Warning: what you are about to read is entirely unsubstantiated, so take it how you will, but according to 1UP, a number of unnamed but big name retailers have given Sony an ultimatum. Either drop the price on the PSP (which hasn't been dropped since
exactly a year ago today), or face the possibility of said retailers ceasing to carry the product altogether. (For reference, according to 1UP PSP hardware shipments were down 72% percent last fall compared to 2005, with just 10,000 units moved.) With figures like that and a price that practically insists consumers buy a cheap little DS Lite, we can kind of understand why retailers are up in arms over the waste of precious shelf space the PSP has apparently become; something is in the works though, as supposedly at Sony's Destination PlayStation event, they talked up something or other that put retailers' minds at ease --
what that is or isn't, we don't know. So we can only sit back and hope that if Sony won't listen to its customers, perhaps it'll listen to its channel sales partners.
[Via
PSP Fanboy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yeah...itsEngadget...sowhat @ Mar 16th 2007 12:04AM
Personally I don't see the $50 price difference as being as big a deal as backwards compatibility.
I have Gameboys all the way back to the original monochrome (still working fine) as well as Color and Advance and Micros in the house. If I do buy a handheld for the family it would likely be a DS just because of the backwards compatibility and not because it is slightly cheaper.
On the console side I HATE Nintendo and am a total Sony fanboy but for handhelds it makes sense to buy the product that is backwards compatible (to some extent).
(With the announcement of REMOTE PLAY for the PSP I might just pick one up for that feature alone but not for fames!)
Spencer Fu @ Mar 16th 2007 12:32AM
Well the DS Lite is only compatible from Gameboy Advance and onwards. It is NOT compatible with Gameboy and Gameboy Color.
The PSP is compatible with almost all Playstation One games! Either through Sony's Online Store or through various custom firmwares and ISO files.
John Doe @ Mar 16th 2007 12:05AM
But wait guys! Sony is coming out with new and improved colors! This will no doubt boost sales! Price drops, smice drops. We've got blue PSP's!
hoohoo @ Mar 16th 2007 12:09AM
funny how npd shows that nov & dec 2006 the psp sold over 1.3 million units.
steve @ Mar 16th 2007 11:45AM
@hoohoo
I noticed the same thing. The only thing I can think of is that this 1.3M sold is just clearance of existing stock. 10k is number of new orders retailers placed to Sony for the PSP. But just speculating
@Andir3.0
The complaint about UMD is that it's a format where they sell you movies, but you can't play it on TV. PSP has no TV out and no standalone players play UMD. The movies on UMD were also same price as DVDs but with lower quality.
People would not have minded if Sony came up with a proprietary format for games, but UMD is a power draining disc format which kills PSP's battery life and has slow access speed. If they came out with a format similar to MemorySticks, but not quite the same, people might have grumbled a bit but not really complained.
Johnny @ Mar 16th 2007 12:15AM
The word "bespoke" does not mean what you think it does.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bespoke
kingofwale @ Mar 16th 2007 12:15AM
I love my PSP, I paid full price for it, and I would do it again, the things I am able to do with my PSP is mind boggling even to me this day.
But, I would like to see a 50 dollar drop in price. it will get more people buying it.
that or bring in God of War sooner, as well as Final Fantasy Crisis Core.
=opportunityfanboy @ Mar 16th 2007 12:25AM
@kingofwale: i'm thinking about buying a psp and can you detail all the things you can do with a psp and list the website where i can find info on the stuff youre talkind about. Thanks
inimitable @ Mar 16th 2007 12:22AM
The real question is, is it worth that much to me to play Super Metroid and Super Mario World on a pretty portable screen even after the price drop?
Raz 4 life @ Mar 16th 2007 12:25AM
I know for a fact that the price will drop soon. Why? Because I'm buying one tomorrow. I can't help not playing every Ratchet and Clank game!!
