So, as predicted, Sony have removed the UMD drive from the PSP and replaced it with 16 Gbytes of internal flash memory with the option of adding Memory Stick Micros. Content will be downloadable from the Playstation Network (PSN) and will include films, TV and games.
Online discuss has centred on the lack of a touch screen, lack of a second analogue nub and what looks like difficult ergonomics. So there isn’t really a wow factor out there.
It is ironic that Sony, who are championing physical content distribution using Blueray, have abandoned it with the PSP. Also this is another arrow in the back of high street game retail, who are becoming increasingly redundant. The writing is well and truly on the wall that their business model is on the way out.
What will make this device will be the available games. Developers and publishers don’t like PSP because of the immense piracy rate. For the PSP Go launch Sony have rustled up Gran Turismo, Little Big Planet, Metal Gear Solid and Jack and Daxter. A good start, but is it sustainable?
Personally I think that this is too little, too late. Just like the Zune HD. The world has moved on since these devices were thought up. Now an iPhone or an Android phone like the Samsung i7500 has these previous generation devices for breakfast.
And, also ironically, Sony, from a different division, have Android phones on the way. So the PSP Go is yet another example of the lack of joined up management at Sony. Their right hand doesn’t know what their left hand is doing.
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i guess your right, things are moving really, really fast nowadays. I was really impressed with natal and the big capacbilities that lays just around the conrener. Voice and face recognition, emotion reconing by tone of voice and face scannning is really quite something.
interactivity is now possible! tha’ts really cool!
thereby full body recognition and no more controller issiues is really big. I hope that it works well and that they can create a lot of innotive games with a lot of depth.
it’s getting even more interesting then i thought!
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Pubs & Devs whine cause PSP is pirated? — Like it’s the only one. Like one famous console doesn’t know what R4 means.
iPhones and Androids eat PSPs and DSes at breakfast? — they’re not console games, they don’t have proper ergonomics. PSP Go is not perfect, but it’s certainly closer to a portable gaming machine that those things that should remain what they were intended for: passing calls.
And I think we carry enough tracking devices with us these days to tie video gaming to another excuse to be mapped on some satellite grid. No thanks.