Ben-DutkaIf you were never a fan of the physical media for the PSP (UMD), but you still enjoy your portable games, you'll be happy about this.
According to sources within IGN , the PSP2 will drop the physical media drive but at the same time, it'll also be able to emulate original PSP games. They also refer to some recently leaked images of the PSP2 dev kit; the new iteration of the handheld holds another similarity with the PSP Go, in that it slides up, but is also larger and features dual analog sticks. Cameras are seen on the front and back, and we still can't get away from the possibility that a touchpad exists on the rear of the unit. The source in question calls it a "smooth, glass-like surface" and it will be used for basic controls, tapping, swiping, and other "gesture commands." Now, when it comes to portables, are people as cherishing of their game collection as they are in regards to home consoles? Many don't want to see a full-on switch to digital content in the console world; do gamers feel the same way about portables…?
Either way, we can't be too far from an official announcement. Not only does this thing most certainly exist, we seem to know a heck of a lot about it already…too bad none of it can be confirmed just yet.
If this falls in the category of the usual Playstation backwards compatibility, then I will be one happy camper! Bring me the PSP2 and end my torture and suffering waiting for the ungodly handheld. The original PSP had MASSIVE potential and eventually was put to it (with extra means ;P). That really gets my mind racing with ideas on what the new iteration can do!
Last edited by Snorge on 12/9/2010 11:08:53 AM
The thing is, that even the unmodified PSP with current firmware just obliterates the DS in terms of functionality and performance. The DS has a great extra couple of features to set itself apart, but in terms of being a portable game/media/internet device, the PSP is leagues ahead. I know that a lot of the homebrew efforts and custom firmware were about additional functionality – which I do applaud, but the same custom firmware used to enable extra features was also massively abused by people who didn't want to pay for their games. Looking at the software sales vs hardware sales of the PSP in the US and comparing that to Japan (where game piracy is actually not prevalent). The difference is nasty. It might not be fair to those using custom firmware for things other than free games, but custom firmware has been very destructive to the PSP's success in the west. For this reason, I hope that the PSP2 is not so easily cracked open by the Homebrew community. Game publishers will not support a platform as strongly if game piracy is considered to be rampant on that device.
I have a pretty decent category of PSP UMDs. I would love to have them on the PSP2. I hope I can save upload PSP UMD games on the PSP2. It would be a great idea. When PSP2 releases, PSP would be dead. So it only makes sense to have the support of it's predecessors, like Gba to DS.
Looking at Sony's track record, I'd hesitate to say that the PSP will die immediately after it's successor is released. But either way, I'd love to see that you're right.
Peace.
so if i wanted to be future proof id have to buy all my psp games off the ps store from now on???
@cesar. Yup, that's about the size of it, unless you don't mind hanging on to your PSP as well.
"Looking at the software sales vs hardware sales of the PSP in the US and comparing that to Japan (where game piracy is actually not prevalent). The difference is nasty."
Highlander, I always love reading your comments and search for yours in nearly every article. But I'm going to have to say that your statement here is not true.
One evidence I have is Final Fantasy Dissidia: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/06/10/cesa-5-2-million-illegal-downloads-of-dissidia-final-fantasy-i/
And also the other one would have to be the new law passed in Japan which causes a warning message to pop up for a "pirated version" of a DS game. – These are for new DS games mainly – but it tells you that piracy is a damn big problem even in Japan.
Of course do more people pirate here in the U.S. compared to Japan – well most likely yea…the U.S. would have more pirates – but we also have a larger population here. But if you were to compare in terms of percentage – yea I guess you'd be right.
@ShadowPal,
I don't have the specific numbers to illustrate wheat I was saying, and I do agree that there is some game piracy in Japan. But, I still stand by the point that the rate of game piracy, specific to the PSP, in Japan is an order of magnitude lower than in the West. The software sales for the PSP in Japan absolutely confirm this. Games and systems sell strongly. There are PSP games that are obvious system sellers because unit sales of the PSP itself spike when these games are released. In the US (in particular) PSP game sales are pretty anemic and do not push hardware sales as they do in Japan.
