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Portables (Games) Sony

PSP Usage Lower Than Expected 141

Posted by Zonk from the not-so-much dept.
Next Generation has an article analyzing the numbers of a recent PSP usage survey. Despite a showing that there is strong brand loyalty, the numbers are probably not what Sony was hoping for. From the article: "Most said they had no plans to buy any UMD movies. Less than 50% said they would use the PSP to watch video or view pictures using a memory stick. The figure drops to less than 30% among female users. Sony will be concerned that 50% of users admitted they had not touched their PSP in 'some time'. 25% of male users have updated their PSP for Internet use, with only 10% of female users doing same."
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PSP Usage Lower Than Expected More

PSP Usage Lower Than Expected

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  • Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tadrith ( 557354 ) * on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:23AM (#13398323) Homepage
    I have a hard time understanding how Sony ever thought this was going to take off in the first place.

    Why does Sony think I want to buy my movies twice?

    • Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Gogo0 ( 877020 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @12:10PM (#13398796)
      VHS to DVD: People re-bought their movies for signifigantly increased quality and features

      DVD to HD-DVD: People will re-buy their movies for signifigantly increased quality and features

      DVD to PSP: People will re-buy their movies for signifigantly increased quality and features -er, I mean
      People will not re-by their movies for signifigantly reduced quality and picture size with next to no features.

      Sony thinks you want to buy your movies twice because many of us do; enough to create a market for re-releasing everything on DVD now and a HD format later and on whatever is after that. They didnt seem to understand WHY people did it, though: because the new ones are better. The PSP ones arent better. Theyre worse! They cost more! They only play on a PSP!
      They give you less for more money and then they lock down the way you can use it. Nice.

      I am glad that I got a PSP with the free Spiderman 2 UMD. Otherwise I would have wasted good money on another UMD just to find out I dont want any.

      • Re:Why? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by bleaknik ( 780571 )
        I absolutely disapprove of the UMD move format, and I think Sony is stupid to force it upon the world.

        However, I would like to point out that "Better" does not necessarily "Higher Quality". While UMDs are lower res videos, they do have at least one quality that makes them "Better" than DVD: They are smaller and therefore more portable.

        As I said, I don't like the format either, but I think that there does need to be a distinguishment between Better and Higher Quality.

        • Re:Why? (Score:2)

          by GoRK ( 10018 )
          For what it's worth, the resolution of the video on UMD is supposed to be 720x480, the same as with a DVD, and even with the bitrate necessary to squeeze the video onto a 1.2GB disc, the use of H.263 means it should theoretically be almost equivalent to the quality of the same movie on DVD.

          All of this is pretty much speculation, though. I don't know if anyone has tried or succeeded at extracting a UMD movie and verifying this, and until there is some device that will let you play a UMD movie on a television
          • In fact, the codec used on UMD is H.264 AVC, which really should be equivalent and even slightly better than DVD. Still the PSP screen is only 480x272 ...
        • umd movies [not movies you can copy to the memory stick to play] are actually encoded at the same resolution as a dvd. if you were able to play them on a regular widescreen tv set, you would notice very little difference in resolution. the psp screen is much smaller, and /user created movies/ are limited to a smaller resolution, this has led to the erroneous idea that UMD movies are lower resolution.

          in fact, due to the h264 compression used to store the movies, you could say that the UMD is superior to the
      • I wonder how quickly people are going to make the shift to HD-DVD. The quality jump between VHS and DVD was huge, and immediately noticeable. And the big feature, instant fast forward/rewind, sure is nice too. I don't see what the big draw is going to be for HD-DVD, at least not until giant high-def TV's become way more common.

        I'm as big a geek as the next slashdotter, but I'm in no hurry at all to move from DVD's.
        • Agreed. Most people can't tell the difference. Most people are idiots, but that's annother story.

          It's just like VGA vs DVI. People flock to VGA, and run LCDs at non-native resolutions (which looks like crap IMHO) and somehow fail to see the difference, except that VGA is slightly cheaper.

          I fear that unless the industry strong arms us into HD-DVD / Blue Ray / Whatever, nobody will adopt it. I don't *want* to see the industry go that way, but I have this nagging suspicion that it's the only way it'll happ
        • I don't see what the big draw is going to be for HD-DVD, at least not until giant high-def TV's become way more common.

          People didn't quickly adopt to DVD's either. When did you get your first DVD player? 2000? 2001? DVD's started coming out in 1996, and it wasn't until 2003 when you started to see more DVD's then VHS on the shelves. You probably don't want HDDVD because you don't own an HD TV yet...I do, and I can't wait for them to come out (seeing High def movies on HBO keeps me from ever watching

        • Re:Why? (Score:4, Informative)

          by GoRK ( 10018 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @01:43PM (#13399808) Homepage Journal
          I would like an HD disc format for the simple reason that I want a decent, and cheap format to store and exchange the things I shoot and produce with my HD camcorder. I could care less about buying movies in HD (Thouth if I had a player I certaily would buy them.) Even though there are a few HD recording formats that actually are available to consumers right now (DVHS, WVHS, HDV) they are either special purpose, expensive, or may not be a good future-proof-for-the-next-12-months choice.