7of7 @ Mar 16th 2007 12:26AM
The PSP and DS lite aren't even in the same class. While the DS is basically 90s handheld with an unintuitive gimmick screen the PSP is loaded with features and games. Comparing the DS to the PSP is like comparing a 1995 Hyundai to a 2007 Veyron.
stitifier @ Mar 16th 2007 12:43AM
Have you even played with a DS? How much more intuitive could a touchscreen get? "Um, lessee... I have to actually TOUCH this part of the screen to do this? Oh... my... God... I just don't get it." I mean, is that you? And by the word "gimmicky" do you mean like Pocket PC phones are gimmicky or Palm Pilots are gimmicky or like tablet computers are gimmicky or what? Holy crap, do you fanboys even think before you type?
And sweet lord, how is the DS a "90's handheld?" What decade did YOU grow up in? Lemme tell you, as an old fart who actually grew up in the 90's, back then, the Game Boy Color was one of the hottest things around. I was stuck with a Game Gear, which, by my estimation, weighed about three times as much as a DS Lite, needed 6 AA's, and had exactly 2 buttons. Having brilliant 32 bit graphics, a touchscreen, a microphone built in, wireless Internet ("Dude, you totally need to get 56k, it's totally faster"), and pocketability would have given any Nirvana-listening teenager the vapors. "90's handheld." As if.
I've never played a PSP myself, so I can't vouch for its playability. I have to say the graphics look pretty sweet. But honest to God, after having used a touchscreen for so long on my Ipaq, not being able to touch the pretty pictures would be a flipping chore. Paying out the nose for something which gives you essentially the same things as a DS Lite-- with a less intuitive interface-- seems silly to me. A price drop would seem to be in order, especially a year after introduction.
kingofwale @ Mar 16th 2007 12:56AM
>@kingofwale: i'm thinking about buying a psp and can you detail all the things you can do with a psp and list the website where i can find info on the stuff youre talkind about. Thanks
well, you should wait for the price drop then. and what I can do? With a custom firmware, I can do everything PSP official firmware can do (stream TV via Sony's Slingbox, called Location-Free, Watch High D video, listen to music, surf the net), but I can also rip PS1 games (given that you have to own a PS1 game) to play on your PSP, which means Final Fantasy 7 and 8; rip PSP games onto your memory stick (for backup only please), so it will save you TONS of battery life.. so on.
*note: the copyright laws on all this has been consistently inconsistent on what you can or can not do with the product you legally purchased yourself*. so, I can't tell you where I got it, but the keywords are all there if you choose to google them yourself
=opportunityfanboy @ Mar 16th 2007 1:37AM
two more questions: which location free transmitter do you have and how good is the quality of the picture of live tv / dvd on your psp? Thanks alot mate.
Eh @ Mar 16th 2007 1:37AM
Being able to emulate all my PS1 games on the PSP using custom firmware has made the price worth it for me, even if you take out all the real PSP games. Hell I would have paid $300 to beable to play PS1 games on a portable (which I kind of did since I needed a 2gb memory stick).
Blakamin @ Mar 16th 2007 4:56AM
stitifier:... nice... especially the line where you say: "I've never played a PSP myself, so I can't vouch for its playability. "
nice.... what a fan-boy... got your nintendo subscription yet?
as someone that grew up in the 80's (on a selection of nintendo "game and watch" machines) and then, when the home console came out, thought (and still think) mario is for kids, I would suggest you at least TRY a PSP before you whine about stuff....
Fatass of Kickassness @ Mar 16th 2007 6:15AM
Way to be an asshat; he wasn't whining about anything, and his reply was the smartest I've seen in this thread so far.
Blakamin @ Mar 16th 2007 6:21AM
another fanboy???
-bob- @ Mar 16th 2007 5:58AM
Blakamin: stitifier was giving his qualified opinion. Nothing wrong with that.
I've not got either, I've got 2 high end mobile phones. The Sony Erricson K800i is a great camera and MP3 player, and my Treo is touchscreen and QWERTY. I wish the K800 was touchscreen and QWERTY, and I wish the Treo had a camera worth 5p.
