PSP Fading Already?

[otaku]

See the battery thing isn't all bad for me. I rarely play it more than 4 or so hours in a day (or single session anyway) and can charge it using my laptop or an outlet at home or wherever I may be (hotel for instance) also have a car charger I use while on the road.

Sure its not as convenient as the DS battery wise (or the NGPC beat 40 hours without new batteries!!) but its not crippliing to me

[Xexyz]

Looks like the PSP outsold the DS in Japan this week, further proof that the system isn't fading.

http://www.n4g.com/News-108893.aspx

Of course, the DS has reached a saturation point in that country, but still...

[koster]

Looks like the PSP outsold the DS in Japan this week, further proof that the system isn't fading.

http://www.n4g.com/News-108893.aspx

Of course, the DS has reached a saturation point in that country, but still...
Looks like it's time for Nintendo to release a different color DS... LOL

[Dreamcast]

I just got a PSP for Christmas and I went out shopping for some games.

Not a whole lot out there.

i finally asked a Gamestop employee what was the deal... he admitted that Christmas had wiped out the PSP stock but that PSP releases were becomeing fewer and farther between. This same store used to have a pretty large section devoted to PSP... how it's been moved to the back corner of the store and it's 1/4 the size of the old one.

The guy at Walmart said that Walmart was going to stop carrying the actual PSP console but still carry the games. Im a bit skeptical about this... this Walmart isn't known for cracker-jack employees.

Anyone know? The DS outsold the PSP by a wide margin over Christmas and the DS section was at least three times are big as the PSP section in several of the stores I visited. Didn't the PSP sell close to the PS2 this past holiday? That can't be good.

Anyone know?

Please stop talking. It takes time for developers to make games for PSP. besides, every console starts off slow. Don't be dissin' the PSP. Its not about how much the system sells, it's if you enjoy the games and the console itself.

[Rob2600]

It takes time for developers to make games for PSP. besides, every console starts off slow.

The PSP has been on the market for three years. What's your point?

[fishsandwich]

Please stop talking. It takes time for developers to make games for PSP. besides, every console starts off slow. Don't be dissin' the PSP.

Did you read my 2nd post, turdbrain? Reading in fundamental. Try again. According to comments in this thread, it would seem the console is no longer "starting off slow". Did you bother to read any other comments or did you just read the first one and immediately jump to reply?


Its not about how much the system sells, it's if you enjoy the games and the console itself.

REALLY? What an awesome new concept! Don't worry if your expensive system tanks, just enjoy the games!!! (You do know that a system that's not doing well will have less games produced for it, right? Hello?)

My original post was one where I asked this community if they thought the PSP was fading in popularity. The discussion was going well (Frankie needs to relax) until you popped up with your nitwit comments. Please stop talking.

I like the PSP a great deal. I JUST put mine down a few minutes ago (Jeanne D'Arc). I'm hoping it continues to sell and that more good games are released. I'll be checking more stores today.

[fishsandwich]

Another update...

I revisted the Gamestop that had far and away the weakest selection of PS games of any store that I visted last week. Their selection has nearly doubled and the PSP section almost looks healthy again.

Excellent

[Hwj_Chim]

I don't think the PSP have even peaked yet and still has lots of life left in it. It is one of 2 hand held devices that will not give me a headache after playing (The NEO pocket is the other one). The PSP also has lots of good games that have been released for it and have many more coming. So I think that the system has lots of life left in it.

[Xizer]

The PSP is a fantastic piece of hardware, but it is still lacking in the games department. I can think of about ten games developed specifically for the system that are good. That is when I don't include games that have been ported back to the PS2 like Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and that Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters game that is getting ported back. Really, if it's going to be available on the PS2 as well, it shouldn't be counted for the PSP. Why put up with the PSP's annoying analog stick placement, and screen ghosting issues when you can just play it on your PS2?

I think this is the PSP's biggest problem. It tries too hard to rely on generic, "mature" games with a complex setup that ultimately aren't as much fun as the Nintendo DS's simpler, more entertaining games like Mario.

I love my PSP, but not because of Sony's doing - it's Dark_AleX's custom firmware. I find that when I actually use my PSP for playing games it's usually for emulation. The PSP is also my MP3 player, and you really can't beat it when it comes to portable video on the go.

The general populace, however, are not able to hack their PSPs, despite the fact that it's pretty simple. They therefore just see the PSP as a game machine, and because of the PSP's still rather lacking native library, it's not doing so hot among the general populace.

[mlambert890]

PSP support at retail has always been lukewarm. Three things worked against Sony from day 1:

1) Nintendo, like Apple and Google, has a unique and almost unsassailable market position. Gameboy is just synonymous with "portable game". Every mom feels safe buying one and subconsciously assumes she's going to buy one, every kid wants one. Just like "Googling" which is now a verb, and the ipod. Rarely is this type of defacto market dominance overcome and rarely is it based on merit. Inertia is a powerful force and people like things to be easy (ie - not having to think). Most consumers do NOT want to educate themselves at ALL. They want to buy what everyone else buys and use what everyone else uses.

