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Portables (Games) Sony

PSP Still Struggling For Notice 111

Posted by Zonk from the more-games-might-help dept.
TheStreet.com is reporting that the 360 has captured the hype machine for this Christmas season. The PSP, meanwhile, is still struggling for mindshare compared to Nintendo's offerings. From the article: "Sony launched the PSP in the U.S. to great acclaim earlier this year and sold more than half a million units in the first two days. The device marked the first effort by Sony, the leader in the console game industry for the last 10 years with its PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems, to enter the portable game market, which has been dominated by Nintendo ... Right now, the PSP's threat to Nintendo -- much less to Apple -- remains hypothetical. Sales of the PSP are disappointing thus far, particularly this holiday season. Through the end of October, Sony had sold just 1.6 million of the devices after the first days' sales flurry."
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PSP Still Struggling For Notice More

PSP Still Struggling For Notice

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  • Maybe... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dlvu5 ( 661576 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:01PM (#14205614)
    I bet if they stopped pissing off their consumer base we'd be more apt to purchase their products. Just a suggestion Sony execs...
    • A mighty fine point. I think there's two methods to achieve this end:

      1. Allow more customization of the platform. Seriously, there needs to be more to this device than movies, mostly crappy or just plain ported games (giving the sensation of deja vu), and a handful of mp3s that are fighting for space with your save files. The only problem is that the hardware Sony has already locked themselves into with this device limits some of the expansion capability of it unless they want to turn it into a gamer's PDA
      • The thing is way too freaking large and heavy for a PDA. It's about as heavy as maybe three PDAs and as thick as two.

        Also, I'm guessing that Sony would rather not sell a PSP to a person that's likely only to run an emulator.

        I think the PSP is cool and all, it's pretty expensive. One PSP game costs about as much as two GBA games, 1.5 DS games. One PSP costs about as much as three SPs or two DSs. It's not hard to imagine why the PSP might not perform so well (economically) in comparison despite the unit b
        • I have a first-gen Japanese PSP, and it is as heavy as you describe. I bought an American one last week, and was absolutely shocked by how much lighter it was than the original model. It was perhaps one-third to one-half as heavy as the Japanese PSP, and far more comfortable for extended play periods. Carrying it around still requires a case, but it seems to be a step in the right direction.
    • If you step out of the Slashdot echo chamber once in a while, you'd realize that nobody cares about the rootkit. Peole are still throwing money at Sony products, be it hardware or media.
      • This is very true. Most people don't give a fuck about the technology.
      • Or maybe I know several hundred people and yes, REAL people!!! from real life!!! who are mad as hell at Sony not just about that but about a lot of the thigns that they have limited on the PSP
        • "Several hundred people" is at best a drop in the bucket compared to a market composed of tens of millions of people in this country alone. Sony is built on the backs of far more than "several hundred people."

          If you want to make a personal choice to avoid tainting yourself by owning further Sony products, I understand, agree with and applaud your efforts. But don't dellude yourself into thinking that Sony actually notices, let alone cares. If you're going to do it, make sure you're doing it for yourself,
        • I very much doubt that anyone in the world has talked to several hundred people that even own a PSP. I mean who regularly talks to that many people anyway? Let alone that many who own a specific piece of hardware, and who have even heard of the rootkit.

  • What the-- (Score:3)

    by daeley ( 126313 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:03PM (#14205628) Homepage
    Through the end of October, Sony had sold just 1.6 million of the devices after the first days' sales flurry.

    Erm, what? How many have they sold? And when? According to the wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] they have sold 10 million units worldwide through October 21st, 4.5 million in the US alone.

    (This isn't a comment on whether those are disappointing numbers or not, just that the quoted sentence was pretty unhelpful.)

    • Re:What the-- (Score:5, Informative)

      by buffer-overflowed ( 588867 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:12PM (#14205703) Journal
      You're confusing shipped with sold. The article makes the distinction.

      IE: If retailers order 10 for their stock and don't sell them, you've shipped 10 units, but you're not shipping more until some of those 10 units sell.

