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Portables (Games)

Sony Says PSP Battery Life is Shorter than Quoted 76

Posted by Zonk from the you-don't-say? dept.
SetupWeasel writes "Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that "Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has admitted that graphically intensive games will drain the PSP's battery more rapidly than the quoted figures." Sony also said that this would be corrected in future revisions of the hardware, but we know how well that plan worked for Nokia."
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Sony Says PSP Battery Life is Shorter than Quoted More

Sony Says PSP Battery Life is Shorter than Quoted

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  • won't even last 1 trip (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fireduck ( 197000 ) on Wednesday November 03, 2004 @11:30AM (#10710985)
    so a portable with batteries that will last 2 hours. that's less than just about any air travel time. no thank you. the GBA, with its 10 hour battery life, has spoiled me.

  • future revisions? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jane_the_Great ( 778338 ) on Wednesday November 03, 2004 @11:30AM (#10710986)
    Corrected in future revisions of the hardware? Come on - why would someone buy the PSP with a statement like that? And what is Sony going to do for early adopters who purchase a PSP that drains radpily.

    I'm all for people being honest BUT if you think you can correct the problem in later revisions of the hardware, why not make that later revision the first release and only bring to market a product that meets the specs?

  • And yet.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mrseigen ( 518390 ) on Wednesday November 03, 2004 @11:31AM (#10710993) Homepage Journal
    It will become one of the most popular game consoles on earth. Why is it that Sony can make crappy console hardware, release sub-par sequels and treat their developers like garbage and still be the company on top?
    • Because Nintendo treats their developers worse. See Square Enix.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re:And yet.. (Score:3, Informative)

          by bigman2003 ( 671309 )
          I'm not really sure why I'm replying- your message didn't make too much sense to begin with. But if I understand the gist of it, you are saying that Microsoft treats their developers poorly. And because they treat them so badly, they ended up having to buy Bungie from Apple to get some decent developers/games.

          Of course we all know that Apple didn't own Bungie. They may have thought they pwned them, but that is a different story.

          If you read the History of Bungie [bungie.net] as told by Bungie (which is a pretty inte

      • Re:And yet.. (Score:3, Informative)

        by MMaestro ( 585010 )
        Really now? I didn't even know there was a company called Square Enix which developed for Nintendo before the Gamecube..

        Get your facts straight. Nintendo and Squaresoft used to get along just fine during the NES and SNES days. (FF1-6, plus a couple more on the Gameboy) Nintendo and Enix also got along fine (Dragon Warrior/Quest 1-6, plus a couple side games on the Gameboy). The only reason Squaresoft didn't make FF7 on the N64 was because of the limitations of the old cartrages. Course in hindsight, they pa

  • Battery life won't matter to the Sony devoted (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dgrgich ( 179442 ) * <drew&grgich,org> on Wednesday November 03, 2004 @11:42AM (#10711199)
    The initial adopters of this platform will be available to afford extra batteries ($45 each) and therefore, the initial crowd of people buying these will not care that the battery will only give them two-three hours of time in graphically intense games. I base this on the early reports that the purchase price for one of these is going to be in the $199 range - this will make the comfortable price of entry for portable Playstation goodness at $300 once a game and extra battery is purchased. Having said this, I certainly hope that Sony is not looking to replace Nintendo at the top of the handheld game machine pile - I can't see a great deal of average parents giving little Johnny or Belinda a $250 toy that wouldn't survive a drop to the floor!!! I'd guess that Apple has more to worry about than the Mario Bros.

  • Lame (Score:2, Insightful)

    by GR1NCH ( 671035 )
    I forsee people hauling around massive external battery packs to play this thing. Honestly just get a DS and show Sony you wont put up with bullshit like this.
  • Guess that just means I wait for that revision, I'm sorry Sony, but batteries need to last for the trip to work, and then the trip back from work (or school for you youngins..). Guess I'll stick with an Ereader or something or a Palm Z31 and read PDF's instead, I'll learn more :)
  • For everything they offer in the psp the battery life is sufficient for release. Yes the DS will have about 5x longer playtime... for now. If Nintendo made something with the same size screen/processing power then they would run into the same problem as would any company.