          A lot of people make the same argument as the parent post -- that nobody will buy HD discs because there aren't that many people with HDTV's, but you see, the thought process for consumers is completely the other way around. People are not buying HDTV's because there's very little to watch on them. The introduction of an HD disc-based format and players and the sudden influx of HD content at or about the same price as the DVD content will drive the uptake of HDTV's. For some stupid reason the manufacturers have tried to force the market to do the opposite and buy the HDTV's first.

          A more appropriate comparison might be to look at the way that consumers have progressed through their equipment as the recording formats have changed in the past. When DVD was introduced, the picture quality was really (and arugably still isn't) above high-end VHS, so it certainly did not drive people to purchase better television sets... yet people DID! Many people were driven to purchase 16:9 TV's to better enjoy the widescreen formats that DVD offered, and many purchased larger TV's to have a more cinema-like experience at home as the price of discs was reduced. Likewise, before the introduction of DVD, multichannel audio in the home was almost nonexistant. Some people had sprung for 'surround sound' setups offering Dolby ProLogic, but they were few and far between and the actual experience was somewhat lackluster... But look at how DVD's drove the adoption of 5.1 audio setups -- even though a really superior stereo setup will probably sound better to a listener than a cheap 5.1 setup, people are buying them up as fast as they can make them. Car manufacturers are even advertising 5.1 audio for backseat DVD systems. Seriously -- 5.1 audio in the car?!? Although when the car is parked inside in a garage, it's arguably one of the best spaces to use a multichannel audio setup, you can't hear the difference over the road noise!
      • Yep. The UMD thing could've worked if
        a) UMD's were DVD quality, and
        b) the PSP came with a set of RCA jacks so you could plug it into a real video system if you wanted, so you weren't just buying a handheld version of the movie.

        but it's not, so it's not working.

      • Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by webrunner ( 108849 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @01:03PM (#13399387) Homepage Journal
        [quote]DVD to HD-DVD: People will re-buy their movies for signifigantly increased quality and features
        [/quote]

        I disagree here. HD-DVD/Blu Ray is not 'significantly increased quality', and there really aren't any inherently better features to it.

        VHS to DVD added crystal clarity and not having to rewind and no degredation over time, no tracking, etc. etc etc.

        HD-DVD and Blu Ray are just.. slightly better DVDs. Maybe MORE features, and yeah you've got a higher resolution, but nobody would ever consider DVD quality to be blurry. There's no inherent advantage to HD-DVD other than HD and More Space.

        This is why I dont think very many people are going to accept HD-DVD or Blu Ray. That, and there's going to be two- if both dont fail then one will, and people will want to wait until that happens.
        • ", but nobody would ever consider DVD quality to be blurry. "

          I sure as hell would. I have a Sony 27" SDTV Trinitron Wega. My movies come into it via my component in cables. I'd love to see a black background that's not moving like a group of snakes on my TV. The only DVD I have which has a high enough quality (and low enough compression) to consistently look good is my DTS NiN concert DVD -- and you still see banding and dithering in places!

          DVD movies are MPEG 2, and the max bitrate is 10Mbps. That's n
        • HD-DVD and Blu Ray are just.. slightly better DVDs. Maybe MORE features, and yeah you've got a higher resolution, but nobody would ever consider DVD quality to be blurry. There's no inherent advantage to HD-DVD other than HD and More Space.

          I totally agree:

          People went from Records to Cassettes because of size/portability /durability (12" diameter vs a 4" long rectangle, which could be carried and shaken in a Walkman)

          People went from Cassette to CD largely because of the select-a-track, as much for the qual

      • But when people went from VHS to DVD they were replacing their collections. It's not DVD to PSP; it's DVD and PSP. Not many are going to sign up for that.

    • Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by oGMo ( 379 )

      I have a hard time understanding how Sony ever thought this was going to take off in the first place. Why does Sony think I want to buy my movies twice?

      Well, it's more a matter of what idiocy possessed them to think that we'd pay more to buy a second copy with limited viewability. Typical MBA stupidity.

      OTOH, if I could pay $5 and get a UMD of a movie, I'd be there. Throw in the UMDs as a bonus extra when you buy the DVD Deluxe Edition. Think if I could pay $10 and get my favorite TV shows from

  • Wow (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ValuJet ( 587148 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:24AM (#13398328)
    Who would've thought that people wouldn't pay more to watch a movie on a 4.3 inch display rather than just buying the DVD and watching it wherever they please.
    • And ripping the DVD to mp4 and dumping it on your memory stick for free.
    • It is actually quite difficult to watch one's DVDs "wherever you please". Laptops aren't portable enough to bring into waiting rooms, or to carry with you while you're standing in a long line.

      Portable DVD players are likewise larger than the PSP; they're great for watching DVDs on airplanes or or the subway, but are typically too large to carry around everywhere unless you have a backpack.

