Recent Comments:
Gundam vs Gundam shows robots behaving badly {PSP Fanboy}
Sep 5th 2008 11:31AM The expense of localizing a JP title is a small fraction of the initial development cost. Not localizing shows that the source company doesn't think they'll sell ANY... Or Sony doesn't actually want them to for some reason. Gundam is a huge title and Anime is BIG in the USA. Even without the Gundam/Anime draw, a good JP title is a good JP title. PSP owners here are starving for decent games.
Of course, if you keep good Anime games off the PSP, the hardcore fans of the genre won't buy the system and you have a self-fulfilling prophecy of no sales.
The lack of JP porting is killing the PSP, as is the lack of domestic development. It may be doing better in Japan, but around here I think it's game over - thanks exclusively to Sony and their failure to bring the games and accessories in a timely manner. The fact that we're only now (?) getting a decent WiFi store alone should tell you how little Sony is putting into PSP support worldwide. Crazy, considering it could be (is?) their bread and butter platform.
Gundam vs Gundam shows robots behaving badly {PSP Fanboy}
Sep 4th 2008 6:16PM USA: Please give us the Gundam.
Sony: There are no Gundam fans in America. You people
smell. And you pirate all the games and don't buy any.
USA: Don't Japanese gamers pirate, too? Mightn't we buy more games if we had more games to buy
Sony: Buy a PSP Brite.
USA: But if we don't have games to play... *urk*
Sony: (stabs USA in eye with old UMD movie case)
PSP Wi-Fi Store coming in Fall, new PS3-Infrastructure mode announced {PSP Fanboy}
Sep 2nd 2008 4:39PM I just find it sad that it took all this time to get this sort of service. The PSP has been out well over 3 years.
And I'll reserve outright excitement until I see the lineup of downloadable content.
Analyst Pachter says 'blame Japan' for Sony's PSP mis-management {PSP Fanboy}
Aug 28th 2008 3:12PM "The average American gamer will not accept nor enjoy an average Japanese game which on average is sophisticated, complicated, and long."
Have you seen many Japanese DS games?
Look at big US released titles: God of War, GTA, Ratchet and Clank, Daxter, etc. The problem isn't that US games are too simple, or that Japanese games are too complex. It's that if you look at all the big titles on Metacritic, they're mostly from 2005-2007! In the top 30 critically ranked PSP games they list, FIVE are from 2008 and most are either sequels of popular franchises or straight ports from consoles like the PS2.
THAT is what's wrong with the PSP right now. And what's wrong with the US games isn't a lack of complexity but the fact that so many of them just plain SUCK or are mildly warmed over rehashes of older games - like the mountain of junkware licensed cartoon crap on the DS. It's almost all from the USA. There's exceedingly few truly original game ideas on this side of the Pacific these days.
Analyst Pachter says 'blame Japan' for Sony's PSP mis-management {PSP Fanboy}
Aug 28th 2008 3:40AM The guy is right. The PSP (for the USA market) looks to be on its last legs. The Japan market gets everything - so yes, it's SOJ behind these choices.
Piracy hasn't done squat. Poor sell-through and low support and marketing in the USA has done the PSP in, here. One need only look at Asian markets - or the DS, which has its share of flash carts for pirating games, to see that piracy (which is rampant in Asia) doesn't keep a system from succeeding.
You can blame Sony. They're the ones who introduced the thing at $300 to start with and held back the Japan-only Basic Pack at first, the ones who have failed to localize hot JP titles, failed to properly promote the system in the USA and flatly refused to bring the nebulous keyboard or port peripherals like the camera, TV module, downloadable video/MP3 content and more. How long have we waited for the damned GPS?
Sony sucks. Sorry to say it, because they've made some amazing hardware in the past (PalmOS based CLIE line of handhelds comes to mind) but they just repeatedly shoot themselves in the feet with needlessly competing devices that interfere with their own products like the Mylo stealing the PSP's internet potential with its keyboard and so forth.
