Topic: Sony's PSP Strikes in March

[Infernal Monkey]

Not all those games will come out on launch day. "Launch window" is industry garbage for "these will probably all be avaliable in a month or something, oh I dropped my bread roll and now it's dirty". But yes, it's still a better selection of games than what DS is offering in the US. In fact, compare it to the DS and you'd swear it's a dead system already (seriously, ONE game for January? Zoo Keeper's grand and all.. BUT ONE GAME). I bet a lot of them will bomb, though (i'm looking at you, Lumines ;__; ).

Forcing people to get the "Value" pack is a stupid move. A 32 MB Memory Stick is basically useless if you intend to make use of the MP3/Video/Image features, which will probably be everybody that buys a PSP. Spiderman 2? Who cares? A non-interactive demo disc is baffling and Sony are known to pack in the worst possible headphones with their stuff.

This will still sell out, however. Expect to see idiots paying insane amounts for one on eBay a week after launch.  

[boggy b]

Average? There's a WipeOut game (which - judging from how good the previous games were, the impressions gleaned from over the 'net and the media - will be sextacular), Ridge Racers (which is apparently the PSP's first 'killer app') and Lumines (which is also supposed to be pretty awesome). Seems like a very strong launch for the hardcore gamers out there. And for the average Joe, there's a good variation of games, even if not all of them are particularily great.

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Spiderman 2? Who cares? A non-interactive demo disc is baffling

Que? The movie is supposed to show off the PSP's UMD Movie capabilities. Remember, that was part of the intention with the PSP, that there would be UMD movies to buy and watch aswell? Plus, hey, it's Spiderman 2, which is a pretty awesome movie. Just being able to sit on the train and watch it would be enough for me.  

[Polyethylene]

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Originally posted by: boggy b
Average? There's a WipeOut game (which - judging from how good the previous games were, the impressions gleaned from over the 'net and the media - will be sextacular), Ridge Racers (which is apparently the PSP's first 'killer app') and Lumines (which is also supposed to be pretty awesome). Seems like a very strong launch for the hardcore gamers out there. And for the average Joe, there's a good variation of games, even if not all of them are particularily great.

WipeOut is in all the consoles and no one cares. RR and Lumines sold like crap in Japan.

Nintendo could have waited for march to launch the DS with more games but they launched the system in November with five games and now they have 3 millions DSs sold in US alone, i think they took the right decision.

 

[Savior]

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MB Memory Stick is basically useless if

No, you use it to save games...  its necesary  

[Bill Aurion]

Good job just reading the first part of his sentence...

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"A 32 MB Memory Stick is basically useless if you intend to make use of the MP3/Video/Image features, which will probably be everybody that buys a PSP."

[KnowsNothing]

You're missing the point.  Infernal had a 32 in there before 'MB.'  That's not so big.  For game saves it's plenty large enough (for launch...), but 32MB is WAY too small to hold any significant amount of music, nevermind video which takes up alot more space.  32 MB can probably hold roughly 10 songs (depending on song length and bitrate, of course).  Couple that with game saves and you get even less.   And since alot of people are going to buy the PSP for MP3's and crap, this is pathetic.

EDIT: Bill comes in and posts before me, whoopie, the world has jelly.

[Bill Aurion]

If you take too much time to make a long-winded post, people are going to steal your glory...

[ruby_onix]

I LOL at all the people who said it'd be $150.

Also, people seem to be giving the PSP far too much credit. The "juggernaut" hype over it doesn't seem to have diminished since day-1, even though the DS came out, whupped it's ass, and put the PSP in an "uphill battle" position. Sony has already pulled off some significant blunders with the PSP, which, if the system was being sold by Nintendo and not Sony, would have set off yet another round of "Nintendo is doomed" and "Nintendo's going third party" speeches from everyone.

The Japanese PSP, with it's charger, was 20,000 yen.

The Japanese Bundle Pack, with the charger, headphones, soft case, and 32MB Memory Stick was 25,000 yen.

The American PSP is the Bundle Pack with a non-playable demo and Spiderman 2, for $250.