      The advantage of the PSP is that it is tiny, but still has a DVD-quality resolution. Of course, the UMD format was still

  • This makes sense. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gothic_Walrus ( 692125 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:24AM (#13398330) Journal
    The UMD usage isn't surprising; who wants to pay that much for a movie when you can get it on DVD with more features, better quality, and a price that's equal to or lower than the cost of the UMD?

    The same goes for pictures; I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd ever have any need to look at pictures on a PSP. The screen on digital cameras fulfills that need nicely.

    The games are a bigger issue. Lack of interesting or good games seems to be the problem here, although Sony has time to change that.

    Bottom line? We've heard all of this before, and what we haven't is common sense.

    • UMD's do have one benefit though: portability. If you commute to work on a train or subway, UMD's may be useful. On the other hand, decent portable DVD players [amazon.com] are cheaper than the PSP itself (though definitely larger). Outside of that use-case though, UMD's seem silly.
      • Problem in a nutshell for Sony:
        It is the same argument as Minidisk vs. CDs (on release of MD). The players are smaller and more portable, but not nearly as useful. Until the cheap MD recorders came out, MD was completely lost. MD never really took off outside of Asia where smaller is always worth a price premium.

        They should have seen this coming. Unfortunately, there is no way with DVDs (legally) to transfer the data to another medium. Classic case of the content providers shooting themselves in the fo

  • Who wants UMD?? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AcheronHades ( 837485 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:27AM (#13398365)

    The only time I really see the point in watching a movie on your PSP is when you are traveling. But then if you travel that much, your probably have a laptop, on which you can watch every DVD in your collection.

    My biggest issue with buying UMD movies though is that I can only use them on the PSP... Thats not good enough for me.

    • You raise a valid point. I might embrace (probably not, but who knows) a UMD-R (?) drive for my PC.

      Then I could rip my own DVDs and copy 'em off at my leisure. /shrug.
      • What I'd really like to do is play all my existing DVDs on my PSP. Of course that's totally impractical ... I just dont like pointless redundency.
      • Oh course since this is a Sony product, there is no way in hell that'll happen.
        If you want something smaller than a portable DVD player or a laptop, your best bet is a PDA with 2 or 4 gig compact flash drive. I playback DIVX movies on my Pocket PC. When you downsample the resolution, you can fit a movie in less than 200MB, and still have it look good on the PDA screen.
    • The issue for me is that this is a sony proprietary format. Didn't they learn from their betamax mistakes?

  • I don't think people want movies and portable game systems to be mixed together with such a small display. If the PSP is supposed to be in the market against portable DVD players, it needs to be just as big and better looking.

    Also, the library for the PSP isn't looking all that hot right now. The original Playstation took off because it had a good library of games when it first came out. All the PSP has for it is remakes of games. So what? We need some original games or twists on the original, like Nintend

    • Re:We're not there yet (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Guspaz ( 556486 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @12:23PM (#13398937)
      I don't think it is so much a matter of people not wanting movies on such a small display, it's a matter of not wanting to pay so much for them. Here are my reasons why the PSP failed:

      1) UMD movies cost way too much. They have no special features and are viewed on a very small screen, and people probably already own them. They should cost $10 or less.

      2) Movie playing is crippled, both by overpriced memory cards that cost twice as much as other flash media, and by sony's arbitrary limits on resolutions (User-created videos can't run fullscreen because sony doesn't want them to).

      3) The game library sucks. There are barely any games, most existing games are rehashes of existing PS2 games, and all games are overpriced.

      Here is how Sony can fix each of the three:

      1) Make UMDs cheap, or include them for free with DVDs.

      2) Drop prices on memory sticks until they are in line with MMC and SD cards. There is no reason for a 1GB memory stick pro duo to cost twice as much as an SD card of the same capacity. In addition, remove all arbitrary limitations on permitted formats. Users should be able to encode their video at full screen resolution if they so choose.

      3) The first step is to drop game prices by $10 to $20 each, accross the board. The second step is to drop the price further for games that are simply rehashes of PS2 games. The third step is to convince third party developers to put out games for the PSP. Sony may need to provide financial incentive to get developers to put out PSP games, such as discounts on licencing fees, or gauruntees that the game will sell X copies or Sony will compensate the developer. Something, anything.

      It should also be pointed out that Nintendo's Play Yan brings a lot of the PSP's functionality to the DS, by allowing it to play pretty high quality videos on the DS (albeit at GBA resolution of 240x160), as well as MP3s, at a cost of about $50 US. The future for DS homebrew is also in better shape, because current homebrew solutions rely on hardware (the PassMe or equivalent) and Nintendo isn't doing anything to prevent it like Sony is. Yes, the PSP might have more power for homebrew stuff than the DS, but the point is moot since PSP homebrew specifically requires hardware that is no longer on sale.

      Sony has made a string of bad decisions on the PSP, and now they're paying the price. They were too arrogant in thinking that people would put up with higher prices and silly restrictions.
      • Here are my reasons why the PSP failed:

        I wouldn't count it out just yet. Games are what will make or break it, and it hasn't been great in that department - yet. Then again, the DS hasn't really had many stellar games either until very recently (or on the horizon). This fight isn't over yet. Not by a long shot.
        • Sorry, I meant failed so far, not failed-it's-all-over. To date the PSP has been a failure, but as I mentioned if Sony were to do even some of the things I suggested (Especially the games points as you pointed out) they could potentially still turn it into a viable product.
      • The second step is to drop the price further for games that are simply rehashes of PS2 games.