2)UMD Movies. Bad idea. Made no sense. Caused confusion, splintered the market and resulted in INTERNAL competition for valuable game store shelf space when the PSP was ALREADY at a disadvantage for real estate against Nintendo. Made the devs unhappy (wait, you mean my game is competing for shelf space against a flood of Sony Pictures MOVIE releases?!) and annoyed retailers (no, thats not a GAME, its a MOVIE, there is no "Driving Miss Daisy" GAME)

3) Homebrew. Ive argued this type of argument since the Amiga. Just look at PSP attach rates for your answer. RECORD lows. Attach rate of around 2 compared to 4 for DS and NINE for XB360. There are WAY more than TWO good games for PSP and it seems a WHOLE lot of people play and talk about them. Hence, most people at this point are pirating. So good job to the "freedom fighters" out there in the community for helping to destroy yet another cool platform. Peoples basic selfishness rationalized with sanctimonious BS about "freedom" and the "evils of capitalism" can infest a platform like a cancer. The reality is that while we all want the coolest possible gadget at lower than cost and then the ability to make use of it forever in any way we want without ever paying another dime, that isnt reality. You may be THRILLED wardriving with your PSP while you watch illegal DiVX downloads, make calls on Skype, play illegal SNES ROMs and then load up a ripped UMD, but the reality is, all of that kills the platform. I know many will argue that the DiVX they watch is a ripped DVD they bought, and they OWN all of the SNES carts they have ROMs of and they OWN the UMDs they have images of, but if you're not lying, then you're rare. The facts simply do NOT back that up. Attach rate of TWO. I wonder what percentage are GTA, wipeout and lumines?

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/25/psp-firmware-hack-drives-lumines-sales/

The code word of those "fighting the sytem" like Morpheus and Neo is "homebrew". Ive been a technologist my whole life and have gone from a hacking/phreaking/pirating kid in the early 80s with an accoustic coupler modem and access to 8 bit Atari boards, to an adult with 15 years of technology industry experience now, so I see through the bullshit of the average 12-17 year old. 1/100% of "homebrew" activity is someone writing an original game or utility. The other 99.99% is people using it to pirate shit. And that is NOT good for a platform.

Edit: Xizer, our posts crossed. I think your perspective is wrong. The "mainstream" buyer was NEVER going to jump right on the PSP. It HAD to overcome Gameboy momentum FIRST in order to overcome the inertia. For that to happen, the "hardcore gamer" or the niche gamer had to create buzz by driving the system big time. A LARGE percentage of those folks DO hack their PSP. I dont know ONE person besides me that doesnt have a hacked PSP (I refuse to do it). So the trend started early.

Look at my link. SALES OF LUMINES ROSE NOTICEABLY b/c of the hack. What does that tell you? As a dev, WHY would I bother writing games for this platform so people can steal them when I have a TITAN like the gameboy sitting RIGHT there with MORE shelf space?

[Xizer]

Umm... have you ever considered that the PSP has a low attach rate because the game library is still lacking for the system? It's not just because of piracy. I can grab any PSP game I want off the Internet and load it on to my PSP within minutes. However, I have little desire to do so, because there simply aren't many that interest me.

It is also silly to purchase a game when it is easier to store it on the memory stick. This provides the benefit of not having to haul around the PSP's large discs (for a supposed portable system) and faster load times.

Also, Sony built in the capability to play videos and make calls with Skype. That's not homebrew.

I bought the PSP to do whatever I wanted with it, not be confined to what some corporation thinks I should do with my own property. I find it sad that people think they are "saving" a video game platform by not getting their optimal enjoyment out of it.

[mlambert890]

Yeah, I considered that, and discarded it. And I am fully aware of the fact that the movie capability and Skype calls are not homebrew. Also, you are fully entitled to do whatever you want with your property.

Just dont be shocked when you find it getting beaten in the marketplace and the self-fulfilling prophecy of "no games" coming true. A platform that exists to play DivX, use Skype, play DRM free MP3s and has a double digit piracy rate is too risky commercially for a dev.

You say the library is lacking eh? So you're saying there are no more than 2-3 games that are good for the PSP in all this time? I call bullshit on that. It may be YOUR opinion, which you are entitled to, but statistically, there are plenty of games that a MAJORITY would think ARE good.

Lumines, Lumines 2, Katamari, GTA, Silent Hill Origins, Burnout, so many RPGs... There are MORE than enough good games for a better than TWO attach rate.

And these games, oddly enough, all seem to get played based on the volume of internet discussion. Hmmm.. Thats odd. Its the same as the PC man. Somehow a game that had sales of 40,000 has 2+M people playing it and talking about it. Interesting dichotomy! Lets see how FF and GoW do. I suspect sales numbers will be oddly low yet it will seem every PSP owner has played them.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of Nintendos installed base (being mainly casual) dont even know what piracy is outside of being a ride at Disney and a Johnny Depp movie.

