The release of the Sony PlayStation Portable in the US has not been a rousing success so far, with many retailers only selling a few of their small allotment. It’s be very successful in Japan. Is it just too early to judge? UPDATE by ELQ: OSNews now supports the PSP web browser and serves its mobile page automatically. We would appreciate it if someone could send us a picture of it.
Might be due to most people knowing that the PSP is shipped with a faulty button that sony knows about and didnt correct before shipping
A small percentage of the first shipment in japan had faulty buttons,0.1%? Sony has offered to replace units with faulty buttons as well.
While I am not in the targetted demographic, the PSP does not interest me.
I have a lot of money invested in a Playstation 2 system already. Why would I want to buy a portable unit that costs more than the home unit?
The games are also just as expensive, if not more expensive, than the games for the console version.
if i remember reading right they never corrected the placement of the button near the screen so it doesnt work as well as the other 3. I could be wrong.
I’m waiting for the DS to get some more games. While I think from a technical standpoint the PSP is the better handheld, I just can’t justify paying $249 it. I think many gadget freaks don’t understand that many aren’t willing to shell out much more than $100 for a handheld.
I honestly think no one thought they’d be able to get one, so they didn’t try. There were a lot of news stories about how hard it would be to get one and how many people lined up crazy early just to get one.
It’s the price. $249 for something that has less graphics capability than your current gen consoles is not something people will jump at, even if it is portable, at least at that price. Nintendo seemed to get this one right but sony fumbled here in the states. Give me a useable browser (not the one in Wipeout, kthxbye) and make it more than a game machine, and maybe.
By this time next week you’ll hear of quite a few places selling out. To be completely honest, Sony did a horrible job getting the word out here in the US.
That said, at the TARGET store on Sepulveda in Torrance, CA they’ve sold out of the 20 they received in.
I was going to get a xbox for xmas but instead waited for the psp. on Wednesday, I looked for pre orders on the internet and bought the cheapest at $280, and that was back ordered. everyone else was bundling it with games for $300+. On launch I found bestbuy and circut city had it in stock for $250. Circut city still has it online. I don’t like sony alot. I liked sega’s consoles and still love my dreamcast. the good news is that the hardwares cool and it’s allready being hacked. hackers have found a way to get wipe out pure’s browser to surf the web sort of. when the system dies the hackers will reserect it. sony was stupid on this one. don’t launch in spring for $250
>Might be due to most people knowing that the PSP is shipped with a faulty button that sony knows about and didnt correct before shipping
FUD!
I’ve got a Japanese PSP here no buttons stick at all! Nice try!
I think it’s too early to tell.
I did expect the DS to sell better than the PSP though because of the price. The portable market has traditional been parents buying these things to keep the kids quiet in the car. $100 is much more attractive for that purpose.
While single male techno-twenties might be excited about the PSP, they have less need for a portable player. They should either be the ones driving, or home with a console.
not FUD
http://www.gamesarefun.com/consoles/psp/square.jpg
look at how the alignment is off on the Square button.
Pure and simple. Their target audience won’t justify 250 for a handheld.
I’m waiting for PS3. I have an Xbox, but I’m not buying Xbox2. I’m not sure if I’ll buy a PSP or not, probably not.
I’m interested to see all the hacks that are going to come out of this machine. The onboard wireless & usb 2.0 will open it to lots of interesting options.
It would be great if you could hook up a 20 GB USB drive so you wouldnt have to drop $80+ on a 512 MB memory stick.
There’s also rumours that the next firmware update is going to include some “office” type apps like web browser, email, etc….
could be a fun little machine to have around.
Actually I’m allowed to watch TV at work, but I can’t get away with taking my Xbox, it’s too clunky, but I could easily take a PSP. Maybe I will get one, the games look quite good.
Do you actually proof read anything you submit????
I quote part of your headline:
“It’s be very successful in Japan. Is it just too early to judge?”
Silly me
I forgot David Adams name, and referred to him as Adam in the subject line previously! ACK!
“”the price. $249 for something that has less graphics capability than your current gen consoles is not something people will jump “”
Being as the PSP has more graphics capability than the PS2… that is an outright lie.
There are some articles on the net saying that PSP was a very successful launch, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this article was totally wrong. Actually this is OSnews, of course it’s wrong.
@luzerlinux: The PSP is quite a bit less powerful than the PS2. About half as powerful would be a good estimate, given the difference in vector processing power (2.6 gigaflops vs 6.2 gigaflops).
Anyway, I got a PSP the day they came out. It’s a wonderful little device. The screen is awesome, the interface is slick, and the unit feels very well-built. I’ve not noticed any dead pixels or button problems, maybe I’m just lucky. For me, convergence is the main reason to get a PSP. I’m tired of carrying around a PDA, iPod, etc. The PSP is easily small enough to fit into a briefcase or computer bag, or even a pants pocket as long as you’re not wearing jeans. If it can replace those other devices (writable data UMDs, you hear me Sony!), then it’ll be a hit.
I nabbed one as soon as they came out, just cuz of $300 burning a hole in my pocket. I had full intention of selling it to somebody once the “look what I have” factor wore off… but I have to say, this thing is awesome. Game play is great, and the first time I used the built in Wi Fi to race a friend at work, I was hooked.
