Sony's NeoGeo Pocket's (PSP2/Vita) business/non technical ramifications talk

Marketshare anecdote:

I was in Rome last week (yay!) and I saw equal number of PSPs and DSs played. Also, in the shops they seemed to occupy the same shelf space.
 
Marketshare anecdote:

I was in Rome last week (yay!) and I saw equal number of PSPs and DSs played. Also, in the shops they seemed to occupy the same shelf space.

Probably the PSP is doing much better in italy. When I went to Milano this summer I saw many people playing PSP's in trains and at the metro. It was more common than I expected
 
When PSP was revealed, I was suggesting this sort of thing in a museum, with a local WiFi network streaming content to a PSP and all-around viewing AR. Only took the world some 5 years to catch up with me. :p
 
Could make for a pretty amazing Night at the Museum type game ...
 
i think its important to note when discusing the 3ds , ngp , psp and ds is that the original ds certianly targeted a niche crowd , it was the tween and younger crowd when it first released. it didn't expand out until the ds lite came out . brain age came out with the ds lite .


the 3ds seems to target the core gamer right now but in 2013 a quick redisgn and price drop along with longer battery life and it can target a diffrent crowd.


the ngp seems to be targeting the core crowd also. i just wonder the price of it and its release date world wide. a spring release in na /europe could put it right in the middle of a 3ds price drop.


it will be interesting to see what the average consumer chooses a ngp /3ds / tablet or some combination of them
 
So the PSP Go has officially halted production, marking it as a failure as a product pretty much officially, as if that were necessary. Various obvious reasons for why it failed, but I think it should definitely not be overlooked that it was also an important testcase for them anyway to help the NGP succeed in the future.

For instance, this test helped decide whether or not the NGP would be pure DD or whether a UMD replacement should be provided, and the obvious result is in the shape of the 2 or 4GB flash cards that the NGP software can be distributed on. Another lesson learnt is the requirement of any game published on NGP on flash to also always be available as DD.

In that sense, the PSPgo's utter failure was good news for Sony: here were two major questions about what to do with NGP answered without any discussion necessary or possible, which was also important for communicating this message to publishers.
 
For instance, this test helped decide whether or not the NGP would be pure DD or whether a UMD replacement should be provided, and the obvious result is in the shape of the 2 or 4GB flash cards that the NGP software can be distributed on. Another lesson learnt is the requirement of any game published on NGP on flash to also always be available as DD. .

I think they already knew both of those lessons. As they've said themselves, there are too many markets where DD only is just simply not an option. DD titles being released day-and-date with retail is also a given and probably something they would have done for the Go if the situation allowed.

What they probably wanted to know, however, was just how much interest there was in a DD only dedicated gaming handled. Unfortunately, they still don't know that because the PSPGo was hobbled by other factors that made it unappealing from that perspective (not being able to download and play at the same time being a major one).

I agree in that it was definitely an experiment (and seemed to be priced as such). I wonder if one of the goals was judging retail reaction as well.
 
So the PSP Go has officially halted production, marking it as a failure as a product pretty much officially, as if that were necessary. Various obvious reasons for why it failed, but I think it should definitely not be overlooked that it was also an important testcase for them anyway to help the NGP succeed in the future.

For instance, this test helped decide whether or not the NGP would be pure DD or whether a UMD replacement should be provided, and the obvious result is in the shape of the 2 or 4GB flash cards that the NGP software can be distributed on. Another lesson learnt is the requirement of any game published on NGP on flash to also always be available as DD.

In that sense, the PSPgo's utter failure was good news for Sony: here were two major questions about what to do with NGP answered without any discussion necessary or possible, which was also important for communicating this message to publishers.

So you're claiming SONY needed to spends tens of millions of dollars to develop PSPGo in order to find out if DD would work better than carts?:LOL:

I think the REAL answer is that DD works just fine if you have the right pieces in place....just look at Apple's App and iTunes store....no carts needed there. It's fairly obvious SONY didn't have all the right pieces in place.
 
So you're claiming SONY needed to spends tens of millions of dollars to develop PSPGo in order to find out if DD would work better than carts?:LOL:

Yes, and that cost may well be worth it in order to prevent a mistake in this regard. If NGP fails at product launch, that's going to be a heck of a lot costlier than the NGP, whereas the NGP's design has helped inform both the XPeria Play and the NGP (which tellingly uses a larger rather than a smaller screen, keeps the controls to the side rather than below, etc.)

I think the REAL answer is that DD works just fine if you have the right pieces in place....just look at Apple's App and iTunes store....no carts needed there. It's fairly obvious SONY didn't have all the right pieces in place.

Yeah, I think you're just not paying attention. The PSN Store is not currently comparable to the App Store. It's not just if DD works, but it is about whether or not DD works for what the PSPgo and the NGP targets. Same for the 3DS. Not everyone is ready to stop buying games from a brick and mortar store. 4GB games are going to be more common on NGP than on the App Store, you can be pretty sure.
 
It's a quick overview of the launch games. I was hoping they go into more details about the console itself. ^_^

The early PS Vita look mostly raise 2 concerns:
(1) Price is unknown
(2) Whether core games are enough to fight phones and tablets

Hopefully Sony talks more about their strategies in E3. Personally, I'm interested in how Vita complement an ecosystem with PS3, iOS, Android, Smart TV, PC/Mac and clouds.