Every fanboy pissing contest thread on Kotaku, or Joystiq, or wherever, comes down to PSP fans proudly proclaiming how AWESOME the PSP is because "with hacks" it can do X and Y and Z, not even realizing how irrelevant and self destructive this is. Meanwhile, DS sales continue to climb and climb and PSP stays flat. Decreases really.

Sure the PSP has, at times, caught the DS during ONE period on SYSTEM sales, but game sales? WOW... What a blood bath. The whole world can buy PSPs, but if they're all buying them to do DivX, Skype and pirate games, Sony is screwed. Hopefully they at LEAST eek out a small profit on the console now so it isnt charity! The trend has been that system sales have steadily increased a bit while software sales have actually stayed flat, or at some point decreased. So this pretty much proves my point. If there are "no good games" WHY are MORE people now buying the system? Software sales are flat, so they're not buying games. Yet if the argument is, after all these years, that "there are no good ones", they STILL are laying down $200 for a system... A system with "no good games". VERY odd. Is it for a HUGE MP3/DivX player that gets fairly lousy battery life and can do Skype if you're in a hotspot? In Japan, I suspect most of these guys have MORE than capable phones that do all of that better. Anywhere else, there's this little device call the ipod and now the iphone that some may have noticed.

I would challenge PSP owners reading this in this way. WHATEVER PSP game you have played and enjoyed. PLEASE at least buy the UMD. Most of you KNOW you havent. You KNOW you grabbed it from IRC, or a torrent or UseNet, so either go and buy the UMD on clearance or whatever, make a resolution to buy the next AAA title when its roughly new, OR... Stop slinging shit about the system viability because you're spinning and spinning and spinning and the rationalizations are a load of crap.

And Xizer, that doesnt necessarily apply to you. You many have no UMD images and simply do not like any of the PSP library. This last comment is for those playing SHO, GTA, MGS, or any other big PSP title that have never bought it and dont feel they should HAVE to buy it.

[Rob2600]

People seem to be into hacking now. Look at the iPhone. People keep hacking it and Apple keeps releasing new firmware to override the hacks.

[Xizer]

I'm going to provide my rationale for not liking a lot of the games on the PSP when compared with the Nintendo DS, which I think a lot of people also have. The biggest problem here is that the PSP tries to be a portable PS2 - the games take too long to start up, you can't save as easily, they're not as simple as DS games... all a bad thing for a portable system and what drags down many PSP games. An inherent lack of originality doesn't bring a lot of PS2 owners flocking to the PSP's game library because they've played it all before. Unfortunately, the PS2 demographic seems to be the PSP's main demographic.

Lumines: It's a good puzzle game, I'll give you that. I can see why people would buy it.

Lumines 2: Is this really necessary? It's a sequel to a good puzzle game. I don't really see the point. If you've played Lumines, you've played Lumines II.

Katamari: It's pretty cool, but it controls like shit on the PSP. It's also not that mainstream. With two console versions on the PS2, the PSP version doesn't bring much new to the table and is really kind of pointless.

GTA: All PSP versions available on the PS2. That means superior graphics, controls, bigger screen, and a more comfortable environment to play it in.

Silent Hill Origins: Doesn't really translate well to a portable environment. Also, there's already been at least four Silent Hill games. Just what does Origins bring to the table that it's worth drudging through the Silent Hill formula a fifth time, this time in an even more cumbersome environment because it's been packed down onto a portable?

Burnout: It's okay... but when you've played one racing game, you've played them all. I can see how people won't be blowing their load over Burnout.

so many RPGs: Which are basically rehashed PS2 games with worse controls. I can see how after playing dozens of PS2 RPGs, PSP gamers would be burnt out on RPGs in the same style.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: piracy on the Nintendo DS is a cakewalk, just like it is on the PSP. All one has to do is pick up an R4 cart, which is incredibly for easy, for around $30.

There's a reason why everyone boasts about the PSP's multimedia capabilities and homebrew instead of its game library when there's an argument between the DS and PSP: Because the Nintendo DS's game library is superior. Homebrew/multimedia is really all the PSP's got going for it. You can't throw out that the PSP wins because it has better games than the DS, because everyone knows that's a lie.

If Sony didn't want people to do DivX and Skype... they wouldn't have built those features into the PSP.

People are shelling out money for the PSP because of its good multimedia capabilities. A $170 device that plays back mp3s, video, and lets you look at pictures AND it plays games, has Skype, a web browser? Oh and it does a lot of that better than a much more expensive iPod? I'd call that a bargain.

I have around ten PSP games. Every time I throw them on the PSP and find a moment to play them, I find it takes forever to get into the games. Suddenly, a 30-minute break where I can play my PSP ends and I have progressed pretty much nowhere. This is why I often find myself just ignoring any PSP games on my memory stick and heading straight for the tried and true stuff like SNES emulation, which I can use save states.