        In *theory* SCEA is requiring all PS2 ports to have 30% more content in the PSP version. Problem is that SCEJ hasn't adopted this policy last time I checked. The other problem is that this is having a stifling effect on PSP development; I know at least one game that has been delayed and quite possibly cancelled because of the policy.

        3) The first step is to drop game prices by $10 to $20 each, accross the board.

        Ex
        • Not quite as much as a PS2 game. My reasons:

          1) The PSP has a lower resolution screen. This means stuff doesn't have to be as detailed
          2) The PSP isn't as powerful as a PS2, as I understand it it is somewhere between a PS1 and PS2
          3) UMDs don't have as much capacity as a DVD, let alone a dual-layer DVD. UMDs are 1.8GB IIRC. You can't fit as much game media.

          The cost of developing a game with lower detail assets is a lot less.
  • Wait till after first christmas. The PSP was launched way earlier than it needed to be.

  • On DRM (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Digital_Quartz ( 75366 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:35AM (#13398450) Homepage
    Here, I think, we see the real reason why companies like Sony and other big studios are making such a big deal about DRM and copy protection; it has nothing to do with piracy. The studios aren't stupid, and they all know, just like we do, that piracy is not a real problem (or at least, the kind of casual copying that DRM protects against is not a real problem. DRM does nothing to stop internet trading, nor to stop the kind of mass-scale piracy we see in countries like China).

    DRM is all about getting the casual consumer, who can't get around the DRM, to buy their movies on DVD, then re-buy them on HD-DVD, and re-buy them on UMD, and re-buy them on whatever other formats they can come out with.

    Sony is now discovering that people, for some strange unfathomable reason, don't want to pay for the same movie more than once.
    • What on earth does DRM have to do with any of this? The PSP is incapable of reading standard DVD's, and DVD players are incapable of reading UMD's. Sony could have left out the DRM altogether and we'd STILL be stuck with the situation of two incompatible formats.
      • What the parent means is that the people at Sony don't want you to be able to copy your DVDs to, say, a Memory Stick and watch them on your PSP. They want you to buy the same movie again on UMD disk.

        This goes to fair use, in which format shifting may or may not be permissable (some lawyer help me out here) but it should be.

        • Exactly. If Sony REALLY cared about your media experience, if Sony REALLY wanted to create a kick-ass portable player, they would have not used a proprietary format, but used 3" DVDs. Or at least would have released a UMD burner to market, (or better, released software to convert DVDs to some kind of memory stick or UMD format).

          However there is no financial motivation for Sony to do this; they stand to gain (or, at least, believe they stand to gain) more by using a closed format, forcing you to buy your m

          • Re:On DRM (Score:3, Informative)

            by Hadlock ( 143607 )
            Sony has released a utility to shrink DVD movies to mp4 format for playing on your memory stick.

            3" DVDs wouldn't work in 98% of the players out there. UMD is an ISO registered format, and down the road it should replace the MiniDisc (MD) player. UMD burners will hit the market eventually. I wouldn't be suprised if there's a sort of PSP UMD attachment down the road for the PS3 the same way there's a GBA attachment for the gamecube.

            If you're going to be dissapointed in Sony for something, it s

            • 3" DVDs wouldn't work in 98% of the players out there.

              I think you got that number backwards. 3" DVDs wouldn't work in 2% of the players out there. The only players that can't handle 3" DVDs are slot loading.

        • Re:On DRM (Score:2, Interesting)

          by learithe ( 442716 )
          What the parent means is that the people at Sony don't want you to be able to copy your DVDs to, say, a Memory Stick and watch them on your PSP. They want you to buy the same movie again on UMD disk.

          I find it extremely ironic that the result of this proprietary format, is that it is actually easier to download movies from a pirated site and put them on the PSP memory stick than it is to copy them over from your own DVD. Considering how widespread piracy is, I'm willing to be this will result in increased v
          • Well, all you really need is Apollo DVD Backup Pro (or similar) and DeCSS (which isn't tough to find, especially if you are savvy enough to be able to use P2P software). For me, of course, there is an extra step as I own a Tapwave Zodiac 2, not a PSP. But the Kinoma encoder came with it, so no worries.

            Besides, if I'm not using P2P software, there is 0% chance of ending up on a MPAA "John Doe" list. (Although I think the risk is also probably pretty low for that if you stick to, ahem, adult videos. )

            My

  • game support (Score:4, Informative)

    by beowulfy ( 897757 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:41AM (#13398520) Homepage
    I find this un-suprising given the lack of a decent game library at the present time. The driving force behind any successful gamming device launch is of course, great games, which the PSP sorely lacks at the moment. I'm more suprised that sony execs. thought that the UMD movie sales would somehow make up for this. I think if the PSP can improve the quality of its available games by christmas, it should be ok. What it needs right now is a big hit of a game, thats unavailable anywhere else.

