PSP Launching Price : Japan 48,000 Yen, UK : ~250 Pounds

[Ty]

Re: ...

Either way, a bad news for Panajev and Vince....

You are a strange little man. Why so personal? Is this good news for you? Why? We as consumers ALL lose.

 

[Dio]

Re: ...

Act like you never heard of Sony keeping £1 = $1 with their products lately...

PSX2 : 114 pounds(VAT not included) in UK, $179 in the US

It is the VAT that's jacking up the European prices.

So what? Given MCV's focus, he will have been talking inc-vat prices.

 

[nondescript]

Not only that but with such a high price they wont sell through as many systems which will mean weak support.

Plenty of support so far. High price or not.

www.gamesindustry.biz[/url]]Namco, Capcom, Konami and Koei all plan to have titles available for the system at launch, alongside SCE's own first-party titles - some of which may be previewed at E3 in May, although they are not expected to be shown in anything other than video form.

Sega is expected to announce its plans for the platform in Autumn, which suggests that it will show its PSP software at the Tokyo Games Show, and it is also expected to provide software for the launch window of the system.

Rumours from Japan suggest that Square Enix, which has been coy about revealing its level of support for PSP, will also show software at TGS next Autumn. Although the company is known to be planning to port existing software to the platform, it's not known whether it will support the platform with original software titles as well.

 

[cybamerc]

Ty:

> We as consumers ALL lose.

I don't. In fact, as someone who loves 2d games I win if PSP fails.

 

[Almasy]

Almasy:

> And the handheld market will remain as steady, uninteresting and
> stalled as it has been for so long

Uninteresting? The best games this generation are on the GBA.

Stalled? Sales are better than ever.

See? A Nintendo dude.

Seriously, maybe to you, but the handheld market has been largerly uninteresting to me. The best games on it for me, (the Castlevania games), are poor copycats of SotN. Mario Kart, Golden Sun, etc., say what you want about how "amazing" they are, but they feel, sound and look archaic that to me they feel like very, very old games that I have played already...and I was hoping PSP would change that, and with this price it doesn´t seem like it will. I´m just dissapointed in the device right now, so if I sound aggresive, please don´t mind me.

As I said, Nintendo fans are probably happy about this, since the handheld market (and its games) will continue to be the same old thing that they have been for so long.

 

[Almasy]

Ty:

> We as consumers ALL lose.

I don't. In fact, as someone who loves 2d games I win if PSP fails.

This is something that puzzles me. What is going to happen when Nintendo eventually releases their own 3D capable machine? Are you going to be sick of 2D gaming by then?

Also, why think so low of 2D gaming? SNES was nowhere near close to being the best 2D gaming can offer. What if PSP (due to its portable nature) has some great 2D games to offer? Is that your win as well? Or, as I suspect, you are just a really biased Nintendo fan?

 

[Magnum PI]

i didn't see a link to the MCV story so here it is:

http://www.mcvuk.com/html/news/story.jsp?newsId=1926399

 

[cybamerc]

Almasy:

> Are you going to be sick of 2D gaming by then?

No. Unlike PlayStation fanboys I don't let a marketing department dictate my interests.

> SNES was nowhere near close to being the best 2D gaming can offer.

Technically there's always room for improvement. The games were great however. Still are.

> What if PSP (due to its portable nature) has some great 2D games to offer?

We'll see when it comes out. I can't get excited about a bunch of bullet points from a PowerPoint presentation.

> Or, as I suspect, you are just a really biased Nintendo fan?

Oh, I certainly am. I make no effort to hide it either. Being a fan of a company that you can always rely on for great software is nothing to be ashamed of. But hey... have fun playing that PowerPoint presentation.

 

[akira888]

I don't really think sony targets kids with this device. For them, its their idea of a walkman next and i don't think 300-350?s will make it overprieced on release. Ipods run for that in europe and they are quite successful

iPods are "successful" because they rely on a pre-established format (mp3) as their main media source. PSP, which is introducing a new media format in "UMD," won't have that luxury. I doubt iPod would sell at all if it needed a whole new media type to function. And if I want to play music over flash media then there's options at a fifth of the cost that will allow me to do just that.

My question is if this is so expensive to build why didn't they go with something like MBX-VGP+MIPS4K that would be tiny (15 mm2 or so) and uber-cheap, and would most likely not even require eDRAM. You can also buy a portable DVD Player with a 5 inch screen for 170US, and those are sold on profit with a very small production scale. I don't see why they couldn't make this thing for 135-150US with the chip solution above.

Yet another new format failure for Sony - Betamax, Memory Stick, Hi8, now PSP it seems. Oh well.

 

[PC-Engine]

UMD is just the media like MD. MDs can hold ATRACs converted from MP3s too. There's gonna defintely be a quality loss from a lossy format to another lossy format though. However I think CDs can be converted to ATRAC too. The problem I see with UMD or HiMD is how it compares to dual layer MiniDVDs...

 

[marconelly!]

I don't. In fact, as someone who loves 2d games I win if PSP fails.

Don't tell me you seriously believe that even if left unchallenged, Nintendo would continue to make 2D based handhelds forever?

 

[cybamerc]

marconelly!:

> Don't tell me you seriously believe that even if left unchallenged,
> Nintendo would continue to make 2D based handhelds forever?