It even plays uber nice on my Mac. I’m sure they’ll take off once folks start showing them off at work/school/retirement home. $250 is hard to swallow now, but it’ll come down.
I’d have bought one already if we were talking PS3 and cell technology. When is that comming out?
The price for what it can do isn’t bad. It is that its too much for how often you really use a portable system. yea it can play mp3s and video but its too large to use it like a Walkman or ipod.
How much time does a gamer use a portable system really? Esp one that can afford 250$ on one (i.e. the 20+ crowd that has a job and responsibility) A few hours here and there over a month.
Every time I see the psp I think “I want one, 250$ no thanks not for a hour a week use I may get out of it”
A lot of people in the 20-ish age group are college students, and I can see how it would be useful in that setting. Personally, I sometimes have 30-40 minutes of downtime between classes, which is really too short to go back home, or do anything with friends. Even at home, I’ve got roommates, so it’s nice to be able to play a game while he gets his March Madness fix.
OK, so it’s the price. Then why did the DS sell flat out at $200? $50 is not a big difference. It’s indifferent marketing, frankly, but I doubt Sony cares, they’ll just expect to sell them through in the next month or so when the marketing really hits.
Some people complain about Nokia’s N-Gage QD to have too small screen and stuff like that but I like it, because if the screen was wide like in PSP, it would make the device extremely huge. You can’t really enjoy carrying a PSP in your pocket, especially when you have to carry an additional mobile phone with it.
It seems, however, that every “handheld” gaming device (DS, Zodiac, PSP) just tries to impress customers with power, not reasonable usability. If I want power, I buy a computer or a console, because if you can’t make enjoyable handheld games with low system requirements, I can’t possibly imagine how will the extra polygons make them better.
Am I the only person who thinks Photoshop when reads PSP? 😉
I’m not a gamer at all. Don’t have Xbox, don’t have PS1 or 2 … never even played a game on one. Don’t play games on my Mac … last game I seriously played a game was probably ‘Silent Service’ or an Uboot sim on my Amiga, or maybe some Infocom later on a Z environment … but that’s it.
However, the moment I had a PSP in my hands I knew it was something special. That was two month ago (been using my PSP for 6 weeks) and I immediately ordered one in Japan. It is fantastic. I have a few games with it, from which I especially like RidgeRacer and Lumines. The latter one is a great and addictive puzzeler.
But I bought it because of the ability to do it all. Although not as good as our iPod I do actually use it for music (despite only 512Mb mem. stick). It is a great mobile videoplayer … great for watching that talkshow or montypython rerun in the train. Although I have a PB17”, never used that one for watching tv … size matters I guess. A movie on PSP, scaled down to 450 Mb is actually pretty decent too. But a 1Gb mem stick, or indeed that mini USB HD device would be great.
I know people are working on a digital TV add on (receiver and decoder). Though i’m not sure how big it’s going to be in size, I can imagine it will be a nice expansion for folks on the road (like me).
For Mac users this is a must have:
http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/pspware
Great synchro tool for movies, tunes, pictures and backup utility for your gamedata + synchro with iPodder.
I’m anxious to see what’s coming out next. But given the short time it has been available, the support already is fantastic. It has better games than DS (much better specs too .. DS is just another console to help you stay hooked to the N brand, while the PSP is something special and totally new) and there is already a lot of connecitivity and movie software for Mac, PC and Linux.
WiFi will without any doubt bring TV on demand. That won’t take long before it is there. Communities are already popping up (eg. amaryllis). Skype for the PSP? Who will tell. Keyboard and productivity suit are on their way too.
Battery life: from 3 1/2 hours of fanatic high end game play with all bells on and screen at maximum brightness to 7 hours with stuff scaled down a bit. Given the size of the screen I think that is pretty decent. You can get more time out of one battery, when you use the PSP for something that uses less power (simple games, only music or video from memory stick instead of UMD).
UMD: pity that it still is closed and what rumors say is that Sony will keep it a closed standard. That would not be a smart move to do. Playing a movie from it, is actually okay (really great quality), although the size makes ‘darker movies’ difficult to watch, unless you are in a pitch black room.
Other cons: gets dirty easily … get a good cloth and pouch (I use a multipurpose sock for it, haha) and public play is not possible since people who see it, want to try it (but that will wear off with time). And then there is the girlfriend who fell in love with that Namco racing game…. ahhhhh, my luck.
“Am I the only person who thinks Photoshop when reads PSP? ;-)”
I start thinking more about Paint Shop Pro.
I think it has not sold well here in the US because of price.
In Japan they sold the system in a stand alone unit and combo pack, here in the US we only get the combo pack. I can guarantee that if Sony did not screw over the US and released the Stand alone version then it would sell much better.
In Japan the stand alone went for $180 US and the combo went for $250 US. For most people that extra $70 is a big difference.
Also, for a new system, Sony has not done that well on advertising for the system. I have not seen one TV ad for the PSP yet. If they want to sell something then they need to let people know it’s out there.
I guess it could be the Price point. Most people thought that Sony would have tried to match Nintendo’s price on their gaming handheld.
