So, it seems not long ago I was predicting that the PSP was at critical mass to finally take off. I bet someone can probably dig up the post.
But it would seem I was wrong. The PSP seems to have finally given up the ghost. Sure, there’s the odd port that hits the system, but it seems that people making outright new games for the platform have simply given up.
What happened? I know people are quick to blame piracy, but given how much of a pain in the ass it tends to be, I find it hard to believe that every PSP owner is running custom firmware and downloading all their games.
I tend to wonder if the reason was simply that it was a handheld system that required nearly a full scale dev team to produce titles. Sony managed some badass hardware in this little unit, but maybe it was simply too much for the form factor.
Still, devs might have done some seriously quality 2d titles if they’d put themselves to it. Sadly, I don’t have much knowledge of PSP development, as Ubi has done very little of it in Montreal. Does anyone else know what might have caused this?
But, yeah, it’s a pretty sad tale. It’s a great system that got clobbered by the DS for various reasons. My own personal opinion is that too many PSP games were basically half-assed ports of existing games squished down to the point that they’re barely worthy of the PS1. That can’t have helped their cause. Even really technically adept games like the God of War, Ratchet & Clank, and Jak & Daxter for the PSP were just sort of scaled down versions of the gameplay from their bigger brothers. Sony was selling compromised versions of experiences we’d already enjoyed on a home console.
I find there are a lot of potential parallels between the PSP and what is happening with the PS3. In both cases Sony spent too much time pushing the item as a “convergence” device to try and justify pricing that was not competitive. The PSP was all about mp3 playing, web browsing, and movies, with games almost an afterthought. The problem is that phones picked up the mp3 and browsing capabilities in a much smaller package and the PSP’s screen is too small to make it a satisfactory movie watching device. And why get it for that when for 1/2 to 1/3 the cost you can get a much bigger screen with a similar battery life that is small enough to almost be as convenient? Not too mention the unfortunate price point of the PSP movies and the need to buy two different formats if you also wanted it on DVD. The whole thing was a mess from day one.
Which is too bad because the “oh yeah, it also plays games” part had potential.
From the point of view of a consumer I think Tom’s comment on the dumbed down ports holds pretty true for me. Unless I’m traveling for work I just see no reason to choose my PSP over my 360 or PS3. It’s too bad actually, because I think it’s a pretty slick little device that just never came into it’s own.
For me, the issue with PSP games wasn’t even that they were bad ports but rather they were just game types (too big/too much time investment per play) that I had no interest in playing on a portable console. Obviously there were exceptions like Loco Roco, but by and large their marketing message was “play PS2-ish games on the go”, and I don’t want to do that. So I never bought a PSP.
My brother got me a PSP for Christmas, and what surprised me most was just how terrible the selection of PSP titles is at some of the stores I checked. Small sections, mainly filled with the most mediocre games, and little sign of any of the actual interesting ones you might want like Patapon or Loco Roco or even the good old Lumines. It’s a good thing it was an R&C bundle because I never saw a copy of it either, and I wound up having to import Final Fantasy Tactics from the States and grab a few others off of PSN.
Price point, both for the PSP itself and most of the games for it. The DS was -way- cheaper to start with and is still cheaper by a fair bit. DS games have often (Square excepted) been priced at 20-30 dollars. PSP has tended towards $40. Overreliance on media convergence - it may do those things, but it doesn’t do them especially well, particularly next to a device that specializes in them. I did use it as an MP3 player for a bit but the iPod I got afterwards knocks it silly on that front. It does have a better screen for video than my iPod, but then I don’t especially want to play video on either. Converting DVDs/video files to a PSP or iPod-friendly format takes forever and is rarely worth the effort. And UMD would require me to buy the movie all over again. Fuck that. Tendency towards cut-rate versions of the same stuff I can get on home systems (and hell, many of the PSP installments of series I liked on PS2 then got ported to PS2). Shitty battery life - I’m lucky to get three hours of play out of one charge. And yes, piracy. I do believe it may be the gaming system with the lowest barrier to entry, piracy-wise. Hack the firmware once and you’re in.
The PSP lives in the weird grey area between traditional consoles and handhelds. Problem is that’s a bad place to be. Games for the PSP tend to be much more expensive than those made for the GBA or DS. And the sales figures just don’t justify the larger investment. Even God of War, which wasn’t a port, didn’t exactly light up the sales charts. So in some ways the PSP was too good for, well, its own good.
Personally, I find it really ergonomically frustrating. The outcry for a second analog stick kind of makes me laugh… let’s make one work well first please. I’ve never had my hands cramp as badly as when playing God of War, hitting both shoulder buttons and dodging about with the analog stick half the game…
In the end it’s kind of a shame. I bought a PSP almost 2 years ago now, partially because it just seemed like a really cool device. The reality never seemed to live up to the potential though.
I think part of the problem as well is the battery life.
Say you’re taking an flight. You have to work in maybe an hour or two sitting around the airport for delays, two to three hours for a flight and then half an hour waiting for your shuttle or rental car.
A DS can last through all that but a PSP cannot. Thus all my playing experiences with the PSP were at home and when I was playing it I was always wondering why I wasn’t just playing the PS2.
I will recount my sentiments from the last year and a half, which I have posted every time a discussion on this system pops up:
It was my birthday of Sptember 2007, I have always been a Sony man and the games for the PSP seemed more mature and some cool RPG and Strategy games were just beginning to come out. I chose, of course, to get a PSP rather than the girly 2-screened DS. Then, it was like someone turned off the faucet. Fuck the PSP and Fuck Patapon (I only say that out of frustration and disgust as I have never played the origianl and have avoided looking in the PSP section for the last several months out of spite. I know Tom, et.al. It is superdy-duper.).
Stop!!! Stop saying that all of you!! Are good games being made for it? NO, so it is shite. Unless it has a new BJ add-on, mine can rot in eternal hellfires.
Just cranky that I bought the wrong system and cannot justify the purchase of a DS to the wife. Saying it is good as a movie system when I bought it to play games is like jabbing a drill into an exposed nerve in the root of my tooth.
I dunno, maybe the fact that Lumines was the only worthwhile game for the system for a year+ should have clued you in to the fact it wasn’t much of a gaming system. Besides, it’s not completely useless seeing as to how awesome the homebrew is for the system.
I am not bright. It just seemed like I was catching the system as it was about to take off with a Disgaea title, that Dungeon Maker game, and a FFT remake. The future seemed filled with possibilities. Then Sony shat on me.
Also, I have never delved into the homebrew world. Maybe I should.
Well, the PSP as a hardware is doing pretty darn good. Rough estimate around 44 million consoles sold world wide. It’s the game sales that have been abysmal. Personally it has been an excellent system for me. I use it every single day. Podcasts are automatically downloaded nightly for my morning commute. I load up Ultima 7 during work breaks and play thanks to Exult. Looking forward to Patapon 2 most definitely. Also Square seems to be the only company still seriously making games for it. Kingdom Hearts looks pretty damn good. I can’t really say why it’s having such a hard time selling games. I guess the price point of the system; the price point of the games; The slow load times thanks to UMD. I actually love that it can provide PS2 style games on the go, but I hate how the saving structure is not well thought out for portability. Having to finish a mission in order to save for a portable game like Syphon Filter is fucking stupid. I know there’s sleep mode, but if you wanted to use the MP3 feature or anything else you’d have to lose progress. Still, all in all, it’s a fucking sweet system and still has some relevance.