[backguard]

sony put some major life back into the psp when they added video out. now it is like having a portable and a console all wrapped up in one.

as far as the library - sony did a great thing when they added the playstation 1 remote play support. playing suikoden ii (almost) wherever you want is awesome. :)

[Jimid2]

.... Just look at PSP attach rates for your answer. RECORD lows. Attach rate of around 2 compared to 4 for DS and NINE for XB360...
So, like, if the PSP has an attach rate of 2, and I have 156 UMD games (which I do), does that mean there are 77 people out there who own 0 games for their PSP? Or a 154 people who only own one game each? Of course, we actually own four PSPs in our household, so I guess that those 156 games actually come out to an attach rate of 39... which is still a damned site higher than the average...

Honestly, I just don't get it... Two of our four PSPs run CFW; one so I can play PSX games on it, because I just never find the time to play in front of a TV any more, and the other because my daughter threw hers at her brother and broke the UMD drive, so now she has to play games from the ISOs I rip and put on her 4GB Pro Duo... Since modding our systems, I've played Final Fantasy VII through IX, Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill on my PSP - along with many PSP games - and, of course, my daughter's system would be a paper weight if it wasn't for Custom Firmware, so I've expressed my appreciation to Dark Alex by sending him a Paypal donation or two over the last couple years. imho, CFW is great!

Pirates, otoh, do contribute to the death of good systems, and are asshats in general. But the self-defeating actions of a crowd of morally-vacuous imbeciles who believe they are entitled to everything for nothing is not the fault of hacked firmware - it's more the failing of their parents and a society that instilled them with the belief that if they can take something, they must be entitled to it, and they should...

[Icarus Moonsight]

I have 6 PSP games with plans to get a dozen or so more and I don't even have a PSP unit yet. LOL I've never taken attach rates too seriously. Mostly because I'm a gamer and not a developer/publisher.

There are means to circumvent the DS and play pirated copies of games. Besides the flash devices there is a healthy bootleg market also. I wouldn't attribute those aspects as the major reason for lagged software sales on the PSP because in these times it's going to happen on most if not all platforms. Someone will find a way for whatever reason/motive they have, be it profit, spite, a challenge or even a simple feather in their cap.

I don't know the person who cracked the PSP firmware or what motivated them to do so, but I'd guess that they looked at the hardware, thought it was impressive and then took a glance at the software and was left less than impressed. IMO, that could spur someone with sufficient knowledge to figure out how to get more games onto the PSP. So basically, what I'm trying to say is maybe this time the cart came before the horse. I think it's possible.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I've owned both the DS and the PSP since launch. (I picked up a DS Lite when that launched and sold my original fugly silver DS)

I own about 50+ PSP games.
I own approximately 4 DS games

Now, here's a disclaimer - I really DO like my DS, I think it's a neat bit of hardware. I don't however care for the touch screen functionality I neither enjoy rubbing a stylus or jamming my finger on a portable game screen ... call me crazy, but after 20 something years of AVOIDING touching/scratching portable game screens, it's just something I'll never be able to fully wrap my brain around.

I primarily use my DS for GBA games ... I have a buttload of them that I still enjoy on a pretty regular basis.

I frequently see the anti-PSP sentiment that there are "no good games" and/or "no games that appeal to me" from people who either own the system and don't enjoy it, or don't have any desire to own one due to that sentiment.

Taking into account that I only own 4 games on the DS, you'd think I must feel the same way ... well, it's really a bit more than that. The reason that I only own 4 DS games is that within a year of the DS being on the market, the DS's shelf space at every game retail location was over-run with garbage shovel-ware.

I figured it would just be a trend that would work itself out ... and unfortunately for me ... it has since 5 years later become SO COMPLETELY OVERWHELMING to sort through what is literally a 30-to-1 (probably even worse than that) UTTER GARBAGE-to-DECENT GAME ratio that I have practically given up on trying to quest for good DS software.

I HAVE TO ASK the hardcore DS owners HOW DO YOU DO IT?

How the hell do you not get a freaking MIGRAINE when you stare at the DS section of software at your local game store?

Every time I TRY to look for a DS game to buy, all I can see is:

Catz
Dogz
Petz
Imagine Cooking
Alvin and the Chipmunks
generic knock-off Brain Age type games
Word Coaches
generic Board Game compilations
Hamsterz
Bratz: The Movie: The Game
and a million other bits of shovel ... scratch that ... not shovel ware ... DUMP TRUCK WARE that make the Burger King 360 games look like they were designed by Miyamoto and Kojima.

I think the PSP, while it doesn't have AS MUCH software as the DS has a much much higher RATIO of QUALITY, non-shovel-ware software, and it is not ever and has never been a headache-inducing experience to sort through the new and/or used sections of PSP software to try and find something that I might like - ANYWHERE.