Until I can get both consoles, I'll not bother with either. Or I'll just wait until the next one comes out, and buy it, if it contains *all* the features I want. Odds are, though, the mobile phones will get there first!
If you don't believe me, go look at the sales of even an average mobile, compared to the best selling mobile games platform. Here's a hint- ringtones alone were worth more last year!
Fatass of Kickassness @ Mar 16th 2007 6:16AM
I think a PSP price drop would be a good idea on Sony's part, because if they really want to move some more units, a price drop around the same time as an FF/GoW game coming out on the system would do them WONDERS.
Vagrant @ Mar 16th 2007 6:19AM
I seriously thought about purchasing a PSP when it first came out, but that price point doesn't suit me. (Almost did though) I was also concerned with what I could do/games to play on it. After a year, they'd really have to drop the price point at least $100, but that's me. I've already moved on. I'd rather drop $1k and play with a UMPC.
strider_mt2k @ Mar 16th 2007 7:04AM
The PSP is like an SUV loaded with everything.
The problem is the cheaper NDS dodges around it on one side and cheaper PMPs dodge around it on the other side.
(Neither seem phased by the lack of a made-up proprietary optical disc format.)
Sony would be wise to drop the price AND officially open up the firmware to embrace the Home Brew community.
It's not like the PSP hasn't penetrated the market. It just needs a karma overhaul.
Kinda like Sony itself.
A cheaper, open PSP could make me think about getting one again.
It's not like it doesn't have it's merits.
Andir3.0 @ Mar 16th 2007 7:59AM
"...made-up proprietary optical disc format."
I absolutely hate when people say this type of shit. Go ahead, try to put your DS cartridge in your PC/Video camera/Cell Phone and read it. I dare you. Everyone complains that the UMD Discs are needlessly proprietary, but they don't place that same moniker on the memory sticks used in the other portable systems. In fact, you can even use standard Memory sticks in the PSP, but I don't see anyone sliding a memory stick (other than those of Nintendo design) in their DS.
I don't own a PSP yet, but I was seriously thinking about getting one. I have a DS, but the games on it are silly and get boring after about 15 minutes. That's why it sits in my bathroom and really only ever gets used there. The games are "quicky" and have no real content. Even the mini-games in Super Mario World pissed me off. Try playing "poker" with Luigi. You either lose early or you never win. The game has no end. I could care less if UMD Discs are compatible with anything else because they simply work for the purpose they have. A portable, high capacity solution that works with the PSP.
Jim Kenney @ Mar 16th 2007 7:53AM
I'm surprised that most, if not all, of the comments so far have basically been PSP vs. DS. With fanboys defending their beloved game systems. I don't see this as the real issue. I think that the real issue is the undue pressure that the retail giant is putting on a manufacturer because they apply this pressure to all of their manufacturer's/suppliers. This has caused major economic problems in the USA, and probably many other countries.
Sony should stick to their guns and tell the big blue company to sell their products or go stick it where the sun don't shine. With all of the other brick and mortar retailers out there, as well as the online ones, Sony can survive without a presence at the nation's largest big bully retailer. Of all of the things Sony has done wrong in the last year, this would be at least one thing that they could do right. It would set a good president for other retailers, manufacturer, and suppliers to tell the Bentonville Behemoth that they would like to put quality and jobs before "everyday low prices" backed by third-world country labor.
Jamar @ Mar 16th 2007 12:03PM
Sony stopped making PSPs in Japan long ago- how do you think the first price drop happened? Oh, and by the way, to whoever said that only Sony devices take Sony memory cards, some Samsung portable DVD players take Memory Stick, and I picked up a Mitsubishi phone that took MSDuo (it was a Japan-only model so make of that what you will). Oh, and having a cellphone or PDA take DS carts for supplemental functions (say- content that only requires the one screen, minigames that can be played to change things in the full game) would be a better (not to mention more practical) idea than emulating the DS on a cellphone/PDA. And try loading your games onto your Memory stick instead of reading straight from UMD (the joys of living in China- no one gives a **** if you do this- well, this WAS cited as a reason that Sony didn't sell the PS3 in China, but the gray market is still there- and if it's not legal here someone's paying off the right people to keep enforcement from happening) because your load times will improve quite a bit.