      I'm not sure how many units Nintendo has actually shipped worldwide. I'm positive it's higher than 10 mil if they've sold 8 mil.
      • You're confusing shipped with sold

        You're right, I did mis-read that in the Wiki article. The sentence I referred to above is still confusing as hell though. :)

        • No joke. They go from referring to units sold to units shipped.

          According to the article(not the wikipedia link), Sony has sold 1.6 mil in the US. They've sold about that in Japan too. So I'm guessing they're floating at somewhere between 4 and 5 million.
    • According to the wikipedia article, Sony shipped 10 million units. It doesn't mean that people bought them all. I see lots of PSPs just sitting in the store display cases.
    • I _think_ I've found the source of the error. Sony have indeed sold 1.6 million PSPs to date. This year. In Japan.
    • On what planet is Wikipedia a reliable source for things like sales numbers? Those could have been pulled from any worthless Sony press release that was never vetted by anyone outside the company - hell they could have even been posted BY Sony. If you're going to quote sales numbers, at least use a website that has some credibility.

  • Who are these people? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:04PM (#14205639)
    "It's just been slow out of the gate."

    Slow out the gate? Wtf? Slow out the gate is having your console selling game released 6 months AFTER the system is released. Having a PS2 port come out a YEAR after the system is released is trying to breath life into the dead.

    Sony just plain mismanaged the PSP. The movies offer little that DVDs don't outmatch, let alone the bonuses. The games are few, far and are often times nothing more than ports. Online capabilities is a joke, and trying to stop the PSP hackers has more or less alienated the PSP as a portable hackable Xbox.

    • Re:Who are these people? (Score:1, Informative)

      by oGMo ( 379 )

      Slow out the gate? Wtf? Slow out the gate is having your console selling game released 6 months AFTER the system is released. Having a PS2 port come out a YEAR after the system is released is trying to breath life into the dead.

      What, exactly, does this sentence mean... in English? "Having your console selling game released 6 month after the system is released"? What PS2 port came out a year after the system was released? The system hasn't even been out for a year.

      Sony just plain mismanaged the

      • When I was a teenager I cared enough about videogames to play them everywhere. These days I like playing the PS2 and xbox, and when I do I want the best graphics and experience. Therefore I'm never going to care about re-worked versions of Darkstalkers, Twisted Metal, Metal Gear Solid, Wipeout, Ridge Racer, Grand Theft Auto 3, Need For Speed Underground, MediEval, Burnout 3, and SOCOM.

        You say they're not ports, but did the gameplay change? No? Then they're just the same old games but probably with some

        • Re:Who are these people? (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Then I guess you didn't buy Halo 2 after you bought Halo. You didn't buy Madden 2006 after you bought Madden 2005. You didn't buy Grand Theft Auto: Vice City after you bought GTA3. Afterall, by your definition of "same old game", all of those sequels didn't really have a gameplay change. They were the same old game, so they weren't worth playing. Judging by the number of people that bought the sequels, you're in the minority.

          All of the games you listed had new content in each and every one of them, and
          • You picked some bad examples, because Halo 2 looked much better than the original. Madden 06 wasn't enough of an improvement to shell out money for. Vice City was good and fun along with GTA3, but San Andreas didn't hold my interest. As for comparing Mario 64 to SMB3, I think it's more telling to compare Burnout 3 on the xbox to Burnout on the PSP. Which one looks and controls better? xbox.
            • it kills me how people try to compare a handheld to a console. its not meant to be a purely portable console. never has been. people didnt cry because super mario land on the gameboy didnt look as great as super mario world on the supernintendo. people never compared their gameboys to their nintendo consoles... why are we starting to now? i guess we have to blame sony for making the difference so close to whats considered current generation that we naturally expect that we should be able to.

              just because the
        • When I was a teenager I cared enough about videogames to play them everywhere. These days I like playing the PS2 and xbox, and when I do I want the best graphics and experience. Therefore I'm never going to care about re-worked versions of Darkstalkers, Twisted Metal, Metal Gear Solid, Wipeout, Ridge Racer, Grand Theft Auto 3, Need For Speed Underground, MediEval, Burnout 3, and SOCOM.

