How well is psp doing?
- Thread starter pixelbox
- Start date
Mobile phones won't surpass specialist handhelds until they get decent sized land-scape aspect screens.
where are the killer app's? of the 15 or so people i know that have a psp, about 3 use it to play PSP games. the rest use it to watch movies and play emulated nintendo games. in fact, nintendo games seam to be the thing people are most interested in playing on the handheld.typoEDR said:
mckmas8808
Legend
see colon said:
GTA:LCS!!!
mckmas8808
Legend
YeuEmMaiMai said:
1. It's a plain fact that movies on the PSP looks absolutely stunning. Most sane people at least see this as a fact.
2. You can get a 1 Gig Pro Duo stick for less than $80 now. Of course it's not as good as say an ipod, yet the MP3 ability is a bonus.
3. What game are you playing where it last for 2 hours? GTA last 4.5 hours for me. Burnout last 5+ hours. Of course a handheld with better graphics, sound, and optical disc will drain more battery power than one without these things.
4. I agree games are more expensive. But I'm starting to see $39.99 games at many places.
5. And please stop it with this no games Bull$hit about the PSP. The psp has plenty of games now just go to Target and see for yourself. Count the number of psp games and then count the number of DS games. You will see they are quite equal. In all honesty I counted more psp games in my local Target. Go figure.
Seems to me movie playback is the killer appsee colon said:
Games are still weak. mckmas8808
Legend
Respectfully asking
If the games were so weak then how did the PSP catch up to the DS in videogame sales in the US? Why are PSP games dominating the UK charts while the DS is struggling to get one game on the top 40 list?
Shifty Geezer said:Seems to me movie playback is the killer app
If the games were so weak then how did the PSP catch up to the DS in videogame sales in the US? Why are PSP games dominating the UK charts while the DS is struggling to get one game on the top 40 list?
it seems there are two viewpoints in this thread that somehow are seen as opposing:
A) the psp is the most advanced handheld with a wide (aka convergent) feature set available at the markeet (and accepted by the consumer) ATM
B) in the not so distant future phones/personal communicators, or whatever those are called at that time, will be the dominant handheld device.
now, i personally, do not see any contradiction or mutual conflict among those two viepoints. why?
to explain that we should start from the ds vs. psp situation:
the ds is the overall better _gaming_ platform - whatever success the ds has had it's been for its merits as a gaming platform, people only play games on it, and people are happy playing games on it. and yet, the psp, basically a convergence device, is effectively competing with the ds - desipte the fact that the psp has been an inferior gaming platform till now. why? - because the psp is a _convergence_ device - whenever you don't feel like playing games on it you use it for something else. see the trend already?
next step: phone-originated convergent devices - guess what - they may not be the best in everything they do, but that won't matter - it's the principle that the combination of things tends to be sometimes greater than the sheer sum of those things taken separately that plays an essential role here. and you can safely assume that phones will be getting better and better at all things they do with each new generation.
A) the psp is the most advanced handheld with a wide (aka convergent) feature set available at the markeet (and accepted by the consumer) ATM
B) in the not so distant future phones/personal communicators, or whatever those are called at that time, will be the dominant handheld device.
now, i personally, do not see any contradiction or mutual conflict among those two viepoints. why?
to explain that we should start from the ds vs. psp situation:
the ds is the overall better _gaming_ platform - whatever success the ds has had it's been for its merits as a gaming platform, people only play games on it, and people are happy playing games on it. and yet, the psp, basically a convergence device, is effectively competing with the ds - desipte the fact that the psp has been an inferior gaming platform till now. why? - because the psp is a _convergence_ device - whenever you don't feel like playing games on it you use it for something else. see the trend already?
next step: phone-originated convergent devices - guess what - they may not be the best in everything they do, but that won't matter - it's the principle that the combination of things tends to be sometimes greater than the sheer sum of those things taken separately that plays an essential role here. and you can safely assume that phones will be getting better and better at all things they do with each new generation.
mckmas8808
Legend
darkblu said:
True, true. But the arguement is will gaming on phones be better than what the PSP has? If so will the PSP2 be out by then?
I think the real question is, will PSP2 be a phone as well as everything else?
will the psp2 matter for gaming? how much better can a portable gaming device get before the form factor is rediculous? i already find the PSP and DS cunbersome compared to other portables (gbasp, and say what you want about the ngage qd, it fits nicely ion my pocket). psp2 will add more "convergence" features to the mix, and surely something to the gaming aspect of the device, but other than making the analoug stick useable, or adding another, i don't see much of anything new happening.
if a phone was released that was comparable to the psp gaming wise, had decent battery life and did everything phones do now (camera, music, video, internet, java and homebrew) at a comparable price, it could become the dominant gaming handheld even if the psp2 launch was right around the corner. but for that to happen, you'd have to see the phone sold at walmart, sears, best buy, target and kmart. not just at cellular shops.
if a phone was released that was comparable to the psp gaming wise, had decent battery life and did everything phones do now (camera, music, video, internet, java and homebrew) at a comparable price, it could become the dominant gaming handheld even if the psp2 launch was right around the corner. but for that to happen, you'd have to see the phone sold at walmart, sears, best buy, target and kmart. not just at cellular shops.
I own both a PSP and a DS + GBA Movie Player, also run a PSP site. Based on user feedback...