Certainly not. But I do think Nintendo is more willing to support 2d than others.

 

[akira888]

UMD is just the media like MD. MDs can hold ATRACs converted from MP3s too. There's gonna defintely be a quality loss from a lossy format to another lossy format though. However I think CDs can be converted to ATRAC too.

I distinctly don't recall Sony ever saying anything about UMD-R or UMD-RW. In fact the impression I am under is that UMD at least for now is a primarily pre-pressed media, as was CD for its first seven or eight years.

The problem I see with UMD or HiMD is how it compares to dual layer MiniDVDs...

MiniDVDs have a disadvantage in that they are easily destroyed relative to encased media. They have the advantage of being also playable in conventional optical drives (although for piracy's sake that might also be a disadvantage). Capacity wise they seem similiar.

Certainly not. But I do think Nintendo is more willing to support 2d than others.

The reason Nintendo "supports" 2D so much is because they frankly have no choice on GBA. Look back at N64 - how many "great" 2D games were on that system - about 5 percent of the number on either the Playstation or the Saturn. The only good 2D game on that system was that Treasure shooter whose name escape me - was it "Trouble Makers?"

The second Ninty gets a solid 3D handheld, and it won't be too long at all now, look for an N64 redux. All 3D, all the time.[/quote]

 

[Fafalada]

My 2c on the suggested pricing...
I don't think it would make the machine fail (seeing Japanese rate of adoption of high priced comodities like PSX it is very likely to be a hit in Japan regardless of the price).
However, I have a hard time picturing the supposed "Walkman of 21st century" tagline coupled with a high price - and for me "personally" to find this device worthwhile at 300$+ pricetag, I would demand they include PDA functionality on par with Clie. But again I don't see how that would help mainstream adoption.

I don't. In fact, as someone who loves 2d games I win if PSP fails.

I don't see how - there will be dozens of other devices that can take its place should it fail, and it's beyond absurd to think all of them will end up like NGage.
Heck with all the talk of GC handheld I was under impression that most of the fanbase wants Nintendo to move handhelds away from 2d as well.

So how large is PSP ASIC going to be???
1. Take a PSX2OAC measuring 86 mm2...
2. Triple the eDRAM(or more)
3. Throw in an H264 decoder.
4. Throw in a DSP.
5. Throw in a second MIP CPU.

Oh for #$##'s sake DM...
So a single R4000 takes the same amount of space as R5900 + dual VU + MPEG2 decoder + R3000 + Dual SPU?
And PSP will have 2560bit eDram?

 

[MfA]

iPods are "successful" because they rely on a pre-established format (mp3) as their main media source. PSP, which is introducing a new media format in "UMD," won't have that luxury. I doubt iPod would sell at all if it needed a whole new media type to function. And if I want to play music over flash media then there's options at a fifth of the cost that will allow me to do just that.

Not to mention the kick in the groing of having what could be a kick ass portable movie player, but isnt.

I dont really see an easy solution, the only way to get good security with writeable media is to have a divx type system ... I dont think customers want to deal with a device which needs to phone home before it will play a game for the first time though.

 

[marconelly!]

Certainly not. But I do think Nintendo is more willing to support 2d than others.

I'm not so sure, really. If that was the case, they'd be making more 2D or 2.5D games for N64 and GC. Now, I don't really have an extensive knowledge of their games, but the only two games of that kinda that I can think of are Yoshi and Paper Mario on N64.

I dont really see an easy solution

The only easy solution is what they did. Noone would be releasing the full featured high quality films if they included rewritable media. This way, if you want to watch something outside of what the publishers are pushing at you, you can, but you have to pay extra - for external memory which in this case would be memory stick. This way you can get both (licensed high quality content and homemade content). It's gonna cost you, that is sure, but at least both options are there.

 

[Megadrive1988]

SNES wasn't good at 2D gaming. SNES was released in
1990/1991 but was subpar compared to the best late 1980s
2D coin-op games. NeoGeo smashed SNES. in turn, the Saturn
smashed NeoGeo, when Saturn was used properly that is. even
the Saturn was not the best in 2D gaming, though it was
pretty damn close.

ack, excuse me for going off-topic.

 

[RaolinDarksbane]

I remember two 2D games from Treasure for the N64..... one of them is Mischief Maker, possibly my most favorite 2D(or 2.5D) side-scroller.

 

[Paul]

So how large is PSP ASIC going to be???
1. Take a PSX2OAC measuring 86 mm2...
2. Triple the eDRAM(or more)
3. Throw in an H264 decoder.
4. Throw in a DSP.
5. Throw in a second MIP CPU.

It doesn't quite work that way...

 

[Ty]

Ty:

> We as consumers ALL lose.

I don't. In fact, as someone who loves 2d games I win if PSP fails.

How so? Let's say for some reason Sony fails? How is that good for you? Would you prefer for a Nintendo monopoly? Why? Do you own stock? Unless Nintendo's success is somehow tied into your own well-being, there is little sense for that kind of reasoning. (FYI up until XMas, I only had a GCN - now I have an XBox too).

Any since when does the ability to play 3d games preclude the creation of 2d ones? Wasn't Viewtiful Joe mostly 2d? And it was on the GCN, a machine completely capable of 3d.

Sounds like you and Deadmeat just have an axe to grind.