          Well let me say that I'm just the opposite..

          When I was teenager I didn't mind the fact that I had to be tied down to a

  • It gets worse for the PSP (Score:3, Informative)

    by buffer-overflowed ( 588867 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:04PM (#14205645) Journal
    in Japan. Where Animal Crossing[Forest] is pulling another Nintendogs and widening the gap even further. Nov 21 - 27. [the-magicbox.com]
    • in Japan. Where Animal Crossing[Forest] is pulling another Nintendogs and widening the gap even further. Nov 21 - 27.

      Huh? They sold 1.6 million this year, vs 2.2 million DS's. That's a gap of less than 500k, and these are devices that cost considerably more. The chart shows they've sold more than the PS2! So you look at a 7-day period and claim the sales are better? I'm sure we can find an arbitrary 7-day period where the PSP sold more, too.

      • Because it bucks Sony fan predictions that the huge lead the DS went into(over 1 million units in japan alone) this year with(because of shortages, right, the figures now say differently) would somehow be reversed. Instead the short-term trend we saw up until March(5k more PSPs per DSes sold per 2-week period) reversed drastically with Nintendogs, calmed down again(but the PSP never regained a sales lead) and is getting worse again with Animal Crossing. The game sales trend has continued(no PSP game has y

        • The PSP is the gamegear 2.0, Sony has horridly failed to dethrone Nintendo in the handheld space, and unless something drastic happens, soon, it's all-but-dead. Things are bleak, hope you didn't buy one.

          Eh. We'll see. It hasn't even been a year yet, no less five. Far too soon to look back and tell. Remember, the PS1 had a really, really slow start as well. They were also up against Nintendo, and Sega. Two huge names in the industry, and no one expects the Playstation to go anywhere. Nor did it,

          • Unfortunately, I'm thinking at this point, they've played the GTA exclusive card and that hasn't gone over well. The Final Fantasy card is coming up next with Crisis Core, but that's still in the very early phases of development, and it's not even anything NEW, it's part of the FF7 compilation. I'm pretty sure once Advent Children is officially released here (hey Sony and Square, where the heck is it?) and Dirge of Cerberus is out, if people aren't sick of Cloud & Co., maybe it'll sell.

            Besides, Square
          • I dunno. I thought GTA would make a difference, it hasn't seemed to. FF may pull a repeat and make a difference, but there's 2 FFs hitting the DS as well, so who knows...

            Also, when the PS was released, the N64 hadn't hit yet, and SEGA had gone through the whole series of half-supported addons, then complimented that with a seeming allergy to money with the Saturn.

            We'll see, it's not over yet, but things really aren't looking good for Sony.
        • wow. thats kinda harsh. nintendo consoles have lived a wonderful life and released a bunch of great software classics despite coming in last place in the last two generations.

          because nintendo is in first place on the handheld front does not equate to "teh pwning of the psp!1!!1!ONE!ONE!!!1!". the psp has already outsold the gamegear [relative to the timeframe]. as for title slowdown... what are you talking about? i assume you dont own a psp and therefore are not aware of the titles coming down the pipe.

          hard
      • "That's a gap of less than 500k,"

        500k is around 30% of the 1.6 million PSPs out there. 30% is a sizeable gap.

        "and these are devices that cost considerably more."

        And that helps how? Fewer units is fewer units. Game companies don't care about how much the hardware costs so much as how large the installed base is.

        "The chart shows they've sold more than the PS2!"

        This is Japan we're talking about: everybody there already owns 8 PS2s, one of each color (heck, even I have two). And the PS2 is on the wane ("ZO
      • So you look at a 7-day period and claim the sales are better? I'm sure we can find an arbitrary 7-day period where the PSP sold more, too.

        It's certainly possible but not likely [photobucket.com]. More info on Japanese sales [pcvsconsole.com].

  • Still trying to decide... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Havenwar ( 867124 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:04PM (#14205647)
    Hmm.. I don't know... should I buy one... hmmm... Do they come with a free rootkit, or is that extra this time around?
  • 1. It's cheaper to get a used PS2, portable DVD player, and AC inverter than it is to get a PSP. Sure the setup I mention is only portable in the military sense, but that's good enough for a lot of people. AND you get a more powerful machine with more games on it. AND you can play DVDs instead of those UMDs.

