The PSP - Sony's Missed Opportunity

C|Net passes on the words of Forrester analyst James McQuivey, who lambasts Sony for failing to live up to the opportunity the PSP presented. Though the handheld has certainly been doing better of late, it's hard not to point out that the PlayStation Portable's sales numbers flag in the face of the DS's incredible popularity. McQuivey also makes a point of stating how well the system could have done at taking a slice of Apple's death-grip on the downloadable media market. "'The thing is, Sony could have been all this,' McQuivey said. 'The Sony PSP is one of the best portable entertainment media devices that anyone has come up with in years. It has a relatively big screen, plays video beautifully, has good storage and audio. It could have been the first big mobile carrier for TV shows and movies.' Instead, the mobile-video play of one of the world's largest electronics companies is straggling behind Apple, has shaken the confidence of supporters--especially in Hollywood--and added to the woes of CEO Howard Stringer."

ODD

[king-manic]

The criticism are somewhat valid but you can play non UMD movies on the PSP. Just stick then in mp4 in the right resolution on a memory stick and your good. It's be nice if it supported something other then memory stick or had a sizable internal drive. I do think Sony Music/Movies are clobbering Sony electronics/Games with demands to include things that are superfluous to the function of the device. I enjoy the bluray on my Ps3, I'd enjoy it more if sony pictures released downloadable movies.

Re:Has Good Storage?!?!?

[Apparition-X]

Erm, no, it doesn't. Sorry. It uses Memory Stick, which is a Sony proprietary format. You can buy third party versions, but it is obvious that they pay a licensing fee to Sony. Compare prices for 2 GB memory stick to 2 GB SD both from Lexar, for example.

Thank God For Homebrew and Custom Firmware

[Croakyvoice]

Sony messed up on a lot of things for the PSP but the PSP brought Homebrew and Emulators on the PSP [dcemu.co.uk] to the mainstream like never before and the releases of Custom Firmwares that play PSone Games at full speed [dcemu.co.uk] really brought the PSP to the masses. Fanjita and Dark Alexs downgraders/homebrew loaders have shown the best of what can be done on the PSP. To date there has been over 1000 Homebrew and Emulation releases on the PSP. The PSP isnt all that bad.

MOD PARENT -1 TROLL

[Anonymous Coward]

2) Not a problem in most GOOD games. (does anyone really care if some piece of shit wrestling game takes forever to load? I don't)
3) Virtually non-existent these days, overblown at launch.
4) There are still a lot of really good games, even more than DS in truth.
5) Slip case, problem solved.
6) Oh really? You mean a far, far more powerful device costs a whole $45 more? In fact, I'd say it's well, well worth the extra bit of cash.
7) Are you retarded? The homebrew scene on PSP is huge! It's way, way larger than DS/GBA, and with the higher system capabilities you see some pretty amazing shit, like a full speed CPS2 emulator.
9) Graphics contribute greatly to the overall experience of the game.

Re:Let me debunk a few things

[tomstdenis]

My first PSP had about 35 dead pixels all over. Circuit City refused to replace it since it was still "playable." I had to mail it off to Sony Canada for a replacement, which had about 7 dead pixels. I just gave up at that point and put up with it. I was hardly the only one with that problem.

As for the rest I guess it's a matter of opinion. For the most part I really don't give a rats ass for the new games. Aside from Wii most games I've seen for the new consoles are just shinier rehashes of last seasons games. SMB1 is 22 years old and I still play it. Will you still play burnout revenge in 22 years?

Tom

Homebrew not as good as the DS? I think not...

[DavidKlemke]

I keep hearing that the PSP doesn't have as good Homebrew as the DS. Well that's just plain not true, for example here's my source for all things PSP and homebrew: http://forums.qj.net/f-qjnet-sony-psp-forums-48.ht ml/ [qj.net] There are at least 180 people on this forum at any given time and there are THOUSANDS of homebrew applications in the files section. I'm sorry but all this DS fanfare about a less than lively homebrew scene just don't have their facts straight. Personally I bought my PSP early and got straight into the hacking scene as soon as I could. I've never been left feeling that I wasn't getting my moneys worth, and I've even bought a couple UMD movies (a 4 hour bus trip to Sydney can get mighty boring and sometimes ripping isn't an option). In fact I don't think I've ever come across something that I've wanted to do with my PSP and haven't been able to do. Here's just a short list of things I've done over the past couple of years using homebrew: - NES/SNES/N64 emulators - Universal IR Remote Controller - Remote access of my desktop at home over wireless or the internet - Streaming video and audio in real time over my wireless network and over the internet - Personal Organizer and calendar This is in addition to all the stuff that comes default these days with the base firmware. The PSP is a great platform and it's really worth every dollar you'll spend on it. Problem is it's not as cheap as a DS and the proprietary-ness of the platform seems to irk all the slashdotters. The DS might be selling more but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a better platform.

Re:hmm

[toddhunter]

Lets look at the figures (vgchartz)

DS
16.39m Japan
11.88m Americas
12.80m Others

PSP
5.43m Japan
8.29m Americas
7.59m Others

The DS is nearly double the PSP but a huge chunk of this is Japan. You might conclude that although the DS is doing better, the PSP has still done very well.