Now, as far as whether or not you personally LIKE what it has to offer, well, there's nothing that anybody can do about that ... no shame in not buying the system if you don't like what it has ... but to compare the quality of, say 20 PSP games that are well-ported from quality PS2 titles to 20 DS games built from the ground up yet based on kid's movie and cartoon licenses/virtual pet simulators/Pokemon clones/brain-age clones ... I have a VERY hard time buying into the "DS has a higher amount of better games" argument.

BUT, of course, admittedly, that's just my opinion ... and I'm sure that there are a million people out there that think that "Ice Age II Kart Racing" for the DS is a far superior bit of software to "Burnout Dominator" on PSP based primarily on the argument that "All games are more fun-er'er on the DS!"

[Xizer]

If you're afraid of scratching your Nintendo DS's screen, I have a solution for you. It's called the InvisibleSHIELD. It's like a permanent screen detector. I put one on my DS Lite's touch screen and have never worried about it getting scratched since. It's made of a material originally developed by the military to prevent helicopter blades from getting scratched.

http://www.invisibleshield.com/game-system/nintendo/ds-lite.php

They don't exaggerate its durability - my DS has been through frantic touch screen sessions with many styluses, and even my bare fingers. It has yet to receive a single scratch.

As for locating Nintendo DS games, it's pretty simple. I do it the way I locate games for any other system. I wander into the store, knowing what titles are good already. Just scanning through the list alphabetically I can instantly pick out a numerous amount of good titles out of the crap. There is not a single system today that doesn't have more good games than it has shitty games. A hardcore gamer should have eyes that are adapted to filtering out the crap and focusing on the good titles.

I'm a fan of good games for all ages. I have no problems with picking up games outside of social norms. As a result, I have a diverse collection of titles from all around the spectrum, from Super Princess Peach to Manhunt. When you take on this view of not caring about what society thinks you should care about, you will find that you have many more choices of the things you can do, my friend. This extends to the number of good games you can find.

[Rob2600]

a 30-to-1 (probably even worse than that) UTTER GARBAGE-to-DECENT GAME ratio ... How the hell do you not get a freaking MIGRAINE when you stare at the DS section of software at your local game store? ...

I think the PSP, while it doesn't have AS MUCH software as the DS has a much much higher RATIO of QUALITY, non-shovel-ware software

Your Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP description is the same as my Sony PlayStation vs. Nintendo 64 description several years ago.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

If you're afraid of scratching your Nintendo DS's screen, I have a solution for you. It's called the InvisibleSHIELD. It's like a permanent screen detector. I put one on my DS Lite's touch screen and have never worried about it getting scratched since. It's made of a material originally developed by the military to prevent helicopter blades from getting scratched.

http://www.invisibleshield.com/game-system/nintendo/ds-lite.php

They don't exaggerate its durability - my DS has been through frantic touch screen sessions with many styluses, and even my bare fingers. It has yet to receive a single scratch.

Thanks for the link. I'll look into one of those.

And you don't find that it dampens the response rate of stylus action?

And, as far as the visual filtering goes ... I can do it for every other system (though the Wii is getting pretty damned hard as well) perhaps the problem is

A.) the size of the boxes/titles on the boxes, and the decision by all the game stores to front-face ALL of the boxes.

2.) every grubby-pawed kid that makes an alphabetical jumble-mess of the DS display within minutes of the store in question being opened for more than 10 minutes.

C.) my brain having to deal with the sheer title/content based embarrassment / constant mental questioning of all the ridiculousness of the titles attempting to be "filtered" that causes those wicked headaches and the desire to just plain give-up all-together.

And, yes Rob, PS1 was a very big mess of shovel-ware at the time that Sony had moved onto PS2 ...

... thankfully in it's elder years, the PS2 seems to be less of a dumping ground, and more of a haven for budget classics like what we're seeing from SNK.

[Aussie2B]

I'd say the ratio of quality on the DS vs. the PSP are about the same, except you're dealing with much smaller numbers on PSP. Obviously you're going to find less shovelware, but you're going to find less games period, good or otherwise. I think if you chop a store's DS selection down to 1/3, you'll find it similar to the PSP selection in terms of how many games are worth your time and how many aren't. That's why most people find the DS superior - there are just plain more games PERIOD. More garbage to look through, but more quality games available at any given time as well.

Speaking of N64 vs. PlayStation, that's the same argument most people make in favor of the PlayStation, since even though it had loads and loads of crap, most people believe the PlayStation has more worthwhile games altogether. Although, to digress a little, I personally believe that even when taking the differing game totals into consideration, I think the N64 had a better quality ratio, and that the best of the best on N64 outdid most of the best PlayStation titles. Just goes to show that no matter how factual and mathematical you get, it all comes down to opinion.

[bcks007]

3) Homebrew. Ive argued this type of argument since the Amiga. Just look at PSP attach rates for your answer. RECORD lows. Attach rate of around 2 compared to 4 for DS and NINE for XB360.



