Forbes:PSP is destined to be the consumer electronics powerh

[hey69]

A First Look At Sony's PlayStation Portable
Arik Hesseldahl, 03.02.05, 10:00 AM ET

NEW YORK - I was in my armored Humvee with four other cars coming at me. I fired a few missiles, blew up two of the cars and scared the others off. That's when I realized I had to get myself one of these things.

Not an armored Humvee with cluster missiles and machine guns mounted on top. I realized I had to get myself a Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) PlayStation Portable with all due speed. Sony, the Japanese electronics giant, showed the most awaited handheld gaming devices on a heavily guarded train berthed at New York's Grand Central Station on March 1, and I got to play with one for the better part of an hour.

Based on my first look I am suitably impressed and convinced that, barring a technical glitch or some other disaster that goofs up the official U.S. product launch on March 24, the PSP is destined to be the consumer electronics powerhouse of the year.

Imagine gaming, music, movies and probably a good deal more crammed into a device that fits into the pocket of a jacket, all for about $250.

The game I loved most was Twisted Metal Head On. The scenario is best described as car wars: you drive around in your car looking for other cars to blow up with your weapons, hiding behind barriers like buildings when they get the drop on you, while you hunt them looking for a clear shot to send them to the junkyard in the great beyond.

The best part of the gaming experience was that I was playing the game with four other people sitting in the room with me, most of which who joined the game in progress. The five PSP units were all linked via an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection. It's a lot more fun blowing up someone else's car when you can actually hear them react with a curse that would normally bring their mothers running with a bar of soap. Sony expects some 24 games to launch alongside the PSP with more to follow, each costing in the neighborhood of $40.

But like I said, it's more than a gaming machine. It plays movies, too. I watched a few movie trailers and listened with headphones, and the sound quality was generally good though not exceptional. The small, wide video screen helped make up for it. The PSP may soon become a popular way to watch movies on airplanes, assuming there's a good selection of movies to choose from. The first million PSPs sold will ship with a copy of Spider-Man 2 in the box. Movies, as I understand it, will sell for between $20 and $30 depending on the title.

Aside from the UMD discs that slide into the bottom panel--they're a little reminiscent of Sony's MiniDiscs but hold about 1.8 gigabytes of data--there's a slot for a Memory stick on which you can store photos or music. It will play MP3 files or music files encoded into Sony's weird ATRACs format. (Stick with the MP3s.)

My two criticisms of the device are pretty straightforward. I'm concerned that battery life will be an issue. As I understand it, the battery packs will run for about three to four hours on a single charge, depending on what you're doing. Four hours isn't terribly long if you're on an international flight or a long car ride. I predict that customers will start demanding that spare batteries be sold on their own almost immediately after the product's release. Sony should be planning now.

The other thing I noticed--and this may be corrected by the time the final products hit the store shelves--is that it seems to take a long time to load games. There's a lot taking place on those little screens, and there is a lot of data to load into the system's memory to make it happen. It's pretty far from an instant-on experience. Bring a little dose of extra patience with you wherever you take your PSP because I think you'll need it.

Overall, I still think that PSP is going to be the one product that Sony knocks out of the park this year. There is simply nothing else like it on the market, and even if you're not predisposed to buying one for yourself, you will in the coming year or so know several who are. Spend time with those people while you can, because come the end of March, you'll be seeing them less than before.

http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2005/03/02/cx_ah_0302tentech.html?partner=yahoo&referrer=

 

[Teasy]

The other thing I noticed--and this may be corrected by the time the final products hit the store shelves--is that it seems to take a long time to load games.

This guy is seriously clueless.

 

[Ty]

The other thing I noticed--and this may be corrected by the time the final products hit the store shelves--is that it seems to take a long time to load games.

This guy is seriously clueless.

Not necessarily. It all depends on the versions of the games he played. For instance, one of our submissions was denied because our loading times were too long. We (well the PSP team, not me because I'm not part of that team) re-organized the data so it's much faster now and it's no longer an issue (per SCEA).

 

[Teasy]

Good point Ty. Although it sounds to me like he's just comparing it to GBA/DS and seeing any real time load time as a problem. He specifically mentions "It's pretty far from an instant-on experience".

 

[Guden Oden]

We (well the PSP team, not me because I'm not part of that team) re-organized the data so it's much faster now

"Duh" kind of question I know, but why the hell didn'tja do this from the beginning??? You know people HATE load times and loading screens and delays because of loading in general, RIGHT???

 

[Ty]

Good point Ty. Although it sounds to me like he's just comparing it to GBA/DS and seeing any real time load time as a problem. He specifically mentions "It's pretty far from an instant-on experience".

Well we don't know if he's comparing it to the GBA/DS at all (neither of those are instant on - at least for the games I play - fast yes, but not instant) so I won't get into that. I have no doubt the PSP UMD will be slower than a cart due to its physical characteristics AND the amount of data that is drawn from it.

"Duh" kind of question I know, but why the hell didn'tja do this from the beginning??? You know people HATE load times and loading screens and delays because of loading in general, RIGHT???

It's a fair question. The answer is quite simple, at the time we didn't have access to the proper devkit to check this out. At least I think that's the reason. I don't remember the timing of our submissions vs. the dev kits we had at the time.

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

Sounds cool. Other than the 20-30 dollar movies.
What the heck are they thinking?

 

[cthellis42]

Sounds cool. Other than the 20-30 dollar movies.
What the heck are they thinking?

I'm hoping they're thinking of changing that before they turn it into an effort as pointless as their pre-recorded MD albums.

 

[Ty]

I'm hoping they're thinking of changing that before they turn it into an effort as pointless as their pre-recorded MD albums.

Aye. I'm hoping that at least during the launch period they give away the UMD version of the movie packed in with their DVDs.

 

[JF_Aidan_Pryde]

Sounds cool. Other than the 20-30 dollar movies.
What the heck are they thinking?

I'm hoping they're thinking of changing that before they turn it into an effort as pointless as their pre-recorded MD albums.

Sony has a habbit of repetitly doing these stupid things.

It's like what Gene Hackman said in Enemy of the State: "You're either incredibly smart or incredibly stupid."

Sony does so many smart things.

And so many stupid things to match.

 

[wco81]

They are at the mercy of the studios on the UMD movies thing, including Columbia Tristar which they own.

Recently, some RIAA exec. said "Our music is not to be given away to sell iPods." I'm guessing the MPAA feels similarly.

However, supposedly there is a mini-DVD format they're working on, using 3 inch discs and small players, which would be aimed at children. For that market, supposedly they are talking about lower pricing for movies since they don't think that market overlaps with the DVD market.

IOW, they don't fear that cheap mini-DVD movies will necessarily cannibalize DVD sales. So I'm sure they're reluctant to offer a lower-priced alternative to DVDs, especially since Sony has said they might be willing to license UMD for players to be used in the home.

 

[PC-Engine]

However, supposedly there is a mini-DVD format they're working on, using 3 inch discs and small players, which would be aimed at children. For that market, supposedly they are talking about lower pricing for movies since they don't think that market overlaps with the DVD market.

Who are you referring to when you say they?

 

[wco81]

I won't say Fisher Price but it's the same kind of idea. They would market these with toys, not consumer electronics.

We'll see if it happens.

 

[PC-Engine]

What I meant was who is making these miniDVD players? I already know Warner Bros has already made and sold these portable miniDVD players over in Asia.