Comments on: Rumor: UMD-less PSP Coming This Fall

By: Akirap

Akirap — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:39:41 +0000

Beat out DS? In Revisions, yes, but not in sales.
Acording to IGN's reports on US and JP markets, sales of DS Phat, DS Lite and DSi outcome every matching version of PSP. They had strong months for the sales, but DS always manage to return in sales =/

By: Akirap

Akirap — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:39:41 +0000

By: TT

TT — Sat, 02 May 2009 09:43:09 +0000

I totally see how you feel. I also haver bunch of Vinyl CDs etc. I dont care a bit since DVD packaging is terrible and bluray/ps3 even worse. although I am not crazy about the UMD design itself(mine often break) the casing is very nice.

having said all that, in the case of the PSP, games cases etc are not very portable. that kind of defeats the purpose. when I get on a plane and have my PSP case with 4 UMD games in it they get crushed and all kind of fall out when I open the case(probably why some of my UMDs are broken) perhaps I should stick to one game, haha.

another thing, with digital distribution, you cannot go to a Game Stop etc to look at all the casing but maybe you can go to a net cafe, bar, etc and meet up listen to music, play games etc. in US, I think too much social activity revolves around going shopping anyway. withouth Brick and Mortar shops, perhaps more healthy social options will come about?

I am slowly coming to this conclusion with my music movies and games. for some music, I may want a hard copy, fortunately, you can get new releases on vinyl that come with a CD or MP3 which is a nice balance.

Hopefully, they will release PSP classic and PSP GO and we can all choose.

By: ryukyus

ryukyus — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:32:28 +0000

Here goes again sony shooting themselves in the foot, what about people who likes to collect the games, I can clearly see, this will not be a success, and I'm going to laugh my nuts off when they fail, just like when ps3 first came out for 1k how smart was that.

By: jarrod

jarrod — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:32:41 +0000

Yeah, this will actually make the 4th PSP revision. PSP's now matched Game Boy for number of revisions (in half the time!) and beat out GBA and DS.

By: Wishy

Wishy — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:23:33 +0000

What?! I'm a bit sketchy on a harcopy-less console… And didn't Sony release an updated PSP a few months ago / a year ago? I've been wanting to get a PSP, so I'll see how this plays out…

By: Jenni

Jenni — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:17:54 +0000

But, what if you want Japanese and US games, but can't afford two PSPs so you can have both accounts at once. This would mean you'd have to switch accounts and redownload games whenever you'd want to play them.

And MadMirko is correct – Sony could decide to close your account or delete the store, and you'd be left with nothing.

By: Jenni

Jenni — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:14:38 +0000

I totally agree. I prefer UMD releases and hard copies of games, when it comes to portable systems.

By: jarrodand

jarrodand — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:49:32 +0000

DD only is the future, but I'm surprised to see it happen for PSP so soon. Still, I expect they'll continue having the 3000 an UMD releases alongside this for the foreseeable future, at least giving consumers the option.

I'm mostly curious about pricepoints. I mean, there'll have to be an attractive retail margin, think PSP Go! might move over $199?

By: Bovadose

Bovadose — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:44:48 +0000

If Sony is going to release this new PSP then they should support it and the UMD models. Start slow by giving the publisher the option of having the game for download only or a UMD/download release. In time if the UMDless PSP catches on more publishers will abandon a UMD release.

I would also hope that old games that people have bought can be put on the new model.

By: Malek86

Malek86 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:39:45 +0000

Man, I just bought a PSP. But, it doesn't matter. There are still too many UMD games around that I may want to pick up, so…

Anyway, I hope we'll hear about it at E3. It's always good to have something to talk about.

By: JeremyR

JeremyR — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:00:53 +0000

It really depends. As someone that has custom firmware, I rip some games to my memory stick. Some are big, but others are actually really small.

Of course, it's the games with good production values (graphics and sound) that are big. Syphon Filter, GTA, all are one gig and up. Medium production value game are closer to 600 megs, and small ones, like puzzle games and retro compilations are generally 100 megs and below.

For the latter, digital distribution is a good thing. But not for the flash stuff.

By: JeremyR

JeremyR — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:58:04 +0000

Nope. In fact it means the opposite. It means games never go on sale, because they have to be cleared out.

I have about 45 PSP games on UMD. About 20 were new and full price, but the rest were all on sale, generally $10 and under.

The cost of physical manufacturing actually isn't that much, maybe $1 for the game. (Think about it, UMDs are basically mini dvds, and dvds are what, a quarter a blank? Probably even less in bulk). Shipping is probably the biggest expense.

Granted, for the publisher, it's a good deal. Since they have a constant trickle of sales, always at full price, or close to it. But for the consumer, it stinks.

By: JeremyR

JeremyR — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:53:57 +0000

The problem is programming, not the drive itself. Yes, some games are really bad about loading, but others have almost no loading. Disgaea, for instance, the PS2 version was a little annoying. But there's basically zero loading from the UMD. Test Drive Unlimited is also a game with very little loading, I think 8 seconds from the startup menu, and once in the game, almost none. (Compared to the horrible loading of the 360 version). Even the Fast and the Furious had better load times than the PS2 version.

It's also not really that much of a battery eater. The real battery eaters are the backlight and upping the CPU to 333 MHz

This is really a moot point for me, since I have two PSPs with custom firmware. But I have about 45 games on UMD and I actually use UMDs most of the time, at least for big games. Because the loading isn't that big a deal for most games. And when you do have a lot of games, it's much easier to pop a disc in, than hook up your PSP to the PC and move files back and forth.

That said, for smaller games, it is really handy. The various retro compilations (though some are bigger than you think), some of the puzzle games (Puzzle Quest is only about a 100 megs)

By: Happy Gamer

Happy Gamer — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:11:12 +0000

call me old school but i am really disliking this trend in digital distribution. im a big fan of collecting Vinyl LP records, CDs, Tapes and games for their box art and manual art (when manual was actually worth looking at unlike these days). I remember all the neat little maps and stuff that came with the game back in the days also.

Don't get me wrong I do understand benefits of this but trust me, it benefits SONY more than the customers than anything. I distribute exclusive and non exclusive music thru a independent company and when the royalty checks come, digital distribution which I tried since about 2 years ago really helps me with profit. but personally I would still love to print a 12 inch vinyl single or CD despite these advantages.

im looking this as a pure artistic and personal way tho not bashing the potential positives of the UMDless PSP.

i love buying games with packaging and going eye shipping to look at the box art before buying the game.

Has anyone considered how this would affect gamestop and stores in the future? I love going out to look at tons of games lined up on the wall and picking em out...

ok enough of the rant and psp talk lol.
i hope the Go! like most people expect have a longer battery life somehow but even when the optical drive is not used on my PSP it seems to not make that much difference.

im sure it'll be lighter...im both excited and worried at the same time from this announcement.

and i loveseeing my PSP games lined upon my mini shelf lol