    2. Poor handling of QC regarding the monitors have a lot of people afraid of QC issues with the unit. If Sony's selling the unit just to sell the games, they should spend whatever it takes to make su

  • Keep it or ditch it? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ajservo ( 708572 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:23PM (#14205778)
    I thought about selling mine a few months back, but then decided against it when a working SNES emulator came out. SNES and NES games ALONE make the thing worth the $250. No amount of money could convince me that those $20 game in a joystick things are worthwhile when I can play Super Metroid, Bionic Commando, or Burgertime in my hands.

    The PSP's been the best handheld ever in my opinion.

    As soon as someone cracks the new firmware, 2.6?, I'll go games shopping again, since the two games I've waited for are out now. (Boku no watashi no katamari damashii and GTA, for those keeping score...)

    • Well (Score:4, Funny)

      by Strell ( 877448 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:26PM (#14205807)
      Any system where you can play a lot of Nintendo games HAS to be a good system.

      ...

      Wait...

    • Re:Keep it or ditch it? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Hitto ( 913085 )
      So, you bought yourself a very expensive NES and SNES emulator?
      • Really sad when the draw of your uber-1337 powerful system is the ability to emulate games that your competitor (and other companies) made between 1983 and 1994. Emulating seems to be the only major draw for the system that I've been consistently hearing.

        If anything it's giving more credibility to Nintendo's Virtual Console idea for the Revolution.
    • Errr you realise that there are SNES and NES emulators for the Nintendo handhelds as well right?
      • ### Errr you realise that there are SNES and NES emulators for the Nintendo handhelds as well right?

        Not sure how well the PSP SNES Emulator works, but SNESDS, a SNES emulator for NintendoDS, is not really that usable, its a good proof of concept, but not really much more, havn't tested the SNES emu for GBA, might be more solid, but GBA lacks a few buttons.

        Beside from that Nintendo handhelds have no way to load ROMs, you need extra hardware to accomplish that and that hardware is quite expensive (~100EUR), w
        • If you tweak your settings on the PSP, only games that don't go ultra heavy on the Mode7 are VERY playable.

          The SNES emulator on the PSP runs quite well.

        • These days you can get SD based carts for the DS for about 50 quid including the adapter to play DS ROMs. Which means its still about 50 quid cheaper in total than the PSP. Also all your media for it will be cheap multifunctional SD.

          I dont know how recently you tried the SNES emulator but it can play a fair few games at full speed, and each update a great deal more are added. A fair distance from being completed and I dont think on par with the PSP but SNES9x (the PSP one ive tried. There may be others.) is
        • Supercard is about $35-$50 depending who you buy it from. Then you can use SD or CF cards and play DS and SP ROMs.
    • I've been meaning to get the SNES and NES emus loaded up on my DS, but I'm having too much fun with new stuff right now. I'm assuming there will be a lull in the DS games again at some point and I'll hit the portable emu then.

  • PSP needs more good ORIGINAL games (Score:4, Insightful)

    by spir0 ( 319821 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:25PM (#14205804) Homepage Journal
    99% of the games are just rehashes of older games or properties. There's nothing new and exciting..

    Gripshift [gripshiftgame.com] is the most original game I've seen in a while on any console. Currently it's the only PSP game I'm playing. I own several others, but they just didn't last long because I've played them all before..

