Current PSP Owners Now What?

[thegamezmaster]

With the announcement of the new handheld, just curious about current psp owner's feelings. Happy? Mad? Sad? Wonder what Sony's plan to keep them and keep them happy? Seems like the only way to get new games if any will be downloadable games. Either that or get rid of the umd psps and go for the new one. And I know there a some that will say buy up cheap umd's, play what you got and be happy. I don't know about anyone else but it kind of makes me mad because not all of us got the bucks to keep our old stuff and pony up the bucks for the new. Especially if the old isn't supported. I'm not crying sour grapes but it just erks me the companies attitudes, screw em cram the new stuff down their throats. I feel like they don't get it that people are going to use what they have and would like to see continued support, I haven't heard anything about that at the press conferences so far. Same goes for the Wii2. But I don't even want to go there. Rant done. Anyone else feel this way or what's your opinion? Thanks, game on!

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I'm not saying your critique is invalid, but everyone knows that whatever system they buy, it's only going to be supported until the next thing comes out. The upgrading of video game technology has been nonstop since the early 80s. I don't see your complaints as any different than those of NES owners when the SNES came out. It's the nature of the video game business.

[swlovinist]

While I agree, the PSP has been on life support here in the US for some time. Sony has been limping along with it, but has been doing a good job of at least trying to support it the best they can. Also the small lineup of games this past year has been good. It is unclear on whether Sony will drop PSP support when the new one rolls out. Sony has a track record of supporting their systems a long time, but the PSP might be different. On average, the support of a console is about 5 years...Sony PSP is past that now(March 15 2005).

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

The logic that users should for some reason be "mad" at a reasonably robust 6 year hardware cycle with several hardware revisions and good software in nearly every genre is a bit silly IMO.

There must always be a time for a company to move on to the next thing.

I think that Sony has done all they can with the PSP and there is much for them to be proud of. Subsisting through 6 years in the portable market with Nintendo is no small feat!

Public interest in this generation of hardware is waning, and the Vita appears to be coming at the right time and with the most requested hardware improvements. (No more UMDs yet a retention of physical software, dual analogs, etc.)

Also, Sony has a history of staggering support for their older systems longer than any other company in modern gaming (PS2 is not yet "retired") , so even if you decide to stick with the original PSP hardware there will probably be plenty of software available via the PSN store (The library of PSP titles, Minis, PsOne Classics, etc.) for a few years into the life of the Vita.

I'll absolutely hold on to my existing PSPs (1000, 2000, Go) and my UMD library for what they're worth and I've invested in digital versions of some of my favorite games for Go that will transfer right over to Vita when that drops, but I don't feel angry or disappointed in any way with this progression ... seems like one of the most natural, by-the-book and consumer-feedback-sensitive generational hardware evolutions ever.

[NayusDante]

They said in their keynote that they expect more from the PSP in the future. Expect price drops. In a few years, I wouldn't be surprised to see $49.99 PSPs at Target.

[PapaStu]

They said in their keynote that they expect more from the PSP in the future. Expect price drops. In a few years, I wouldn't be surprised to see $49.99 PSPs at Target.

None of my Targets even have PSP systems still in stock. Haven't for months.

[Bojay1997]

There are still several games scheduled to be released on PSP in the coming months. The Invizimals sequel, White Knight Origins (may have to import this from the UK), Persona 2 Innocent Sin and possibly some other RPGs from third parties like XSeed. Personally, this is the longest I have ever used a single handheld platform as I got one at launch, so I feel that I more than received fair value and support out of my purchase.

[BetaWolf47]

Just do what people do when any platform is going down the drain: enjoy bargain-priced software, grab a second piece of hardware for chump change, embrace the homebrew scene, and gloss over all of the memories you have with it.

Seriously, when 2007 came, I was grabbing good GameCube games for $5-$15. I'd recommend the same for a great system like PSP.

[thegamezmaster]

Maybe mad was too strong a word.

[Clownzilla]

The PSP Go REALLY got me upset. I loved the system itself but Sony never delivered on the game side. Unlike many on this forum I really didn't mind the download-only game format of the PSP-Go. That said, many times games were twice as expensive as they were in UMD format. On top of that, many of the good games were not even available in download format. It's really sad because I LOVED the PSP-Go but it's the Sony support that killed it for me. It's to the point to where I still will buy Sony products but I won't pay a premium price for them anymore (I plan on buying a PS3 when I can get one for $100). Sony is just dropping the ball on engineering (my Sony TV is a POS), business execution (overly expensive gaming devices and lack of PS3 cell processor programmer training), and support.

