PSP2 finally announced

[purbeast0]

new hot shots game = best news in this post!

wont lie though PSP2 looks pretty nice, granted I won't get it cause i just don't really like portable gaming.

 

[blurredvision]

Looks expensive. Hell, iPhone and other high end smartphones can run as high as $600+ and people still pay for them.

To be fair, top-end smartphones cost $600+ because of the subsidies that are given on contract. If the phones were sold outright, they'd be a lot cheaper because of direct competition in price.

But yeah, I don't see the PSP2 being anywhere near cheap enough. What would you guys say should be the top-most price on a handheld? Not what you'd be willing to pay, but what's the number where it crosses from too expensive to absurd?

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

This looks damn smexy. The 3ds doesn't interest me that much and I <3 nintendo. Except for the Wii which is a pos. The online options should be a lot better.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

To be fair, top-end smartphones cost $600+ because of the subsidies that are given on contract. If the phones were sold outright, they'd be a lot cheaper because of direct competition in price.

But yeah, I don't see the PSP2 being anywhere near cheap enough. What would you guys say should be the top-most price on a handheld? Not what you'd be willing to pay, but what's the number where it crosses from too expensive to absurd?

I'd say it depends on the target audience. If it's for 10+ then something like $150-$200. 3DS @ 250 is already pushing it. That's an expensive Christmas gift for a kid.
$18+ something like $300-$350. Or maybe a little more if they had a nice starter bundle. IE free game, free sony store credits or something.

 

[SunnyD]

I think it's a recognition of the shift towards mobile gaming on smartphones. They all use ARM, and many are on PowerVR. This should make porting to the PSP2 a cinch. They certainly appear to be more than capable chips.

I agree, but what that also leads me to believe along with the Playstation Suite announcement is that this little guy may be easier to hack and/or more general purpose than we can imagine.

 

[BD2003]

I agree, but what that also leads me to believe along with the Playstation Suite announcement is that this little guy may be easier to hack and/or more general purpose than we can imagine.

At this point it's harder to imagine a Sony console that isn't easily hacked than one that is.

 

[JackBurton]

It's not a PS3...

Just because something has costly hardware doesn't make it a good consumer item.

I honestly think Sony and Nintendo have gone bonkers releasing handhelds at unprecedented price levels during the middle of a global economic downturn.

Have you seen the prices people are paying for Superbowl tickets, not to mention all the additional costs associated with attending a Superbowl event? The economy obviously isn't THAT bad.

 

[DaveSimmons]

With that much power and the high screen resolution it could run (ported) PS2 games at full resolution instead of squishing models down to bobbleheads like many DS / PSP-1 games do.

I wonder what they'll do for media -- UMD was clunky but having >1 GB of storage put it way ahead of DS carts for larger games like JRPGs.

 

[Anarchist420]

I always thought PowerVR was better than everything else, including 3dfx. The DC pwned the Gamecube in terms of Graphics quality, although not performance.

Kind of OT, but I hope that the developers will develop for the PSP2, not the 3DS. Nintendo sucks and they've ruined the only good franchise they had--Metroid.

I hope to see a 2.5D castlevania for this by IGA, of course.

 

[Anarchist420]

I should note that the GPU in it is a LOT more powerful than the GPU in the PS3 and it would allow for better IQ, since it has VQ Texture compression instead of DXT.

 

[BD2003]

I should note that the GPU in it is a LOT more powerful than the GPU in the PS3 and it would allow for better IQ, since it has VQ Texture compression instead of DXT.

I seriously doubt that. Im sure it will be magnificent for a portable device, and have a decent feature set, but it won't be on the same level of throughput as even the 4 year old ps3. Certainly not a LOT more powerful. Where are you getting that info?

 

[Tristicus]

I seriously doubt that. Im sure it will be magnificent for a portable device, and have a decent feature set, but it won't be on the same level of throughput as even the 4 year old ps3. Certainly not a LOT more powerful. Where are you getting that info?