Relatively speaking, piracy of PSP games in Japan is a small problem compared to North America – for example. In terms of localization of games from Japan and development of PSP titles by western developers, piracy has hurt the PSP bigtime because it deflates sales numbers which discourages development of titles. Poor numbers of titles discourages hardware sales and discourages other publishers from taking a chance. When you see an otherwise excellent game selling like it's a steaming pile of crap on a platform, it doesn't really recommend that platform as a target for development. The problem with that is that it can become such a problem that it's not so much a vicious cycle as a death spiral. Fortunately, we've never quite entered that spiral, but the cycle has taken it's toll.
I'll be honest. With my PS3 I don't like the idea of losing physical media and don't think I ever will.
But I'm all for it with my PSP because I'm travelling with it. It makes the same sense as having an MP3 player instead of carrying all them CDs. When you're on the move it's better to carry less imo.
I hate to have no physical media too. A downloaded game feels like a "bootleg" copy given by your friend.
If it's only downloadable on PSN, it'll almost never go on sale like in retail. Unless, PSN sell the game in such a price where you would not care about physical media, like $10 for a God of War quality game. That would never happen. They'll have to sell 6 million copies to make a profit, I don't see that happening.
Last edited by godsman on 12/9/2010 12:18:15 PM
I agree with you Frost, When you're travelling with something electronic, the less crap you need to carry with it the better.
@ godsman
Have you not seen the hundreds of PSP games that have been price-reduced on PSN over the past few months? There are around 20 this week alone.
It took a while, but PSN sales (esp. for PSP games) have become the norm rather than rare exceptions. I can only see that increasing for the PSP2.
Last edited by Fane1024 on 12/9/2010 5:03:47 PM
Agreed. I'm all for digital, just need to bring those prices down now that distribution costs will be reduced dramatically.
I think it would be more convenient to not have physical media on a portable game system…less to carry around. I just dont want to have to worry about losing all my digital games if the psp2 does decide to crash. So its a win/lose situation. Unless they come up with a way to retrieve lost games with faulty psp2's.. either way i'll still buy 1.
Games will probably come on a derivation of the memory Stick Pro Duo, so that you can have physical retail of games where the network speeds don't support downloads. The nice thing is that you will be able to carry a number of games in a small case, and of course there will continue to be some physical, tangible thing to buy when you buy a game. Switching to solid state storage instead of discs will save on the power too, making more available for a faster processor.
PSP2 needs to be able to play PSP games, there are many downloadable titles now and it would provide an instant library for the PSP2 to start with.
From April 2010 posted here at PSX…
Would anyone care to guess on the features of a PSP2? Pie in the sky time….
Touch screen
higher resolution OLED screen
TWO analogs
Backwards compatible with PSP and PS1 games
built in microphone
built in accelerometers, and other motion detection like the sixaxis.
Magnetometer (my Droid has it, why not?)
Hi-res Camera (my Droid has it, why not?)
GPS receiver (my Droid…)
802.11n wireless ethernet (my Droid…)
3G broadband capable? (my Droid…)
BlueTooth (my Droid…)
Flash memory slots (two slots not one)
No UMD – 2/4GB flash RAM and ROM devices are stamped out by the gazillion, it has to be time to do away with the disc.
wireless USB & micro-USB socket
CPU – would like to see something like a mobile Cell, but that's not gonna happen. Needs to be 4 times faster than previous PSP.
GPU – mobile GPUs have come a long way, this should blow the PSP original out of the water.
256MB system memory & 256MB video memory – I see no reason why the system could not have as much system and video ram as a PS3. You don't need expensive XDR or GDDR3 memory for a mobile device.
Battery – This needs to be at least 2000mAh. The more battery they can squeeze into the thing the better. Even if it costs an additional couple of millimeters thickness and an ounce more weight, put a bigger battery on it please.
When you look at a device like the Motorola Droid you can see what can be done in a small form factor. PSP2 should use the same basic shape and size as the PSP-3000. Perhaps a little slimmer and more compact, but generally the same. That would allow for bigger hands as well as leaving room for a decent battery.