    The 1 up that sony has is they have been making portable disc devices for quite some time now, and the battery life for most is nothing short of amazing (32 hrs off of 2xAA for cds.. not to mention the insane life MD players offer). There

    • Re:I think sony made the right choice (Score:5, Insightful)

      by KevinKnSC ( 744603 ) * on Wednesday November 03, 2004 @01:30PM (#10713455)
      For everything they offer in the psp the battery life is sufficient for release. Yes the DS will have about 5x longer playtime... for now. If Nintendo made something with the same size screen/processing power then they would run into the same problem as would any company.

      That's just it, though. Nintendo isn't making something with the same screen size and processing power precisely because it would drain the battery so fast. Nintendo has owned this market for so long because they realize that, when you get right down to it, a good that lasts for a long time beats really good that lasts for a short time. It looks like the next round will play out the same way the others have.

  • I have a Dell Insperon 600m (One of the few with 64megs of onboard video ram) and I have the same power issue.

    With my extra battery pack, in place of the CD drive, I truly get a solid 5 hours of battery time. AS LONG AS I play games that don't use 3D. (ie Mame emulation, dosbox, 2d puzzle games.)

    However, the second I bring up Dawn of War, Anarchy Online (using the built in wireless), or Prince of Persia, the battery life goes to crap. I am lucky to get an two hours, even with both batteries. (Yes, I h
    • People will just get used to the idea that they can only play non-multiplayer;2D games on their PSP on trips and 3D games with the plug in adaptor.

      The hell they will! We're not being sold on the PSP by puzzle games and 2D fighters. We're being sold with Gran Turismo.

      Your laptop has pretty lousy power issues for gaming. I don't think the general public will be as forgiving with a brand new, mega-hyped Sony product.

  • I think that if the battery life is a major issue, the PSP faithful will simple buy more extra battery packs. I think they will initially sell for around $45, so it's like the memory card when the PS2 first came out. Consider how many people bought one of those in the early days of the PS2. Eventually, Sony dropped the price. Supply and demand.

    Yet, an extra battery pack is more of nuisance that a memory card. It requires periodic recharge and forces the user to remember to keep a battery charged or ch

  • I'm not surprised (Score:4, Interesting)

    by xenocide2 ( 231786 ) on Wednesday November 03, 2004 @02:33PM (#10714477) Homepage
    Sony has a reputation of not being straight with developers. If you believe Sony's numbers (or don't look at them too hardly), the PS2 is four times superior to the gamecube. Sony's marketing seems more in touch with their consumers. They know how closely these things are compared and publish specs with the consumer in mind, rather than the developer. So when Sony says 4 hours of portable ps2 power, every game developer friend I know did a little Sony math to figure out the REAL number. Given that 4 hours was already a wanting number, the psp will naturally come up shorter.

    I'm not sure I want Nintendo to come up and engage in the same detrimental practices telling me their stuff can move 8 times more polygons than it ever will in a commercial game, or reinforcing gender stereotypes in gaming. Making Zelda cel-shaded turned off many consumers, but it beats selling GTA and MGS to preteens.
    • So you mean that the real number is like an hour or so?
      • I'm saying that when they said four hours, that was what you might call the "optimistic estimate." Any engineer or project planner will tell you never to base your decisions on the most pessimistic or optimistic guess. If they say the battery life is shorter now, my guess is its closer to reality. The only way for sure to find out is playtesting, which should be coming relatively soon if the PSP is as close to market as they say.