EDIT:
Ha ha... Shuhei posted his thoughts:
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/yoshida-we-cant-compete-smartphones

...

We went with a large screen for NGP because - looking at how people are adapting to smartphones - in a couple of years everybody will have one, and everybody will have the opportunity to play downloaded application games. So we have to create enough strong reasons for people to look at NGP in addition to the smartphone they already have."

"We are not trying to compete with smartphones, we can't," he continues. "So the question is, considering people have phones anyway, why would they want another device? Looking at the adoption of iPad and other tablets, if there are enough reasons, people do want another device.

...
 
http://www.next-gen.biz/features/shuhei-yoshida-ngp

What lessons were learned from the PSP? What didn’t PSP achieve that NGP can?


Throughout the development process of NGP, obviously we looked at what worked with PSP and what didn’t. We were almost too happy with PSP’s core capabilities; CPU, GPU and the 4-inch display. At that time it was the largest display you could find on a portable [gaming] device, with very beautiful graphics capabilities. We were too happy having PS2 quality-games on the Go, and we didn’t go much further. We had Wi-Fi capabilities with PSP which was very fast, and some experiences like Monster Hunter were created using Wi-Fi, but other than that it was very hard for developers to create a unique experience on PSP that you couldn’t get on a console like PS2.

After PS3 came out, people got used to looking at PS3-quality graphics. So just having nice graphics is not enough; people prefer playing on a large screen at home. That was the biggest lesson we learned in designing NGP – of course we advanced the CPU and GPU again, and developed the 5-inch OLED, but I’m sure in a couple of years people will get used to seeing it, so if we stop there we’ll make the same mistake we did on PSP. So what we made sure was to bring enough new hooks on NGP so that we can continue to create unique gaming experiences that you cannot get on consoless. Touch capability on both front and back, AR, sensors, social connectivity: these features will challenge NGP developers’ ability to create longer than PSP [did].


It's a good start. I feel that something (else) is missing.
 
My friend bought a PSP early on, and has used it faithfully as a portable media player. Well, he's just ordered himself and ASUS EeePad Transformer after seeing a friends, and that'll be his device of choice now. With direct HDMI out it's ideal for portable media both in a small device and for output on a TV. NGP hasn't even go that, and I expect my mate to be very representative. I don't think the added gaming features are going to be worth enough to most of PSP's owners.
 
I wonder if Cafe will prove a downer on the NGP's success given the fact that they're both effectively in some ways the same console at home but the Cafe sports an interesting direct crossover between the console and handheld @ home experience.
 
My friend bought a PSP early on, and has used it faithfully as a portable media player. Well, he's just ordered himself and ASUS EeePad Transformer after seeing a friends, and that'll be his device of choice now. With direct HDMI out it's ideal for portable media both in a small device and for output on a TV. NGP hasn't even go that, and I expect my mate to be very representative. I don't think the added gaming features are going to be worth enough to most of PSP's owners.

It seems that the only "killer features" for Vita now are the dual sticks and the game library. If these don't appeal to a user, he/she may be attracted to other devices.

EDIT: While we are at it...

http://www.androidguys.com/2011/06/02/20-games-announced-xperia-play-including-10-exclusives/

Sony Ericsson announced another 20+ games optimized for the Xperia PLAY today, ahead of their demonstration at next week's annual E3 conference...

New Android Games Exclusive on Xperia™ PLAY:

Minecraft™ by Mojang
Battlefield Bad Company 2 by Electronic Arts
Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 Shadow Vanguard by Gameloft
Desert Winds by Southend Interactive
Ruined by Bigpoint
Icebreaker™ by NaturalMotion
Sleepy Jack by SilverTree Media
Cracking Sands by Polarbit
Armageddon Squadron 2 by Polarbit
An unnamed fighting game from Khaeon Gamestudio

New Games coming soon on Xperia PLAY:

Pocket Legends by Spacetime Studios
Star Legends: The Black Star Chronicles by Spacetime Studios
Eternal Legacy by Gameloft
Guns 'n'Glory 2 by HandyGames
Dungeon Hunter 2 by Gameloft
Pocket RPG by Crescent Moon Games
D.A.R.K. developed by Gamelab
Samurai II: Vengeance by MADFINGER Games
Vendetta Online by Guild Software
Order & Chaos - Gameloft
Happy Vikings by Handy Games
A Ball Game by Trendy Entertainment
Lumines by Connect2Media

I wonder how far ahead is the visual between Vita and cellphones/tablets. Need to see in-person to appreciate.

I hope the above list is part of the Playstation Suite game library. ^_^



I believe they still need a PS3 integration hook to appeal more to the existing user base. Better if they can think of some other features/benefits to complement other devices. Perhaps some exclusive PSN goodness ?

It's tempting to introduce a low price point, but hopefully they have more differentiators first.
 
I wouldn't mind an in-car entertainment system based on Vita. I can unplug it and take it along. The built-in GPS, microphone and touch screen should be useful in that environment.
 
Back
Top