….
There have been suggestions that the screen will be bigger than the original PSPs screen, in which case the unit will be big enough for Sony to (if they wish to) literally double the size of the battery. Battery size is important because if you double the size of the battery, you double the available power to manage a 4-6 hour battery life. The more power you have, the higher the clock speeds and the more complex the processors.
My original Droid is about a year old now, and when the PSP2 arrives could be 18 months. So whatever we do get, it should/could be lots more powerful than the existing wave of smartphones, especially if Sony bumps the batter size to allow more power…
I can't wait to get some more concrete detail. In the mean time I will just have to hope that the list above is close. I believe that there may actually be more RAM than I suggested, it may be as much as 1GB of RAM, although that too has to be balanced against the power available.
Last edited by TheHighlander on 12/9/2010 11:24:13 AM
I have a hard time believing your Macbook can run for 7 hours. Most laptops including Macs only run about 4 hours.
I did the calculations the other day and you'd be surprised how little juice a 2000mAh batter has.
If I remember correctly a 3.6v 2000mAh battery has 2 x 3.6 = 7.2 watt hours. In other words it can supply 7.2 Watts for an hour, or 1 Watt for just over 7 hours, or 2 Watts for a little under 4 hours.
Remember that this has to power the screen as well as the other electronics. So the power envelope is quite small.
The MacBook battery has approximately 10 times that amount of energy (68 watts). If it keeps it's power drawn to 10 Watts or less it will go about 7 hours. But it weighs nearly 14 ounces.
If Sony double the battery to a 3.6v 4000 mAh battery, they get 14.4 Watts, that would allow the system to draw anything up to 3 watts and still run more than 4 hours on a single charge. 3 Watts doesn't sound like a lot, but it's about double what the original PSP consumes.
That said, I would really like to see Sony take advantage of the removal of the UMB mechanism to physically increase the battery size for a longer duration battery.
jawknee I have a mac too, and mine can run for about 7ish hours as well..
if the games come in hd then how about the option to connect it to the tv, not only to play videogames of course, i mean i know that not everyone cares for this but it would be nice to get that option for those of us who want to output our hd home movies without having to burn them onto disks…
I see, that make's sense. Though I always assumed most Apple products had poor battery life. My phones, ipods, and laptops i have had all had poor life. Same with my Windows laptops.
Don't know why but I'm kinda more interested in the PSPhone instead.
Nah IMO that has to be moreso for the casual gamer aka the current iPhone user and Droid user who plays games on the go but nothing like MGS, GOW, Resistance, kingdom Hearts, and so on.
How large will the PSP2 storage be, and will it be possible for PSN+ members to store games, savefiles etc. on a Sony server.
Maybe too early for those kind of question, it may go 6 month before Sony even say something about this. If they don't the forced to say something, but they always been holding off until a electronic event to officially show it to the masses.
Very interested in this.
Ugh, I don't like the sound of that. I would much rather have some form of physical media. Besides, if these games are supposed to rival PS3/360 graphics, how are they going to fit on the PSP2's storage?
It won't be all digital downloads Jawknee. Games will be sold on some physical format, probably a memory card of some kind. My personal bet is a read only card that fits a MemoryStick Pro Duo slot, and the system will have two slots, one for the games and one for the user's own MemoryStick Pro Duo flash RAM card.
That would be awesome indeed.
Indeed. and I should have added that that was my guess, based on the various rumors and common sense that says the connected market for the PSP is large, but so is the unconnected market, and so there needs to be some physical media involved to cater for the unconnected market.
Oh man Id love to get one next year but money is tight these days. Oh well, Ill still try though.
Bet's on the launch price?
I'm going with $249.99. I'll also go out on a limb and suggest that the PS3 will not drop to @249.99 until the new PSP2 drops to $199.99. If it launches at $199.99, then I'd look for a $50 drop in price for the PS3 around the summer time.
