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PlayStation (Games) Portables (Games) Entertainment Games

PSP To Have PS2 Connectivity, No Shovelware Conversions? 85

Posted by simoniker from the tomb-raider-conversion-from-n-gage-right-out? dept.
Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing Sony's confirmation that its forthcoming PSP portable will feature connectivity with the PS2 home console. According to remarks from Sony's Fumiya Takeno: "This feature would allow games to be played on the home systems, with save games being moved to the PSP so that play could be continued on the handheld system - exploiting the fact that the PSP's hardware is broadly similar in specification to the PS2." Although "...it is known that porting code from the PS2 to the PSP is extremely easy", it's also been confirmed that Sony "..is placing a heavy emphasis on the development of new titles for the PSP, rather than the porting of existing PS2 software", meaning the company is likely to be harsh in the approval process regarding 'shovelware' PS2 conversions.
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PSP To Have PS2 Connectivity, No Shovelware Conversions? More

PSP To Have PS2 Connectivity, No Shovelware Conversions?

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  • controller (Score:4, Funny)

    by SkunkPussy ( 85271 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @06:07AM (#8450307) Journal
    I know, why don't they make it so you can use the PSP as a controller for the PS2?

    oh.
    • I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the big N had a patent on this (think gba<->gcn).
      To me, it seems as if Sony are just following Nintendo's lead, and are trying to reach into the handheld market.. to which I'll say "Good luck, Sirs".

      • Re:controller (Score:4, Interesting)

        by chrismcdirty ( 677039 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @08:00AM (#8450632) Homepage
        With one key difference... the gaming media thinks it's new and exciting! Where Nintendo "hasn't gone" or has done badly, Sony will triumph!

        I'd like to see it not get filled up with a bunch of shovelware. That's what they say now, but I'm sure it'll be given rehashes out the wazoo.
        • >> Remember: The old adage "fight fire with fire" does not apply to non-metaphorical fires.

          This is inaccurate.

          In the case of large-scale brush fires, a second fire will be intentionally set in the same area as the first to choke out the oxygen supply, thus canceling both fires.

  • why PS2 connectivity? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by incubusnb ( 621572 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @06:40AM (#8450408) Homepage Journal
    the PSP is scheduled to launch in 2005 alongside the PS3 from what i understand, what exactly is the point of having any sort of Connectivity with the PS2 if it will probably never get used? i sure hope they plan on it connecting to the PS3 or they'll have a feature that will never be used except by the very few companies that will still make games for the PS2.

    by that time all the really good titles will already have been announced for PS3.

  • Looks like the competition they'll be providing for the GBA is complete. The only thing the GBA did that the PSP didn't do was connectivity with another console.
    • That and have a library of several thousand games, and a userbase of several million... As well known as 'Playstation' is, I'll argue that 'GameBoy' is even more infused into pop-culture. Sony can't rely on its brand name to compete, this time. It will take a killer app such as GTA or a 3D Madden to get the masses to turn to it. The price will also need to be competative, in comparison to the GBA. If people are given the option of a PS2, or a PSP at twice the money, I think they'll go with a PS2. If a
  • Would a PS2 port automatically be considered shovelware? If it's a good game and the conversion to handheld is effective, isn't it just a port? The term "shovelware" implies that the end product is no good.

  • Innovative Goodness :) (Score:5, Interesting)

    by polyp2000 ( 444682 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @07:37AM (#8450571) Homepage Journal
    The main crux of this statement, for me is the heavy emphasis on developing new titles for PSP. I dont think Sony are ruling out some ports, as what would be the point in having memory cards/game-saves transferable to the PS2.

    However, It is about time we saw more original and new games out there. I am of the Sony faithful crowd. But of late most games are NG ports of things that have come and gone before. To a certain extent this can be said for most consoles. Although stuff like monkey-ball shows the GameCube to be a ground for fresh ideas.But i shouldnt forget Socom and EyeToy :) My preference for dark and disturbing games keeps me with PS2.

    I think that its a good idea for Sony to push innovation card a bit more because the games/console market is getting saturated with half-assed ports released on all 3 consoles. Two's company, Three's a crowd so to speak! Id certainly like to see more single platform licenses out there. Right now there is little difference in any of the three consoles where new games are concerned. Its mainly brand loyalty that joe average uses to choose a console. Having a killer app/must have game available only on PSP, is the thing that will get those units sold en masse!

    Nick

  • That's spiff. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by josh glaser ( 748297 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @07:42AM (#8450586)
    Lets hope they make better use of connectivity then Nintendo seems to be doing. Even in games where connectivity is required for each player, it doesn't seemed used very well...you use the GBA to manage your items! Ooh! I'm sure the PSP/PS2 link will be more successful, as those systems are of comparable power, and the PSP could run ported games. However, you'd have to buy two copies of the same game, which people might not want to do.