    Even better, Gripshift was made right here in little old New Zealand. :)
  • When the PSP released I looked at the launch titles and only found one of any interest. The name escapes me at the moment, but the reviews of it placed it as a stripped down version of Baldur's Gate on the PS2, which was already a pretty lean action-adventure title. The way I saw it, I could spend about $350 for one game. No thanks, I can forgo a half-assed version of a game type I like at that price. Since then, I've not really even looked at what is releasing for the system, nor have I heard from anyo

  • I wonder why.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Durinthal ( 791855 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:27PM (#14205818)
    As of this posting, the only positive comments about the PSP I've seen in this article are solely based on emulating older Nintendo consoles. I guess it's not a Sony product that people really want, is it?
    • No it's not... And the best part is all the people willing to pay sony AU$400 in order to play nintendo games without paying for them. Coz you know, you'd be hard pressed to get every game snes game you've ever wanted or dreamt of as a child for $400...
    • the psp is an incredible piece of machinery. as of now, i havent regretted buying mine. im still waiting on something exclusive to the ds before buying one of those too, but the psp serves me fine.

      wipeout pure is still releasing more downloadable content, lumines is still just as addictive. Metal Gear Acid and ridge racer are still begging me to finish them. i get to play catchup on tv shows i missed by downloading and encoding them beforehand. i dont see what the big fuss is over. maybe its just that i don

  • it needs games (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I have both a PSP and a DS. My PSP is gathering dust. Maybe if there were somge worth while games people would care about the PSP?

    • Lumines. It's the only game I've bought so far and both myself and my girlfriend are terribly addicted.

      I must be the only person on Slashdot who bought a PSP and is happy with it as is. I don't care for modding it, hell I don't even care for watching movies on it. I got it only to play games and that's something it does very well.

      Given the price difference between the PSP and the DS, I can see why the DS is doing a much better job. Plus I do think that the DS has more games that are good. The PSP certa

      • It's the only game I've bought so far and both myself and my girlfriend are terribly addicted.
        I must be the only person on Slashdot who bought a PSP and is happy with it as is.

        Maybe I misread, so let me get this straight: You shelled out the full price of the PSP, bought only 1 (in words: one) game for it and are happy with your purchase?

        Either you bought your PSP only a few days ago, or you're so stinking rich that you don't mind paying hundreds of dollars for being able to play one single game.

        • I've had it about 2 months.

          It came with Ridge Racer as part of the bundle, so I actually own 2 (in words: two) games and I am happy with my purchase!

          I would not say I am stinking rich by any measure, but the PSP wasn't a terrible tax on the wallet because I shopped around for ages and eventually got one duty free.

          I don't play it that much, I would say probably 2 or 3 hours a week tops. Mostly I use it while waiting for stuff (in the care while waiting for GF to come out of work, while sitting in the

          • I've had my DS for about 5 months. I own about 20 games. Part of the difference may be that I use it a lot more than you do. I commute to work by train, so there's an hour of gaming I have every weekday, no matter what. I simply can't play the same game for months. Or even weeks. Because sooner or later, you finish it, or it gets boring. Or you simply need something new. Sure, Meteos is awesome, but if I had to play Meteos an hour every day, I'd have a nervous breakdown.

            Or maybe you aren't playing more bec

      • If you like Lumines get Meteos for the DS it's a much faster and much more fun game.

        I like Lumines and I play it on my roommates PSP but to be honest it's no where near as fun as Meteos.

        Even my anti-Nintendo sony fanboy roommate agrees.

  • Where are the games? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:31PM (#14205845) Homepage
    As with most systems, the problem is the games. What great PSP games are there? Lumines was great, but it launched with the system back in Spring. I liked Hot Shots Golf (not a new title), but it came out in July. There hasn't been much since then. I played Burnout: Revenge when it came out (October?), but it wasn't fresh (just Burnout 3 repackaged). GTA:LCS came out to little fanfare (which suprised me). I've played it, and while it was interesting, the controlls were terrible (they are bad enough on the consoles, but without the second stick things are VERY tough). I still don't see how all the reviews gave it high marks (9 or 10 out of 10) despite some obvious flaws as such (it is a technical marvel, but it had flaws).

    So I'm left with my PSP and almost no games. I've played others (Mercury, Twisted Metal, and a few others) but there is no killer game for the PSP in my eyes (Lumines is great, but I don't think it was THAT great); and there doesn't seem to be in anyone else's (I figured it would be GTA:LCS, but I guess I was wrong).

    Compare that to the DS. It was slow at first but we got Yoshi's Touch & Go, Wario Ware, Castlevania, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, Mr Driller (not new, but the second screen really helped), Phoenix Wright, Kirby: Cursed Canvas, Trauma Center, Mario & Luigi, and I know there are some I'm leaving out. Nintendogs was a massive breakout hit.