  • Games (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Profcrab ( 903077 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:44AM (#13398550)
    It is not suprising that there is a lull now in the PSPs growth as a system. The initial "wow" of the system is over and now it really needs to build its base of games. The movies and other features are all supplementary to the games. The UMD movies are a small market because very few people are going to buy the same movie twice. Once for DVD, which will be people's first consideration, and once for UMD. Sony now has to invest heavily into growing the library of games available for it.

    When they do their first price cut for the system will be a good gauge of how the system is doing. Right now, I think that they shouldn't be too disappointed. Unless they dont have the games lined up, of course.

  • Simple Ansewer (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:46AM (#13398574)
    The thing cost way too much money - plus the games and movies are over priced. WHy are there no good launch titles. Sorry but im not spending $50 on Lumines come on now - its 2005 not 1995. Why are the movies priced higher then DVDs??

  • Launched in a hurry... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by malchus6 ( 870609 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @11:52AM (#13398626)
    They definitely should of waiting until a larger game library would be available before the launch. I think this is clearly a case of Sony not wanting Nintendo to have an even greater amount of lead time than it had.

    I think Nintendo might win the war on this round of handhelds (yet again). Their games are more fun so far, and with the launch of Nintendogs (which appears annoying to me at first, but it was kinda fun after 5 minutes), it will attract a MUCH larger casual and female gaming audience than the PSP. Thats where i think Sony will lose the war on PSP, they might get more on the hardcore gaming market, but casual and female gamers will make a big difference.

    Not to mention the DS is still about half the price of the PSP...
  • I can just imagine it.

    Sony Executive 1: PSP usage is lower than expected?

    Sony Executive 2: Yes, that is what is reported! Where did we go wrong!?

    Sony Engineer: Hm, d'ya think it might be the very high starting price and the scarcity of the launch games?

    Sony Executive 3: What a ridiculous idea!

    Sony Executive 2: Get out of town!

    Sony Executive 1: Obviously we just haven't marketed to the right demographic! More Madden and Grand Theft Auto! And give them a nasty deadline, we don't have much ti

    • Re:Sony Meeting. (Score:5, Funny)

      by mopslik ( 688435 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @12:18PM (#13398865)

      Sony Executive 1: ... More Madden and Grand Theft Auto!

      Sony Executive 4 (from the back): I've got it! Now hear me out on this. People love Madden. And people have spent millions on our "Grand Thief Auto" series.

      Sony Executive 2: "Theft".

      Sony Executive 4: No, they really bought it! Anyway, here's what I'm thinking... "Grand Thief Madden"! You have this super hip character, right? And he takes things and stuff, kind of like a thief. And there's this really cool narration thing going on, doing a play-by-play of the things he's taking. You know, cars and trucks and stuff.

      Sony Executive 3: Like "Grand Theft Auto"?

      Sony Executive 4: "Otto", sure, whatever. His name is irrelevant. The point is that he takes stuff and Madden does the calls. Like he'll take a bike and Madden will say "Hey folks, look here, 'Otto' just took a bike!" or whatever.

      Sony Executive 1 (to all): You hear that, boys? Why couldn't you come up with this during the focus meeting? Go with it!

    • Sony Muscle: ROGER ROGER.

      Sony Executive 1: What's our vector Victor?
  • I had a PSP for about a month. I had Tony Hawk. And I had a headache. Certainly the next evolutionary step was to get 3d acceleration on a portable, but I think the problem is.. handheld gaming should not just be an evolutionary step behind consoles/PCs. They are a platform of their own and should be treated as such.

    As I played Tony Hawk I found myself bringing the screen closer and closer to my face. Why? The character is small, but even worse are the little benches and blocks in the background that
    • One of the reasons that Nintendo is successful with its handheld division is that they make games that are designed so they can be consumed in small doses, making them useful for when you're on the bus, waiting in line, etc. With the PSP, Sony is porting a lot of games that were designed with the living room in mind, and those are games that don't always work well for playing during bathroom breaks. Once Sony starts making good games to play on the toilet, they might start seeing people using their PSPs.
    • Hah, I bought a BE-300 when it first came out...man, the hacks for that thing were amazing...
    • I think Nintendo is going to run into this same problem with the Metroid Hunters game. I played the demo, and it was alright, but nothing great, because a screen that small only allows for so much detail. Mario64 works ok on the DS because it's a cartoony, stylized 3D, that works with simple shapes and bright contrasting colors. The darker feel of the metroid games won't translate well to a small screen, everything just pixelizes into mush.

      But overall, I'm happy with the direction Nintendo took with the DS.

  • Some hints for sony: (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ivan256 ( 17499 ) * on Thursday August 25, 2005 @12:09PM (#13398788)
    Most said they had no plans to buy any UMD movies.

    Hint: Charge a lot less for them! Hell, sell them for $2 when you buy the full DVD as well.. They don't have the same utility as a DVD, so you can't charge the same price.

    ony will be concerned that 50% of users admitted they had not touched their PSP in 'some time'.

