We've lost count on the number of times we've heard from a friend of a coworker of a cousin whose girlfriend's stepfather happens to work at Sony and they're all but ready to launch a
UMD-less
PSP in 17 different color options bundled with a portable version of
Street Fighter IV. Typically, we remain skeptical, but when it's veteran developer David "I made
MDK and
Earthworm Jim" Perry, we'll give him the floor to speak. Earlier this week, his Twitter account updated to say he's heard the PSP 2 is done and minus that disc drive. He later reaffirmed that comment to
GameDaily, saying he can't reveal his source (naturally), but he feels certain UMD is gone. Is his source bunk? He's certainly a guy who'd know a guy, but we've heard this story far too many times to take a leap of faith now.
[Via
Joystiq]
Read - David Perry's Twitter
Read - GameDaily
posted Feb 26th 2009 7:22AM
Fucking finally!
UMD was shit from the off...
digital games distribution? yes please, it makes pirating them that much easier. I can't believe sony is doing this! Pirate the hell out of that shit!
^ ^ the ps3 has digital distribution and so far it can't be pirated to my knowledge
I will always feel that the one thing holding PSP back from glory was only having one analog stick rather than 2. Hopefully they fixed this.
If the new PSP looked anything like that mock up above, we'd finally have an iPod Touch killer.
Can't see any Steam-related piracy either.
+1 and upranked.
you guys do know that the PSP-3000 cannot be pirated to play games only the 2000 and 1000
So my guess is the PSP 2 cannot be pirated............YET
but what i really want is that can you play PS3 games on the PSP2, or would it only be PS1 games only like the earlier generation
Just lemme buy and store games on PS3 with wireless or USB transfer to a synced PSP, a la iPod/iTunes. That much restriction I can handle. No discs necessary. kthxbai.
Fuck no. I own 45 PSP games. How the hell am I supposed to carry all those on a memory stick. This PSP better have a 120 GB hard drive built in. I don't want to have to bring it to a PC to swap games when I swap moods. It's a fucking portable.
UMD is great.
I don't think the UMD was or is the PSP's problem. I don't even think that bad games or the missing 2nd analog stick is what killed the PSP. I'm not sure what did, but I know of one way to resurrect the PSP and bring it back to life. Firmware. The PSP would really benefit from a community service like XBOX Live (NOT Home). Being able to sign-in via a wifi spot, see your friends, trophies, rent online movies, etc. would really help the PSP.
Um....they have all that on the PSP already.
The psp was just not very comfortable to play games on. While playing you held it still because it felt heavy and expensive. Plus only one analog stick, a nubby one at that!? This is why I dislike most portables. Why don't they just make like a controller and put a screen on it, like the dreamcast controller!
@Ayman
PSP-3000 has been hacked already. It runs custom firmware. The Pandora battery trick doesn't work, but you can exploit a vulnerability in Gripshift to install custom firmware.
What Sony needs to do for PSP2 is open a homebrew market and/or allow Linux on the device. Many hackers chose not to even try to hack the PS3 because Sony officially allows Linux on it.
@extinction. if you can carry 45 UMDs then u can carry just as much memory sticks.
@Aaron
Google PacSteam
if they stop making umd"s then what the hell are I going to do with the ones I have now? I don't see nothing wrong with them other than the cases. If Sony would market replacement cases then the system would be fine.
Good to hear. UMD was really a dead-end. Sony should have known better, but they just couldn't help but doing their old trick of tying the PSP to a niche and propriety ball-and-chain (UMD).
I hope they'll also upgrade hardware to the level of PS2 at the very least. The higher the better.
I'll also benefit from HDMI-out.
PS2-3 in a pocket... sounds nice!
Sony! OLED plz!!! I can't stand ghosting on PSP!!!!!!
It's just a bag of hurt, like that other format they support..
(BTW, I'm just joking. I own both a PSP and a PS3, and I don't mind switching the disks, even though an option to save the whole game on the PS3 HDD would be very welcome! Stick an SSD in, and you have no loading times :p)
UMD was da' bomb. Sony FAIL!!!
The UMD helped drain the battery faster because of the spinning optical disk and it also added unnecessary bulk to the device. Not to mention nobody wants to be carrying around a dozen disks. The DS cartridges were really small so it really isnt a problem but I prefer straight digital distribution. With memory cards reaching 32GB there is really no need for a disk drive. They should also make it a slider or a folding display to make the screen bigger. Hopefully we will see an OLED touchscreen display, A2DP, and decent sound output. I also hope it takes every video codec under the sun because I hate converting my media.
So if there's no UMD, does that mean all the old games people have aren't playable on the PSP 2? Or would there be some sort of adapter sold that allows you to port games to the new unit?
I'd always been interested in getting a PSP, but once the new models with incremental improvements started rolling out so quickly, I figured it was best to wait for the next big update.
I've got to say, I'm very much in the same boat. I've been holding off for ages, and really only interested in downloadable PSX content, but I'd really hate to lose access to the massive preexisting PSP library if I did finally make the plunge.
@ Michael
"I'd always been interested in getting a PSP, but once the new models with incremental improvements started rolling out so quickly, I figured it was best to wait for the next big update."
+1
You, me, and everyone else who's been thinking of getting one... If you ask me that's the reason its sales have dropped so hard.
One very easy way to alleviate this is to build in a software backup feature on the psp 2. Make all of 'em come with a mini-usb to regular usb receptacle, and have them act as a USB host. Then, with the proper firmware updates have the old psp hook up to it and rip the UMD game (while encrypting it with DRM or something [or not; sony's choice]) to the psp 2's hard drive or flash memory or whatever they put in it. Everything would be controlled by software without the need for a ps3, computer or anything else, just the usb adapter cord which would be cheap to implement. You would need an old psp 1000,2000, or 3000 to do this as they'd have the UMD drive, but the people who'd need to do this would be ones who own an older PSP anyways.