Headphones = meh.
Case = REQUIRED, if you don't want your screen to get scratched to hell.
Memory Stick = REQUIRED, but too small to make good use of it. 32MB = PSP's MC59.
Spiderman 2 on UMD = Obviously Betamax. How on Earth does Sony expect this to succeed? How are people excited by it? Beats me.

IMO, the big thing about Spiderman 2 on UMD is that it's a fantastic showcase for all the movie piracy you'll be able to do on your PSP once you buy a decent-sized Memory Stick.

BTW, you better be in love with that PSP launch title list, because online retailers seem to be saying that you need to buy three launch titles (some PSP games may be as cheap as $40!) if you want a PSP. Oh yeah and the "launch window" vs "launch day" definition could really mess up your plans when you're picking which three games you want to buy.

$50 x 3 + $250 = $400 PSP!!!1!!

[GoldenPhoenix]

I really think this a bad move by Sony, IMO they would have been much better off launching at 200$ or less without all the frills. Granted people are going to have buy the memory sticks but in many people's minds they don't read this purcahse as "part of the system" but as extra money. As it stands now people are going to see PSP as a 250$ portable system which is NOT that enticing!

[Mario]

Well to be fair, a lot of people think the DS can play GB and GBC games too, I even saw an evil EB person tell a mother that it could play old GB games, and she preordered it right there.

This price isn't so surprising, because people will buy it anyway and the entire launch shipment will still sell out, i'd be a bit pissed that you can't buy the system by itself without all that junk though. While that lineup is indeed impressive, I don't really see one game there worth $300. It doesn't have the system seller like Super Mario 64 DS was/is.

Now Nintendo, HURRY UP WITH MORE GAMES.

[NWR_Lindy]

My thoughts:

1) I agree wholeheartedly about the UMDs.  Who's actually going to buy movies on UMD?  Come on.  I would never buy movies on that format!  They're useless anywhere but on your PSP.

2) Nintendo absolutely made the right decision in launching the DS when they did.  It allowed their console to get a foothold, and regardless of what games are out there, those DS's are bought and paid for.  They now have the coveted installed userbase.

3) It's obvious that the DS was a rushed project from the start.  To Nintendo's credit, they've done well to release it so quickly.  Unfortunately, when you announce a console and release it within the same year, that means most game companies have no time to prepare anything.  If you look at the DS launch games, they're all made by heavy hitters that obviously were given priority in terms of distribution of dev kits (Ubisoft, Namco, Sega, EA, THQ, Activision).  The fact that the DS has half of the games of the PSP is likely a result of Sony getting dev kits out earlier and giving people four extra months, and also companies having more faith in Sony at this point.

Somebody at worked asked me about the DS and how I liked it, and I said, "It's cool but there's no games for it right now."  'nuff said.

4) WipeOut PSP and Ridge Racers PSP are better than anything on the DS right now.  That's a real problem for Nintendo.

5) I also agree with SgtShivers - the PSP is making portable gaming way too pricey.  There's a reason why the GBA SP sells like hotcakes - it's small, cheap and cool.  The PSP is cool but it's not small or cheap.  $249.99 is what I'd expect to pay for a home console, not a portable.  I won't buy one until the price drops considerably.

6) If you want to use your PSP for MP3s, the 32MB Memory Stick is useless.  Besides, I'd rather buy one of those new iPod Shuffles.  For $99 you can get a 512MB version, and it's about as big as a stick of gum - perfect for working out or jogging.  In my eyes, the PSP is pretty much useless as an MP3 player.

silks

[Gamefreak]

All I have to say is, the PSP "launch games" (which are actually coming out sometime in the unspecified "launch window") is way more impressive than the DS's entire US lineup as of now. Apart from Mario 64 there's nothing worth owning. I don't even see that as a reason to pick up DS now... I'll wait for some new games, like Mario Kart or Metroid.

Wipeout Pure and Twisted Metal sure are going to be fun multiplayer games, and Ridge Racers and NFS Underground on PSP are better than their DS counterparts...
Speaking of which, notice all these games are racing games haha...