Also the bad pixel factor. Nintendo replaced damaged NDS LCDs at no cost. I have a friend who got his replaced and he said he got great service from big N. While the word on the ‘Net is that Sony won’t replace PSPs with defects in their LCDs. Which is something that is not very cool.
…he showed it to me last night and it had a deal pixel near the center of the screen. He works at an electronics store and i guess that was the fourth one he’s gone through with similar problems. Other problems we discussed were very short battery life compared to nintendos offerings, mp3 playback not working entirely, square button being so close to the screen that the screen gets finger printed all up, fairly slow load times, the disks have a large gaping hole just waiting for things to get stuck in there and cause the discs to be read incorrectly, L+R buttons being mildly uncomfortable, and the buttons and joysticky thingy popping off. I didn’t exactly expect to be impressed by the psp a lot, but this is a major let down.
I have both a playstation and ps2. Both have been rife with hardware faults – neither is 100% functional. Heck with the ps2 it happened in a few months.
I’ve got a stack of gameboy models, NES, SNES, and N64 where I’ve never had more of a problem than dirty contacts on a cartridge.
I have *no* faith in Sony’s engineering quality, much less for a guarenteed to be dropped portable system.
No thanks Sony, I’ve learned my lesson.
A lot of people in the 20-ish age group are college students, and I can see how it would be useful in that setting.
“Useful” here is a strange term for a demographic whose members are usually complaining about they haven’t much money. (Being a sometime college teacher.)
Personally, I sometimes have 30-40 minutes of downtime between classes, which is really too short to go back home, or do anything with friends.
I was in that position not so long ago, and I remember when people used to pass the time by reading books, or talking to other human beings. That wasn’t all too long ago, either; admittedly, I was a little unusual as a book reader.
I don’t mean this as a criticism, just marveling on how times have changed.
Wow. Having been a serious console gamer since SNES, it still amazes me how people look at consoles today. Every time a new console is released, everyone keeps rambling on about graphics graphics graphics. All everyone does for months is compare specs, and base their predictions on specs. The only time this was ever correct since was with Saturn, where Sega made it too difficult for programmers to do 3D.
But, let’s face facts. Perhaps it’s about games? Yes, those things you play on consoles. Are they fun, does it have killer games. What did Halo do for XBox? A lot. Did it matter what the resolution was. Do Halo players even know what the refresh rate is?
Or another factor. Sony placed Playstation in trendy night clubs in the UK. Brilliant! They managed to get a whole new bunch of people interested in games. This is called marketing. Nintendo dropped the ball on marketing, a lot of people perceive Nintendo’s as being for children. This impacts sales.
Last example: Dreamcast. Is that a bad console? Does it have vastly inferior hardware? No. Does it lack original games? Certainly not. Was it too expensive? Price and price cuts were comparable to the competition? So what went wrong? I don’t know, all I know is that Sega was on the wrong track since Sega CD, 32X and Saturn, and even a very good console didn’t guarantee a comeback.
So, to conclude, here we are, just like at any lconsole launch, being real early adaptors, nitpicking dead pixels, wrong buttons, vector subpixel rendering channels and all that. The author of this OSNews entry was exactly right: It’s too early to tell. And you lot are mostly wrong, it is all about games, marketing and people’s perception.
Me personally? I’d take a quick game of DS Wari Ware Touched! over Ridge Racer any time.
Every single sony product I’ve bought in the last 5 years has turned out to be a piece of crap. 2 car stereos which died just out of warantee, our 19″ LCD’s at work which do not like turning on with out being unplugged and replugged (sony blames our electricity….apparently it’s good enough for delicate scientific equipment, but not their fine monitors). I used to love their stuff as a kid, it was tough and worked well, but their build quality has fallen to the same level as ford (long string of curses over that damn ranger) in my book.
You crack me up, dude, seriously.
If games are all about gameplay, then new systems would not sell. Just think about this for a second. What do games these days have, that old games dont? Better gameplay? No. Better graphics? YES.
If you want gameplay, then all you need is an old Super NES system. You can get plenty of good gameplay on those systems.
Do you want graphics? Well, then you don’t want the Super NES. You want a Playstation 3, or an XBOX 2.
Gameplay alone doesn’t sell games. That’s because you don’t need new games to have a great gameplay. You need new games to get better graphics. Graphics are more important than gameplay these days, whether you like it or not. A fun game with shitty graphics will not sell as good as a shitty game with awesome graphics.
Here’s proof: If people would like to play great games with shitty graphics, then they would just play games on their old systems.
“Here’s proof: If people would like to play great games with shitty graphics, then they would just play games on their old systems.”
No, because we played those games through again and again already, and we believe that new technology brings possibilities to enhance playability. It does actually, but mostly it’s not utilized very efficiently.
@Rick James
All work and no play make Rick go crasy <-;
Lighten up.
@Richard S(omething)
If we all like graphics so much we would all have xboxs
What did Halo do for XBox? A lot.
