27 Ways to Save the Consoles

[wraggster]

Article from Gamepro that hints at what needs improving on our Beloved consoles:

PLAYSTATION 2

Not dead yet
Where's the first-party support?
We were bummed when Sony's Jack Tretton told us that all internal development would focus on the PS3 and not the PS2. Given that there are some 100 million PS2s in the wild, that seems like something of a miscalculation. A new SOCOM expansion, a Killzone spinoff, or even a quick-and-easy port of Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection could help keep the PS2 embers glowing bright for another year at the minimum. But by dropping support now, the PS2 will have to compete primarily on price. Which brings us to...

It's time for $99...or less
Yeah, it's time. Seven years after its launch, the PS2 is finally showing signs of slowing down. But this isn't an inevitability. A well-timed price cut will do wonders for this classic console, likely buying it another year or more of interest and perhaps another round of high-profile third-party games. By shifting focus too quickly to the PS3, Sony risks losing many of its PS2 faithful to the cheaper Xbox 360 and the much cheaper, friendlier Wii. The PS2 isn't dead yet!




A handheld with big ambitions
PSP
Where's the iTunes-style online store?
The PSP has tremendous potential as a do-it-all media device, but Sony isn't putting its weight behind an online store that could do for the PSP what iTunes did for the iPod. Imagine: $1.99 retro arcade downloads, $4.99 PS1 games, and an assorted variety of mini-games, flash games, and the like, all downloadable through your PC or PS3. While Sony's at it, they may as well add video (TVs and movies) and music as well. Sony's one of the biggest media companies in the world -- a comprehensive, iTunes-style PSP site shouldn't be a huge difficulty.

Devs are overshooting
Many of the high-profile PSP games are epic, console-style games: see Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, God of War: Chains of Olympus, and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. These are all excellent games worthy of the PS2...but that's part of the problem. Portable players expect a different breed of game, something simpler and faster to play in short sessions. Big sprawling adventures don't lend themselves well to these kinds of playing habits. Sony shouldn't discourage all console-style PSP games, but they should put the focus on more casual games -- Loco Roco, Lumines, and Castlevania being perfect examples.




Still selling, despite the glut of badness
DS
The shovelware problem
Much like the Wii, the DS is a system targeted at casual gamers. But ruthless game publishers are capitalizing on this naive new market by carpet-bombing them with shoddy, over-priced games. As with the Wii, the vast majority of standout DS titles are Nintendo-produced. What does that tell you?

Friend Codes suck
Why Nintendo went the route of "Friend Codes" beats the hell outta us, but it's a poor man's substitute for Xbox Live or PSN gamertags. They're universally reviled, yet Nintendo defends them at every turn. Why?

http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/inter...s/144431.shtml

[mike_jmg]

Article from Gamepro that hints at what needs improving on our Beloved consoles:

Portable players expect a different breed of game, something simpler and faster to play in short sessions. Big sprawling adventures don't lend themselves well to these kinds of playing habits. Sony shouldn't discourage all console-style PSP games, but they should put the focus on more casual games -- Loco Roco, Lumines, and Castlevania being perfect examples.

No, no and a thousand times no.
This was a mistake back from GBA, remember mario tennis advance it was a "different breed" of the game, I was expecting it to be like the N64 game just to pick it up and play a few matches against my friends, but noooo!, for some strange stupid and twisted reason developers tend to think we want a more simple or different game from the console version, that might work on casual gamers who don't own a console but not most of us. (by the way, mario tennis advanced s*cked)

The thing about portable gaming is, that we, gamers want to be able take our consoles anywhere (even the restroom LOL). So, for God's sake don't go this way.

Thank God the psp is getting all massive games, hell yeah. Disgaea for example, hundreds and hundreds of hours of intensive, beautiful and fun gameplay all just packed into a nifty little umd (I've already recharged my psp's battery twice to continue haha)

Also God of War and Silent Hill, you can't go wrong with that

[jamotto]

One of things I liked about the psp was the fact it receives epic, console-style games as well as casual games, the more choices the better.