That said Mario Kart, Wipeout Pure, and Twisted Metal should all be great fun, as long as their online. Which only looks likely for Mario Kart though...  

[ruby_onix]

BTW, this Bundle Pack seems (IMO) to confirm that the PSP instruction booklet that was seen on that government website was legit.

So now we just get to wait and see if the Sony reps have been lying when they said that every PSP game will be "region free", regardless of the "region 2" logos that are seen on the Japanese games, or if the PSP's instruction booklet is lying when it says that any region free games will come with an as-yet-unseen "region all" logo.

[Mario]

I think this price also confirms the Nintendo DS won't be getting a price drop for quite a while.

Also, I think the fact that the PSP launch details are being reported by a Nintendo site highlights how much of a battle this is going to be.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Well I cant wait for the many complaints of the Square button and the 49.99 price tag per game OUCH.

[PaLaDiN]

"Well I cant wait for the many complaints of the Square button and the 49.99 price tag per game OUCH."

Not gonna happen. It seems for some reason Sony can get away with a lot more crap than the other two.

[Gamefreak]

or people could just be smart like me and buy neither... It's not like your missing anything, you played all these games 4 years ago

[Hostile Creation]

Yeah, I remember Yoshi Touch&Go and Another Code and Pictochat and Metroid Hunters and all those other great games.  What wonderful memories.

*excessively heavy and dramatic sigh of reminiscence*

[Deguello]

$50 for PSP games?  Pretty steep.

[Urkel]

"That's 9 first party titles, none of which are ports (though ATV could be)."

Ape Escape and Twisted Metal are actually ports of PS1 games. I'm not sure about the other games, though.

I still believe everybody is wildly overestimating the PSP. It doesn't matter how many "goodies" are bundled in with it, $250 is way beyond what most people would be willing to spend on a portable system. $50 per game is more than most people are willing to spend on portable games.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Also if Sony might be planning to charge users a Wi-Fi charge if people plan to use their PSP to play online via Wi-Fi.  If nintendo makes their Wi-Fi free(which is most likely yes) Nintendo will have a big advantage here.

[KDR_11k]

250 USD? Let's see... That'll sell for about 250 EUR here knowing those money-grubbing tech companies. For 270 EUR I got my PDA, which came with a protective case, 32 megabytes of built-in flash memory (which is not used by the OS since that's stored in the RAM), a software bundle including about four games and some interactive demos (and some software I don't care to mention for this discussion) and the charger and cradle (of course). 70 EUR gave me a 1GB CF card and some googling playback capabilities for MP3, OGG, etc (can also play movies but I can't be bothered to wipe my CF card to fit one movie on there). Google also gave me the ability to play all of my Lucas arts adventures on the PDA with the touchscreen. So, why exactly should I care about the PSP's media capabilities?

[Michael8983]

Third-parties are barely willing to put any effort into developing for the HUGELY successful GBA but they're immediately jumping on board the unproven PSP which is going up against two decades of Nintendo's monopoly on the handheld market.
I don't buy it. Sony either paid them off or somehow pressured them (perhaps using its console dominance as leyway) into creating all these launch and first year games and in the long-run, we won't see nearly this degree of commitment. Not unless these initial games sell really well which is unlikely since everyone will just be watching Spiderman 2 and bragging to their friends about owning a PSP anyway. Eventually the PSP will get the same kind of half-assed third-party support the GBA has. The DS will get the same from third-parties but it's Nintendo's own first and second party games that will keep the DS on top. If you think about it, other than the Castlevania, Sonic, and Square games which will likely continue on the DS, Nintendo's own games are the only ones that have done significantly well in the handheld market anyway.

[KDR_11k]

I thought the PSP and DS had about equal support with the DS having the GBA and the PSP having the PS1 history behind them?

[Flames_of_chaos]

In a interesting note Age Of Empires (Its a Microsoft Games franchise) has been announced for the DS  and the publisher is Majesco.  So I suppose the DS can do RTS's good if done right.