    • Re:That's spiff. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by chrismcdirty ( 677039 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @08:07AM (#8450643) Homepage
      No offense, but do you really think they could make a handheld system right now that is comparable in power to the PS2 while still retaining a halfway decent battery life? I surely don't.

      I'd say it is probably more comparable in power to the PS1. Possibly more powerful, but not close to PS2.

      It's just the marketing machine rearing it's ugly head. Remember when N64 was in development, Nintendo said it'd be as powerful as an SGI workstation? Remember when PS2 came out, Sony claimed it was fast enough to be a supercomputer with one processor? I'd really like to see them fit a supercomputer into a 4"x2"x.5" package.

      • Re:That's spiff. (Score:2, Insightful)

        by socode ( 703891 )
        The PS2 is fast enough to be a supercomputer, just not a contemporary one, since it's a moving target. Unfortunately, so are marketing people.
      • Judging by what Sony has said, and a bunch of pure speculation, I think it will have, eh, about the power of a Dreamcast, maybe a bit less. Like I said, comparable to PS2. But yeah, marketing folks do exaggurate specs...but that's all we have: marketing talk. So obviously, since we really don't know much about the PSP, all thoughts of mine certainly aren't written in stone or anything.

        And on the battery life: well, I'm crossing my fingers.

        • Re:That's spiff. (Score:5, Informative)

          by chrismcdirty ( 677039 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @09:50AM (#8451134) Homepage
          The exageration gets you far, though. Remember the Xbox-GCN wars before they came out? Microsoft gave out untextured, unfilled, unenhanced polygon counts. So their numbers were through the roof. Nintendo gave out realistic gaming specs and were slammed by the media [and have been slammed ever since].

          I'm hoping the battery life is good, too. I'll definitely give it a chance. Here's hoping.
          • Remember the Xbox-GCN wars before they came out? Microsoft gave out untextured, unfilled, unenhanced polygon counts. So their numbers were through the roof.

            But that is how things are done in the gaming world. You will also notice they also then gave out specs for textured, lit, etc. polygons in the same articles/papers. The same thing was done with the PS2, PSX, N64, Saturn, Dreamcast, and various 3D arcade hardware platforms. Pretty sure Nintendo did it too for the GC.

            The Xbox (and PS2, I believe) can
            • I would disagree, there's a lot of games that truly push the Gamecube's graphics, just think of Resident Evil 1 and 0. My jaw dropped when I first played RE 1 on the Gamecube, it looks absolutely amazing. Capcom was a huge advocate of the Sega, and now they've moved on to Nintendo.
              • RE1 and RE0 are mostly prerendered, with the exception of the monster/character models. It would be like saying a DVD of Toy Story or Final Fantasy looks great on my Xbox, proving how powerful it is - it has nothing to do with the system's graphics capabilities whatsoever. Every other console, probably including the Dreamcast, could do RE1 or RE0. The same essential technique was used for the original RE on PSX!
            • unless you mean media as in "some 12 year old posting on a Gamefaqs message board"

              Actually, I'm referring to GameSpy and IGN. I don't read GameSpy too much, but IGN's Gamecube channel constantly second-guesses Nintendo's decisions and says that they're making bad decisions without even seeing the end product (DS).
              • I think it is hard not to second-guess the DS at this point - that is just good, honest journalism. Nintendo has done a terrible job on selling the system to the public, basically just announcing it with a few weird details, sans any game info, then telling everyone to wait for E3. They have similar problems with the connectivity angle - Western journalists just didn't find the idea very favorable, no matter the publication. Neither does the public, really. Nintendo hasn't done a good job selling these idea
      • "You'll never need more than 512k of memory",
        "Who would want a computer in the house?"
        "One Day computers will be small enough to fit in this room."

        Welcome to distinguished company. It really sucks having a technological revolution with people from the 80's kicking around. Here's hoping you all die and we get some people with vision and enthusiasm.

        -Out
        • I'm not saying that it will never happen. I'm just saying since my laptop can barely run for 3 hours on battery alone, I'd like to see something more powerful than it run for longer than that.

          Don't get me wrong... I'd LOVE for them to prove me wrong. It'd be a geek's wet dream. And I really hope they do some day. Preferably sooner than later.
      • If the specifications of the hardware remain fixed the system indeed is closer to the PS2 than the PS1. The PS1 has a single MIPS R3000 core, around 30 or 40MHz. (I always forget, and this time I have a headache so I'm too lazy to look it up.) The PSP has two MIPS cores (64 bit RISC) which run at 333MHz each; one is used for a CPU and the other for a vector unit. Seems to me like it's about half as powerful as a PS2, maybe a little better than that. This puts it at 10-15 times the power of a PSOne :P Actual
      • Yeah, if the PSP was really PS2-like hardware, where would they get the juice to power the vacuum cleaner fan?

