Gameworld: "RIP PSP"

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tosp

Limp Gawd
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Personally, I think the headline is jumping the gun a bit on this article. The PSP isn't dead, just in a ... coma. (That it may or may not emerge from eventually... lol). After reading all 5 pages, though, it's not quite as grim as its headline - so feel free to give it a read and post an opinion. Please note that this is not a !!!!!! circus, and the mods will treat arguments in that vein as they should, as they always have. Try to keep it civil, people! :p

http://www.gwn.com/articles/article.php/id/747/p/1/
 
"There comes a time in every system’s life when you know there really isn’t any hope left, we’ve all seen it with Virtual Boy, Dreamcast, and N64 just to name a few. At first it’s hard to accept and though there might seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel it usually turns out to be a new system with a promise that it will be better this time around. Bottom line: Trade in the PSP while you can still get a decent deal!"

:eek:
 
Yeah its definately too early. PSP has had a rough start because of the lack of good games, but the system still has a lot of potential. Unfortunately its still at the stage where we are waiting on Sony to release a lot of things they have talked about: PS1 emulator, GPS locator, camera, Grand Tourismo, etc. Basicly its up to sony to save the system or watch it die.

I think they made the article because UMD movies are almost officially dead with many retailers dropping them and sony planning to sell downloadable movies for memory sticks.
 
Here is my take on the problem. Everything is so competative that any first time product is basicly going to not do extemely well because there isn't the existing fan base there. Nintendo has the handheld market completely covered. People don't like to change brands. They are going to stick with Nintendo until Sony gives them some reason that they must own a PSP.

Look at Microsoft. The Xbox bled money its entire lifespan, but it gave them a core base of fans. People they could count on to buy a 360. The only reason MS could stay in the game is bacause they basically have unlimited cash that they could dump into their gaming devision. The same thing will happen to the PSP. It will sell well, but not well enough to make a profit. If they stick around and make a PSP2 in 2/3 years, then I think they will start being a huge threat to Nintendo's lead.

But there lies the problem, Sony is bleeding cash from everywhere. They have no profitable devision of the company that they can tap to keep the PSP around. Sony just had to take out a loan to cover PS3 costs. If things continue this way, Sony is going to have to make some tough decisions. Right now all of their eggs are in their PS3/blu-ray basket. If the PS3 does extremely well and everyone starts buying blu-ray movies, the PSP is not going anywhere. If the PS3 only sells alright and blu-ray flops, the PSP may just end up on the chopping block.

On a side note, we are going to be seeing a lot of this. Sony is currently the popular company to make fun of. They are basically running in the red, there aren't any must have games for the PSP, the PS3 is considered to be way overpriced, and currently blu-ray movies are poor quality and use extremely expensive hardware. When Sony releases the PS3, they are going to either sink or swim. Until that point, everyone feels that they can predict the future and know exactly how things are going to turn out. And they aren't shy about telling everyone about it.
 
brom42 said:
Here is my take on the problem. Everything is so competative that any first time product is basicly going to not do extemely well because there isn't the existing fan base there. Nintendo has the handheld market completely covered. People don't like to change brands. They are going to stick with Nintendo until Sony gives them some reason that they must own a PSP.

Look at Microsoft. The Xbox bled money its entire lifespan, but it gave them a core base of fans. People they could count on to buy a 360. The only reason MS could stay in the game is bacause they basically have unlimited cash that they could dump into their gaming devision. The same thing will happen to the PSP. It will sell well, but not well enough to make a profit. If they stick around and make a PSP2 in 2/3 years, then I think they will start being a huge threat to Nintendo's lead.

But there lies the problem, Sony is bleeding cash from everywhere. They have no profitable devision of the company that they can tap to keep the PSP around. Sony just had to take out a loan to cover PS3 costs. If things continue this way, Sony is going to have to make some tough decisions. Right now all of their eggs are in their PS3/blu-ray basket. If the PS3 does extremely well and everyone starts buying blu-ray movies, the PSP is not going anywhere. If the PS3 only sells alright and blu-ray flops, the PSP may just end up on the chopping block.

On a side note, we are going to be seeing a lot of this. Sony is currently the popular company to make fun of. They are basically running in the red, there aren't any must have games for the PSP, the PS3 is considered to be way overpriced, and currently blu-ray movies are poor quality and use extremely expensive hardware. When Sony releases the PS3, they are going to either sink or swim. Until that point, everyone feels that they can predict the future and know exactly how things are going to turn out. And they aren't shy about telling everyone about it.
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QFT. Just go read the 600 page report from DFC intelligence - Sony seems to be everyone's whipping boy right now. And yes, deservedly so for some things... but so far I can say that I am glad that despite how tempting the PSP looks from a gadget perspective, I'm glad I don't own one.
 
