PSP2 to be unveiled January 27th, 2011

[Pikminister]

Bloomberg reports:

Sony Corp. plans to unveil an updated PlayStation Portable handheld game device on Jan. 27, followed by a game-playing smartphone in February, according to two people with knowledge of the plans.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...next-week.html

[Mr. Spencer]

I feel sorry for those who wasted their time with the PSPgo.

[Branden_Lucero]

I feel sorry for those who wasted their time with the PSPgo.

i'm not. i feel good with it. i think i play this thing more than the regular PSPs. it feels nice knowing i dont' have to put in a UMD, which in my opinion, break so easily compared to a DS cartridge. i already have several that have cracked or fallin' in. one of my PSPs won't even read FFII or GTA: LCS. it just keeps making a spinning sound, while the other PSP will load it just fine. i don't like saying this, but i think the PSP should go the digital route.

[Pikminister]

I feel sorry for those who wasted their time with the PSPgo.

Sony did too.

That's why they're about to give the world what they always wanted.

Or so we hope.

[Branden_Lucero]

they either need to do away with the UMD, or come up with a new format, or go back to the time where they said they would release transferable UMD to storage device thingy. its sad seeing that as big as the UMD is, can only hold about 1.5-1.7GB, while a regular DS catridge can hold up to 2GB, while also being as small as a SD card.

[Mr. Spencer]

What bothered me about the PSPgo was the fact that it was clearly a forerunner in Sony's push for digital distribution, which itself is merely another means of combating piracy. Unfortunately what this means is that you can no longer go out and pick up a pre-owned UMD game for a tenner or so, instead you get charged close to full price for a digital copy on the PlayStation Store.

It's also a way for them to counter the pre-owned games market. That said, I think Valve has successfully nailed the concept of digital distribution with the Steam platform. Yes, they charge you full price for a newly released title, but older games go down in price to reasonable amounts, as opposed to having to shell out close to £40 for an EA Sports title for the PSP. I'm not kidding, I'm pretty sure I saw an old football game on there for that price.

[Rombie]

I have a big beef with digital distribution as a whole market though. UMD's were problematic, but thats an issue with design not concept. Otherwise we'd already be using consoles only that use HDD space rather than disc media. Sony won't want to kill off their own format any time soon, so BD will be around which is why I question so greatly that they will push for portable gaming to be media free so much (especially when Nintendo is maintaining a format for its next portable platform).

I see the PSPgo's failure not just as a gaming platform based on a poorer track record with the original PSP, but that people aren't as quick to embrace the non-physical format as was expected.

Microsoft also has talked big about their next console project being entirely media free, but I can't see both stores allowing it easily (much for as Mr Spencer has mentioned, second hand markets where profits are made drying up) and the capacity that not everywhere that they are going to sell the product to has the internet capacity/cost to make that viable.

My other concern about it is that officially digital distribution should be cheaper. There is no shipping, packing, no middlemen bumping a profit margin, etc. But the cost of products online which are also avaliable in stores are exactly the same. So technically you get less for more when you download. This even applies to Steam, at least the new release products. But even then some of the discounts I've seen on there, which are good, you can sometimes find even cheaper in physical form in stores if you're looking around.

[rewak]

The thing i find a little baffling is them seemingly underestimating just how much server space they'd need to keep an entire consoles library of games stored for digital distribution and how much it will cost them to keep that running optimally at all times, and also not considering the fact that one day those servers will be switched off, what happens to the games then?

[Dracarys]

DD copies of games being same as retail is due to retail pressure on publishers, they won't stock it if DD is cheaper.


My real issue with DD games are if they will be there for me if I need them in 10 years, my PS3 may stop working in 10 years and what happens to any games I had on it? Will PS4 support them? If I buy an old PS3 will PSN even host them still?

I haven't let it stop me buying anything but all DD games I buy I accept may be write offs in the future. Always go for a disc option if available, will happily pay more for one.


Anyway Sony already said that they will not release a DD only console for a long time since much of the world couldn't cope well with one. PSPGo was an alternatve.

[Pikminister]

Cartridges are forever...

[Branden_Lucero]

Cartridges are forever...

its sad how i still have every cardboard box and paper materials to every N64 game i own, but i only have the instruction manuals to my SNES games. should of kept my boxes instead of either throwing them away or ruining them.

[veronesis]

Sad to say that the PSP2 is doomed before its even announced. They can't compete anymore, not with the apple out there.

[Mr. Spencer]

The iPhone is a poor platform for gaming.

[RetroRain]

Why are they even bothering with this? I agree with veronesis. It's already a failure before it even launches.

[Mr. Spencer]

This I do agree with, Nintendo have always dominated the handheld market. Many have tried to topple them, but none have succeeded.