure out, far from it, i'm just moving on to point out that with a PSP, copying your media can be just as intuitive as using any other media device. There are, well, complications with most DS solutions. Incompatibilities and random bugs that just weren't accounted for. It's very unprofessional really, though completely functional. I'm sure the crowd here is completely used to that, but recommending this kind of solution to an average user is just plain stupid. The quality of audio you're going to get out of your DS is just not there. With a PSP, I might as well be listening to an iPod plus some very snazzy optional visualizations in recent versions. Going through MoonShell on a DS Lite of mine was quite a different story. Ugly interface, noticeably low quality sound, choppy performance overall.

You say you can get a multimedia/gaming hybrid device cheaper than the PSP by going with a DS and a homebrew solution. I've done both, so I'll run up some numbers for you in Canadian currency.

Sony PSP + 4 gig memory stick came to $341.00 (Canadian, mind you).
A DS Lite + R4DS adapter cost me about $200 CAD after shipping, after tax. My first R4DS was faulty as they are manufactured in a rather seedy fashion, so I had to jump through hoops to send it back and get a functional one. This was free, so I'll not factor it into the price. On top of the R4DS and DS Lite, I needed microSD storage for the R4. I opted for a 1 gig SanDisk which set me back $50 CAD.
Total for DS Lite solution: $250.

So, yes, you save about $90 going the DS route, but there is the old adage "you get what you pay for", and boy is it true in this case. I would never consider using the DS for video features as I can't get any sort of decent steady framerate out of it, poor format support, and a tiny screen with average sound. The PSP features native widescreen, MUCH larger screen, good sound without headphones and perfect sound with. Music is much the same affair.

Cut costs if you want to, play the Sony-hater if you want to, but if you're picking one over the other on their multimedia merits, shell out the extra $90 (CAD) and get yourself something that will really perform for media. Also, note that the size of storage in my real world price comparison just didn't match up. Multimedia features 10x better and 3 gigs more space in a portable device all for ninety Canadian dollars? Come on. Let's be realistic here.

Now, that said, I have about twenty more DS games than PSP games and I love my DS/DS collection to death. The PSP game selection is really nothing to sweat over and aside from a few gems coming up in the next year and a half, I just couldn't give a shit. The fact you can emulate pretty much all Playstation 1 games perfectly on the PSP is a huge boon though.

Re:A doorstop

[theorangesven]

I've both a psp and a ds. Now the DS has quite a bit of good, unique games, but I find they don't have the same staying power of the really good PSP games. I've got twice as many DS games, but I play my psp games 3 times as often. Both systems have large libraries of worthless games. The PSP has it's wealth of stripped down PS2 ports, while the DS is filled w/ horrible licensed games and games that are ruined by trying to unnecessarily include the touch screen (Nanostray anyone?).

Meaningless numbers

[LKM]

I own both. These numbers are meaningless. The PSP has more "big" A-List titles which obviously get higher ratings, but are often PS2 ports and almost always useless for short amounts "on the go" playing. Great portable games like Tetris DS or Brain Training tend to get not-so-great ratings (haven't checked though, just throwing out some examples), even though these are exactly the games you want in a portable console.

Re:More fanboyism.

[Abcd1234]

I listen to my MP3s (screen off, locked in my pocket, long battery life), I watch movies and anime, I read E-books, do a bit of web-surfing, and play a few games, so I'm really happy with the PSP.

And, right there, you've illustrated why many don't care for the PSP. You have "play a few games" in there as if it were an afterthought. Me, I own a DS for one reason: to play games. Everything else on your list can be done by a better suited special-purpose device, or my PDA. Why would I pay an inflated device for something which replicates functions better served by gear I already own?