If it's as powerful, and all-purpose as we all think it's going to be… I'd put it a launch $600 here in Australia easy.
Peace.
What's Sony waiting for? The 120gb slim PS3 should of been @ 249.99 right when they released the 160gb slim model.
Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 12/9/2010 2:01:37 PM
@Alex…
Why? The cost difference between a 120GB and 160Gb is negligible.
I really think it should have a headset that comes with this to be honest. I wanted this feature with the original PSP while doing remote play to my PS3. Think about remoting into you PS3 from across the state and then get into a chat with one of your friends somewhere else. Doing too much? Maybe, but with Sony, the possibilities are endless!
Last edited by Snorge on 12/9/2010 12:02:29 PM
Hopefully, it will use the same Bluetooth headset as the PS3.
Anyone have any ideas on the price of the PSP2 games? PSP games are $39. As the development cost increase for the new generation, it'll probably be $45 for PSP2.
I assume that being only downloadable, no retail, Sony can keep the price at $39. $39!! for a download game. It's too much for me.
That isn't really surprising. The UMD is quite the memory draw, and getting rid of that is a good idea. But, the need the retention of physical media, and I've seen memory sticks with more 32gigs on them, so it makes sense for them to be used as a new physical media. But then, I've said that all along. Everything else about the device sounds sweet.
Peace.
yeah but those things arent cheap, and i dont think production costs would allow for a 49 dollar price tag for a hd videogame in a 16gb memory stick…but then again i could be wrong…
Hey Highlander,
Since I'm a tech noob, what will happen to all our UMDs that that are going to wind up useless to the new PSP2?
Is there a way for a laymen like me to transfer them somehow, like over to a memory stick or drive…or anything???????
I'm not sure Biker. I suspect that much like cartridges from an old console, they may not be supported. I suppose that there might be a way to transfer them, but the difficulty is that short of redeeming the physical disc for a download code, how do you stop the same disc being transferred to many user's PSP2s?
@highlander: couldnt sony be able to offer the option to connect the psp to the ps3 or a computer running media go and be able to rip the game once onto the computer?
@cesar,
I'm sure you could, but if you enabled that, there would literally be nothing to stop that same disc being copied by as many PSP/PS3 owning friends as you have. So, I don't think Sony will do that.
@highlander: yeah just like cds, but im sure theres a way to only make it rip once, like with the digital copies that come with blurays
There are CD's you can only rip once? I've never encountered one and that's all I buy. Could be the labels and records I choose to listen to too.
The only way something like that could work is if the UMD had some kind of unique identifier for that specific copy of that game. Then maybe you could register it somehow under your PSN ID and get a free copy of that game via PSN. I would even be happy with a program to trade in the physical UMDs and get some credit on PSN in return, to apply towards whatever games you want via PSN, PSP or PSP2.
@Jaynet, they really ought to offer that at least. I mean if I return my game disc to a publisher because the disc is bad, they send me a replacement. So if they can do that, why can't they simply turn around and send me a download code instead?
Damn, now I need to get Richie rich. lol
Last edited by AcHiLLiA on 12/9/2010 2:06:25 PM
You make a valid point BikerSaint. The exact point I was about to comment on. What good is the PSP2's ability to emulate PSP games if we don't have a means of generating ROM's or disc images of our UMDs? (through legitimate means that is)
Unless they incorporate some way of connecting the two devices via USB and ripping your UMD to file on the PSP2… Who knows, but Sony's gotta come up with something.
Personally, I think that what they ought to do is set up a program for a free exchange of UMD game discs for that game's PSN download code, for any game that is available through PSN.
It wouldn't cover all UMD gamess, but it would be a step.
Thank Highlander,
Yeah, I remember back when Sony first stated that they were going to do something for the UMD'ers just before the PSP GO came out so that they could transfer their games, & movies, etc over to it too.
But then they just dropped the ball altogether on it, therefore screwing their own PSP GO in the process.
I'm certain that had Sony done right by the UMD'ers, then PSP GO might have not had the low meager sales that it does.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 12/9/2010 6:04:49 PM