I'm babbling on, but you get the idea. Easy to implement, no problems. USB host functions have been in some MP3 players (I have an OLD samsung one with it) for ages, and it's cheap and easy.
The is one of the best systems I have ever owned... That I NEVER use!
The are very few good games for it! I think the reason is that the controls stink.
The PSP 2 needs to joysticks and they need to be better than the one that is already on there.
i totally agree...compared to the ds the psp is 10 times better. it also has 100 times less games than the ds, hence the fact that nintendo makes so much more money on it's portable console than sony does
God of War
Patapon
Disgaea
Final Fantasy Tactics
Wipeout series
Burnout Legends
Daxter Games
Ratchet & Clank
Final Fantasy Crisis Core
Puzzle Quest
Metal Gear Acid 1/2
Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops
GTA
Lumines I/II
SOCOM
Tekken: Dark Resurrection
Syphon Filter
Prince of Persia
Hot Shots Golf
Ridge Racer
Jeanne d'Arc
That is a ridiculous lie, the psp is thriving with great games. Coupled with all the emulator and hombrew goodness.
good job...you came up with a list of around 15 good games out of the 200-300 bad ones. 15 good games in almost 4 years. i should know, i have 2 psp's and although i enjoy the console, it's like the original poster said, they just sit and collects dust.
I think the poor controls make the games feel even worse than they are. Looking at that list of games someone posted above, half of those I get hand cramps even thinking about playing on the PSP.
http://www.metacritic.com/games/psp/alpha/
http://www.metacritic.com/games/ds/alpha/
they are ~equal, add the downloadable PS1 titles and things like http://www.psponme.com/list_psp.asp and the PSP is far ahead
not that i didn't like the UMD on PSP, its just that when you played ISOs on PSP the battery is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better, and loading times are waaay better. I think its a great idea to get rid of the UMD and move completely to the PSN Store for games/movies/music/themes
Would be nice to get 'portable' version of games that I purchased for my PS3...
lets see... most psp games are roughly 1.4GB in size. about 1% nearly makes UMD full (1.8GB)
By the times PSP would be launched proxmally next year 2010.. Memorystick 2GB price will be as cheap as 4.99$, 1GB MSPDuo is 4.99$ right now. Developers could ship their games on memorystick-ReadyOnly which is cheaper.
MSPDuo advantages over UMD:
-FASTER loading times
-Smaller in size
-No mechanical drive which means LONGER battery life
-Developers are not limited by 1.8GB of space UMD has, which means its up to the developers to make how big their games are. Its up to them to use higher capacity MSPDuo than 2GB
Memory sticks? Cartridges in disguise! We are going back to the old days.
I like physical media. It gives me a nice feeling of ownership, and it's always good to have a backup. I think my ideal is to be able to buy game cartridges (MSPD, knowing Sony), and then having the option to install to a built in SSD.
If I somehow lose my PSP, I don't want to lose all of the money I paid on games, too.
"Developers are not limited by 1.8GB of space UMD has, which means its up to the developers to make how big their games are. Its up to them to use higher capacity MSPDuo than 2GB"
like Metal Gear Solid 4 non portable edition @ 32gb for PSP?
The demise of UMD was predicted earlier today on Digg, along with a few other possible PSP2 features:
http://digg.com/hardware/Sony_What_s_wrong_with_the_PlayStation_Portable
I Know UMD wouldn't last ever since so many complaints about its errors and damages to the PSP.
and since the MiniDisc already died before they even released the PSP? That was a good indicator to me
Not saying that UMD was great but from a company and developer point of view it makes sense.
Look and the DS and think how many people bought it along with one of those R1 thingys nad just play pirated games.
UMD was a flawed tactic but you can see why they tried.
Not really into handhelds anyway. Cant be bothered carrying more than a mobile phone and my keys.
peace out!
I take it back - if the psp2 looks like the concept above then I might have to find some space in my pockets. Not sure how you can hold that and play but it sure looks great.
peace out!
I don't think I've ever been this happy about a Sony product being a MSFT fanboy and all. I always had these great ideas for the ultimate portable. I would love if this thing could essentially be a PMP that plays games. Also I hope Sony takes online gaming seriously. WiFi isn't really wireless since you still have to be at home.
You're RIGHT.........The only place I have access to a wireless network is at home.
woah hold up, wasn't the picture for this post a layout of the components for the psp2 not a mockup of what it would actually look like?
Back in the day, Earthworm Jim was one of my favorite games. I recently downloaded it on the Wii and it still holds up! Awesome sound work in that game.
Frankly, UMD wasn't bad for game delivery. People have short memories. Back then, a 2GB memory stick was $200.
It sucked for game playing /movie watching once memory got cheaper.
Frankly, I don't mind UMD being used to purchase the game since not everyone has broadband, but, you should be able to load the UMD to a built in SSD drive which you play from the drive rather than the disk. Problem then becomes someone uploading it and selling the UMD. Xbox360 addressed this by having you use the disk to initiate the game and then didn't access it again.
The only way around this might be a single PSP authentication of the game.
You upload the UMD, then you connect to the net via Wifi to activate it only on that system using a password and user name that can only be stored on one PSP at a time - like a gamertag. Xbox 360 keeps you from logging in multiple times by forcing Gamertag recoveries.
My biggest problem with the PSP is the single analog stick. I know with 2 it will succeed and do even better than the original.
Sorry to burst your bubble but the Xbox360 is about 15 years behind because that is what you had to do with PC games.
I want to give a shout out to fellow MDK fans.
Holler.