The PSP, I'm afraid, is all but deceased. As the USA market, so will eventually follow the rest of the regions. We can only hope the PSP 2 will feature proper net support with GOOD downloadable content, aggressive 1st, 2nd and 3rd party dev support from the get-go, a UI closed to hacking (so publishers and Sony can't blame piracy for poor sales) and a host of peripherals available to ALL markets, not just Japan. I for one hate being relegated to the mostly-junkware, kiddie-fied, eyeball-straining and limited capability DS for hot new upcoming titles.
Bah. Who am I kidding?
Sony gets official with PSP-3000 {Engadget}
Aug 24th 2008 9:22PM People, I know this is a tall order, but try to think. The new PSP isn't going to cost USA buyers $300. $199 in a combo pack, maybe. The PSP-2000 didn't wind up costing more after a few weeks, either. Just because the Euro has walked all over the Dollar lately doesn't mean Sony is going to suddenly bump us back to 2005 pricing.
As for the people slamming the PSP-2000, yes, it's lighter. That doesn't make it feels cheaper. It IS cheaper, and that DOES show in other ways, like light leakage around the display and easily scuffed paint compared to the lush lacquered build of the 1000. But weight ain't quality - as the DS -LITE- showed us. The 2000 is a better system in every way except paint and light leaks. TV output may not interest some, but it's an added feature. I for one LIKE having the ability to link my PSP to a video projector and use it as a portable bigscreen game/media device. UMD and video output is actually pretty good, too.
If Sony *didn't* combat CFW, even more developers would be bailing because, let's face it, CFW opens the piracy door. I don't buy the whole 'piracy has killed PSP software sales' argument, but industry bean counters will advise corporate dipsh... I mean executives, to walk away from the PSP (and have) if it's considered an undefended open platform. Sony has made every effort to blame their failures in the USA market on piracy and with CFW still out there, it's hard to refute them.
Wake up, people. A little common sense. I know it's a blog and all, but c'mon.
Sony gets official with PSP-3000 {Engadget}
Aug 24th 2008 9:10PM The Memory Stick isn't that expensive, anymore. 4GB for $40, 8GB for $60. Circuit City has the 1GB yellow clear SanDisk ones for $9.99.
This is a mild hardware rev. Sony's not passing it off as a 'PSP 2' or anything of the sort. Still, trolls and blogskanks predictably find their readily-proffered reasons to dismiss the PSP, regardless of improvements. Been that way since 2004, so in that sense the model numbers are irrelevant. Nintendophiles and Sony bashers will never be satisfied. Failing anything of substance to criticize, they'll concoct imaginary nonsense about Sony returning the device to a $300 price point. Yeah, sure. OK.
Lynx was definitely cool, though. Too bad the Tramiels sucked. In many ways, Sony has mirrored their apathy with the PSP, especially in how they're (mis)handling the USA market. Alas. Good hardware frequently gets left out in the proverbial cold.
PSP-3001 discovered on FCC website, reveals nothing new (so far) {PSP Fanboy}
Aug 14th 2008 12:20PM Right. Because no OTHER game companies we know have tried to profit off of slightly warmed-over versions of their previous Gamecu-- I mean console.
PSP-3001 discovered on FCC website, reveals nothing new (so far) {PSP Fanboy}
Aug 14th 2008 12:17PM Uh... Which 'bunch of third party developers announced they're not developing for the PSP anymore due to piracy'..? Link, plz.
Also, please link to where anyone has claimed Skype was 'slim only', that the new model is being customized for 'a single game pack'.
PSP-3001 discovered on FCC website, reveals nothing new (so far) {PSP Fanboy}
Aug 14th 2008 12:12PM As always has to get repeated every time someone brings up second analog: You won't see a second nub until the next actual handheld Sony releases (whether it's PSP2 or whatever). Why? Backward compatibility would be shot if they added that, and alienate millions on millions of existing PSP owners.