It's Anarchist420....the same place he gets his P&N info.

 

[Thraxen]

I see a few comments about backwards compatibility... from what I've seen on other sites it is BC. Not with UMD games obviously, but any PSP game currently offered as a download is supposed to work.

 

[blurredvision]

The more I look at this thing and what they are pitching with it, the more I realize I've not wanted a piece of gaming hardware so much before now. Please, please, please let this thing be affordable and have more than a 1 hour battery life.

 

[zerocool84]

The more I look at this thing and what they are pitching with it, the more I realize I've not wanted a piece of gaming hardware so much before now. Please, please, please let this thing be affordable and have more than a 1 hour battery life.

I never even cared about the first PSP but this one has my mouth watering. It seriously looks awesome.

 

[Thraxen]

The more I look at this thing and what they are pitching with it, the more I realize I've not wanted a piece of gaming hardware so much before now. Please, please, please let this thing be affordable and have more than a 1 hour battery life.

Joystiq says that Sony is targeting the PSP 3000 battery life... so 4-6 hours. Not bad considering high specs. It's not phenomenal either, but at least it's on par with the 3DS while boasting much higher specs.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I gotta say the thing looks incredibly sexy.

But I can tell my hands are going to hurt playing this thing as is the case w/ all portable consoles systems.

 

[SunnyD]

The only thing that's niggling at the back of my brain with this thing is the 3G connectivity. Let's be honest, content delivery can't be Sony's primary reason for including it. If not... then what? Playstation Suite also confuses me slightly...

Food for thought: ALL of Sony's consoles have been cracked.

What's the only way to lock down your titles, and by far the most reviled form of DRM out there? Yeah... you guessed it... online authentication and activation. Could it be that the next incarnation of Sony console games will require a network connection just to start up, verify your credentials and that you actually own a copy of the game?

 

[dpodblood]

I don't care if online authentication is required, I just don't want to pay for a cellular data plan on a portable gaming machine.

 

[Thraxen]

The only thing that's niggling at the back of my brain with this thing is the 3G connectivity. Let's be honest, content delivery can't be Sony's primary reason for including it. If not... then what? Playstation Suite also confuses me slightly...

Well, there's this: Kotaku

It's also an option on a lot of portables these days, so I don't find its inclusion that odd. It's also being reported now that the 3G option will have different SKUs. So there's going to be WiFi-only options available... at least in some areas. One site is reporting that Japan will only get 3G models while Eurogamer is reporting both options for Europe. No word on N. America.

 

[artemicion]

Even if it's BC with PSP1 games through Playstation Network downloads, I'm kinda bummed that there's no UMD support because it eliminates a huge market of cheap used games. PSP Go I believe is compatible with all PSP1 games, but you can't resell used games or buy cheaper used games, which is why it's regarded as a fail.

*edit* I was initially hoping that there would be UMD BC similar to the Nintendo DS style new media slot for new games, separate slot for old games.

3G is curious. Maybe 3G connectivity is cheaper or more prevalent in Japan? 3G is a $40 premium on the Amazon Kindle, and the Kindle uses far less bandwidth than a PSP2 potentially could. Perhaps it will be structured differently on the PSP2 with 3G subscription services offered by cellular providers at an additional monthly cost. Hopefully optional. Might be an attractive feature if the PSP2 could be tethered and serve as a mobile hotspot.

Or maybe Sony will contract with cellular companies to offer 2 year services to buyers in exchange for subsidized PSP2s? Could also be an attractive marketing strategy. PSP2 for $400 out of contract, or $200 with 2 year contract with AT&T/Verizon/etc.

 

[Thraxen]

Even if it's BC with PSP1 games through Playstation Network downloads, I'm kinda bummed that there's no UMD support because it eliminates a huge market of cheap used games. PSP Go I believe is compatible with all PSP1 games, but you can't resell used games or buy cheaper used games, which is why it's regarded as a fail.