    Hint: Come out with some new games! We've all played the launch titles. While you're at it, put a $35 price cap on them. Handheld games aren't worth more than that.

    25% of male users have updated their PSP for Internet use, with only 10% of female users doing same

    Hint: Don't disable functionality with your updates if you want your users to apply them.

    Hint 2: Don't ship your product before it's finished. Most people are too lazy to upgrade.

    I love my PSP, but Sony needs to pull their heads out of their asses.
    • You raise a number of good points, and I'd like to expand on them a bit.

      PSP Game Pricing

      Yeah, I know that a standard of $40 (for the "lower tier" priced games such as Lumines) isn't that much higher than the $30 or $35 for GBA and NDS titles. The problem is that the cheapest PSP games are at the $40 price point. I buy a few games each year at their initial price of $50; the rest, I look for sales or wait for Greatest Hits versions. (That's why I can afford a game collection that numbers 300+.) People simply

      • I am most certainly not interested in paying $40 (Mercury)

        Even if you find it used, I wouldn't recommend paying more then $15 for Mercury. I regret having paid $30 for it. The concept and the graphics are great, and the level design is terrible. They use up all their ideas in the first 30 minutes of gameplay, and the later levels are repeats of the initial levels with the tasks concatenated together. It's really too bad. The idea had a lot of potential. $40 for a two days of casual gameplay (assuming it can
        • That's essentially what the reviews have said as well. I get a lot of Best Buy rewardzone certs (which is how I got my DS for $80) so I'm thinking I'll wait until it's $20 and use a $5 or $10 cert to get that as well. As far as Tony Hawk, that is probably worth $25 to me, since I've got the PS2 version of the game (though obviously that lacks the additions). $40 as the minimal price, though. Whew!

  • I've had a PSP since February... (Score:4, Informative)

    by GTRacer ( 234395 ) <gtracer308@@@yahoo...com> on Thursday August 25, 2005 @12:15PM (#13398845) Homepage Journal
    ...and I went through about two months where I only used if for MP3's if at all. The one and only UMD game I own is Untold Legends, which is fun, and I got my money's worth out of it.

    However, once I discovered emu and homebrew, I've been using it every day. I have ROMs for all the NES and SNES games I own, and I have the Tenchi no Mon browser and pVNC also. It's amazing driving to work, scanning for networks the whole way...

    I feel a little bad for Sony because I only have three more planned UMD game purchases - MGA, GTA and GT4M. Until they deliver the RPG goodness (FF3 and Ultima Exodus is fun enough for now) then I don't think they'll be getting much more money from me.

    On PSP purchases anyway. I just bought my 101st PS2 game last week (Atelier Iris)...

    GTRacer
    - Needs another lifetime to complete the RPGs

    • I've never understood all the people buying a PSP to play emulated games on. For less, you can get a GBA SP and a flash ROM reader, and put all your games on to that. You'll have longer battery life, a more portable system, plus there are a lot more GBA games out there when you get sick of the emulated ones. I guess the PSP is "cooler", but if all you're doing is playing emulated games, why bother?
      • Me neither, but then I didn't *buy* the PSP for emu. I expected the great wave of titles hinted at by the large launch to continue for more than a week. Sony goofed on this part, bigtime.

        I also use it for a portable MP3 player, since I don't already have one. Portable web surfing is nice in a pinch, and it isn't bad as a USB drive either.

        But yeah, it's looking more and more like emu is the PSP's killer app (irony intended).

        GTRacer
        - GBA flashcarts and such aren't that cheap...

    • Your primary use for your PSP is to play decade-old Nintendo games?

      Wow, just wow.

      Yup, PSP == failure. Moving on now.

  • PSP Use.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by shamowfski ( 808477 )
    "Sony will be concerned that 50% of users admitted they had not touched their PSP in 'some time'."

    That's me. Mine has been sitting in a drawer since I flew to vegas 2 months ago. I really only use mine for UMD movies though, the screen is amazing. Speakers are far to quiet to use on a plane though. I own 5 movies, 1 game and a bigger memory stick that I put cartoon files and music on.

  • Game quality (Score:4, Informative)

    by Winterblink ( 575267 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @12:21PM (#13398902) Homepage
    There was an interesting point made on Xplay a while back (say what you will about that show, personally I don't mind it). The point was that even though the DS has a larger game library than the PSP, the number of quality games that each platform has is roughly equal.

    I own a PSP, and I know people with the DS. I'm still enjoying the games I have for my PSP, and by and large they're still enjoying their DS games. But for the most part they've ignored a lot of the games they've bought in favor of Advance Wars or Nintendogs now. Meanwhile I'm enjoying the new 2.0 firmware update and the games I bought when the unit launched, as well as some of the ones that have been released subsequently.

