Yeah, I'm a teacher and I never see kids with PSPs, but I do see Ipods...and the very occasional DS. I can't really see PSPs dropping in price to the "mass" consumer. Secondly, the UMD is not innovation, it's just a little disk, and it is the most UN-versatile piece of media I've ever seen. I am still trying to get to the bottom of : why the hell has Sony made another media format when they are about to release BLue-Ray, they have plenty of stock in memory cards, and UMD clearly has no future (we will never see a standalone umd player)
So, according to you we shouldnt say Macs suck in compatibility cuz Linux does as well? The "good news" I've heard from the PS3 all come from developers I hardly know, and others that are complete nobodies. When carmack said that the X360 was "teh" console to code and that PS3 was a pain in the arse, was like DaVinci criticizing modern art: you cant go to him and say he's plain wrong becos some dude told you it [the paint] was awesome. About UMD, they arent death, cuz the PSP has at least 2 years left and therefore it needs media for games. What is dead is the universal in UMD, cuz nobody is going to buy those movies, specially when video iPods get cheaper and with better screens. Honestly I think sony should scrap their media bussines altogether and make a HDD based portable next time.
Wait...what? How are they going to sell games if their next handheld doesn't use any sort of cheap media? Everything would have to be downloaded like on cell phones these days. Granted they could do something like that, but I (like many other people here) prefer to buy physicl copies of games as opposed to digital signals. Then again, maybe im misinterpreting what you're saying...
Nope, you got it right: at the time the PSP2 may be out 1.8 HDDs and perpendicular magnetic heads will be a standart, so they could bundle a 180GB HDD with the PSP2 making it somekind of iPod-slash-Handheld videogame. The thing is you cant beat the convenience of direct downloads. Dont get me wrong, if it were for me we would still be using cartridges instead of optical (after all ROM chips today are dirt-cheap) but everybody and their dog buying iPods instead of Discmans and going to iTMS instead of tower records (or any music shop) kinda tell you something about the mainstream market...
I would rather own the game then direct downloads, seems like the world is getting far to lazy. I could careless about a hand held being able to have direct downloads and whatnot, I didnt buy a Ipod or pocketdrive anyway : http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20060220PR205.html in all fairness, “PSP 2,†which could simply be a journo mistake (the soruce is a very very rough translation from .jp news source)
Well the whole mp3 player concept works because people have the option of downloading music or buying hard copies and ripping them to play on their mp3 player. Both types of consumers are taken care of when it comes to mp3 players, but if you decide to only support the digital consumer then you should expect sales equivalent to those of the cell phone industry (and in the states thats a very poor number). Asside from the fact that going pure digital would mean alienating the majority of your consumers, theirs also the fact that unlike mp3s and cell phone games, full retail games for advanced systems these days are huge. Downloading a 5-15mb file is one thing, download a multi-gb one is another.
If you want to see how well a direct download only console works, take a look at the phantom.... er.. wait... http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/08/20
Look I'm not from sony R&D dept. so I cant say they wont leave space for hard-media on the next PSP alongside the HDD. Is funny you say that [about market share] when the iPod didnt really catch on as the "teh" gadget until iTMS went online. I remember when the thing was released back in 2001, only a few maclovers bought it. Then the next revision came [the one with 4 face buttons and an acceptable size] and yet the iPod remained as that expensive little toy only snobs and geek had. It wasnt until apple bought universal music and the iTMS was created that people really went into the iPod craze. What is even more unexpected is that apple keeps selling the iPod with quite a sizable profit for every unit sold. You could assume that now that they sell the "software" [music] apple no longer needs to charge such high sums on the hardware. But they saw the people keep buyin the thing even when it was kinda pricey, so they ditched the "videogame" market strategy (selling hardware at a lost and getting it back with the software) even with the possibilities of a hype-out (that, when people realise there's other stuff out there thats cheaper and better). And PA, the phantom is nothing but a piece of vaporware made by a douchebag that has a long record of making fake companies to make money from rampant speculation on the stock market. The gizmondo's creators had the same bussines model, even when the portable had a traditional selling scheme [games in cartridges]. But it went down anyways, not becos it was a direct download system, but becos it had a cheap desing and no games. But who the fuck cares about quality and games when your profits comes from stealing money from unaware investors?
You right, but I think explaining how to make money though speculation and fake products will fall on deaf ears on this board. People are making millions through direct investors speculating on the next big thing, but at the same time have no intention on ever releasing a product. But thats a whole different thread.
Look, it doesn't have to be direct download. The DS uses a proprietary card, and I'm sure memory capacity will get larger and cheaper down the road. It just strikes me that sony spent R&D to promote something that is: a. an expensive format b. must be manufactured with new or modified machinery c. is dead in the water, it will not survive past the PSP d. by nature going to have load time issues. How about this concept: A handheld with an HDD with direct download games, but you still get a physical "game" in the form of a key...if you want to play the game, insert the key, which would look like a small cartridge. Make it so that three or so keys fit in the system at a time, and no one will complain.
