News Sony announces new PSP

I can't see this being out in the next 11 months.

 

There seems to be two slots, I would assume at least one will support cards that you can write to. If they are both for this new format then it's just Sony extracting the weewee again. There's really no need for yet another rewritable flash memory card format; it's purely about wringing as much money out of the consumer as possible and nothing else.

You have to buy them again, such is Sony...

We arn't 100% sure yet that all/any of the PSP games will be compatible. I would assume that some will be but definately not all.

 

^^Right there.

Welcome to console and handheld gaming, ladies and gentlemen. If backwards incompatability surprises you then I highly suggest finding a new hobby.

 

i digress. a mobile gaming device is a portable console. mobile phones that can play games is still nowhere near the fun-factor of glass-free 3D loads of gaming option or multi-touch screen gaming device with graphics that is close to PS3 with 4-5hr battery life. no matter how much fun slicing fruits with your fingers or throwing birds into buildings, i would say its still more fun to play God of War or Uncharted while on-the-go...

im not saying cell-phone gaming isn't fun, but i found it not as fun as a dedicated portable device. heck, i myself still playing and enjoying iphone games simply coz the idea of having to buy a dedicated gaming device is cost-prohibitive.... but for people who can afford it, oh yes, its fun.

http://kotaku.com/5744718/hands-on-with-the-ngps-brand+new-uncharted-and-a-deviant-surprise

 

I did read the thread, and the attached articles. My comments still stand 100%.

 

Have you considered that perhaps the UMD is a limiting factor for development of a new device? Features such as the touchscreen would not be possible due to the UMD needing to pop out right where it goes. The slim width would also be inhibited by a UMD.

Also, consider what DS catridges are: proprietary flash memory sticks. Similar to the point that devices such as an R4 actually let you use an microSD card in them! Effectively the same thing as Sony intends to use. Little memory cards with enough room for the game and some save data. Effectively the same thing as every cartridge system prior, only this one gets the fancy term "flash memory".

If you're going to make assumptions about non-game cartridge storage solutions being invented by Sony then I'd kindly like to point you to Memory Stick. Present on the PSP, one can assume that it will be carried on to the NGP rather than using the game cartridge as a universal storage medium and opening themselves up to even more rampant piracy.

 

I know it's come fresh from the land of the rising shaky-cam, but the tech looks impressive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM5ItI8gCRI

I'm not going to buy one of course, I just hope that if Sony are pushing the tech combination of Great Screen + Fast CPU + Fast GPU + Flexible input controls then we're only a generation away from having the same in our smart phones.

I don't want a portable gaming machine, but I want to play portable games on my (i)Phone with better visuals / response and better controls.

 

Take note Sony - Nintendo have outsold you in the handheld department for quite some time now despite your technical superiority. They do it by maintaining some degree of backwards compatibility and by doing something really new with each release.

The 3DS has a never seen before new feature that even my grandmother (if she were still alive) could appreciate, to hell with the rest of the spec. The NGP's extra touch sensitive surface would take some time to explain to... well, anyone. Someone on the bus sees you playing with it, they'll think you're watching porn and getting a little too involved in it.

So yeah, outside Japan (where it'll get a whole slew of sleazy new dating sims), the NGP will once again suffer from having a comparatively tiny target market. Oh, and it won't have Pokemon on it either.

 

and what will they call it, Blu-RAM? Shame that Sony's format ADD has returned but if it's games only and any TV/Movies remain as downloads, it could work.

 

I'm looking more forward to the PSP phone as I'll always have it with me!

I bought an original PSP at launch and was blown away by the graphics at the time. It's still quite nice to have when on a long train journey - Wipeout Pure and Pulse are probably the most fun I've ever had on a handheld. Oh, and the Syphon Filter games were cracking as well. And GTA Liberty City Stories!

 

What feature is that? 3D? I don't think that is something new. Never was. Just rediscovered if you want to even call it that.

Whether the PSP topples the Gameboy or not. The market needs it. Before the arrival of the Gamegear Nintendo felt quite comfortable with their black and white colors, lack of backlit screens, and lack of graphical capabilities. Sure that didn't topple them either, but Nintendo quickly rectified the situation with Gameboy Color, and then the Advance. Because of competition Nintendo finally gave us better than 8-Bit graphics, full colors, and a screen you can still see in the dark without an accessory.