Elaine Lombardo @ Mar 16th 2007 8:16AM
I got a psp last year for Christmas and I fell in love with it immediately. A beautifully large screen, sharp and bright colors, the ability to play mp3s, photos and videos right out of the box. Loved it. Until I saw the list of games available. I waited an entire year to see the big boost of games I was expecting, only to be disappointed. There was a handful of games worth playing on this, and some of them were just ps1 games ported for the psp (not even ps2 games!!).
While customizing your psp with firmware and homebrew is an option for some, it wasn't for me. I had read a great deal of reports of "bricked psps" (firmware gone bad and essentially rendering your psp worthless). Not to mention that the newer games needed the psp to be updated, which meant you could either have your modded psp or the new games but not both. Plus, firmware isn't a sony solution but a hack - if sony had put backwards and custom homebrew capabilities into their machine it's worth the money. As it is now, it's not.
I sold my psp and the 5 games I had for it. I bought a ds lite and several games with the money. I don't regret my decision.
Alcoholic Zombie @ Mar 16th 2007 8:59AM
And remember boys and girl! Since the UMD movie format is soooooo tight with the cool kids, Circuit City is offering a buy one UMD movie, get one free! Yay!
PS: Love them young ripe BRAINS!
PEZ @ Mar 16th 2007 9:25AM
Sony needs to drop it to $99. And, get their arses moving on the PSP2. IT cant just be thinner, either. IT needs a redesign.
Dan @ Mar 16th 2007 9:44AM
Stores like Best Buy already waste plenty of valuable space for the PSP, that could be sued for the Nintendo systems. I was amazed at the selection at my local Best Buy of PSP, but it didn't appear anyone was buying, because the shelves were stocked full, meanwhile ,the DS side looked like a tornado hit it. The PSP is a good system ,with a lack of games people want to play on a portable system. They need to straighten up, or make room for more DS Lite gear.
Luke @ Mar 16th 2007 10:07AM
Come on, guys. There's no story here. Research? Knowledge of the shifting industry? Some sort of insight? Even Engadget can offer some dimension to the story.
Atanas Boev @ Mar 16th 2007 10:11AM
10 points for the Munch picture:)
Loban @ Mar 16th 2007 10:50AM
"I absolutely hate when people say this type of shit. Go ahead, try to put your DS cartridge in your PC/Video camera/Cell Phone and read it. I dare you."
That actually would be hilarious considering a DS cartridge is meant to only holds games written for the DS hardware and being able to put those carts into any other device would be useless even if those carts were standard CF or SD.
The reason people complain about proprietary Sony media is the fact that those are just memory cards, you can put anything on them. Memory cards are, by design, meant to be loaded up with any sort of media and then swapped among different devices so you can put a file here, or play a movie here, or move some music onto this device. But thanks to Sony, only Sony devices can use Sony memory cards. Makes sense doesn't it? And I wouldn't have such a problem with UMD if it were only used to play games, but Sony was trying to force another type of movie format into the industry that only their hardware supports.
Nintendo very well could have made DS cartridges just standard DS cards, but what would you put them into other than a DS? Can your cell phone or PDA play a DS game? I didn't think so. So why would you want those devices to be able to "read" a DS cart?
Matt @ Mar 17th 2007 5:04PM
Not to mention that having gears and moving parts in a current-gen PORTABlE is just STUPID!