  • Not a fatal problem to me (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Teppy ( 105859 ) * on Wednesday November 03, 2004 @02:37PM (#10714547) Homepage
    I'm sure that 3rd party spare batteries will be popular early on, just as add-on lights were popular with early GameBoy Advances. If Sony sells a spare battery for $45, the 3rd parties will probably sell for $15; I'd be the first to pick up a couple for trips.

  • Drat!!! (Score:3, Funny)

    by CodeWanker ( 534624 ) on Wednesday November 03, 2004 @02:38PM (#10714565) Journal
    Repeat after me: Pong is not a stress test. Pong is not a stress test.
    • Don't underestimate Pong. It's a very very very late indicator of heart disease. I've seen people clutching their left shoulder after a couple of intense games.

  • The gaming press hasn't noticed this yet. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You begin to wonder if they are ignoring this news on purpose, because not ign, gamespy nor gamespot have mentioned this news.

    Probably Sony wouldn't treat them well if they were proclaming the new truth about the system, even if revealed by Kutaragi himself.

    At least, for one time Kutaragi is being honest about hardware (or maybe, the battery life is even worse than he says)
    • Well, contrary to your hope, actually gamespot and ign covered the same interview:

      xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

      gamespot [gamespot.com]

      Finally, Kutaragi touched on the PSP's rechargeable battery, which is purported to last between four to six hours--on average--for games, and up to four to five hours for movies.

      "The battery consumption changes depending on the memory and processor usage, aside from disk access," he said. "It'll run for a long time when playing puzzle games but shorter when playing Ridge
  • I will buy a PSP. The day it comes out, If I can manage. I want to play GT4, MG: Acid, even the inevitable GTA port, all in glorious color 3-D. I pay the premium for graphic power with my A-51m laptop, and you know what? Even though I get less than 3 hours of battery life, all of my budget toting Dell friends want mine. 2 hours is fine - carry extra batteries (everyone with a GBA already does) dont watch movies (why would you? Are you really gonna buy them on the new format just to carry them around with yo

    • Re:I GIVE UP!!! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by RzUpAnmsCwrds ( 262647 )
      " all of my budget toting Dell friends want mine"

      I have a Compal CL-56. 5 hour battery life *and* the same graphics power (Mobility Radeon 9700) as your A-51m.

      Oh, and I paid $1400 for it. Probably a fair bit less than your overpriced Alienware.
  • As I said to my friend in class today: "LET'S STROM THE BLACK GAooooooo...."
  • Does no one pay attention?

    He said the 4 to 6 hours was an AVERAGE of multiple games. An AVERAGE, you hear me? You can't predict an exact time

  • Are you listening to yourselves?!? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kingsmedley ( 796795 ) on Wednesday November 03, 2004 @08:36PM (#10718822)
    I can't believe some of the comments I am hearing here.

    "early adopters can afford extra batteries"
    "the battery life is sufficient"
    "simply buy extra battery packs"

    Dang, people. You're living in denial. I said similair things back when I thought the Jaguar would be Atari's second coming.

    "Just wait for the next game!"
    "There are over 250 developers making games right now!"
    "Club Drive is gonna be AWESOME!"

    Yeah, you might eventually get a better battery life. Someday. Just don't hold your breath like I did - it's real embarassing when you pass out.

    BTW, how many people remember the big horkin' D-cell power pack for the Lynx? Woohoo! 10 hours of full color backlit gaming goodness, on just $25 worth of batteries!
  • How it seems to be shaping up: The DS' drawback is graphics power, and the PSP's drawback is battery life. This is absurdly reductionist, both systems have unique features (with the DS looking towards PDAs for theirs, and the PSP looking towards portable DVD players), but I think this is how most gamers will see it.

    I, and probably a good many people, will buy a DS regardless of what Sony does. But I really think Nintendo should consider cutting the price a little more in response to Sony's highly aggress
  • It's a match made in fanboy heaven. Anybody who wants to see this is going to have to get the PSP. Perhaps swapping out the battery in the middle of the movie lets you see the ending where Aeris is resurrected!

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