* Most of the users (even newbies) want to use PSP for video (and eh... pr0n).
* Most bought 1-2 games to go with their PSP and are waiting to get at least 1 more.
* Good games (and more are indeed coming). I personally like Metal Gear AC!D, Lumines, GTA, and Socom. Although it's more fun to play a "real" console game if you put them side by side. However they are very good filler games (waiting in line, waiting for friends, waiting for food, too lazy to walk downstairs in the middle of a break, travel, ...).
I believe the PSP momentum will sustain (based on reason 1 alone. haha).
The bigger problem, I feel, is: Sony is not focused on marketing PSP (perhaps) because of supply constraints. Everything about PSP marketing is scattered: the mobile web portal that Sony launched a few days ago, LocationFree TV, the new Media Manager software, ... It's hard for a newbie to get into (I always get questions from them). So perhaps when supply is no longer an issue, Sony can consolidate and market it better.
As for cell phones, I am in contract for a company to do cell phone development. It will be a long time before cell phone can be good enough to replace PSP. While the cellphone platform is "astronomical" in number and marketing guys like to quote them. In truth, it is still fragmented, short-lived (per model) and very inconsistent to develope on. Many operational issues after software is launched due to inconsistent, minimalist default configurations, or even changing configurations (The same phone can run or not run the same software at different times).
The games on cellphones are on an even more casual, trivial level compared to PSP and probably will stay so. I see people turn up their games and then off again after 15 or so seconds. That short attention span wipes out many game genres. The buttons are too small and screen too tiring. So I tend to take cellphone gaming marketing numbers with a large grain of salt just because they don't seem to match what I see in real life (China, US, Singapore, Taiwan, ...).
So yes, I believe PSP will sustain as long as more/better games are available.... and more digital content are available.
* Most of the users (even newbies) want to use PSP for video (and eh... pr0n).
* Most bought 1-2 games to go with their PSP and are waiting to get at least 1 more.
* Good games (and more are indeed coming). I personally like Metal Gear AC!D, Lumines, GTA, and Socom. Although it's more fun to play a "real" console game if you put them side by side. However they are very good filler games (waiting in line, waiting for friends, waiting for food, too lazy to walk downstairs in the middle of a break, travel, ...).
I believe the PSP momentum will sustain (based on reason 1 alone. haha).
The bigger problem, I feel, is: Sony is not focused on marketing PSP (perhaps) because of supply constraints. Everything about PSP marketing is scattered: the mobile web portal that Sony launched a few days ago, LocationFree TV, the new Media Manager software, ... It's hard for a newbie to get into (I always get questions from them). So perhaps when supply is no longer an issue, Sony can consolidate and market it better.
As for cell phones, I am in contract for a company to do cell phone development. It will be a long time before cell phone can be good enough to replace PSP. While the cellphone platform is "astronomical" in number and marketing guys like to quote them. In truth, it is still fragmented, short-lived (per model) and very inconsistent to develope on. Many operational issues after software is launched due to inconsistent, minimalist default configurations, or even changing configurations (The same phone can run or not run the same software at different times).
The games on cellphones are on an even more casual, trivial level compared to PSP and probably will stay so. I see people turn up their games and then off again after 15 or so seconds. That short attention span wipes out many game genres. The buttons are too small and screen too tiring. So I tend to take cellphone gaming marketing numbers with a large grain of salt just because they don't seem to match what I see in real life (China, US, Singapore, Taiwan, ...).
So yes, I believe PSP will sustain as long as more/better games are available.... and more digital content are available.
YeuEmMaiMai said:
Can't say I like the cost of the UMD movies especially since their use is soooo limited. But look like crap? Hardly. The screen is well know to output great looking movies.
YeuEmMaiMai said:
Definitely, and it's quite bulkly for an mp3 player (hence we get back to my argument above about dedicated devices..). Sounds great but still has its drawbacks.
YeuEmMaiMai said:
For what? Playing movies? Games last longer than that.
YeuEmMaiMai said:
Aye, sucks.
mckmas8808
Legend
patsu said:
Yes this is one thing that has pissed me off about Sony and the PSP. I have to sit at home and watch the lovely Nintendo DS we have WIFI commericals and go to the store and see 400 different bundles in 40 different colors will Sony just releases on Gigapack.
It kills me that Sony didn't advertise that the psp can now be used as a internet device once 2.0 dropped. We should be seeing "PSP now get on the internet commericals". I can see it now. One of Sony's good commericals have a 17 year boy in the bathroom for 30 mintues, just to realize that he never had a game in the psp, but was using the internet for other pleasures.
mckmas8808
Legend
see colon said:
That still wouldn't make the buttons (for controls) or the screen (for viewability) better though.
the ngage qd is pretty comfortable from a purely buttons standpoint (i do miss shoulder buttons), and the newer clamshell type phones have pretty decent screen estate. we'll see a phone with decent gaming performace and a large screen soon enough. it'll happen before sony launches psp2... but i don't think it'll be successful. gaming retailers (ebgames, gamestop, ect) got burned by the ngage, and you can see them being cautious with platforms that aren't proven... look at the retail availability of gizmondo.mckmas8808 said:
for a gaming platform to be successfull it has to be available at mass market retailers. it's as simple as that.
mckmas8808
Legend
see colon said:
Can't agree more.