Odd really. All feels a bit like the Gamecube in the UK. About three years ago everyone stopped selling it and put their stock on sale (You could pick up a gamecube, controller and game for about £50 / $80). These days you can't find the games in stores unless you look hard. Hell, it's hard enough to find them online (in the UK).

But was the gamecube dead? Hell no, as we saw from the sales figures it's still likely that it hit 2nd in the console market worldwide (figures vary). Personally I think the PSP is in a better situation than that, and it's not going anywhere. It's not for me, but it seems to be a fairly popular bit of kit.
 
hmmm, i think nabbing 30% of nintendos handheld market share is dam good going for Sonys first Handheld, it makes me laugh everyone stating doom and gloom for the PSP, i think its fantastic, what other pocketable system can i play Tekken 5.5, Ridge Racer, Loco Roco, a decent tiger woods and fifa. I got 20 games which i love on the PSP, yet i only could find 3-4 i liked on the DS. Mark my workds the Tekken PSP box set will shift loads of units, Now Developers are getting used to the system the load times have been severely cut, Tekken for example, just the initial boot up and thats it, you dont notice any load times, loco roco, load times must be 2-3 seconds at most, The same thing happened with xbox, ps2 and gc if you cast your minds back with a lot of todays console games streaming the game data as you play it, yet everyone seems to have it in for sony and turn a blind eye to the positive aspects. Yes the first year was shite with hardly any games being released but i hardly think its the case anymore, i think there have been a massive amount of excellent games released on the psp over the past few months.

Mark my words the Tekken/PSP gigapack bundle thats out soon is gonna shift a hell of a lot of Units.
 
The PSP is far from a failure.

It may be losing considerably in Japan, but it's neck and neck with the DS in North America.

It is very difficult to remove a 15-year market leader with a huge install base, That being said, the PSP is doing a hell of a lot better than any other handheld that's ever challenged Nintendo.
 
The big problem with the PSP is the games.. Sure, it has great graphics for a portable, but almost every game I played for it felt rushed or unpolished. There were also way too many PS2 ports which, if you played them on PS2, you're probably not going to want to walk around with them outside, no matter what those stupid squirrels would lead you to believe. I owned a PSP for about 6-7 months and had about 12 games for it. I didn't really care for it (even with all the homebrew) and eventually sold it. Just last week, I picked up a Nintendo DS Lite with Metroid Prime Hunters and i've got to say this is the best portable gaming experience i've ever had. Sure, the graphics aren't that great compared to the PSP, but goddamn is this thing a blast!
 
Rash said:
hmmm, i think nabbing 30% of nintendos handheld market share is dam good going for Sonys first Handheld, it makes me laugh everyone stating doom and gloom for the PSP, i think its fantastic, what other pocketable system can i play Tekken 5.5, Ridge Racer, Loco Roco, a decent tiger woods and fifa. I got 20 games which i love on the PSP, yet i only could find 3-4 i liked on the DS. Mark my workds the Tekken PSP box set will shift loads of units, Now Developers are getting used to the system the load times have been severely cut, Tekken for example, just the initial boot up and thats it, you dont notice any load times, loco roco, load times must be 2-3 seconds at most, The same thing happened with xbox, ps2 and gc if you cast your minds back with a lot of todays console games streaming the game data as you play it, yet everyone seems to have it in for sony and turn a blind eye to the positive aspects. Yes the first year was shite with hardly any games being released but i hardly think its the case anymore, i think there have been a massive amount of excellent games released on the psp over the past few months.

Mark my words the Tekken/PSP gigapack bundle thats out soon is gonna shift a hell of a lot of Units.
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I agree. I also love how everyone yells "OMG PORT" just because they see the same name of the series. Of course the gameplay is gonna be similar to a ps2...thats what they're going for. I dont understand why the ds gets such a pass in these discussions. Imo, its game library is extremely lacking, and the entire system is being carried right now by first party franchises. Personally, i thought metroid was downright bad (control scheme ftl), and mario was good but completely uninnovative, and it literally lasted a day and a half before being shelved.

For example, this has been talked about on a bunch of forums, with nintendo just shafting people for repairs. Regardless of the percentage of users affected, sony would have been railed for something like this.
 
what's PSP sales to date worldwide? 16 million or so?

you'de think the article was talking about the N-Gage
 
Lord Nassirbannipal said:
It is very difficult to remove a 15-year market leader with a huge install base, That being said, the PSP is doing a hell of a lot better than any other handheld that's ever challenged Nintendo.
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Why do they have to compete? And how much of what they have sold is overlap?