        (Yes, I have a PS2, and a Gamecube. Guess which I prefer from the hardware point of view?)

    • Re:That's spiff. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Rallion ( 711805 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @01:00PM (#8452937) Journal
      Multiplayer Crystal Chronicles WITHOUT the GBAs would be maddening. "Okay, guys, I need to switch items, get ready to pause!" "Oh, me too, so pause again right after!" Ugh. I would stab somebody so quick....if I didn't get stabbed first.

      • Re:That's spiff. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by DeadScreenSky ( 666442 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @05:10PM (#8455984)
        But that problem is more because Square-Enix chose not to design an effective interface for such things. You could easily do a minimal transparent item changing interface to pop up in the corners (one for each player) of the screen, for example. You could even just shrink the main screen view for a little bit instead, allowing the game to still be played by others. Sure, it wouldn't be as immediately intuitive as the current interface, but that really doesn't matter in a game that is intended to be played for quite some time. And it would be easier to see what is still going on in the game. A nice quick tutorial should be more than enough, considering how basic the RPG system aspects are anyway. The better control ergonomics alone would make it a great tradeoff.

  • I got nothin.. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by sheiqck ( 738351 )
    I doubt its anything to get excited about, Nintendo already said games with better gfx isnt the future. I rememeber a few years ago when PcPoweplay was good, and 500mhz was front page material.. i really dont think shiney bump mapping does a whole lot for me. Add to that the fact that sony is always on the bottom in the grapics department makes me wonder why they dont try and make the psp a communal device like the big N wants to.
    I like sony, my MD works great.
    I just wonder whether the PSP is something tha
  • Sounds to me like this is something designed mainly for the Oriental market, especially Japan and S. Korea. With the associated costs, and the release of PS3, few people are going to purchase a PSP without already having a PS2 (ie, for standalone use). And given the choice between a PSP/PS2 combo and a PS3 -- that's a no-brainer. (Despite the myriad possibilities presented by newer and better Tingle Tuners.)

    So the only market I can see this really applying to is the gadget-crazy market -- like my roomma

  • I'm sure they won't have GTA 3 (Score:3, Funny)

    by Smack ( 977 ) on Wednesday March 03, 2004 @10:34AM (#8451542) Homepage
    I'm sure Sony will stand by this principle and not release any of their more popular games as "shovelware". Not Sony.
    • "their"?? since when is gta3 sonys game(sure they had an exclusivity deal for it for a while).

      however, I'd be betting hard that the approval process is just the usual "hand us the money" type of a deal, so I'd be very surprised if they really turned down any rehashes there was a publisher willing to pony up the cash for.
  • In order to use this system, developers will have to write compatible games for both the PS2 and PSP, and it's unclear whether Sony is proposing that these titles should be sold separately or in a single package.

    If the latter is true, that would be a major selling point of the PSP to me, buying a game and having the ability to play it at home or on the road without having to buy both PS2 and PSP versions.
  • I can't imagine going to work with a handheld PS2. It's one thing to have 16bit quality mario games on gameboy advanced.

    It's another to have a game of PS2 quality at work.
  • At Disney's shareholders meeting in Philadelphia today (at about 3hrs 10mins through 3hours 15mins into the meeting for those of you who want to listen at Disney Investors [go.com]) they announced that Kingdom Hearts 2 is coming in 2005 for the PS2 and a version of Kingdom Hearts for Gameboy coming out later this year. No mention of a version for PSP or PS3.
  • "Shovelware" does not mean "hastily ported software". I don't know where you got that impression but it is entirely incorrect. Shovelware is software (or media) included on a CD or DVD-ROM in order to use up some of that extra space. Typically it consists of demos for other like content, or related software. For example the shovelware on a driver disk for a USB camera might include webcam and photo retouching software, plus a slide show maker that puts your pictures on a cube or something, and costs $39.99 to register. On a clip art disc about cars there are probably clip art samplers of houses and pets or something. That is shovelware. A crappy port is only shovelware if it's thrown in with some other software, just because it would fit on the disc.
  • company is likely to be harsh in the approval process regarding 'shovelware' PS2 conversions.

    Um, no offense here, but Sony is the king of Shovelware. Half of the PS2 library falls under that classification and honestly, it is one of the reasons that they lead the console market. People are more likely to buy a system with a bazillion titles no matter if the quality of 6 kajillion of them is akin to single-ply recyled orphanage-grade toliet paper. I think this is one of those cases that the slashdot reade
  • meaning the company is likely to be harsh in the approval process regarding 'shovelware' PS2 conversions.

    What about 'shovelware' from other systems? I know Nintendo and Microsoft would guard their franchises by locking them in the closet or by throwing money at them, but what about PC shovelware and Xbox/Gamecube games made by third party developers?

    EA... well I don't think anything needs to be said about them. Konami will probably jump on with the proper incentive (a handheld Contra?) SquareEnix might jo

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