Is attach rate the number of games a person owns for there system? (I could be understanding this wrong)

I've heard the number of games that people own for there ps2 is under 5.0, is this true? Seems pretty low to me.

[Icarus Moonsight]

You also have to consider the habit Sony has developed for using their game platforms as a trojan horse for their proprietary media formats (blu-ray and UMD). Some consumers look harshly upon this practice for no other reason besides they don't want a media format force fed to them. Others are simply repelled by the concept of proprietary media. We've grown accustomed to a world where all vhs, cassettes, cds and dvds will work in nearly all their respective players. It's not too big of a deal when just games are involved, like in the DS's case. Console/handheld carts and disks have always been locked out of other platforms due to form factor or the software itself. Consumers expect and accept this. So there is no expectation of "universal" functionality. When you slap movies onto a game machine and the format is proprietary it completely breaches what consumers are used to getting. Future trends may change... it's simply going to take time and many products to acclimate the general public and change perceptions.

That's my 2 coppers anyway. :)

[Rob2600]

This is just a thought, but maybe the software-to-hardware ratio for the PSP is so low because many people are buying used games, which don't count. Is that likely?

Or is it because nowadays, people own three or four game consoles, so instead of buying 20 games for one console, they buy 6 games for three consoles?

[Icarus Moonsight]

This is just a thought, but maybe the software-to-hardware ratio for the PSP is so low because many people are buying used games, which don't count. Is that likely?

Or is it because nowadays, people own three or four game consoles, so instead of buying 20 games for one console, they buy 6 games for three consoles?

They count, used games had to be bought by somebody. Even if they were shoplifted and turned in to a Gamestop the retailer still paid for it. It just doesn't count as a second unit sold so there is a possible element of loss, but it's speculative loss only. Who's to say that they would have paid full-retail for the same game new or even another new title?

In this case I believe the used market may be helping the PSP move along. I'm sure there are some people who bought one mainly for music and movie playback. Seeing a used, or more importantly, cheap game just might entice them to try em out.

[mailman187666]

I like the PSP a great deal. I JUST put mine down a few minutes ago (Jeanne D'Arc). I'm hoping it continues to sell and that more good games are released. I'll be checking more stores today.[/QUOTE]

I've been playing Jeanne D'Arc and its one of the better SRPGs I've played in a long long time. Not even Final Fantasy Tactics held my interest for as long. Me and a bunch of my friends own PSP and many of them also own a DS and out of everybody I know, when we want to do a multiplayer game or even bring any protables with us, its a PSP. I think its far from dead and is only getting better. FF7 Crisis Core is what has been selling the system in Japan and I'm sure the game will see similar success here in the states as well. I love both PSP and DS but the PSP gets my two thumbs up.

[boatofcar]

I want this (http://gizmodo.com/355131/psp-concept-is-slick-slidey-goodness) one.

http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/02/psptop.jpg

[Icarus Moonsight]

I want this (http://gizmodo.com/355131/psp-concept-is-slick-slidey-goodness) one.

http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/02/psptop.jpg

Now that is SLICK! :D Huzzah for dual analogs. My only gripe... Shouldn't the LCD be protected rather than the controls? If they produced a model like this and included a snap on cover for the screen when the unit is slid closed, I'd be all over it.

[Leo_A]

That thing looks stupid.

[Poofta!]

i stayed out of this discussion for a while, but read some stuff i absolutely HAD to comment on, first of all:




3) Homebrew. Ive argued this type of argument since the Amiga. Just look at PSP attach rates for your answer. RECORD lows. Attach rate of around 2 compared to 4 for DS and NINE for XB360. There are WAY more than TWO good games for PSP and it seems a WHOLE lot of people play and talk about them. Hence, most people at this point are pirating.


dude, your points 1 & 2 were excellent, this is completely off the wall. so you say that because less games are sold for a system that means they are obviously pirating it? BS! the ds is 100000000000000000% easier to pirate for (and a lot more popular, see: R4) and still the game are outselling, i own both DS and PSP, and have over 10 games for each, and i spent a LOT more time playing my ds games than psp (fft and castlevania notwithstanding, but both are ps1 ports!!!!!) most of my other psp games are actually old game compilations, and even 2 imports (breath of fire 3 and legend of eternia, both ps1!!!). the only original psp games i own are the 2 untold legends games and jeane d'arc! is that messed up or what? 10 ports/compilations vs 2 original titles. now, out of the the 10 ds games i own, ALL BUT ONE are unique, new and original titles (i had to get mario 64...). and while there is A LOT MORE crap ds titles than crap PSP titles, there are toooooo many mediocre yawn-fest psp titles and a lot more AMAZING titles on DS than the PSP.

thats it! say what you will, but piracy has nothing to do w/ this, there are arent that many great games for the psp that make you keep playing! even the really cool titles have either already been ported away or are simply sequels to console games. so what a consumer to do when he just dropped 200 on an amazing, powerful and glorious system and all he has to show for it is a few dumbed down console clones and ports of games from almost 2 generations ago as well as like 15 year old compilations? well he goes the mod route! add some cool applications into the system (modding a psp, especially the new ones, is not easy and getting games is rather difficult as well -- from scratch itll probably take ~5 hours to mod a psp slim from scratch: find firmware, download it, learn it, read it, copy it, install it all, pandora battery, find roms, download UMDs.... this all takes A LOT OF TIME. vs a ds: buy r4, download 15mb ds rom in 3 minutes, copy/paste, play.)


for me though, fft, disgaea, castlevania is worth the purchase, and i play my psp a lot more than my ds these days, but thats only till im done w/ those games, there are already lik 6 ds games i CANT WAIT to play and kill 20+ hours on!