    The DS has more great games right now, the PSP doesn't. Some of the titles they promoted haven't done well (Death Jr. turned out to be a bit of a dud). The mainstays aren't there (no MGS, Acid doesn't count; GTA didn't have a big impact; a Ratchet & Clank or Jak & Daxter game isn't out yet; we're waiting on Gran Turismo Mobile; etc). A quick look at the release date calendar over at IGN shows nothing I am interested in with a real date, or even a quarter. The next stuff is just "TBA '06". The only thing I can think of that is out now that I want to see is Tokobot which looks interesting but the reviews range from a 50% to a 90% and are all over the map (means it will be a rental at best).

    I've had fun with my PSP, but it will be a while before the next game I'm interested in comes out. (Can't even think of what it is). But the DS has those games that just came out I mentioned (Mario & Luigi, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart) plus more comming (Metroid Prime Hunters) in the not to distant future. There is even a title in the Black & White series scheduled to come out in February. And let's not forget the new

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • I agree with you and the GP. I LOVE MY DS. I only bought it for Mario Kart, but while waiting on that I got some good DS games, some classic games that got released for the GBA (final fantasy 1&2, SMB3, Zelda:ALTTP).

        Being one with disposable income enough to buy a game now and again, my DS is getting more play than my xbox, PC, PS2 combined. It is by far my favorite system since the NES. And thats saying alot from a guy who has gotten pretty much every system in the last 15 years (save original PS and
    • There have been several great games for the PSP, but nothing for the past several months. When I first got it, I promptly started writing software [sourceforge.net] for it, but it's been sitting on a shelf since summer - there's been nothing new worth playing and the !#@$!@# DRM and half measures like streaming-only RSS feeds really just leave me frustrated.
    • You hit the nail on the head. My gf and I were looking at both the PSP and the DS last Spring since we were going on some long summer trips. The PSP had and still has no games while the DS and an encredible amount of great games. With PSP spying on there customers and making crappy electronics(my school bought Sony VIOS, long story but its like a laptop made of glass) no wonder no one wants it. The only thing the PSP has is better graphics, which dont matter in crappy games and horrible controls(thats what

  • Overheard... (Score:4, Funny)

    by porcupine8 ( 816071 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @05:37PM (#14205891) Journal
    While Christmas shopping this weekend, I heard a staff member ask a customer on the phone: "You're looking for Mario Kart for PSP?"

    Doh! Looks like someone will be asking for a DS for Christmas... Even when Sony manages to get one sold, they still haven't truly taken the "mindshare"...

  • I Saw One on Display (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I saw one of these on display at my local gaming store, and decided to try it out. I started up a game and... ........ just stood there waiting for it to load.

    Finally I got to the menu and tried to start a new game and ...... ...I had to just stand there waiting again.

    I actually felt kind of stupid just standing there waiting for this thing to load. I started looking around and saw the new Xbox 360 displayed impressively on a high resolution monitor. I noticed all the new DS games I'd like to play. I no
    • thats odd. where do you live? the US?

      unless the owner set his personal PSP out so that everyone can play around with it, its well known that sony doesnt have or permit PSP display units. nice try though...

  • Stating the Obvious (Score:1, Informative)

    by 3dfxgamer ( 897727 )
    Apple vs. Microsoft
    Game Gear vs. Gameboy
    PSP vs. Nintendo DS
    The common denominator is the price difference. The fact that a product is far superior doesn't mean that it will sell better. People will usually go with a lower cost alternative. And often if they can afford the more expensive product they end up buying the cheaper one also.
    • It worked so well for the Xbox and PS2, amirite?
    • If you consider the PSP superior. I don't. I find the touchpad adds a lot of value to gaming, I find the hardware to be more durable on the DS (no way to fold up a PSP to protect the screen). The only way PSP might be "better" is UMD movies. And I don't want to play UMD movies. And the games for DS are MUCH better. So PSP looks like it had 2 strikes- lower quality and higher price.
    • What about:

      PS2 and Xbox vs Gamecube?