Yeah, some people fails to see all the repercussions involved in the market. Well that what I'm saying, plus you can get 4GBs of ROM for like 20 bucks, 1.8GBs (the actual size of the UMD) is way cheaper, even more if you think that sony can buy them in bulks. ROM is waaaay cheaper than Flash chips. About DD (direct download) well all I've to say is big corporations dont give a fuck about us, the gamers, specially sony if you see their position about homebrew in the PSP. The reality is that if the new iPod (the one that's gonna be announced any time soon) has WiFi and therefore standalone DD capabilities as some say, then you can bet you ass DD is goin to be pumped ine very device possible. It only takes a company to launch DD games for the iPod (and be succesful with it) for other companies to catch the idea and copy it. After that the big guys would reconsider their position and maybe launch a DD handheld system. BTW, if I had to predict who's gonna make the big jump, I say is going to be nintendo: sony is pretty strict and traditional with their media bussines (just look at sony music) so they wont go ahead with DD until is fully tested and operational. Nintendo on the other side is already going DD with the revo. Even when you cant download Revo or GC games there's N64 and Snes games, and those are the exact equivalents of NDS and GBA. I dont who said something about cellphones DD, but the reason why DD didnt go that well in that market is plain and simple: is the carriers fault. They have a pretty narrow view of the technology (no wonder why we get all the shitty phones while europe and asia get the cool ones) and with their big ass greed, making a DD agreement with cellphone carriers is like asking satan for inmortality. Just look all the hastle apple and motorola had to go trought just to release the crappy ROKR phone...
Yeah, I noticed that last summer when I was in Europe. Everyone had a sweet phone, and mine was state-of-the-art here in the US, but it couldn't match all of their features. Well, they have to wait longer for consoles, and pay more for common goods, so I can deal with a shite phone. But really, I DD games on my phone every once in a while, but we're not talking about the newest Zelda here. If I lose a DD cell phone game, oh well. I see your point Shadowlayer.
Indeed, and if you look at the increasing price tag of handhelds consoles (the GG was $100 since day one, while the PSP is $250) is only a matter of time for portables to hit DD in order to decrease the MSRP in the barebone system. After all, the revenue in DD is higher, since you dont have to print any phisical media. About the rumors of a new PSP with 8GB of NAND, I see it more as an answer to homebrew. It could be a redesigned model like the DSlite, but dont expect to see the normal PSP price going down when the other one gets released.
Although the price is generally higher than it was, let's not forget that $100 back then would be more now (with inflation etc)
Dude if inflation were that bad we should be starving in the next 2 years. Take for example cars: back in the day a top-end Accord would set you back 22K, today his equivalent is 26k and with the V6 engine. Honestly console prices are not tied to inflation Right now, in some part of the world, someone is saying the same about the PSP...
You're somewhat right I'm sure, I remember NES games were $49 upon release back in the 80's...inflation is only one piece of the puzzle, you have demand, which has risen, production costs lowered (the physical production, not the coding), and transport costs have lowered. Still, releasing a game at $49 is a risk on the developers part because so many more people are involved. That is probably why Nintendo is trying to reduce costs to stay competitive. When I received my film degree, the most important thing my professors told me was that the quality of the images and the cinematography are less important than the story, the content. This I believe for games as well. In many cases, the gameplay in current gen games hasn't changed much since the 8-bit days, but story-telling has started to flourish. Well, enough of that, wasn't this thread about the UMD being dead? Well, just to try the theory, I bought a UMD movie and a UMD music disk. The movie: The Fifth Element. The music disk: Beck's Guero. When they arrive in the mail, I'll tell you which one I actually used. I have a feeling it will be the music disk.
I have spiderman 2(freebie) and Iron Maiden's Rock In Rio on UMD, for no other reason other than that I am a big iron maiden nut and own as much of their stuff as i can....
The Spiderman 2 UMD is quite good, but I would not have purchased it if I didn't receive it for free. Is that Iron Maiden UMD, an England only release? Man, Maiden has to be my all time favorite metal band, glad to see more crazed metal fans on here. :Rock: UMD is an decent format, but way over priced when it comes to entertainment other then games. They could easily sell UMD movies and films for $9.99 and make a killing, but they are out for the quick kill/sales. This format is hardly dead, although the only platform supported is currently the PSP. Sony was hoping this format would 'Revolutionize entertainment as we know it', something a UMD has hardly done. Off topic, but I can't agree with this statement. Games are the only thing that Windows holds over these other OS platforms, Linux and OSX are pretty compatible with most applications. ^_^_^