IMO, that's not really why the PSP Go is a failure. They attempted to switch to all digital downloads in the middle of a system's life cycle. Due to various licensing issues they were never able to get their entire catalog available as downloads. So they wound up with a system that couldn't play all the PSP catalog, yet they still charge more for the system. So why would anyone want a more expensive model that did less than the cheaper models of the same system?

Not being able to buy cheap used UMD games I'm sure played a role for some people, but that's largely only because they made the switch in the middle. If there were no used game market to which to compare then that wouldn't have been as much of an issue. You need only look at all digital download platforms like the iPhone or the success of Steam to see that people will accept download delivery systems if handled properly.

Getting rid of UMDs is a good thing overall. It would make the system even more expensive, make it bigger, and sap the battery life. It's a failed format and would be nothing more than an albatross on the NGP/PSP2.

[edit] Although.... I could certainly envision an external UMD accessory being a viable option.

 

[artemicion]

IMO, that's not really why the PSP Go is a failure. They attempted to switch to all digital downloads in the middle of a system's life cycle. Due to various licensing issues they were never able to get their entire catalog available as downloads. So they wound up with a system that couldn't play all the PSP catalog, yet they still charge more for the system. So why would anyone want a more expensive model that did less than the cheaper models of the same system?

Not being able to buy cheap used UMD games I'm sure played a role for some people, but that's largely only because they made the switch in the middle. If there were no used game market to which to compare then that wouldn't have been as much of an issue. You need only look at all digital download platforms like the iPhone or the success of Steam to see that people will accept download delivery systems if handled properly.

Getting rid of UMDs is a good thing overall. It would make the system even more expensive, make it bigger, and sap the battery life. It's a failed format and would be nothing more than an albatross on the NGP/PSP2.

[edit] Although.... I could certainly envision an external UMD accessory being a viable option.

Granted, there are good advantages to ditching games stored on separate media, but I personally would not buy any game over $25 if reselling it were not an option.

IMO, the digital download delivery system works for the iPhone because the games are so cheap that people don't mind that they can't resell them.

I only use Steam for cheap games myself. Never bought a new release on Steam. Steam also works because the used market for PC games is really bad compared to consoles. You will not recoup as high a % for your games on PC compared with Xbox or PS3. So the fact that you don't have physical media does not hurt as much compared to Xbox, PS3, or PSP.

In fact, one of the reasons I buy cross platform games on consoles as opposed to PC is because I can usually flip them for most of my money when I'm done with them.

Personal preferences will vary, and I'm just one consumer, but I don't think I would buy a PSP2 if the games were $40+ and I could not resell them.

 

[Queasy]

We avoided breaking out a Dr. Evil image for this with all the willpower we could muster but GameStop is now taking pre-orders for the Sony NGP (aka PSP2) at a whopping $999.99.

The GameStop website goes to great pains to let viewers no that this is likely not the actual price. The product header screams, "Actual price to be determined by Sony Computer Entertainment." There is also a note at the bottom of that states the official release date and price have yet to be determined and that the listed price is only an estimate that will change once Sony makes an official announcement.
It probably would have been best if GameStop had avoided the estimate altogether along with the pre-order page like they did with the Nintendo 3DS.

Sony has expressed through several outlets that they want to make the NGP both affordable and profitable. The handheld contains a beastly amount of features not the least of which is the quad-core ARM processor and a 5" OLED touchscreen. We cant wait to see Sony's version of affordable with specs like these.

Kudos to GameStop with the estimate though. We needed a good laugh today.

/end

Article I just posted with all the snark I could muster without being a complete douche.

 

[Ross Ridge]

Or maybe Sony will contract with cellular companies to offer 2 year services to buyers in exchange for subsidized PSP2s? Could also be an attractive marketing strategy. PSP2 for $400 out of contract, or $200 with 2 year contract with AT&T/Verizon/etc.

Yah, I'm thinking maybe that's the plan. Make the NGP/PSP2 "affordable" the same way the $600 iPhone is affordable, through subsidies provided by the mobile phone companies.