[Oobgarm]

I was a day-one adopter on the PSP, and now I have 3 of them, an original, a slim, and a Go. I've never been dissatisfied with it at all, and I applaud the system for staying out there in the face of the rampant piracy that crippled its software sales.

I plan on pickup up cheap games. Maybe even collect for the system once game prices hit rock bottom. I dunno.

[drmay]

The PS Vita uses cartridges for games. There will be downloadable also but cartridge is harder to copy than discs or downloads.

[kupomogli]

I'll be purchasing the PS Vita day one, but it's easy enough to keep my two PSP 2000s and PSP Go(also had a 1000) if I still want to play PSP games that I don't have access to digital copies. Like others have said, the PSP has had a long life and the software that's coming out, while good, isn't selling well any longer.

Piracy is more rampant than before on the system due to the fact that now, every single PSP is able to get CFW. Try this. Go to vgchartz.com and search Dissidia. Check out lifetime sales of Dissidia Duodecim, which has been out atleast three months in all regions, and then check out the first week sales in each region for the original game. The original Dissidia's week one sales are far more than Duodecim's lifetime sales. While Duodecim is only an upgrade of several new characters, new music, stages, and gameplay mechanics, and you could also say that maybe a lot of people just didn't like the game, the reason it hasn't sold at all is more than likely the piracy on the system and not the game itself as it's a fairly good game.

The original Dissidia was downloaded over five million times. Even to this day, atleast according to VGChartz and we know that their numbers are off, Dissidia hasn't even sold five million copies. While again it's assumption, you have to only assume that the major amount of piracy comes from the US and PAL regions, because also listed in a study that was done, two of the best selling games in Japan, and also released only in Japan, haven't even had close to the pirated numbers more popular titles in the US are. Gundam vs Gundam Next even though Japanese only is actually a pretty popular PSP game in the US as well as Monster Hunter 2G, also called Freedom Unite, and that one had terrible sales in the US but is a very popular title everywhere. At the time of study, half the games listed haven't been released in the US, so the numbers are probably much larger than they are now.

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/thr...-Million-Times

So really. I'd expect Sony to have released a new system, and why not? The release date of the original PSP and Vita are about the same amount of time between the DS and 3DS. You can guarantee that Nintendo isn't going to support the DS once the 3DS takes off. Infact they've already dropped support and the only support the DS is currently getting is third party developers and even then, aside from Solatorobo and Devil Survivor 2, it's all shovelware. Nintendo has a track record for dropping system support almost immediately after the new system drops. I'd be more pissed off as a Wii owner to be honest and that's because the system has almost no games. Once Project Cafe is released, the chance to get a really good library of games on the Wii, or even a decent library of good games, is completely gone.

[Satoshi_Matrix]

While it saddens me that Sony all but ignored the PSP in their press conference, it's been obvious for a while that the PSP has been on a decline. There are only a few companies that really "get" the PSP like Square-Enix. As I pointed out in my review of the recent Final Fantasy IV Collection, the PSP is the perfect home for beautiful remakes of classic RPGs and I can only hope that it will survive long enough for Square to put FFV and especially VI on the handheld. it worked for the GBA, why not on the wonderful PSP?

[jcalder8]

Are you mad at Atari for no longer supporting the 2600 too?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Maybe mad was too strong a word.

Eh. Not really, I'm sure there actually are some people that were late PSP adopters this year that are legitimately frustrated/mad.

[boatofcar]

I can see the case for being legitimately angry if one is a PSP Go owner. It's not even two years old, and its lack of a physical media slot makes it useless for picking up bargains on older software, unless Sony throws them a bone and heavily discounts PSP games on the PSN.

Will the Vita play PSP games from PSN?

[kupomogli]

Will the Vita play PSP games from PSN?

Yes. It has full backwards compatibility for anything that can be played on the PSP from PSN. PSP games, Minis, PSX games, all other games that work on PSP like Neo Geo games, TG16 games, Uno, etc, etc, etc.

[substantial_snake]

As a psp owner with about +30 UMD games I am not upset at all and I don't really understand why you are.

I am personally not a fan of download only games so outside of a few small titles I haven't downloaded any full PSP games. However with Sony's "were sorry" program I did pick up LBP and Mod Nation Racers last night. That should tide me over for a while if I'm not really satisfied with the Vita's games at launch.

[Clownzilla]

I don't think anybody should be upset with the UMD based PSP when it comes to support. It had a good number of games released for it over a reasonable time frame. The PSP Go is what really upsets people though. It's a good system but giving the people a quarter of the PSP library at 2X-3X the cost of the UMD price is an insult to Sony fans. I have no interest buying the Vita and plan on buying a classic UMD based PSP (again) and building my collection again. All while pretending that the PSP Go never existed.