    I prefer the PSP over the DS because of its features, not just the games.
    • "Meanwhile I'm enjoying the new 2.0 firmware update"

      Ugh, it's supposed to be a game console. I get excited with new firmware and drivers for my pc, not for consoles. If they do upgrade, it should be so transparent that the user doesn't even know it happened.
      • I for one think it's a great idea. It makes it so the console's capabilities can be extended beyond what they were at release. That's a GOOD thing for the longevity of the platform. It's not just new features, it can potentially introduce performance enhancements as well.
        • sounds to me like you're in the right market for a laptop, not a portable gaming device.
          • I considered that. However, I also have an affinity for the console style of gameplay the PSP (and the DS for that matter) affords. The fact it had all the other stuff is good, but that's just gravy to me.
      • I suspect that "transparancy" of firmware updating will come with the new games, which will come with the new firmware & a requirement to upgrade in order to play the game, as an antipiracy measure.

        But hey -- a firmware upgrade that lets you browse the net on your wireless handheld gaming device? That sounds pretty enjoyable, to me, just for the geek toy factor!

  • Underutilized (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sc0ttyb ( 833038 ) * on Thursday August 25, 2005 @12:36PM (#13399087)
    I was one of the first people to get one when they came out (yeah, I'm one of those guys) and bought Lumines with it. I played the ever-loving CRAP out of that game before I thought, "Okay, what's next?" The problem is the same with the DS: they just launched without a good selection of titles. Lumines was great and Wipeout was cool, too, but then I started wanting more games to play. I got a copy of Hot Shots Golf and played the crap out of that. There's just nothing going on with the console right now.

    They would make a killing if they released a Best Of collection of well-loved PS1 games, like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (I'd buy that in a heartbeat), the original Tomb Raider, and even a few Resident Evils.

    They should also work on porting PS2 games to the PSP, as that was what I thought it was originally going to be used for primarily. If they offered ports for a bargain price (or even a discount if you already bought the original PS2 title) then they'd sell like crazy. I loved the GBA's Classic series, and I think they could do the same thing on the PSP.

    You know what games are particularly suited for handhelds? Shmups. Your Contra and Gradius type games would do well on the PSP, especially with the built-in WiFi to play with a buddy. I'm not so much a fan of multiplayer fullsize console games, but I do think that handhelds, especially this one, lend themselves to a multiplayer style of play.

    Am I glad I bought a PSP? Sure. I've gotten a ton of enjoyment out of it, but the console is still in its infancy. The PS2 didn't really start seeing great stuff until 1-2 years after it was released, so this should be no different. We'll see!

  • I'm not really surprised, and from the comments that I've seen here no one else is as well. Especially about the UMD movies, I never understood that part. If you wanted to buy a movie, wouldn't you buy it for your DVD played rather then your portable?

  • If they really wanted to advance the UMD format (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Alzheimers ( 467217 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @12:40PM (#13399131)
    They should have given the PSP a way to do video-out via a composite RF cable. That way, all you need to do to watch your movie is plug the PSP into the front A/V ports of your TV and hit Play.

    Even better, a docking station with charger and wireless remote, like the one I have for my iPod connected to my stereo right now. Or, make the remote a wireless controller, and let people play their PSP games on their TV when they're at home. Add a wireless keyboard -- now you've got a Web-browser on your TV.

    Forget about the PSP being a portable gaming device...now it's a full blown information appliance. That's something I'd pay $249.99 for, maybe even get two.
    • No, if they really wanted to advance the UMB format, they should have made it FRICKING WRITEABLE.

      I mean, if you're going to introduce a new data storage format, and you prevent people from being able to store their data on it, it's kind of a barrier to adoption, isn't it?

      Supporting it in the PS3 would also have been nice.

      Jon Acheson
      • There's two ways to advance a format: either make it more accessable, or make it more convenient. I don't think Sony is going to open the Pandora's box that is compatible UMD-Rs, when (in their opinion) that's the purpose of the Memory stick.

        Instead, what they should do is make the UMD easier to use and give it more features. Make it too damn hard to resist. If they were really serious about making the PSP+UMD a viable mainstream entertainment format, then they should be like the iPod and make it useable
        • As UMD functionality doesn't seem to be included in the PS3, I'm hoping the wireless connection available between the PS3 and the PSP will allow UMDs to be played on a TV.

          Shouldn't it be possible to make a video output device that uses the PSP usb port? Hopefully someone will make one of these soon...
    • Web-browser on your TV.

      They tried that. It was called WebTV. It sucked.
  • I think the UMD format would be a lot more useful for people it it was added Netflix. Paying $20 or $30 for something you're only going to watch once on the bus or airplane seems like a rip, but if you could get three new movies a week for the ride to work for $15/month...that's not so bad.
  • I for one love my PSP. It's one of my favorite posessions. Do I like it for the games? Of course not, there's none out yet worth the forty bucks. I love it as a portable video player and emulator.

    I'm always "on the go" and rarely have time to sit down in front of a tv, so I download all of my favorite tv shows onto it and watch them in my spare time, wherever I'm at. I've got an SNES emulator on it and an excellent set of games. I even *gasp* have two UMD movies - Kill Bill v1 & v2. I figure when the PS
  • Is that the device is targeted at a tiny and shrinking demographic. The PSP is the perfect toy of a 22-35 year old travelling consultant working for IGS or a similar big company.

