"...the possibility of Sony selling games sans-UMD, which has long been near the top of the wishlist for PSP owners and would-be PSP owners alike"
Um, since when, and why? Why would I want to carry around expensive 2GB memory sticks? The data isn't going to change. The game isn't going to go away. There's nothing wrong with UMD as it is. Caching a game to a memstick might be cute, for loading purposes, but beyond that, getting rid of UMDs is a bad idea.
Maybe if they can sell 2GB memstick roms cheaply, it would be worth it. But I don't think prices are down that far yet. UMDs *may* be relatively expensive (but probably not anymore), but even so we're talking like $0.50 vs $0.05. 2GB roms would be more like $10+.
since first OE came out? and because (wow, get ready for long list)
* you don't have to carry UMD around * it loads faster because it doesn't need to wait UMD to spin. * Multiply games on the fly. * less change to break your PSP (I've always worried I would break my UMD door cover, it seems so fragile) * and most importantly.. BETTER battery life.
oh. 2GB? what is this, the stone age? You can easily find a 4GB for about 60 bucks and 8 GB version came out AGES ago.
So for $60 I can carry... 2-3 games? I have 40+. Even if they average 1GB/game, that's 10 memory sticks, which is $600. *Six hundred dollars*. For $40 I could buy another battery (which gets me far more than you'd save), or $160 for a new PSP if I'm somehow really careless and break mine.
"are you stupid?" If you can't find a flaw with the reasoning, attack the person, eh?
UMDs are small, and I have cases that let me carry quite a few of them without a lot of trouble. Easier to grab a UMD than futz with trying to transfer a game from a laptop or something. Especially if I'm on a plane or on the bus. So yes, I carry a large sample of my collection with me.
That said, I'd be somewhat interested in seeing if I could use the USB OTG media player I've got (iaudio x5 or whatever); but still, even though it's 60G, as games average a gig apiece, that eats up a lot of space. Plus you have to transfer, which eats a lot of battery, both on the media player and on the PSP. (Playing over USB would be even worse, battery-wise.) Plus, it was $300 itself, so it's not a great deal price-wise if you don't already have it.
Plus, this doesn't address the issue: total removal of the UMD drive. It might be convenient for some, but it's not economical for the large scale. As game continue to up the average toward the 1.8G UMD limit, producing ROMs is not going to be cheap. Either games will come on memstick roms and cost more (causing people to complain), or they will require a large, expensive memstick (also causing people to complain). It's cheaper to work on load times than spend an extra $10 times 500k units (or cut back on assets, which would *also* cause complaints).
If you have solutions for these problems, by all means, share.
>Plus, this doesn't address the issue: total removal of the UMD drive. It might be convenient for some, but it's not economical for the large scale. As game continue to up the average toward the 1.8G UMD limit, producing ROMs is not going to be cheap.
If Sony can bully the developers into accepting it. Sony can very easily come out with PSP2 with build in 120GB harddrive, (replacing the slot they are using now for UMD). That should be enough for over 100 games (not all game uses full of 1.8GB of space)
the keyword is "if", although I don't see ANY developers buying into that idea.
It doesn't matter how much capacity you provide, if you provide static capacity. Even the PS3 allows you to upgrade the hard drive.
Putting 120G into a tiny unit is NOT going to happen. A 30G iPod is $249. It's essentially a hard drive, a tiny LCD, and enough hardware to play back video and music. Do you want to pay an extra $200-300 for a 120G drive? That'll put the PSP and nearly $400. Likewise, a large-capacity flash drive is also going to eat an extra $50-100, even if you take out the UMD; flash is cheaper, but not as cheap as a simple optical drive.
And finally, as below, you're screwed if you want to sell back or trade games. Can you see Sony allowing that? Right.
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"...the possibility of Sony selling games sans-UMD, which has long been near the top of the wishlist for PSP owners and would-be PSP owners alike"
Um, since when, and why? Why would I want to carry around expensive 2GB memory sticks? The data isn't going to change. The game isn't going to go away. There's nothing wrong with UMD as it is. Caching a game to a memstick might be cute, for loading purposes, but beyond that, getting rid of UMDs is a bad idea.