That’s questionable. The XBox was and is a dead system in Japan. Never sold well, even with Halo. Even in this country the numbers are closer to GameCube than to PS2.
watching movies:
theres a module vor the gba which lets you watch movies
on the sega gamegear you could even watch tv
mp3-playback:
also done before on the gba
and afaik the gp32 can do it too
UMDs:
anyone in the mobily-industrie tries to get rid of mechanical storage
sony are the first to use them in a handheld
screen:
it’s one of the new generation and loots great. often has dead pixels wich sony refuses to repair.
has no protection and a very scratch-sensitive front.
design:
looks realy great as long as you don’t touch it.
buttons:
regular ps-layout (wich i think is one of the worst i’ve seen so far)
many people report problems with them.
battery:
best would be to call it a bad joke
when watching movies it dies after 2 hours
ridge racer multiplayer kills it after 2:20
and it already is one of the high-end cells so there’s not much room left for enhencements
conclusion:
the quality is the same like all other sony-products (nothing to be proud of).
like with the ps2 sony promised an “eierlegende-woll-milch-sau” and delivered something substandart. marketing is done by hype.
$250 for a portable gaming device that just happens to play movies and mp3s on proprietary storage/memory formats and sucks life out of batteries like a Hoover and offers the same games we’ve been playing for years. No thanks
“Useful” here is a strange term for a demographic whose members are usually complaining about they haven’t much money. (Being a sometime college teacher.)
There are quite a few college students who can drop $250 without too much thought — there must be, because iPods are quite popular in this demographic.
I was in that position not so long ago, and I remember when people used to pass the time by reading books, or talking to other human beings.
Heh. Books, being rather wide, are a lot less pocketable than a PSP. That said, I hate reading on the go. Reading demands a comfortable chair, good lighting, and a hot cup of tea. It’s not a diversion, but a pursuit. The PSP, on the other hand, is a diversion.
thats actually why i would never buy a psp. gba is currently my favorite platform because of the more gameplay oriented games.
There are quite a few college students who can drop $250 without too much thought — there must be, because iPods are quite popular in this demographic.
While they complain at the same time about the cost of their textbooks! (At $150 for a calc text, I can’t exactly blame them, either.)
Books, being rather wide, are a lot less pocketable than a PSP.
Hmm, depends on the book, I think. I haven’t seen the PSP in person, but I’m pretty sure that a lot of the paperbacks I used to read aren’t any less pocketable. (Maybe I need to see the PSP?)
Reading demands a comfortable chair, good lighting, and a hot cup of tea. It’s not a diversion, but a pursuit.
You don’t read like I do 🙂
amen
I love my gba sp. Having flashy 3d graphics can be nice (half life 2, WoW..) but I still love my old games. I play my NES and n64 a lot. mostly 2d games. who needs high triangle count 
>watching movies:
>theres a module vor the gba which lets you watch movies
>on the sega gamegear you could even watch tv
yeah, they both have great screen too.
>mp3-playback:
>also done before on the gba
>and afaik the gp32 can do it too
I think it was done the right way on the iPod. The rest is no comparrison, because it sucks as much as PSP with bonus that both GBA and GP32 don’t look good.
>UMDs:
>anyone in the mobily-industrie tries to get rid of mechanical storage
>sony are the first to use them in a handheld
Here is something we agree on. Don’t see that move too. But we’ll see.
>screen:
>it’s one of the new generation and loots great. often has dead pixels wich >sony refuses to repair.
>has no protection and a very scratch-sensitive front.
One in 4 has problems with pixels. Sony’s policy is bad.
No protection: thank god for that. I like to ‘do it’ without protection.
>design:
>looks realy great as long as you don’t touch it.
Even if you touch it, it looks nice. Right now my girlfriend is playing it in a mall in Tel Aviv and she has at least 8 people around her lusting for the PSP (at least, I hope it is the PSP … oh wait).
>buttons:
>regular ps-layout (wich i think is one of the worst i’ve seen so far)
>many people report problems with them.
Extremely bad layout. That’s why the US army decided to use it on all their electronical weapons, missle launchers and such. They investigated and tested for a long time, but the PS is really bad…. ah, you missed that, didn’t you.
>battery:
>best would be to call it a bad joke
>when watching movies it dies after 2 hours
>ridge racer multiplayer kills it after 2:20
>and it already is one of the high-end cells so there’s not much room left for >enhencements
I have a PSP for 6 weeks now and use it intensively:
– Ridge racers (my GF playing right now), multiplay: almost four hours.
– Watching movie from UMD: 3 1/2 hours.
– Watching movie from mem stick: 5 hours.
Could be better, but given the screen quality I call it excellent.
>conclusion:
>the quality is the same like all other sony-products (nothing to be proud of).
>like with the ps2 sony promised an “eierlegende-woll-milch-sau” and >delivered something substandart. marketing is done by hype.
Thank god the PS2 never sold too well. I mean, it’s only since Sony can’t deliver ‘m fast enough here in Europe that MS is starting to sell some Xboxes.
I think you are a little jealous. Now, go off and play your GBA advance and save some money so that you can buy a DS.
“thats actually why i would never buy a psp. gba is currently my favorite platform because of the more gameplay oriented games.”
I fail to see how 3D = not “gameplay oriented”
I’ve seen really shitty 2D games.
I like GBA because its a type of game you can’t really get anymore on consoles, but I don’t think 3D or high tech graphics means the gameplay inherently suffers.
>yeah, they both have great screen too.
i would even say that the gamegear had a better display at it’s time than the psp today.
>One in 4 has problems with pixels. Sony’s policy is bad.
