Interesting article in Game Informer on the PSP

[fishsandwich]

It's no secret that new releases for the PSP are few and far between (only 4 big releases for the holidays) but it *IS* somewhat of a secret that the PSP continues to sell well, especially in bundled special packages.

Sony believes that developers will be making their way back to the PSP next year and that we can look forward to a 10-year lifespan for the PSP.

Any thoughts?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

*sigh*

Do we really need another conjecture-filled debate/discussion about the "fate" of the PSP?

People have been "predicting" its demise since its launch in 2004.

Here we are, closing in on four years in the global market and it's doing fine (not great, but not a total failure) as a portable device amidst years worth of piracy, modifications and hacking (some would say to spite those things, and others would say because of those things).

It's obviously not ever going to topple the DS empire for various reasons, but it should also be fairly obvious that Sony is going to continue to support it in various arenas, regardless of how "well" it's doing at least until they give us a real PSP 2. It's not bleeding money out of the company like, say, the N-Gage did for Nokia.

It appears that they're moving it towards a more PSN heavy, download heavy format ... which is probably where we'll see a lot of exclusive stuff in the future and especially on the PSP 2 (heck even the DSi is going that route) ... and with the millions of units moved in Japan in 2007-2008 we can probably count on seeing a lot of localized J-games that spring up from renewed interest in the system in that region for the next year or so.

Being a PSP owner/fan can really be exhausting sometimes ... it's just a nonstop string of defending it's "worth" and/or "lifespan" in the market.

Until Sony makes any official "we're abandoning the system" announcement, I'm pretty sure it's here for the long haul to the real PSP 2.

[roushimsx]

Update: Still mad that Ape Quest doesn't have a retail release (PSN only) :(

[TonyTheTiger]

*sigh*

Do we really need another conjecture-filled debate/discussion about the "fate" of the PSP?

People have been "predicting" its demise since its launch in 2004.

Which is interesting because I'm certain that when it does die off (regardless of how far in the future that may be) those same people will be there ready to fire off the "I told you so" as if they somehow were right.

Even if Sony abandoned the thing tomorrow I'd be hard pressed to call it a "failure." I think the problem is that people become blinded by comparison. The PSP might look like a failure when compared directly to its most immediate competition but performance as a whole has not been all that unimpressive and certainly not detrimental to its legacy. If that were the case then both the GCN and Xbox were utter failures. If anything I'm impressed that the PSP managed to do as well as it did considering the relatively high price of admission.

If I have any sour grapes over the PSP it's because Mega Man Powered Up and Mega Man Maverick Hunter X didn't sell well enough to warrant sequels.

[swlovinist]

Ex PSP owner here, and overall realistic fan of the system. I think the comparison to the Xbox is a good one. Sony's first attempt into the portable I think was a "fair" one, filled with alot of successes and some big f ups. There is now doubt in my mind we will probably see one more okay year in retail stores, but without major support with games to sell in retail stores, the PSP will quietly be replaced with the PSP2. 10 year support aint gonna happen, but I think the PSP was a great idea that can easily be improved. I went to Target yesterday, and their PSP section has been reduced to like 10 titles, with many titles being put onto clearance. I agree that Sony has gotten murdered from alot of gamers, but honestly when you are on top(by a large margin) and make the f ups that they have done, some of it is rightfully deserved. As for the PSP, I will remember it as a good first try and not a failure(400 titles not too bad). I am cautiously optimistic about Sony hopefully learning from their bumps with the PSP to make the PSP2 a dominant portable.

[G-Boobie]

Which is interesting because I'm certain that when it does die off (regardless of how far in the future that may be) those same people will be there ready to fire off the "I told you so" as if they somehow were right.

Even if Sony abandoned the thing tomorrow I'd be hard pressed to call it a "failure." I think the problem is that people become blinded by comparison. The PSP might look like a failure when compared directly to its most immediate competition but performance as a whole has not been all that unimpressive and certainly not detrimental to its legacy.

That right there is wisdom. The PSP isn't a failure. It's just not as huge a success as the DS... But then again, nothing is. The real question is why UMD software hasn't historically sold very well, GTA and Monster Hunter notwithstanding. The attach rate for PSP software has to be the worst in history.

[Richter Belmount]

We like to make comparisons here all the time between the psp and ds , but quite frankly I find neither will be going away any time soon. The psp has been doing well for itself ,it just seems so strange that some people will continually make the case that a psp is not worth owning. Quite frankly they have always been wrong about that , I have always enjoyed my psp from its emulators , to its actual umd games. It just has amazing freeware and homebrew that should be made mandatory to own a psp and the game library is considerably larger now since the psp has been out for so many years

We make the case that the psp is simply not the greatest cause we keep comparing its sales to the nintendo ds system.