The PSP may be further away than we thought, possibly a few years....
PostPosted:Mon May 31, 2004 4:38 pm
<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>My main reasoning behind this is that there are still several issues that they need to clear up. The first and most obvious problem is this: where are the games? So far we;ve seen some beautiful demo's and possible ports, but no major company, not even Square (who has been flaunting their Nintendo DS and PS2 software of late) has really shown any support (unless you consider the bit Konami has given). Reading up a little more on this, it seems that what most companies have an issue with is the profitablility of developing for such a system. The resources required to develop a game for the PSP is comparable to the development of regular console titles; so as it stands, it looks like the system will mainly be ports, and not cheap ones. Sony needs to solve this development price problem.
Secondly is the battery life of the system which is quite short, a question that Sony officials continue to dodge as much as possible, but when they are cornered, they have confirmed that the battery life is only 2 hours. This is something that will definately need to be fixed.
Thirdly, the price point of system and software exceeds that of a regular console. The system has included a built in DVD player and an MP3 player. The only issue here is that the market for portable Mp3 players revolves around those into sporting, and the PSP is not built for that purpose. The portable DVD player market has already gone down the toilet, the portable video and TV market is someething that has been tried numerous times since the 80's, and has never succeded.
The current closest system that I can think of that the PSP reminds me of is the Sega Gamegear which doubled up as a portable TV set. The Gamegear was lightyears ahead of the Gameboy, but due to all the same problems that the PSP seems to be suffering, even the market dominating Sega utterly failed. In fact, many people mark the Gamegear as the beginning of the quick end of Sega's dominance, it wasn't too long afterwards that Nintendo surged ahead in the market, and Sega hasn't been able to get by them since. Sega tried again later with the Nomad which was an even worse failure.
Now I am not saying that the PSP will necessarilly fail, but I do believe if it is released before they resolve these problems that it will very likely follow in the footsteps of the Sega Gamegear. A delay would dissapoint the audience, but if it results in a far better product, then I believe that it is much more than worth it to dissapoint the current audience. Just imagine the impact it would make being released with a battery life of 20 hours, a price point of about 150 bucks, and about 30 games which include an original Grand Theft Auto game, a Final Fantasy title, a Xenosaga title, a Tales of title, a beautiful Castlevania title, and a large number of other superior titles which would be on the system because of much cheaper to use development tools. Even if it is released 3-4 years down the road, I do believe that having a much larger release is well worth it, rather than ports of Sony and Konami titles with a to handful of other originals to carry the system for the first couple of years.</div>
Secondly is the battery life of the system which is quite short, a question that Sony officials continue to dodge as much as possible, but when they are cornered, they have confirmed that the battery life is only 2 hours. This is something that will definately need to be fixed.
Thirdly, the price point of system and software exceeds that of a regular console. The system has included a built in DVD player and an MP3 player. The only issue here is that the market for portable Mp3 players revolves around those into sporting, and the PSP is not built for that purpose. The portable DVD player market has already gone down the toilet, the portable video and TV market is someething that has been tried numerous times since the 80's, and has never succeded.
The current closest system that I can think of that the PSP reminds me of is the Sega Gamegear which doubled up as a portable TV set. The Gamegear was lightyears ahead of the Gameboy, but due to all the same problems that the PSP seems to be suffering, even the market dominating Sega utterly failed. In fact, many people mark the Gamegear as the beginning of the quick end of Sega's dominance, it wasn't too long afterwards that Nintendo surged ahead in the market, and Sega hasn't been able to get by them since. Sega tried again later with the Nomad which was an even worse failure.
Now I am not saying that the PSP will necessarilly fail, but I do believe if it is released before they resolve these problems that it will very likely follow in the footsteps of the Sega Gamegear. A delay would dissapoint the audience, but if it results in a far better product, then I believe that it is much more than worth it to dissapoint the current audience. Just imagine the impact it would make being released with a battery life of 20 hours, a price point of about 150 bucks, and about 30 games which include an original Grand Theft Auto game, a Final Fantasy title, a Xenosaga title, a Tales of title, a beautiful Castlevania title, and a large number of other superior titles which would be on the system because of much cheaper to use development tools. Even if it is released 3-4 years down the road, I do believe that having a much larger release is well worth it, rather than ports of Sony and Konami titles with a to handful of other originals to carry the system for the first couple of years.</div>