No protection: thank god for that. I like to ‘do it’ without protection.
even 1 in 10 is an extremely high ratio. and every other company with an QA-department would never haver released such an unfinished product.
>Extremely bad layout. That’s why the US army decided to use it on all their electronical weapons, missle launchers and such. They investigated and tested for a long time, but the PS is really bad…. ah, you missed that, didn’t you.
seems like you missed the part in brackets
>Thank god the PS2 never sold too well. I mean, it’s only since Sony can’t deliver ‘m fast enough here in Europe that MS is starting to sell some Xboxes.
sega has had better hardware and better games but was killed bei sonys marketing.
>I think you are a little jealous. Now, go off and play your GBA advance and save some money so that you can buy a DS.
i never owned a gba but i already own a ds, and it’S a great toy
@Jeff B
3D doesn’t mean that the games are crap.
look at the wing-commander series, half life or resident evil 4
but grafics are often used to hide bad gameplay
Sony doesn’t *have* a dead pixel policy yet, they say they’re developing one. At the moment you can try taking it back to the retailer – some are swapping them under warranty, if they have spare stock – or call Sony tech support, as they’re evaluating on a case-by-case basis right now. (Which probably means if you sound pissed off enough, they’ll swap it).
Just about everyone who ships devices with LCDs in ships devices with stuck pixels. A lot of consumers don’t really care and if you were to check every single unit prior to shipping it’d drive the cost WAY up. Nintendo ship units with dead pixels, they’ve just decided to exchange them (though they ‘recommend’ you play with it for a month first, to see if it goes away or you stop caring, which is the same thing Sony says). Oh, and Sega were mostly killed by their own internal problems. Sega’s corporate structure was insanely diseased. Try reading some stories about life developing games for Sega and you’ll see why they snuffed it…
I wouldn’t want to get a dead pixel after paying thousands of dollars.
I’m glad that I’m not a student. Texbooks at the University bookstores are over priced. School in general is a gamble, it’s like gambling at a casino.
>> i never owned a gba but i already own a ds, and it’S a great toy
Had one too and it is like you said: a great toy. Nothing more. It is cheap, it looks cheap, cheap games, lousy screengrafix, no joystick, lousy gameplay … the touchscreen fun weares out after two weeks and after that everything is the same …. gave mine to a nephew of age 6. More his thing. .
>>sega has had better hardware and better games but was killed bei sonys >> marketing.
You want to compare this to the DS? Sony PSP has greater games. better hardware, more functionality, but is going to get killed by Nintendo’s marketing of the DS? Is that what you mean to say? Hahahah yeah right, like Nintendo is a markting giant.
Get real. Sony wins this one with 5 fingers up their nose, simply because their hardware and content line up is much better. Out two days and already their catalogue is thicker and better (quality!) than the DS which has been around for some months now.
Here, check for yourself: http://www.gameseek.co.uk/
Have you noticed that Ridgeracer for PSP is almost sold out, while Ridgeracer for DS is widely available? Play the game on both devices and you’ll know the facts. That’s gameplay I talk about, not quality of grafix. The fact that it also looks a zillioin times better on PSP is a bonus.
I’m no fanatical gamer at all, but happen to work a lot with mobile gear and because of that I see a lot of gadgets. Compared by what I have seen, played with and used (a lot of phones included), the PSP stands out. Sorry to say it, but it really does.
And it is being bought too. Look at all the community stuff that already is available. The number of hacks, the level of hacks … come on, the DS is a laugh.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of Sony at all. I try to avoid the label as much as possible, but this PSP line is going to be a winner for them. Despite memory sticks duo, despite UMD, despite a bad policy on dead pixels (which I agree with you: this is really bad).
Sony simply kept marketing down because they wanted to prevent supply issues like they had with their PS2 and like Apple has with all its products. That is what makes some people really mad.
Sony WON’T warranty repairs on screens with dead pixels.
you can still return the unit to the store of original purchase but not to sony, which of course means taking another unit off the shelf (away from someone who might actually purchase one)…
here’s the story:
http://www.neoseeker.com/news/story/4461/
I wouldn’t want to get a dead pixel after paying thousands of dollars.
Well, the PSP doesn’t cost thousands of dollars. In any case, even if you do pay thousands of dollars (eg: for something like a laptop), there is a good chance you’ll have dead pixels.
It boils down to it not having web access. If I’m going to shell out $250 for something with wireless capabilities, it *must* have web access. There’s no excuse for not having web access in a handheld this pricy.
If it had web access, I could use it as a remote control for other items around the home which I’ve already web-enabled and configured to work with small screens. But $250 just to play games makes me look at my very nice ‘puter with it’s 1600×1280 res and comfy chair and wonder why on earth I need to carry games around with me.
Give me a unit that can take advantage of it’s features and I’m more interested. As I see it, wireless is junk without a web browser.
Maybe they’ll add a web browser about the same time as they fix the button. Then they’ll have one more sale.
some game will go out soon for the ds..
final fantasy
metroid
age of empire 2
ATV : Quad Frenzy
Goldeneye
Slime MoriMori : Dragon Quest 2
Castlevania
zelda
Star Wars : Episode 3
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
Americans commute by car, Japanese by train. Prices for those things are high, joung people cannot easily afford it. No wonder its not a runner in America.