    • Re:Stating the Obvious (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      how about..

      Windows vs Linux
      MS Office vs OpenOffice
      SQL Server vs PostgreSQL
    • Can ANYBODY name a single console that won the console wars for 1 generation based on the fact that it had better technical specs? I can't think of a single one. I have no idea why people think that will be the case this generation. I don't understand why Nintendo having lower specs means it will be in last place when that has never been the case before. People said Nintendo would lose because of the lack of online gameplay also which was a complete load of shit I mean seriously if you think about it the PS
  • One thing I am wondering, why doesn't the PSP have a way to run Java programms? A Java environment could give the PSP the protection that Sony wants and at the same time allow easy homebrew development. It would also be a easy way to kill most firmware hacking, since a Java environment would be much easier to work with. Is there any special reason why Sony hasn't gone that route? For me that would kind of be a killer-feature and make me buy a PSP.

  • As a PSP owner, let me just say... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Wednesday December 07, 2005 @07:24PM (#14206477)
    ... hold off your purchase until the SNES emulator(s) gets a little more streamlined. First gen games run fine with no frame skipping, but it chokes a bit on Super Metroid.

    Of course, if you're more interested in NES, go for it. I haven't tried Genny/MD yet, but I imagine it runs better than the SNES code (i. e. full speed).

    I got my PSP because of what I could put on it (ROMs and the occasional MP3, but I got something smaller that plays MP3s with no DRM crap), not for what Sony could put on. I have yet to see any compelling UMDs to buy, be it game or movie (but my opinion of the movies may be skewed by my refusal to buy movies from MPAA members).

    Modern games? Well, I know I'm getting Animal Crossing for Christmas...

    Note to trolls: I've only played the ROMs of cartridges I own (and still own) and dumped myself with my SWC. Take your holier-than-thou attitude and shove it.
  • Does Sony still have good people at any level, in any capacity? You would think they are following the rats off the ship as fast as they can. Given the quality of their products, the bad management and the terrible PR, I find myself wondering if Sony is not in some sort of a death-spiral. As big as they are, this can happen. And after the rootkit fiasco, I also find myself wondering if this would really be a bad thing.
    • Does Sony still have good people at any level, in any capacity?

      Well, there are probably a lot of grunts who are honest, but it seems nearly all who make decisions worth any value are completely brain-dead.

  • TheStreet.com is reporting that the 360 has captured the hype machine for this Christmas season.

    Too bad the hype card is only played when the product fails to meet expectations and fails to gain word-of-mouth marketing (which great products always have).

    Oh wait, I think I misread the article. Maybe the Hype Machine is the name (or codename) of the next generation of XBox.

    I just got confused prematurely (my girlfriend hates it too).

  • Backwards compatibility (Score:3)

    by BenjyD ( 316700 ) on Thursday December 08, 2005 @04:40AM (#14208971)
    I think a major factor for the DS's success is the GBA. Most gamers who want a handheld will already have a GBA, so the fact that the DS is cheap and allows them to play their GBA games on a better screen makes it much more attractive, even without the excellent games. I know that was part of my decision. Also, the huge success of the GBA means there is a large ready-made pool of developers who will transition to the DS.
    • The three basic factors from what I can tell are:

      Nintendo has just owned, owned the portable market with the GB line, so it's got the established base of developers for that.

      Nintendo pays attention to its customer base about things like backward compatibility. The GBA could also play GBColor games. The Revolution supposedly will play Gamecube titles. (Gamecube couldn't pull this off, because N64 games were cartridges and anyway N64 was already suffering from too few titles.) In general Nintendo just do

  • I didn't buy mine new, but instead picked it up from someone that didn't want their PSP anymore. True, the $250 price tag is still a little steep ($200 or less would be a lot easier to manage), but so far I'm very impressed. The game came with Ridge Racer and I purchased Lumines right away. Yes I know that Lumines is now an "old" title, but to a fresh user, it's great. I'm even enjoying Ridge Racer (I didn't play many Ridge Racer games for PS1 or PS2, so this has my interest). Sure there might be a lot

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