PSP Go With 16GB Memory and Bluetooth Leaked 190
Lyonhrt writes "Engadget and Gizmodo have spilled the beans on the news of the new UMD-less PSP Go that comes with 16GB of memory and a slide screen; also among the features will be built-in Bluetooth and an undisclosed memory slot. The console will be sold alongside the PSP-3000, but there are no details on price at this time. This is obviously Sony's answer to the lost battle with the PSP Homebrew and Hacking Communities, which have cost many thousands of lost sales with custom firmwares."
Who cares? (Score:1, Insightful)
How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:5, Insightful)
To run custom PSP firmware, you would in fact need a PSP to run it.... custom firmware only increases sales through increased usability and features.
I wonder how existing PSP owners will react (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope that existing users can register their games through PSN. Perhaps a firmware update for the UMD models would allow people to register games online. Alternatively Sony should sell a UMD docking station for the Go and allow syncing that way. The software would have to occasionally re-validate games to prevent people renting / borrowing games but it must be feasible.
It would be very odd if Sony don't offer existing users any migration path
I dispute the "Lost Sales" part. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure they've lost a few, but most pirates are cheap assholes who wouldn't have bought the games had they not been able to pirate them instead. I've been around quite a few pirates, most pirates are cheap bums who don't like they fact they have to buy the player/console and get upset over having to buy the "expensive" blank media needed to pirate. Movies and would prefer to use some other persons bandwidth to do downloading if possible.
On the other hand, the "backup" crowd, such as I'm actually a part of, probably spend more on their devices than the normal kid who has his mommy buy him a few games.
I've got around 15 PSP games, I've got about 5 genuine Magic Gate compliant memory cards ranging from 256 MB to 16GB, I bought my PSP 2000 new off the shelf, and I actually have about 1/2 dozen UMD movies along with some various other accessories. Every PSP game on my memory cards were legally purchased, only one used, the rest were out of the shrink wrap.
Considering the tons of music CD's I have all ripped and on my Iriver and iPhone, I would say there's a lot of hot air where the average consumer was concerned. If Sony wants to go after real pirates they need to focus on Flea Markets and the gas stations/etc.... that sell burned CD's with Xeroxed pictures in the cases, not people who don't want to carry a ton of UMD's. Of course I'll admit 16GB on board with digital distribution is a step in the right direction.
Re:How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:5, Insightful)
If genuine homebrewers are shocked by this accusation, there is a simple solution. Disable iso record / playback functionality in custom firmware. Let people build homebrew apps but prevent people from playing warez. Let's see how popular custom firmware is then.
Irrelevant (Score:5, Insightful)
How on earth does this have anything to do with the PSP hacking? How does this affect that at all, aside from being yet another revision to hack?
The lack of UMD drive is completely irrelevant, bluetooth is irrelevant and having 16GB of onboard flash memory is only going to benefit the hackers if and when they figure out a way to install custom firmware on this.
However, the PSP-3000, right this second CANNOT be hacked or flashed with custom firmware. It's close, recent developments have allowed all PSP-2000s to be temporarily flashed, but as I said this is recent (maybe a couple of weeks? Although the exploit is still only about 3 months old). Sony didn't have to come up with an "answer", they already had one and it took until recently for them to hack it. This summary is useless.
Re:D.O.A (Score:4, Insightful)
I think they are betting that the distribution model will completely change over the next 5 years or so. Your old psp and the umd's don't automatically stop working just because they released a new piece of hardware. I am assuming that you will be able to download new games on the older psp's as well.
In the long term they want to compete with the iPhone, high end mp3 players and pda's. I think its a smart move, it seems to signal an impending switch to download only game sales, they might be able to come up with a way of using the model to prevent piracy which would make the platform more attractive to developers. Not removing the umd would make the product less competitive in the market in the long run.
As a psp lite owner I think it needs a keyboard and/or touch screen to make it really useful and a threat to the likes of Apple.
Re:How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:1, Insightful)
You may be right, but you can't prove it with a made up construct like "Common sense". Common sense infers common history and experience.
I've always used custom firmware, for hacking around with the IR and running emulators of my old systems. I've never copied a single PSP game. Common sense for me would say that very few people use custom firmware to pirate games.
If you think the opposite, it's possible that you're projecting your own wants and moral position.
Re:How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:3, Insightful)
In most maffia circles violence is frowned heavily upon.
Atleast, that's what they say.
Re:Who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you any estimated time of arrival for these three?