    Problem is, the "Road Warrior" market that the PSP is aimed at is smaller than you might think and already overloaded with gadgetry.

    Alot of people on the road all of the time are too poor to buy this stuff anyway. Thousands of airline employees have received 10-35% pay cuts... blowing $500 on a PSP and a few games & movies is ou
    • True.
      Of course, it helps if someone gives those airline employees a PSP as a gift -- with instructions on how to copy your own dvds to it, so they don't have to buy the overpriced UMDs...

    • Re:The real problem (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Hadlock ( 143607 )
      The PSP is also marketed to the 10+ million people in NYC who take the subway every day, about 40 minutes round trip unless you live on the actual island of Manhattan. Plus the additional 10+ million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and 20+ million people in London and Paris, and other major european cities with mass transit.

      You thought people just bought iPods to look cool? Take a look on a NYC subway between the hours of 6:30am and 9am M-F; even the poor people have iPod shuffles. People nee
      • Like I said, its a small and crowded market. The US has over 300 million residents -- 10-40 million people, of which probably about 30% is in the 18-35 male age bracket that the PSP will sell to, is a niche market.

        There are any number of diversions & gadgets hawked at mass transit users -- its a saturated market. Everything from the 50 cent newspaper to iPods & walkman to books, Nintendo and Sony handhelds. Almost all of those alternatives are cheaper to obtain and cheaper in the long run than the P
        • You are severely disillusioned, or trying to save face, if you think 40 million people is a "niche market".
          • Not really. Less than a third of that 40 million has any interest in playing video games on a train. That brings you to 13.5 million.

            Of those, at least two-thirds are price conscious, $300+$250 of accessories to play video games on the train is too much coin. Some schmuck commuting on the Long Island RR for a $50k/yr job doesn't have $550 for games. That leaves you with 4.5 million.

            Those 4.5 million are the elite of business and commuting travel. They spend alot of money, and everyone knows that and is hock

  • Wow I'm lucky I didn't buy that load of crap (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gameboyhippo ( 827141 ) on Thursday August 25, 2005 @02:00PM (#13400009) Journal
    Normally I like to own every game console. I have to rationalize why not to buy a game system when it comes out. Like the XBox. I didn't buy it because it only produced games that would appeal to 14 - 35 year old bachelors (who are as clueless about girls as the developers of those games). I think I can count all the XBox exclusives I want on one hand.

    With the PSP, it was even easier to rationalize why not to get it. It did the opposite of everything I want a handheld game console to do!

    #1. Affordability. Handheld consoles should be cheaper and so should the games. I bought Nitendogs the other day for $30. Had this been a PSP game, it would have cost $50.

    #2. There are no G rated UMD movies. After awhile, you'll probably find a decline in E rated games as well. The demographics are going to change for the PSP to be a hardcore gamer only console since the family gamer can't afford it.

    #3. I don't want to be forced to buy bells & whistles. If I want to buy a movie, it's going to be DVD. Why should I be forced to buy a UMD player that I'm not going to use?

    If Sony wants my buisness, they should lower the price of the PSP and come out with a strong line of family centered games. Sure they can't release awesome titles like Nintendogs or Kirby's Canves Curse, but they can make their own 1st party family centric game division.

    Oh, and there is a glitch in the posting. If you enter your username, and password, and don't write a body, it'll log you in without having to type in the secret word.
    • It's rather harsh to call something "a load of crap" simply because it doesn't fit your gaming tastes.

      To me, the PSP seems designed to appeal to older users, while the DS appeals to younger/family-oriented users. True that this is stereotypical, but this is how I see it for the games/features in general.
  • that nobody really wants to pay to watch a movie on a tiny screen. mp3 player makers, take not: i don't want a video ipod. i don't want movies on my cell phone. if i travel enough to need movies, i'll use my laptop or a 6-8" dvd player. game makers, make games. don't try to make it a portable movie player and then be surprised when it doesn't sell well because you put games on the backburner.
  • The whole problem is Sony's TV ads. Fire up some frantic Franz Ferdinand music, then show hip urban kids laughing, running, pushing each other around in shopping carts, yeah!! So social! So trendy!

    The reality is, the PSP is being used by the pale kid in the corner, head down and headphones on. He hasn't talked to anyone for the past three hours. And he's now stone broke.
  • Device targeted at mature (older) gamers not played as much as it isn't really suitable to use in the small portions of time adults have to play a device.

    "I don't want to lug it around, it's too expensive to play on the subway"

    "I have 15min to kill guess I'll spend half that waiting for the game to load"

    "I am responsible enough not to buy the same movie twice"

    Shocking! More at 11:00
  • Sony, you own a premium niche of the Home Theater market. I have noticed that PVRs are very popular. You have your own memory stick and could make your own specially copy protected memory sticks if you so desired. This means you could create a host of Sony brand media devices that would compliment each other. The experience of owning an "All Sony" house would mean a richer overall user experience full of Sony only features.

    In example:

    Create a PVR that can record movies and transcode them into PSP comp

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