[dsullo]

I bought my PSP this XMAS too and I love it. I have not touched my DS in months. Jeanne D Arc was a fabulous game. The Graphics on that thing are amazing! Best hand held I have ever played.

[Xizer]

I want this (http://gizmodo.com/355131/psp-concept-is-slick-slidey-goodness) one.

http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/02/psptop.jpg


That is a retarded design. Thank God Sony doesn't listen to random idiots on the Internet who happen to have a copy of Photoshop.

[Goblin]

Having owned Nintendo portables since the original GB, when it came to selecting a new portable naturally I was drawn to the DS. When I first played one a few weeks after it was released I couldn't get over the fact that it felt rather chintzy and I really didn't enjoy the stylus. At that time I held off forging ahead with my GBA instead. When the lite was released I similarly demoed it and came to the same conclusion. The DS lite felt even cheaper, and while I have far from large hands, the D-pad felt too small. To me the DS was a toy and not a piece of technology. Even despite these limitations I was still going to buy one when I heard about the R4 card. This wasn't due to an overwhelming desire to pirate every games out there, I like the ability to run homebrew and I like the flexibility to run games from a single stick and not have to juggle a handful of cartridges.

Now fast forward to Christmas, and on am impulse I decided to buy a PSP. I have never owned a single Sony system, and I was immediately impressed about everything about this system. I really like the screen size, the dpad size, the ability to play movies and mp3s, and even the wireless web browser. This is the system that I have been waiting my entire gaming life for. The battery life is fine for what I need. Sure it could be longer but I will never be doing a marathon gaming session, where I wouldn't be near an outlet, or a USB port sometime within 4-5 hours. While I hate the whole concept of the UMD, once you install alternate firmware that problem solves itself.

For the games themselves, my taste is a little different then most. I'm not waiting for God of War or the next blockbuster. I like racing games, flight sims, puzzle games, golf games, and games I can play without having to commit large blocks of time. I love being able to download demos from the Sony site to try things about before I make a decision to buy it. I had the system for 2 weeks before I went out and bought my first game (Daxter was a packin). That entire time was spent trying things out.

Now to all the self righteous posters in this thread who 'refuse' to install CFW on moral grounds, you all come off as ignorant on the subject. Just because you install it does not mean you are not supporting the game companies. I resent it when companies lock down their systems. If you use the original xbox as an example, one of the best things for it was XBMC. Now if Microsoft was smart and opened up the development tools or even licensed this functionality, many of us would have paid handsomely for the privilege. Instead, we were forced to modify our consoles to allow for this. The PSP is the same way. Right now I don't see a killer app requiring CFW, but the abilities it does give allows for greater flexibility with your system.

[DJ Daishi]

I want this (http://gizmodo.com/355131/psp-concept-is-slick-slidey-goodness) one.

http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/02/psptop.jpg

I really the next psp looks like this...looks too small to take UMDs though.

[Wolf]

I personally do not think it is fading, if anything I have high hopes for it as Crisis Core is not yet out in the USA and people really should not underestimate the selling power of FFVII and MGS, I have a very good feeling alot more psp units will be sold once it comes out, true there is alot of people who have played ( or imported it like me ) it already but they have not experienced it in an english language yet.

CC is THE best selling SE title right now and it did up the sales in japan quite a bit, keep in mind DS is still king there and here when it comes to handhelds but the fact it sold a fair bit means developers over there will at least be bringing out more titles since more own it and SE will probably do alot more now that they know they can make cash on it along with DS.

I actually was going to sit on the fence this handheld gen but there was just so many games on psp that I broke down and bought one, the interesting thing was that a week before I got the psp I played with the working DS emu and after only 24 hours of it I was bored as fk, I have been playing my psp on my new Sharp HDTV almost daily.

It has pretty much everything I want, Rockman, SF Alpha, Ultimate GNG, Crisis Core, Monster Hunter, FFT ( might as well be called the international version cause it rocks ), Disgaea, Star Ocean remakes, FF 1 and 2 Remakes ( which look loads better than the gba versions and most complete to date ), Portable Ops...the list goes on there are plenty of quality titles on the psp and when it comes to options the DS really is left in the dust, thats not to say the DS is bad ( ok I personally think it is a pile of dog shit just my opinion shit screen, no tv output...shit sound shit 3d lol sorry) it has quality games too but the psp wins in the future proof area and can at least do decent 3d and still continue to deliver classic genres/series I love.