[b8a]

I fully agree with mike_jmg. Nothing sucks more then being completely engrossed in an epic game and then suddenly having to go shoe shopping with your girlfriend or on a 10 hour trip out of town. With a regular console, you'd be totally screwed in cases like these. But if you buy and play games on the PSP anyway, there's no worry because you can pick it up, take it with you, and fix your jones where ever you want. I hate being tethered to a TV, and all these are reasons why I'd always buy the PSP version of an epic game, even though it may be graphically scaled down, over a PS2 or even PS3 version of the exact same game.

What are the authors of this article thinking? Can they not see that the two hotest selling consoles are the PSP and the DS? Clearly there's a ton of people out there who value quality portable gaming, otherwise I guarantee you that 90%+ of those people have cell phones that are absolutely perfect for playing quick time wasters (note: PSP sales skyrocketed when the sequel to FFVII, an "epic" game unsuitable for portable systems by traditional standards, was released). Now that the PSP has proven that portable gaming is capable of delivering a console gaming experience, I personally don't ever see myself buying a console that requires a TV ever again. ...But that doesn't mean that I want to play a majority of puzzle games.

Besides, look at how this article contradicts itself. They say that this is a negative for the PSP:

Portable players expect a different breed of game, something simpler and faster to play in short sessions

And then go on to say that the exact fix they're proposing for the PSP is already a big problem for the DS:

the DS is a system targeted at casual gamers. But ruthless game publishers are capitalizing on this naive new market by carpet-bombing them with shoddy, over-priced games

When you dumb-down games and make them easier to pick up and play in short spurts, you end up with these sorts of games... There's just no avoiding it. Calling the publishers "ruthless" for delivering the very sorts of games that they themselves are advocating smacks of hypocracy (The games really are over-priced, but they could've delivered that point in a seperate sentance if they wanted _any_ credibility. Everything else in the sentence contradicts their previously stated opinion on the PSP).

Ugh. Sorry for the rant, but these "industry insiders" never cease to frustrate me.

[JPJunkie]

The PS2 is defiantly still selling

[Gizmo356]

"Devs are overshooting
Many of the high-profile PSP games are epic, console-style games: see Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, God of War: Chains of Olympus, and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. These are all excellent games worthy of the PS2...but that's part of the problem. Portable players expect a different breed of game, something simpler and faster to play in short sessions. Big sprawling adventures don't lend themselves well to these kinds of playing habits. Sony shouldn't discourage all console-style PSP games, but they should put the focus on more casual games -- Loco Roco, Lumines, and Castlevania being perfect examples."

Stupidest thing I ever read in my life.

[Narcotize]

Hah seems we all agree on the same comment.

Who else rolled their eyes when reading that the proposed format for TES:Oblivion PSP was to make it a dungeon crawler rather than the free roaming worlds of the big brothers 'to suit the portable platform'? In essence, they remove the one thing that makes the franchise appealing.

Hell, if they can't replicate Oblivion, then bloody stick Morrowind or something similar out there!!

[paladinja]

Dear Mrs. Gameinformer author,

Please follow these simple steps:
1- log on to ebay
2- buy a "game & watch" and a "tamagotchie"
3- be quiet
4- let the rest of us enjoy games that are so good that they actually make me wish the flight to japan took LONGER.

...that is all.

[wolfpack]

morrowind with the battle system of oblivion. now THAT would be awesome for the psp.

and as for the guy that wrote this article, all i can say is i love to play long games on portables, especially on long trips, when im at my girlfriends house, or when im just at one just killing time. we need MORE of these out there. hell ive spent so much time on ridge racer because its such a long racing game to complete all the courses, i love it. anyways to make a long story short...

long games on psp rock, as long as it has a good storyline or is just a good shoot-em up