Jason @ Mar 16th 2007 11:05AM
This is just another example of poor leadership and that leadership making even worse poor business strategies. They want too much control and proprietary crap and need to give it up. I hardly even use my PSP these days. I played SOCOM 2 for like 1 month and went back to my DoD: Source on PC. I mostly use it when in the shower or taking a crap and listen to music. I don't like carrying it around with me for mp3 player 'cause of the size. Instead of making what they think consumers want, they should listen to customers and make what consumers really want.
mathew @ Mar 16th 2007 11:15AM
I really don't think the PSP's price is a problem. What has kept me from buying one is the horrible, horrible load times.
With the DS, you can go from power on to playing a game in under 10 seconds. With the PSP, it seems to take a minute plus.
The lack of a touch screen is also a big minus. Lemmings with no mouse/touchscreen? Umm, no thanks.
If Sony would fix the load times and add a touch screen, I'd buy a PSP.
Loban @ Mar 16th 2007 11:24AM
Whoops I meant:
"Nintendo very well could have made DS cartridges just standard SD cards, but what would you put them into other than a DS?"
kingofwale @ Mar 16th 2007 11:43AM
>two more questions: which location free transmitter do you have and how good is the quality of the picture of live tv / dvd on your psp? Thanks alot mate.
at home, I get cable-like quality from Location-free TV. of course, you get Slingbox quality on the go, it depends on your load speed and upload speed. it looks quite good when you're looking from a 4.8 inch screen. and everytime I watch TV on that, I draw quite a crowd around me. Sony needs to advertise this feature a lot more.
I use the very basic model of the Location-free, it cost me 199 Canadian, got it on Christmas when it was on sale.
Doug @ Mar 16th 2007 1:09PM
Here's my 2 cents:
First, Sony has missed a huge opportunity marketing this product as a 'game' machine. It does so much more than that and they do not promote the other features. I realize that the MD movies have been a flop, but the movies and games are really all that Sony has featured. It is a shame that they've kept adding features, but they neither advertise them or even list them on the box. When I got my unit a year ago, the PSP still had version 1.0 software and I had no idea that when I upgraded the system, I would get a web browser. A year later, they've now added streaming audio (my favorite), numerous browser plug-ins, support for more sound formats, a visual player, and numerous other features. It's sad that most of my friends don't upgrade since they are clueless about what new features are available.
Second, why is no one mentioning video. When you can get a 2GB card these days for $30, why would anyone drag a DVD player around? And why would anyone put up with the small screen on other video devices like the iPod? This is the player of choice for my family. I don't get to watch much actual TV so I watch all of my favorite shows on my PSP. We even keep a 1GB card ready with Baby Einstein videos for our two-year-old. And every time we use this at a restaurant to keep her quiet, people come over and ask us what it is. Obviously Sony has not gotten the word out. Once again, this is probably poor marketing since kids know about these, but not anyone over 25.
Third, as always, if they drop the price they will sell more. However, if they would actually do some real marketing they could continue to get the full price. In my estimation, it's worth it.
And yes, in case you're wondering, I do play games on my PSP.
James @ Mar 16th 2007 2:17PM
In summary: UMD *games* are a pretty good idea, as the media is probably cheaper than NDS flash cards on a per-byte basis -- no idea why Sony seems to charge more for the average game than Nintendo, though. UMD *movies* are a terrible idea and rightly belong in the dustbin of history. The big complaint is that you have to hack the device to play a full-res movie off anything other than a UMD.
IMHO, an unhacked DS beats an unhacked PSP, but only a fool would contend that a hacked PSP isn't worth as much as any DS, unhacked or otherwise. Fully "opened", a PSP can play emulators for any system fourth-gen or older (as well as almost any PSX game), full-res movies, MP3s, etc., using a quasi-standard memory format. Even a hacked DS struggles to run SNES emulation at full speed, and because it uses 2 smaller screens, is not ideal for movie playback; also, in order to use standard memory formats (e.g. SD or CF), you need to buy an expensive adapater. Yes, the DS has more/better native games, but even if nobody ever wrote a single PSP game worth owning, a portable PSX/SNES/PMP would be well worth the price of admission. [Again, IMHO.]