I got rid of my PSP simply because as a game machine, the games all suck. Some suck less, but they still suck. As a media machine... eh, there are better devices with for the price. Unless the price dropped. I'm not sure. I stopped following it.
 
i think one of the main problem is the pirating of many games ( dont read Homebrew , i mean playing games you can actually buy)

but... i dont wish to buy any new games , and why? because i dont want to lose the ability to play homebrew games and applications on my psp. Because all the latest game , sony is pushing the developper to use the latest firmware.

its the same reason for a LOT of people
 
michealo said:
what's PSP sales to date worldwide? 16 million or so?

you'de think the article was talking about the N-Gage
Click to expand...

I don't think it's anywhere near 16 million. I think it's around 4 - 5 million in the states, like 2 - 3 million in Japan (where DS/DS Lite are taking on all and basically outselling everything else combined), so unless Sony has sold 8 million in Europe and other territories, I highly doubt it. I think the US is the biggest PSP market right now.

Of course, Sony may have shipped 16 million already. ;)
 
BillLeeLee said:
Of course, Sony may have shipped 16 million already. ;)
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Yeah, they had shipped 17 million by May. They mentioned it in the E3 presentation.
 
The article is written by an obvious Nintendo zealot.

Regardless, Sony is getting it's ass kicked.

I hope the rumored PSP redesign fixes the battery life and loading problems at least
 
I don't know who can say that the DS library is extremely lacking. Unless you like sports titles or fighting games, the DS has something for everybody and then some - unlike the afformentioned PSP. Sure the article has bias, but there is a similar article on that site declaring the PS3 the winner of the next generation "console war". The site is simply going out on a limb and saying that the PSP is just going to die a slow, painful death - like the Gamecube.
 
there are so many '' professionnal'' gaming website...
this one is one of the worst ive been on ( and for the first time)
 
arr4ws said:
there are so many '' professionnal'' gaming website...
this one is one of the worst ive been on ( and for the first time)
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This is an amateur site, not an IGN or a Gamespot or something. Take it for what it's worth :)
 
vortexpud said:
This is an amateur site, not an IGN or a Gamespot or something. Take it for what it's worth :)
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i dont consider ign or gamespot any better.
 
arr4ws said:
i think one of the main problem is the pirating of many games ( dont read Homebrew , i mean playing games you can actually buy)

but... i dont wish to buy any new games , and why? because i dont want to lose the ability to play homebrew games and applications on my psp. Because all the latest game , sony is pushing the developper to use the latest firmware.

its the same reason for a LOT of people
Click to expand...
Download a program called Devhook, it fakes your PSP's version to v2.71 when you run it via PSP. You can switch back by just exiting the program, it runs like homebrew. Plus you can customize it doing fonts,icons, etc.
 
i know all that , but i didnt installed it...

and i think most of people dont like to install homebrew
 
didnt you just post that you dont buy games because new games require u to have a more recent firmware...and you want to be able to keep the ability to play homebrew...?

yet in the following thread you say...most of the ppl dont like to install homebrew...and that you didnt install devhook...

but if you use homebrew, why not use devhook? they go hand in hand ^^

newayz, actually, a lot of ppl use homebrew... of course not everybody is into the technical stuff about homebrew and others are lazy and dont wanna bother getting homebrew games... but most ppl i know use homebrew... its one of the reasons that makes the psp great...

and someone earlier on (im too lazy to go back) said that the games suck and the media functions are just not as good as the media functions in other systems for the price of the psp... imho... i disagree with both... 1) what makes u say the games on the psp sucks?... syphon filter, metal gear acids, generation of chaos, daxter, too many sports games, and many that are highly anticipated... i.e. tekken, ff7 crisis core... and there are more (oddly enough, none of these are ports off the ps2)... there are just too many to actually list that are "fun"...2) and when it comes to media... i think the psp is highly competitive with the ipod video...which is prob the top video device right now... and in addition to video and music, u also get gaming... making it more versatile as a portable device than the ipod video... and batteries are cheap and small, easy to carry a spare...

naw, the psp isnt dying for sure, there are plenty of good games coming out on it and its just a matter of interest... ds lite has awesome games... heck... the highly anticipated release of FF3 with completely new graphics on the ds lite is motivating me to get one... but... newho... there are great games on both systems... both systems are good... flaming one system or another is pointless... and until the PS3 is actually released... how many problems are actually existant with the system wont be known...

btw... way back... someone mentioned blu-ray quality sucked... from what i read, "some" blu-ray movies on the new bd-player were not at the quality of hd-dvd... this doesnt mean all... its my understanding that the quality doesnt differ much between hd-dvd and blu-ray
 
Yep. I sold mine last month for $220 dollars. Exactly what I paid for it. It pays to keep things in mint condition. I just never played the thing.
 