I think it has a good few years left in it, it's not a failure by any means and out of all other handhelds over the years this is the one that has done about the best vs nintendo.

[Nature Boy]

the ds is 100000000000000000% easier to pirate for (and a lot more popular, see: R4)

I think that's a matter for debate. Yes you can pirate it by simply buying a cart for it. But hacking a PSP doesn't require any such purchase - you just need a PSP with the correct firmware (and even then it's often just a matter of waiting for a hack).

I don't know enough about copying the games for either handheld to comment on how difficult it would be to copy a game once you've pirated the machine.

[Jimid2]

I want this (http://gizmodo.com/355131/psp-concept-is-slick-slidey-goodness) one.

http://gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/02/psptop.jpg
I like this design... It looks functional and portable to me, and would work well with movie playback as well... I presume they'd put a touch screen on it, so - like an iPod Touch - the screen would be the main interface. I think it could work well if the did the shoulder buttons properly. Don't know how they'd deal with digital/downloadable game media and licensing, but you can bet serious coin that a PSP2 would be locked tight...

[fishsandwich]

I think that's a matter for debate. Yes you can pirate it by simply buying a cart for it. But hacking a PSP doesn't require any such purchase - you just need a PSP with the correct firmware (and even then it's often just a matter of waiting for a hack).

I don't know enough about copying the games for either handheld to comment on how difficult it would be to copy a game once you've pirated the machine.


My feeling is that the DS is far easier to hack than a PSP... just buy the cart, play around with some ROMS, and off you go.

The PSP is more complicated and what works on one PSP might not work on another. It's pretty technical from what I understand.

That being said, it's also very easy to mod a PSP if you know what you are doing.

I didn't want to fool with mine so I just paid somebody to do it. She had no technical knowledge at all... I was asking her questions she didn't comprehend. But she had her Pandora's Battery and her memory card and a basic understanding of what to do and we were done in 10 minutes.

It's great and I love it. I was playing Shining Force 2 (Genesis) on the train today. My GBA feels abandoned.

[zektor]

Reviving the month old thread :)

I think the PSP is an excellent device. I own both the DS and the PSP, and I really cannot compare the two. The DS is a fun little gaming handheld, and the PSP is a fun little all-around handheld.

I do believe that at this point there are more fun DS (original) titles than the PSP has, but I can see this changing. One thing I do know about Sony is that they have always been a brand that lasts (heh, I sound like the CEO now), but it is true. I do not see the PSP going anywhere for quite some time. The slim has been a hit since release (at least around my parts...sold out consistently), and developers are getting used to the hardware. Heck, the PS3 was released a year ago and it is just *now* starting to get recognition.

I modded my PSP of course. Not for piracy really (I do like OWNING my games), but to be able to use the device in other ways. I have a large OGG music collection. As many know, the PSP does not natively play the format. But, with CFW, I can use the excellent "LightMP3" app and play my OGG's just fine. I like the fact that I can use FTP apps with it, as well as chat on IRC. I use an email app on it, and of course play around with the various emulators (nothing better than C64 on the PSP!). So, yeah, CFW *does* add to the value of the device. I like having the freedom to use homebrew applications.

So, back to what I said in the beginning: The PSP is an excellent device. If you are into handhelds, gaming, and handheld multmedia features, this is the device you would want.

[josekortez]

I probably said this before, but importing is the way to keep the PSP fresh. Don't forget that it's region-free, and it's perfect for a lot of stuff that we probably won't see in America!

[fishsandwich]

Well, I visited the particular Gamestop store that prompted this thread.

They have a huge selection of PSP games available again.

The PSP is not fading.

[josekortez]

I just played Patapon for the first time this afternoon, and I have to say I hope they keep releasing the weird stuff in addition to the million-seller sequels (God of War, Metal Gear, Grand Theft Auto, etc). Variety is what will keep the PSP afloat.

[swlovinist]

I own both and have enjoyed both for two very different reasons. I think that in this day and age of multiple consoles being successful, we need this diversity. The PSP to the DS is like the 360 to the Wii. Both systems will be around for quite some time, and will cater to totally different audiences. For example, just look at the latest PSP commercial for God of War. It is obvioulsy catered towards a more mature audience and T/M rated gaming. The system itself has shown that it can really handle some great graphical games, and it does 3D pretty well. The DS in my own opionion caters to more women and children gaming, as well as having very sold Nintendo games that can be played with the entire family(mario, zelda, animal crossing etc). Personally I enjoy my DS for my portable gaming and use my PSP as the "system I play before going to bed". The PSP has it faults, like any other system. It has done pretty well for itself, and I look forward to seeing what Sony comes out next. The PSP fading? I dont think so. I just think that it is a pioneer for Sony breaking into the portable gaming industry. I give it a couple more years of solid support.