As anyone who knows me will testify to, I'm an equal opportunity gamer. I have all three current consoles, had a GBA SP but traded it in for a DS (since I never play link-cable games), but I didn't get the DS until last month. It's OK so far, and it'll be interesting to see what sort of innovation it drives.
I was pretty well set on avoiding the PSP at launch. I didn't see what it could offer me, and the price was far too much. Then I talked to a good friend of mine (who travels a great deal) who said that he uses his TiVo (with TiVo-to-Go) to record the shows he never gets to watch, transfers them to his computer, converts them to MP4 files, and watches his favorite TV shows on the plane.
I really can't see people buying movies on UMD, especially since the PSP is the only device you could play the movies on, and that the spindle in the PSP would suck the batteries dry. Being able to buy a regular DVD, rip it and transfer it to a Memory Stick would alleviate those problems. The only drawback there is that Memory Sticks are still fairly expensive.
Anyway, the idea of being able to take a couple movies onto a plane without having to manhandle my mammoth laptop (with failing batteries) was fairly appealing, so I went ahead and preordered one. Not sure how it's going to turn out, but I bet that the PSP will still fetch a decent price on the aftermarket if I decide I don't like it.
In terms of opportunities, I think Sony missed the boat on a couple of points. I think flash memory would have been a better option for games as opposed to the UMD format, because the spindle is the single most battery-draining part of the unit. (To think that rumors suggest Sony might add a hard drive to the unit ... another spindle!) I also think Sony should have planned to release the Value Pack over here, since most enthusiasts will probably use their own headphones and get larger memory sticks, making the pack-ins fairly worthless. I also think that including a USB cable, and potentially using that same cable to charge the device would have been smart, again given the early-adopter set that will pick up the device at launch.
That said, it's got a lot going for it. The initial run of games are receiving fairly high scores, the device is visually quite impressive, and it has a very high lustability factor. However, I think part of Sony's business model focuses on the UMD movies, and I really can't see people buying movies that way. I'll watch Spiderman 2, because it's free, but I have that movie on DVD already. I think that Sony is in for a rude awakening unless they can move the UMD format to other devices. I can't see a home-player being viable, because it's going to highlight the low-resolution of the video. I hear that some albums are going to be coming in UMD format, but again, why bother when you can buy a CD, rip it, and play the audio on nearly any device?
All the drawbacks aside ... I'm getting one. I've got some trips coming up, one that you'll hear about soon enough, and being able to watch some video on the plane, as well as playing games holds some allure. I'll post some impressions when I get mine, and there's a large chance that it might be before the launch.
Topic: Getting a PSP? (Read 12566 times)