Rayiner Hashem: A lot of people in the 20-ish age group are college students, and I can see how it would be useful in that setting.
jack perry: “Useful” here is a strange term for a demographic whose members are usually complaining about they haven’t much money. (Being a sometime college teacher.)
You realize the reason they are usually complaining about not having much money is BECAUSE they are buying things like the PSP rather than what they need, right? (And then to boot they buy them right when they come out so they pay a premium rather than waiting and getting it cheaper)
At least… That’s my experience anyway…
Me (I’m “20ish”) I prefer to buy these things after their cheaper (and my first priority is what I need). As a result, right now I’m just starting to look at getting a Game Boy Advance SP or an N-Gage since I figured they should be dropping in price because of the DS and the PSP.
jack perry: I was in that position not so long ago, and I remember when people used to pass the time by reading books, or talking to other human beings. That wasn’t all too long ago, either; admittedly, I was a little unusual as a book reader.
Well… Frequently before class I’m busy reading (a paper or textbook or what have you), helping someone, working on a project, or resting my eyes (been having a bit of eye trouble). If I don’t have/want to do anything like that, then I usually read a novel. If I don’t do that then I will play a game.
The only times I ever really played games in school was when the class was pointless because I already knew everything that the professor was teaching. <chuckles> Or if he/she was going WAY too slow.
no, 3d graphics dont make a game garbage. but 3d games are very different from 2d. i much perfer the 2d gaming era, and the gba offers many, many games that appeal to me. i am enjoying the minish cap FAR more then windwaker (as an example). thats not to say windwaker is a bad game, because it isnt. its one of the best games made in the last ten years. but the older style that the minish cap has i just find way more enjoyable.
the ds has more bang for its buck, has far more innovative and interesting games, and is backwards compatible with the only platform nowadays that still does good oldschool games.
Obviously you’ve never been a programmer, let alone a games programmer. So I dont know how you could say Sony hardware is superior.
Guessing your the type of person who bought the whole 128-bit for the PS2 hook-line and sinker.
Sony hardware for consoles has never been good, in fact its always been a *itch to program for, and a truly pain in rear to manage. Their hardware has never been superior.
Sega DC died before the PS2 cameout, this was marketing clout. Sony panicked and released the PS2 early they used their marketing strenght to kill the DC 3-6 months before even the PS2 was released.
Sony provides piss-poor documentation to their developers, piss poor support for their programmers while linching developer 60K(pounds) a pop for their developing platforms.
The PSP is sold at a loss, while the game prices reflect that. You think a PSP game costs 50 for no reason? at most 70% is sony royalty payments… developers are flocking away to MS (not an MS fanboy either) for larger cuts.
As for the DS vs PSP, we’ve seen this before GB vs GameGear, GB vs Lynx… both superior systems, both now non-existant.
If nintendo ever releases any sort of PalmOS based cartridge on the DS, I tell you that will sell more than PSP’s easily.
Personally unless the PSP comes up with a killer app, Ridge Racer aint, it will be placed on life support… the market the DS exists, was made by Nintendo, the DS supports the GBA, the PSP doesnt. Nintendo also has far more developers leading back since the GB days, Sony is trying to get more developers. However their licensing agreements might not be friendly. Notice please Namco made ridge racer for both DS and the PSP. You mention, oh RidgeRacer PSP sells a lot, well the DS outsells the PSP?????
Bigger library for the DS .. means the PSP has a hard fight… besides I wouldnt trust sony (not that I trust nintendo either), company which is known to be DRM friendly >_>
I think it is a cool geek toy, but I don’t pay $250 for a game machine…bottom line.
know a kid that got one. I don’t know about this button issue, but his alreaady has a stuck pixel! I guess many of them do. I would be so utterly pissed abou this!
My Sony gaming handheld is my Clie NX-60; it’s all I need. It plays nearly every palm-based game out there, emulates a Gameboy for the few GB carts I own (Final Fantasy Legend I, II and FFAdventure), plays MPEG video and MP3s, has amazing storage potential (MemStick and CF), is WiFi ready (CF WiFi adapter), a voice recording feature, oh yeah and it’s a PDA too.
It’s funny how the quality and versatility of a three-year-old Sony handheld makes it pointless for me to buy a just-released PSP.
Can’t we all get laid while debating video game consoles?
Why choose? I’ll take one of each.
I have a PSP, and all the battery and other”concarns” are pure myth
1 I get a good 7 hrs of battery life, better than my iPod ever had, and I got a pelican acesorie case, which has a power brick that holds 1 extra charge.
2 Wipeout Pure is an awesome game, it looks great. I never really liked my ps2 but i am glad I sold it for this!
3 Gretzkey Hockey is fun but it is hard to controll and has a learning curve, because if you are a so-so team (Boston) you are blown out fo the water.
My brother dropped his DS for this, and he loves it too. Lumenes is a good game but not my thing.
Overall this is worth the 250 dollars and when GTA comes out you will see alot more being sold! Get it you cheep fools!
People are probably going to wait for the price wars to begin. Sony will probably be dropping the price in the coming months, if not the latest the holiday’s.
I think the PSP looks great, and has a chance to kick Nintendo out of the market. But it’s a little high in the price range I would want to spend for a hand held.
