Sony ditches UMD conversion plans for PSP Go

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm not sure I follow. I was talking about the Playstation Portable, not the Playstation Portable 2 or whatever the successor will be called. Your examples don't apply, I never talked or even hinted that I thought the UMD format would still be utilized by Sony with the PSP's successor. What I did state is Sony would be crazy to stop supporting the vast majority of their PSP users by deciding to switch all PSP game support to a download only model.

I wasn't talking about the PSP 2 either. The part I've bolded could fit in here: "What I did state is Nintendo would be crazy to stop supporting the vast majority of their NES owners," except replace "vast majority" with "every single one." Functionally, there's no difference between dropping customers one way or another way; don't get lost in the details. As we know, the Super NES went on to be a smashing success despite customers needing to buy everything new and not even being able to use the same video cable.

The fact that the PSP Go is download-only doesn't make it any less convenient than switching to a new system without support for UMDs, which you say you weren't expecting. The only argument here is just sour grapes (which I sympathize with, of course) that Sony may is releasing a "new" system which only changes the content model from discs to download. As many have stated, there's still the regular PSP. If anything, your chances of compatibility looking forwards are much improved with the download model.

I think the Go may well mark the point where Sony makes an effort to ditch read-only media and going forward to focusing on content, hardware, and high-end storage, which all make much more sense in today's landscape. It will inconvenience some to buy games online, but that also frees up ratings restrictions, finally ties the other piece of the puzzle for people who already have been wanting to get online with their media players, and doesn't make it more inconvenient to game on the move (as all you need to do is load the game from the download service while at home).

The elephant in the room in this discussion: Does anybody here seriously think Sony would be wise to invent a "UMD to digital" reader program for the PSP, or hardware to do the same? On top of that, such a device would essentially be a piracy machine; game developers and publishers would force it to be killed. There's no way out of that situation without CD keys (which, for better or worse, PC has been using for years, which let Valve migrate CD-key games to their Steam service in 2003). Physical media is dead, vive le Roi.

Yeah, because having more games is more important than having better games, right?

No, that is not the right way of looking at it. Restricting game creation only to companies funded by multiple millions of dollars is more important than starting to bring down game costs and moving to distribution systems that make sense in today's world, right?

Also, there ARE quality games in the Apps Store; dismissing it all as junk is looking at it through blinders and blackout. The old "Apple = overpriced junk" and "all online game systems = full of trash" generalizations do not apply to the ideas as a whole. In fact, Sony's system may well end up more like Steam, a bit less democratic seeming than the Apps Store, as Steam focuses more on Big Production games and mods for games using their engines.

[Ed Oscuro]

The iPhone-iTouch sell a lot, but it's a small branch of the portable gaming market relative to Nintendo and Sony. That's the problem with the catch-all devices. The numbers lead folks to false conclusions. Sure, people do play games on them, but most people use them primarily as a phone, portable internet appliance and/or passive media device (music, movies, net streaming, etc). I've never heard of anyone buying one primarily for gaming... That's like buying a 360 primarily for reliability. It's like, hey, I'm a gamer who listens to music a lot and wouldn't mind a new cell... I'm thinking iPhone. Music, primary. In that case, the iPhone does not automatically become a favored platform for gaming, though the capability is welcome.

Strikingly accurate commentary from the year 2007! Future, here we come (or don't, because you're focusing too much on the past).

Also, how can you say that phone gaming is a "small branch" of the portable gaming market? Have you numbers for this claim, when anybody and everybody now has a phone? I said this already - dedicated games machines are a luxury; phones are a necessity. The potential to play games is a "value add" to your core phone, day planner, GPS, and portable net device capabilities of phones coming out right now, and it costs nothing to add that capability, as my stupidly cheap and crappy v3m, which still is supported by Verizon, can attest.

One of the problems with the handheld gaming market is that it's incredibly splintered and fragmented, making it tough to cross-port applications.

[Icarus Moonsight]

When people routinely start buying a catch-all device primarily for gaming over a primary gaming device then things will change, not before. At least the past happened. We both have to wait for the future to unfold.

It's not an equatable tally. Numbers and pure data are going to skew the facts.

[Leo_A]

I wasn't talking about the PSP 2 either. The part I've bolded could fit in here: "What I did state is Nintendo would be crazy to stop supporting the vast majority of their NES owners," except replace "vast majority" with "every single one." Functionally, there's no difference between dropping customers one way or another way; don't get lost in the details. As we know, the Super NES went on to be a smashing success despite customers needing to buy everything new and not even being able to use the same video cable.

Because the Super Nintendo was a brand new gaming console, not a simple revision of the NES that dropped cartridge support despite the hardware still being a NES internally. Quite a significant difference. An analogy is when there is a similarity between like features of two different things on which you can draw a comparison from. I see no analogy between a console successor and a revised model of a different piece of hardware that just plays the same games the previous models did. They're very different things.

Sony and PSP game developers are in the business for selling games. They're not going to abandon 56 million PSP's out there in a sudden drive to eradicate physical game releases. Those 56 million PSP's are a guarantee we'll continue to see whatever PSP game development that occurs in the future being sold on store shelfs on UMD's.

The fact that the PSP Go is download-only doesn't make it any less convenient than switching to a new system without support for UMDs, which you say you weren't expecting.

I wasn't expecting what? I never said I wasn't expecting anything. I've been buying games off Steam, various XBLA games on both Xbox consoles, PSN arcade releases, Xbox Originals, PSOne releases over PSN, Virtual Console games, WiiWare games, etc., for years. It's quite evident we're in a gradual shift towards downloadable releases, which is why what's happening is completely logical and expected.

What isn't logical is expecting it to be a sudden shift like you seem to think is going to happen by posting all these rebuttals to my statements. They're not going to abandon millions of units of hardware that play the games you and your 3rd party developers are programming, or suddenly cutting your retail partners out of retail game sales. That is why PSP game releases on UMD will continue for as long as PSP game development continues. Sony fought long and hard to get those 56 million PSP's out there in consumer hands and aren't about to ignore them by going to a download only model for future PSP releases.

UMD releases and download releases will coexist as long as the PSP is on the marketplace, and I fully expect to see physical game releases with a PSP2. It's going to be a long and drawn out shift away from physical game releases that isn't going to happen overnight and the shift won't fully occur with this generation of handhelds and I doubt it will have fully happened with the next.

[Zing]

Are there any games which can only be played on the PSP Go and not the current model PSP?

I don't own a PSP, but I would assume that any game you can download and play on the Go, you could download and play on the regular PSP. Am I wrong?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Are there any games which can only be played on the PSP Go and not the current model PSP?

I don't own a PSP, but I would assume that any game you can download and play on the Go, you could download and play on the regular PSP. Am I wrong?

There are no DLC games exclusive to/that will only work on the Go, everything on the PSN store is fully compatible with PSP 1000/2000/3000.