Re:Thank God For Homebrew and Custom Firmware

[Frogbert]

I'd just like to warn anyone considering installing the custom firmware above that they are old versions, there are newer and better supported custom firmware versions out there.

Re:How the PSP is annoying let me count the ways

[Frogbert]

1. Shorter battery life.

Thats true

2. Load times

Yeah they are a bit slower then carts, it totally depends on the game though and is totally negated if you are booting games off a memory stick.

3. Dead pixel fiasco

My DS has a dead pixel too.

4. Really limited games (no legacy library to pull from)

Perhaps officially yes, but it is possible to convert ps1 games to psp [blogspot.com]

5. Big shiny screen, totally exposed for the scratching when put in a bag

This comes down to common sense, I keep mine in a little felt bag.

6. Costs more than a DS

It does more.

7. No homebrew, or not as well supported as GBA/DS homebrew

That's completely false Here [psp-homebrew.eu] is a database of PSP homebrew. Also this homebrew all works without DLDI patches and works with every flash card you put into the PSP. The DS scene is quite a bit different.

8. Lack of insight to use Pro memory stick slot for games [e.g. no need to spin up UMD], etc...

Officially yes, but with custom firmware though it is very simple to boot games from memory stick. I have both systems and I love them both, but the PSP is way more hacker friendly then the DS. Game wise I'd say they were about equal, with maybe 10 games on each system that are real gems.

I like my PSP.

[John Pfeiffer]

Let me start by saying that I have a PSP1000G1CW (For the uninitiated, that's an original Japanese Ceramic White Gigapack), and I use it every day.

I would like to address the more common 'issues' people seem to have with the PSP...

The first being storage... You are right, it doesn't have 30-40gb of internal storage. This is something I have NEVER understood about the iPod and similar devices. My music collection is somewhere in the neighborhood of 200+ gigabytes. Yet, I'm never listening to more than 5 different albums in a given week. (This week, it is 'MY FOOT', 'Good Dreams', 'Fool on the Planet', 'Another morning, Another pillows', and 'FLCL Original Soundtrack 3', all by 'the pillows'.) Compressed with AAC, I have little problem carrying this around on my 1gb memorystick.

Why do you NEED to carry THIRTY GIGABYTES of music with you at all times? Nine times out of ten, if your plane crashes, you DIE. So don't worry about getting stranded on a desert island without tunes, okay?

My biggest gripe though, is with people attacking the UMD format. Complaining that it is proprietary strikes me as particularly stupid... Proprietary? As opposed to cartridges? I'm sorry, were they supposed to make it 3x the size and give it a DVD-ROM drive? Get over it. UMD Video was a mistake, but that was just Sony's movie division trying to capitalize... (In Japan, I've seen just as many UMD Video discs packaged WITH their DVD counterparts with little premium paid, so I think the whole 'make-you-buy-everything-twice' shtick was mostly western capitalism at work.)

The PSP is a fine multifunction device once you install a custom firmware... Now, I know someone's going to be like "So, it's no good unless you hack it, huh?" That statement is equal parts truth and loaded bullshit. Sony doesn't want people pirating games or running their own software... YES. Personally I think it's bad corporate policy to sell someone what amounts to a handheld computer, then tell them not to run anything on it...but hey, I imagine there's a REASON I'm not on the board of SCEI or SCEA.

With my PSP handy, with only a 1gb memorystick, I have never been bored. Between bookr for reading text files or PDFs, videos, music, and the vast library of great Japanese games at my fingertips (Not to mention all my old favorites via emulation), there has yet to be an instance where my PSP didn't give me something to do. Sony created something that, when properly utilized, becomes indispensable.

Typically, my PSP is loaded with one game UMD in the drive, two in my Hori Portable Style Pouch, 1-5 more game ISOs on the memstick depending on size, music, the latest episodes of all my shows, a bunch of ebooks, and some classic Super Famicom games in my emulator. (Granted, sometimes 1gb of space is a little stressed by all this, but a 4gb stick like I plan to buy soon is only $50)

Beyond its original purposes, a truly creative geek can find limitless uses for the PSP. I have my home network set up so I can download pre-packaged music, game ISOs, and videos, directly to my PSP through a web portal on my LAN. (As well as being able to stream any video directly from my computer to my PSP with Pimpstreamer...even stuff in 1080p) I can even use my PSP to control Media Player Classic via a web interface, or control the lights in the house...even check my caller ID. I don't even have the Chotto Shot camera or GPS unit yet and my PSP is more useful than any other handheld device I've ever owned, and has better games than some home consoles.

Sure, it doesn't hold 30gb of music or videos... But hey, the screen is about the SIZE of an iPod, and with games like Disgaea and the countless other great games I play on a regular basis, I have no complaints.

So I guess what I'm saying is... Could someone please explain Sony's failure to me in large type, with diagrams? Is it that the PSP is maybe TOO useful for a $280 device? Or is it supposed to be able to make me toast in the morning? I'M CONFUSED.

Re:ODD

[CronoCloud]

Not true entirely. You can't play a movie off your memory stick at the PSP's full resolution. Why? Because Sony crippled memory stick playback to give UMD a visual advantage.

Sure you can, though you'll need firmware 3.30+ to do so, Sohy removed the restriction a few weeks back.