The PSP is far From a Failure

[Dave_Pennington]

I think the price of games is also killing the PSP, I've worked in the retail world of gaming for over 10 years and its always been the sale and trade of second hand games that have helped to push a console, however I've noticed that game shops are offering their Pre-owned PSP games at near NEW selling prices and yet are giving next to nothing in trade!. A recent example of this was when I pointed out to my local Game Station Store that they were selling Battle Front II for £27.99 2nd hand and £19.99 new?? they then changed the price to £17.99!, WOW thats a whole saving of 2 pounds sterling.

Not every one can afford or like my self is willing to pay the price of £34.99 for a new title and would wait till these titles appear as Pre-owned, whilst this has worked for previous consoles from the Megadrive even up to the XBOX 360 I dont see the trend porting over to the PSP even after a year of sales?, this is why I have not been purchasing games and am stuck with a expensive MP3 player!.

[jim80b]

i own both a PSP and a DS (old fat one),
both are 'homebrew enabled'

now...
looking purely at the homebrew aspect (inc emus) the psp leaves the ds dead. its faster, graphics look better, and there is a far bigger choice of applications.

Looking at games, here we see a huge difference. how big is an average DS game? well its around 30meg
a psp game- lets guess at 600meg
thats 200% more code. therefore more development time (ok some will be FMV's but still = dev time)
on this basis the DS is churning out more titles. assuming 10% are appealing for either console, the DS wins...
the DS's best features (touce and voice inputs) are seeing games like brain training appeal to a wide group. old people, those who couldn't play pong are picking it up.
the nintendo Wifi is another big winner for the DS
to play multiplayer games is great for a handheld, i know very few others with a PSP, but have played quite a few DS games with others!
The game share of the PSP has been poorly supported, while the DS one means that you can try the game when playing with another, and if you like it go buy it to unlock more multiplayer options. mario kart was a great example of this

whats the hook for Sony? a big screen, well yes its a good thing, but we need more than good looks in a game...


the DS has compatability with a huge range of GBA games, out of the box.
the PSP, well hopefully the PS1 we have been promised will come out
homebrew has opened both to the whole back catologue (up to the N64)

Both consoles suffer from piracy, we all bought a larger mem stick which is roughly the same cost to get the items to run homebrew on the ds.
this all seems to go past unnoticed... does nintendo care?


Media...well both have ok media functionality through homebrew, the screen on the psp is better for video, but the battery lasts a lot longer on the ds


The DS, if given the continued games, will be hard to dislodge.
the PSP is far from a failure, and given homebrew, will continue to thrive. the PS1 will help open the door for more games

for any to succeed its the "out off the box" user that will not tinker or mod that needs to buy the console. the DS is more appealing to them

us - those reading this - sit on the other side and want the extra power and potential (and its still only potential) of the PSP. getting the gps and camera would go a long way towards justifing the extra cost.
Give the PSP more time and dont write it off yet.

[Vancougar]

The whole $40-$50 game thing for piss poor conversions of $10-$20 PS2 games or 10 year old classics is one thing that kills the PSP.
It's also the issue of the UMD in general. I sometimes use my PSP on trains and even though my daily commute is 40 mins; i can barely enjoy most titles on the go, because of the insanely long loading times.
Now, if Sony nixed UMD altogether and allowed digital downloads, i think the PSP would be alright again; just as long as money hungry Sony doesn't charge the analogue price for a digital download.