Re:I wonder how existing PSP owners will react (Score:3, Insightful)
You answered your own question. This device isnt designed to be an upgrade for current users. Basically Sony just end-of-lifed the UMD, this is the first iterative step away from it.
Best of both worlds is relative: PSP Go is significantly smaller, better screen, no moving parts (other then the slide) and has bluetooth connectivity.
Re:How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:1, Insightful)
And yet, many of those exact same companies in favor of various regional lockouts are more than happy to send jobs to whichever region has the cheapest labor. The only difference is the product (human labor instead of games/movies/software).
Re:How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:1, Insightful)
Because when corporations do it, it's called outsourcing. When individuals do it, the corporations see it as theft.
Warped logic indeed.
Re:How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:3, Insightful)
It's the same head-in-the-sand people that try and say "but but but.. bit-torrent is used for legal purposes!" and ignore that 99% of the bit-torrent traffic out there is "copyright infrigment activities". Yes, the other poster and his 12 internet buddies only use it for legitimate purposes, but the other million people (including myself) pirate the fuck out the games.
Re:How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:3, Insightful)
But similarly there are many cases that people have pirated games, loved them then bought newer games when they came out that were part of the series that they wouldn't have ever bought if they hadn't been exposed to it via piracy. Yes, there will be people who will never pay for anything, but there will be far more people who will use it as a demo service. Not every game system will be pirateable within a reasonable amount of time (such as the Wii which took ages to crack), and if someone became hooked on a series they would buy the other games in the series for the un-pirateble system. Its the same way with music too.
Far more people will use it as a demo service? How'd you come up with that one? While one can't easily analyze piracy, looking at free services like webcomics show that the vast majority of people who regularly read and enjoy them don't buy the comics. And these are stuff created by small time folks. Games have the additional problems of being created by "evil corporations" which makes piracy practically moral to some, and in the case of handheld games, piracy allows one to carry multiple games in a single flashcard. Which is so convenient, everyone I know (both pirates, and one demo user) use a flashcart on the DS.
You asked DrXym to cite reasons why he thinks most people use custom firmare/R4s to pirate games. So, why do you think most people would use "backup/homebrew players" to demo games?
Someone is confused with the DS homebrew scene ;)
He doesn't seem confused to me. Current (and not too current) models of R4s (and all flashcarts I'm aware of except one) can play nds roms loaded into a microSD card.
Re:How does custom firmware "lose sales" (Score:3, Insightful)
If genuine homebrewers are shocked by this accusation, there is a simple solution. Disable iso record / playback functionality in custom firmware. Let people build homebrew apps but prevent people from playing warez. Let's see how popular custom firmware is then.
That's retarded. ISOs aren't some magic pirate-only feature, I bought all my games and I ripped them all to ISO because it's more convenient, loading times are drastically reduced, and the battery lasts longer. So there's little doubt people would use CFW less, but the result would still not be clear cut. There's a good and bad use for pretty much anything.
Re:Who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)
ergonomics? ouch! (Score:4, Insightful)
This thing looks like an ergonomic nightmare. The original PSP is already hard to hold for long periods of time, especially if you have to use the analog nub. This sliding screen setup leaves all the controls right at the bottom edge except for the L & R which are still on top. The guy in the image gallery has his thumbs bent in half! WTF Sony?
Re:Who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)
It may seem that way to an outside observer, after all, the iPhone e.g. is probably better than the DS in all technical aspects.
But for people who really understand the traditional gaming market, there's so many blindingly obvious faults with all devices that we've seen so far, that it's not worth going in to.
One key thing to understand is that what makes consoles successful is a concentrated and standardized market. As long as Apple or other Phone makers show off their technology on contract-exclusive or $600 devices they will fail.
The same way as PCs being good enough didn't make consoles obsolete.
Re:D.O.A (Score:3, Insightful)
A better idea would be to team up with a store like EB/Gamestop and allow people to turn in physical copies of the game in exchange for a download voucher. They could even let you download it in the store, through a method also open for regular new purchases so that people with crappy internet connections could do the same. You could have the digital games stored locally, giving you great download speeds.
This wouldn't be free, of course, and a small fee would be charged for these services. That way the store has some incentive to do this, and Sony still gets to double dip like you know they want to. But it is better than them asking you to pay full price a second time around.
Fuck Sony (Score:1, Insightful)
Get a GP2X Wiz. No tinkering needed, they SUPPORT homebrew software and their hardware has a regular SDHC slot.
Re:Who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Who cares? (Score:1, Insightful)
Cunt