It's a Sony product . . . it's expensive . . . no great games (not really) . . . dead UMD format . . . what do you expect?
 
slowbiz said:
Yep. I sold mine last month for $220 dollars. Exactly what I paid for it. It pays to keep things in mint condition. I just never played the thing.
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Interestingly enough, many of my colleagues are doing the same. They are tired of the thing gathering a fair amount of dust, depsite LocoRoco looking somewhat exciting. Ebay tells this story too (double the amount of PSPs are for sale than DS systems).
 
Well to me if you site systems like the N64 you are a glass half empty kind of guy. It was a solid number 2 that never went away. The games like perfect dark came when the system was already mature, and "flops" had dust bunnies in their vent holes in the graveyard.
 
To tell you the truth, I've stayed away from the PSP because of price.

$200+ for PSP
$50-75 for extra memory stick
$50 per game
$20-30 in extra accessories such as cases, etc.
$20-40 for a movie (optional)

The PSP is a cool system but not worth the price for the amount of time I'll be using for it. I've played around with both the DS and the PSP and I must say, I've enjoyed playing the DS much more then the PSP and it's considerably cheaper, plus I can still play all of my old GBA games which is a huge plus.

The lack of games also doesn't help the PSP while the DS has a nice library
 
It will be pretty neat in the future when you can pick up a PSP+stuff and Homebrew, used for about half the price. Thats when I will get one :)
 
ComputerBox34 said:
To tell you the truth, I've stayed away from the PSP because of price.

$200+ for PSP
$50-75 for extra memory stick
$50 per game
$20-30 in extra accessories such as cases, etc.
$20-40 for a movie (optional)

The PSP is a cool system but not worth the price for the amount of time I'll be using for it. I've played around with both the DS and the PSP and I must say, I've enjoyed playing the DS much more then the PSP and it's considerably cheaper, plus I can still play all of my old GBA games which is a huge plus.

The lack of games also doesn't help the PSP while the DS has a nice library
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Prices are a bit off:
$30-60 for 1-2gb memory stick
<39.99 for most games
$22 for playgear pocket + hori screen protector (everyone has different wants and needs though)
Movies - failures and rightfully so.
I agree that the game developers for the PSP are lacking but there are some really good games out imo.
 
dj_2004 said:
Prices are a bit off:
$30-60 for 1-2gb memory stick
<39.99 for most games
$22 for playgear pocket + hori screen protector (everyone has different wants and needs though)
Movies - failures and rightfully so.
I agree that the game developers for the PSP are lacking but there are some really good games out imo.
Click to expand...

maybe he was talking in canadian money
 
six_storm said:
It's a Sony product . . . it's expensive . . . no great games (not really) . . . dead UMD format . . . what do you expect?
Click to expand...

hehe... i suppose the first point is most important... to most ppl at least...
 
arr4ws said:
maybe he was talking in canadian money
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Doesnt matter, Canadian's dollar is extremely close to the US dollar right now (1.1319 per US dollar). So a $30 item (US) is only ~$33 in Canada.
 
Yeah, well in gaming things don't get charged that way. I'm currently in Canada right now, and the XBox 360 Premium sells for $499. With the correct exchange rate, it should be less than $450. XBox 360 games, for the most part, sell for $79.99 and $69.99 (instead of $59 and $49) - things just don't translate properly here sometimes. Call it gouging, call it many things... Strangely enough, however, the PS2 Slim sells for $129 Canadian (same as the $129 US pricetag) and the Gamecube often sells for $99. Go to Dell.com and Dell.ca and notice similar discrepencies in all facets. Prices are never a direct translation of the oft-changing exchange rate.
 
TO me the only thing from me buying the PSP is beacuase of the price and games, Where with the DS lite I have, I spent 140$ plus 30$ a game which is far less then the PSP, I can play online just about anywhere with wifi, there coming out with Opera for the DS so you can surf online, the only thing that lacks here is the tv tuner which they had for the advance, which was awsome. You can watch tv just about anywhere. And why would you wanna spend 30$ to 50$ on a movie which you prolly already own on DVD. To me the PSP wont make a huge impact until there cheap. I just think that the technology just came out a little to early for the masses to handle.
 
The problem I have with my PSP is I got it because I wanted games not the extra features. I use the extra goodies but if I really wanted a mp3 player and such I'd get an iPod.

The extra features are nice don't get me wrong but the games just don't seem to be there. I have GTA, Daxter, Mega Man X, Medievil, and Lumines. And only 2 others that I am interested in (Syphon Filter and Ghosts & Ghouls). The rest that are out there seem to be stripped down ps2 ports. I know the PSP can handle some great things such as Daxter (not just a port of a ps2 game) but sony seems to be ignoring it.

In the mean time nintendo is pumping out hit after hit on the DS.

fake edit: Oh yeah I almost forgot about Loco Roco and maybe Gitaroo Man. Well ok I admit there are some good titles for the PSP I guess what I'm trying to say is they are trickling when the DS has them pouring in.
 
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