Trust me, Sony will knock the price down, and that’s what the people are waiting for.
Who the Hell said ANYTHING about Thongs ?!?
You realize the reason they are usually complaining about not having much money is BECAUSE they are buying things like the PSP rather than what they need, right?
Yes 🙂 Really, I was just having a little fun w/Rayiner.
Frequently before class I’m busy reading (a paper or textbook or what have you), helping someone, working on a project, or resting my eyes (been having a bit of eye trouble).
You may want to look into glasses, if you don’t own a pair already. Seriously. Aside from that, you sound like me when I was a student. A career in academia may await you 😉
No, but I do think Paint Shop Pro.
When the PSP console is sold seperately we’ll have:
16 Mhz, 80 GBA
67 Mhz, $150 GBA DS
333 Mhz, $180 PSP
133 Mhz, $170 GP32
The faster hardware, will eventually be able to emulate the slower. Hackers have already been able to get Atari, NES, Sega Master System, Turbo Graphics 16, SNES, Linx, GB, GB color & many more systems playable by emulating them and their games on the GBA. All we need is a coder who can make the PSP emulate the GBA & then GAME OVER. PSP will win the race. It takes raw processing power to emulate systems at a playable decent speed, and that is what the PSP has. That is why it will thrive, when the hacking community starts releasing stuff. Granted, roms are not completely legal to download & emulate, but they are easier to get than MP3s.
I’m unhappy with the GP32, because its creators/manufacturers stonewall their userbase, & they put out GP32s w/ new screens that are incompatable w/ previous releases, even though its supposed to be. I love their approach, overall.
I hope Sony gets its act together. The less proprietary & secretive this kind of technology is, the better for everyone.
> Guessing your the type of person who bought the whole 128-bit for the
> PS2 hook-line and sinker.
If you would have read the threat you would have seen that I never owned a PS1, PS2, something from Nintendo or Xbox, because I’m not a gamer. Don’t play games on my laptop, ever. Last game I played was a sub sim or something in the ’90’s. Oh, I do own some Nintendo stuff though, but that’s old Nintendo stuff from the 80’s (the simple single game thingies).
The PSP captured my attention. This is a great media device and it should have an Apple. And yes, it plays cames too.
>The PSP is sold at a loss, while the game prices reflect that. You think a PSP
> game costs 50 for no reason? at most 70% is sony royalty payments…
> developers are flocking away to MS (not an MS fanboy either) for larger
> cuts.
And so what that it is sold at a loss? You get your mobile phone for free too, right? With the PSP Sony can make money from games, media, streaming content, streaming services and such and in the end that will make that the PSP line survives.
> As for the DS vs PSP, we’ve seen this before GB vs GameGear, GB vs Lynx… . > both superior systems, both now non-existant.
Gamegear and Lynx both had playability problems, as far I can remember. The Lynx had serioius battery problems and the Gamegear lacked titles with staying power. PSP has none of those problems. DS has a serious design problem…. shelling out $150 for something that looks like $25, while the PSP looks like $600, but only cost $250 … a great bargain
> If nintendo ever releases any sort of PalmOS based cartridge on the DS, I
> tell you that will sell more than PSP’s easily.
Palm OS in a DS. Yeah, that would make sense: put a nice flexible OS in a clumsy device. At least it would give the touch screen a usful meaning, because now it hasn’t. Both games I played use the screen for the same thing. Nice – because it is different – at first, but annoying after two weeks.
> Personally unless the PSP comes up with a killer app, Ridge Racer aint, it
> will be placed on life support…
I agree that Ridge Racers isn’t the killer app, but it is extremely fun to play and nice to look at. Ridgeracer on DS ain’t both.
The killer for PSP right now is the ability to do more than just play a game, but the killer app will come in 2, 3 months and won’t be a game, but a productivity suit (including browser, emailclient).
> the DS supports the GBA, the PSP doesnt.
I think that sums it up. What is the USP of the DS: it is backward compatible. Meaning that you are going to play old games on new hardware. Real reason to buy new hardware. Get real… people playing DS at school with old games will be laughed at. That is the reality. The DS simply ain’t cool … and hasn’t good enough games to make your forget the communist design.
> Notice please Namco made ridge racer for both DS and the PSP.
You can do a head on comparisson on game play, screen grafix and excitement there. No match for PSP.
> Bigger library for the DS ..
Where is that bigger library? Don’t see it, except for the old stuff. That brings me back to Palm. PalmOS has a bigger library of software nowadays than Windows bases stuff. But they are fighting a losing battle. How come? Let’s see… could this be, because 80% of all Palm titles are 4 years old and people simply wan’t new stuff or old stuff in new gorgeous grafix?
Guess they don’t … guess normal people will fancy the best OS with old solftware over a crappy multimedia solution with all bells and whistles anyday.
> means the PSP has a hard fight… besides I
> wouldnt trust sony (not that I trust nintendo either), company which is
> known to be DRM friendly >_>
Listen, DRM is here to stay. Every mediacompany has to do something with it. I don’t like it, but there is little you can do about it. With the PSP you can at least watch DRM’ed stuff (movies and such) and with Nintendo you can’t. So what’s the point of bringing this up and ‘something bad’ for Sony?