Maybe if they can sell 2GB memstick roms cheaply, it would be worth it. But I don't think prices are down that far yet. UMDs *may* be relatively expensive (but probably not anymore), but even so we're talking like $0.50 vs $0.05. 2GB roms would be more like $10+.
>Um, since when, and why?
since first OE came out? and because (wow, get ready for long list)
* you don't have to carry UMD around
* it loads faster because it doesn't need to wait UMD to spin.
* Multiply games on the fly.
* less change to break your PSP (I've always worried I would break my UMD door cover, it seems so fragile)
* and most importantly.. BETTER battery life.
oh. 2GB? what is this, the stone age? You can easily find a 4GB for about 60 bucks and 8 GB version came out AGES ago.
So for $60 I can carry... 2-3 games? I have 40+. Even if they average 1GB/game, that's 10 memory sticks, which is $600. *Six hundred dollars*. For $40 I could buy another battery (which gets me far more than you'd save), or $160 for a new PSP if I'm somehow really careless and break mine.
Non-scalable solution.
are you stupid? no, it's an honest question.
Do you keep all 40+ games with you whereever you go? Then what makes you think you need to keep all 40+ games on MEMORY stick no less?
Need I introduce you a thing called computer? yeah, put it there. you know in a thing called "the harddrive"? and then swap them.
FYI, (not that I know or anything) but I heard you can put about 10 games on a 4G stick...
"are you stupid?" If you can't find a flaw with the reasoning, attack the person, eh?
UMDs are small, and I have cases that let me carry quite a few of them without a lot of trouble. Easier to grab a UMD than futz with trying to transfer a game from a laptop or something. Especially if I'm on a plane or on the bus. So yes, I carry a large sample of my collection with me.
That said, I'd be somewhat interested in seeing if I could use the USB OTG media player I've got (iaudio x5 or whatever); but still, even though it's 60G, as games average a gig apiece, that eats up a lot of space. Plus you have to transfer, which eats a lot of battery, both on the media player and on the PSP. (Playing over USB would be even worse, battery-wise.) Plus, it was $300 itself, so it's not a great deal price-wise if you don't already have it.
Plus, this doesn't address the issue: total removal of the UMD drive. It might be convenient for some, but it's not economical for the large scale. As game continue to up the average toward the 1.8G UMD limit, producing ROMs is not going to be cheap. Either games will come on memstick roms and cost more (causing people to complain), or they will require a large, expensive memstick (also causing people to complain). It's cheaper to work on load times than spend an extra $10 times 500k units (or cut back on assets, which would *also* cause complaints).
If you have solutions for these problems, by all means, share.
>Plus, this doesn't address the issue: total removal of the UMD drive. It might be convenient for some, but it's not economical for the large scale. As game continue to up the average toward the 1.8G UMD limit, producing ROMs is not going to be cheap.
If Sony can bully the developers into accepting it. Sony can very easily come out with PSP2 with build in 120GB harddrive, (replacing the slot they are using now for UMD). That should be enough for over 100 games (not all game uses full of 1.8GB of space)
the keyword is "if", although I don't see ANY developers buying into that idea.
It doesn't matter how much capacity you provide, if you provide static capacity. Even the PS3 allows you to upgrade the hard drive.
Putting 120G into a tiny unit is NOT going to happen. A 30G iPod is $249. It's essentially a hard drive, a tiny LCD, and enough hardware to play back video and music. Do you want to pay an extra $200-300 for a 120G drive? That'll put the PSP and nearly $400. Likewise, a large-capacity flash drive is also going to eat an extra $50-100, even if you take out the UMD; flash is cheaper, but not as cheap as a simple optical drive.
And finally, as below, you're screwed if you want to sell back or trade games. Can you see Sony allowing that? Right.