Pokemon is a juggernaut franchise, but unless you haven't been paying much attention, Monster Hunter is slowly become it's own juggernaut in the handheld market, and currently calls the PSP it's home. I don't think the PSP2 will outself the 3DS either, but right now Sony is the only competition in the market that will keep Nintendo from getting complacent again.

 

Cool, a new storage format. I've got a PSP Go and it's damn nice tech, but it really was a bit pointless. The world as a whole isn't ready for download-only gaming formats, despite what a few million Steam users (of which I am one,) may think.

 

You buy them again, of course

 

*twirls finger*

I bought a PSP mainly for the GOW series that exist on it. Now it just sits and does nothing.

Also $300 for a handheld? They are crazy...

 

4-5 Hours? Actual or the typical advertisers up to. I my current psp 1000 that i bought 4 or 5 years ago lasts longer than that. Doesn't make sense to trick out all the hardware but forget that a portable console needs to last a sensible length of time...

 

This feels to me like the equivalent of the Ipod Touch to the iPhone. A less universally usable device that still uses much of the same technology.

Backwards compatibility is both a blessing and a curse. For example, Nintendo has ditched the ganeboy cartridge slot from the DSi onwards. It would be nice in the new console could handle PSP Go. But to build in UMD compatibility would be asking a bit too much. Physical disk access just eats battery life on a device that small. And UMD didn't really take off that well as a format, in much the same way as minidisc didn't. Or consumer Betamax ultimately failed.

This console, and the phone version are probably Sony's last chance to keep any sizeable chunk of the mobile gaming market. If they fail now, they will have to settle with being a software publisher.

Interesting that they are planning to use propriety SD card storage. Unless there are significant hardware differences, such as pin layouts or hardware on-card encryption, I can see this being jailbroken pretty rapidly.

The other thing to note is that Sony are a massive empire, covering electronics, software, films and other entertainment. One of the mistakes they made with the PSP was trying to make it a jack of all trades. When Nintendo has concentrated on being the master of one. Any additional multimedia features being mainly coincidental to the main function - playing games. And playing games well.

This is why, until recently, Nintendo has wiped the floor with the competition across most gaming formats. In terms of the numbers at least. I suspect the dip in Wii sales is as much to do with reaching market saturation point than with people wanting more advanced hardware. Although Nintendo may have taken the Wii for too long to successfully win the non-portable console wars again...

 

Plus its flash memory based, which is getting increasingly cheaper.

 

Let's not forget one of the best reasons to flash your original PSP is playing games off the insanely superior MS. UMD was sluggishly slow and killed battery life, would anyone actually want it to be brought forward to other sony consoles?

 

Personally I think sony really screwed up with the PSP series, they should have focused more on the PS3 then creating a portable when the all the psp was useful for was the internet, and it was slower than my old dial-up connection. So not useful at all. While I can see Sony trying to keep up with the competition by releasing a portable console, they should have atleast tricked it out so it actually means something to own a PSP. I ended up using mine as a paperweight for about 2 years before I sold it to my lil cuz

 

@themax: I'd say this itteration of 3D was definitely something new. 3D that you can just look at without a headset/colour filters/polarizers/inconvenient-whatever in a held-held *anything* certainly isn't a mere rediscovery.

There was an 8 year gap between the release of the Game Gear and the GameBoy Color. Can't really see any pressure on Nintendo there. The Game Gear was made completely impractical by it's 4-5 hour battery life on 6 AA's, so the 10 hour battery life on the GameBoy (4 AA's) did at least make it's lack of a backlight forgivable. Apart from the NeoGeo Pocket, by which time Nintendo were putting out a colour screen sans-backlight with 15 hours from 2 AA's, I can't think of anything apart from the PSP that's given Nintendo even the slightest sniff of competition.

I won't bash the PSP, it's a powerful machine and considerably more capable that the DS, but that battery life issue comes back from Sega's grave to haunt Sony. On it's 1800mAh battery the original PSP was measured by IGN to last 3.5-5 hours for gaming. The DS phat's 850mAh unit managed 8-10 hours.

Haven't really looked at Monster Hunter but I doubt it's got a competitive community as large and fanatical as Pokemon. Good luck to it though, looks like a cracking game. Might have to get the Wii one...

@Penfolduk01: They ditched the GBA slot to make way for the SD card slot after they realised that anyone with a GBA back catalog they still want to make use of has probably had a DS for quite some time now.