You don’t have to play drm’ed stuff. I use my PSP to watch TV shows I record and I use it to watch movies from memorystick. Oh yes… that is another thing you probably don’t like: memory stick, since it again a closed standard. Damn Sony for it …
Better to buy Nintendo then, for their cartridges offer way more flexibility. You can even buy blank ones and put movies on it yourself. Right?
Jack Perry: You may want to look into glasses, if you don’t own a pair already. Seriously. Aside from that, you sound like me when I was a student. A career in academia may await you 😉
Ya, I already have glasses. The problem is something else. But it’s not too bad, in fact it’s been getting overall.
And I’ll take the rest of what you said as a compliment 🙂 Thanks ;>
rudy: Gamegear and Lynx both had playability problems, as far I can remember. The Lynx had serioius battery problems and the Gamegear lacked titles with staying power.
Actually… Having owned the Game Gear and knowing a number of other people who own one. I’d say the Game Gear was rather sweet overall. Add in the Master Gear converter (which allowed you to play Sega Master System games on the Game Gear. And as a reminder the SMS was the competitor to the NES, Nintendo’s system at the time.) which allowed you to play “NES-quality” games on the GG and the fact that you could watch TV on it (with another add-on) and I’d say it was WAY better than the GB. In fact, I’d say it’s almost like the PSP, the only difference is… The GG was better 🙂 Why? Because with the converter you could play all the same games you played on the TV without having to buy them all over again like you do with the PSP.
Also, you forget numerous other challengers to the Game Boy (and its successors). Like the Sega Nomad. Which was essentially a portable Genesis and once again… Played the same games as the Genesis.
And then there was the Turbo Express… You could watch TV on that too and play the same games that were on the TG16.
Pretty much all the competitors to the Game Boy were sweet in one way or another. But they all lost in the end. (Darn.)
rudy: I think that sums it up. What is the USP of the DS: it is backward compatible. Meaning that you are going to play old games on new hardware. Real reason to buy new hardware. Get real… people playing DS at school with old games will be laughed at. That is the reality. The DS simply ain’t cool … and hasn’t good enough games to make your forget the communist design.
No you won’t get laughed at for playing old games. (At least no more than you will for paying $50 for a game that could be just $20 or even $10 in a few weeks. Yes, sometimes it takes a ridiciously short period of time for the price to drop on things)
Backwards compatibility is actually VERY important for portables, far more so than the consoles that hook up to the TV. Why? Because you can’t carry every bloody portable you own with you all the time and good old games don’t spontaneously go bad just because new games are out.
I know a number of people who go back and play old games all the time. That includes “old gamers” and “young gamers”.
Also… As far as “buying new hardware to play old games” goes… Well… Let me put it this way, in the history gaming there have been some “upgrades” that caused some old games to run better/look nicer without requiring a software update. (This is much more common on the computer side of things where you can boost the resolution, turn on anti-aliasing, and stuff like that)
Oh… I forgot to add that backwards compatibility also effectively reduces the price of the DS. The reason being simple. Someone who owns a Game Boy can sell it to someone who wants it and put that money towards buying a DS. And yet, they can still keep their old games.
I know people who have done things like that in the past.
And…
Some people like trying out old games they never got to play before. (Like me and I was one of the “rich kids” in elementary through high school) I was always more than happy to buy old games (systems and accessories as well) off of other people.
So for some people those “old games” are actually a very legitimate part of the DS’s library.
I dunno, I’ve owned every Gameboy that came out to date and with each version I actually never played the games from the previous one ever, just in the same way that I never played any PS1 games on my PS2. To me it defeats the purpose of buying a new system to play the old system’s games.
Speaking on Lynx etc. I owned a Lynx, and it was a nice unit but was extremely massive compared to the Gameboy at the time. In that case, the technical superiority was defeated by form factor (the games themselves on the Lynx were quite good for the time). The DS vs PSP playfield bares little comparative resemblence. I’m buying a PSP
Here’s a picture of OSNews.com on a PSP… enjoy.
http://suicideslushie.com/img/psp-osnews.com.jpg
— Failure cause — too expensive and proprietary format
The PSP is geared toward adult gamers.
most adult gamers don’t get enough time to play. ( at least I don’t ).
I have a 10min commute. So cannot play there.
When home, I prefer to play on the TV with my PS2 / Xbox.
So why would I pay $249 ( way more than PS2 ) and shell out $40-$50 per game for a tiny screen and proprietary format that is less enjoyable than on the big screen tv with PS2 ?
I would consider it if its like $100-$125 max. with games around $19.99 max.
> If nintendo ever releases any sort of PalmOS based cartridge on the DS, I
> tell you that will sell more than PSP’s easily.
Anyone knows French? Micro Quad (Palm OS base game) on PSP.
http://www.forum-palmspirit.com/viewtopic.php?p=154135
I’m holding out for the PS3 or Xbox2. I’m leaning towards the PS3 because it’s has better hardware and Sony games are still probably the best. The PSP is nice, but it would take games to win me over, and although it’s the best handheld, it’s expensive.
It looks gorgeous, thanks!
It was a lucky thing I found PSP’s browser agent so I can now serve it the mobile pages that fit better on its resolution.