James @ Mar 16th 2007 2:33PM
In summary: UMD *games* are a pretty good idea, as the media is probably cheaper than NDS flash cards on a per-byte basis -- no idea why Sony seems to charge more for the average game than Nintendo, though. UMD *movies* are a terrible idea and rightly belong in the dustbin of history. The big complaint is that you have to hack the device to play a full-res movie off anything other than a UMD.
IMHO, an unhacked DS beats an unhacked PSP, but only a fool would contend that a hacked PSP isn't worth as much as any DS, unhacked or otherwise. Fully "opened", a PSP can play emulators for any system fourth-gen or older (as well as almost any PSX game), full-res movies, MP3s, etc., using a quasi-standard memory format. Even a hacked DS struggles to run SNES emulation at full speed, and because it uses 2 smaller screens, is not ideal for movie playback; also, in order to use standard memory formats (e.g. SD or CF), you need to buy an expensive adapater. Yes, the DS has more/better native games, but even if nobody ever wrote a single PSP game worth owning, a portable PSX/SNES/PMP would be well worth the price of admission. [Again, IMHO.]
dfsdfsfsf @ Mar 16th 2007 4:59PM
I honestly do not use psp for games much. All psp fanboy will tell you , psp games suck. But it can do a lot of amazing stuff. The screen is better than most pmp player out there for playing movies, it play literally games from every system except the ds, xbox, ps2, ps3, xbox360, wii. Psx games on psp is so GOOOOOODDD. The thing is having a custom firmwares makes a lot of difference. If you are stuck with an undowngradable firmwares, psp suck big time.
kingofwale @ Mar 16th 2007 6:53PM
>I honestly do not use psp for games much. All psp fanboy will tell you , psp games suck.
GTA Liberty Story
GTA Vice City
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Tekken: Dark Resurrection
Daxter
Burnout Legends
Lumines
Winning Eleven
just to name a few.
PSP don't lack good games, it just lacks games, but can you blame it? it's only been in existence for 2 years, give it more time.
Geir E @ Mar 17th 2007 10:38AM
I personally can't care less if the PSP stay in the same price or not - but when buying to my nephews I bought a Nintendo DS purly cause I could give them something fun that at least by the looks of it was solid enough. the big glossy PSP would be a better choice if they were five years older..
BUT What I'm curious about is ..
.. Sony gameplan. With the introduction to the Home service they use a 'virtual psp'. In the demo of PS3 when it was launched they used PSP as a rear view mirror on a F1 game. My question is - What kind of integration between PS3 and PSP will we see in the future? I'm always with my laptop when I'm on the go so I never had the wish for a portable game console (plus I'm soon 30) but if it gave a new dimension to games on the ps3 and not to mention mediacenter-capabilities I would even consider getting one.
.. Will there be a redesign soon? I doubt they want to retire it for a PSP2 anytime soon - But I hope they do a remake of it (like PS2 to PStwo). Fix the few issues it had and maybe shrink the inside down a nod to allow it to be more energy efficient and ergonomic.
.. Or a new model, but without UMD and with solid state drive and use the PS3 to upload games to (as they do with the PSone games)
But in the end, having nintendo and sony compete in this marked it means more options for us buyers, and that's alot better than seeing some party cease from the marked.
Jason Sneed @ Mar 25th 2007 1:53AM
Actually Sony will be making the PSP even smaller because they have found cheaper parts to make with a handheld and so there going to make a PSP LITE like the DS LITE but with added stuff and its smaller and thats what Sony was saying. It made the retailers angry at Sony because of the price and Sony said that they were working on something that will be cheaper than the PSP. Which is actually a PSP lite, thats what the UK Sony president said, that Sony was redesigning the PSP into a smaller and more compact form.
The website that will help you find this info is www.pspupdates.com and find the article about the redesigned PSP.