PSP 2 is ready and UMD-less, claims Earthworm Jim developer
By Ross Miller 
posted February 26th 2009 7:22AM
posted February 26th 2009 7:22AM
[Via Joystiq]
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posted February 26th 2009 7:22AM
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Yeah, what the hell is Dave Perry doing these days? He was God of the 16-bit era.
PSP2 is a while away. It could have *anything* at this stage.
"fully digital online device" is nice and all, but all I can say now is the masses are not ready for fully online in early 2009 (rhymes). Some are, most aren't.
If the bricks-n-mortar retailers get totally screwed, I'd be v.surprised. In-store wifi, lovely monetary transactions and coupons / codes for game downloads, with portions of profit going to store for those not hip to online transactions? Perhaps.
speak for yourself. Everyone is Japan recognizes this 'fully online' you speak of.
Well good for Japan. Idk about other countries but I know the US wouldn't be ready for that
If and when the PSP2 comes out, I sure hope it has some games to play. The drought of games with the PSP is pathetic. Sony is loading the PSP up with features, but no content hoping that people will buy it.
I am a PSP owner.
I'm doubting any backwards compatibility, so it's finally an all-new system and not version 1.XXX
The PSP is nicer (more functionality) than the DS, but they do lack *great* games... it's like developers who make games on the PSP forget that it's a 3-inch screen.
And as far as this list:
God of War - probably the best game on PSP, but is rather simple
Patapon - haven't played it yet, but want to
Disgaea - RPG 1
Final Fantasy Tactics - RPG 2
Wipeout series
Burnout Legends - which one is this? The one with no crash mode? No crash mode = fAIL. Either way, I didn't keep this game for very long
Daxter Games
Ratchet & Clank
Final Fantasy Crisis Core -RPG 3
Puzzle Quest - hybrid puzzle game/RPG, not bad, but not $20 - $35 worthy... and when its on Xbox 360 Arcade anyway
Metal Gear Acid 1/2 - eh. Card game
Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops
GTA - lot of content for a portable game, but still looks like ass and tiny
Lumines I/II
SOCOM - needs 2 sticks, also too tiny to see shit, camera sucks
Tekken: Dark Resurrection
Syphon Filter -
Prince of Persia
Hot Shots Golf
Ridge Racer
Jeanne d'Arc - RPG 4
So right off the bat you can delete 4 games if you're not an RPG/RPG strategy fan... and that was only the 4 on this list. Brave Story, Dragon Quest... PSP and DS could go head-to-head w/ their RPG libraries.
After attempting to play SOCOM, Star Wars Battlefront & Infected, I gave up on shooters on the PSP. It's just not fun. And again, games like Battlefront and GTA require that you see what's going on around your character... which is impossible when they are smaller than a thumbtack.
The only games I consistently play on my PSP are Katamari, Super Puzzle Fighter and the Capcom collections.
But don't get me wrong, I'd rather have that list of games over NintenDogs anyday. But they don't have enough casual games for the gamer on the go. A game like Disgaea or Battlefront involves investing time... if I'm going to sit at home and play games, I have an Xbox 360. But the multimedia abilities of the PSP makes it a worthy handheld.
But PSP 2? Again, only if they have 2 sticks.
aha, dinosaurs...
Its funny how these stories that put the brakes on current sales ALWAYS come up when SONY announces new games that should push current hardware.
SONY announces Assassin's Creed, Madden, Tiger, Pets, LBP and Motorstorm to build interest in current hardware and oops, a twitterer that hasn't built shit for SONY in ages all of a sudden has the inside scoop on new hardware specs?
SONY is just ready to launch its most anticipated title for early 2009, one that is considered a hardware mover and oops, some asshat analyst crawls out of the woodwork to say 'hold on...PS3 price is going down' thus denying SONY the potential sales a current price point.
Alex Jones I'm not but these stories seem convenient.
I will just wait for the Nintendo DS 2 or The new iphone/ipod much more worth for my money.The maiun reason why iu say that is because when ever i see a psp nobody is ever playing a game and im like so what game are you playing and they say none just music or they play with a emulator then months later they still have the same game or still playing a emulator of a Nintendo game. I tell them so you pay more for 1 game and music might as well buy an ipod and wont look like a nerd but they reply oh the graphics are the best bla bla bla mature games blood bla bla but how much they play those games they say only a little an d im like yea they suck compare to the DS wich people has lots of fun with,
Breathe man BREATHE! Also, it's called run-on sentences~
So I'm guessing the recent announcement of 6ish AAA titles is Sonys last push before the PSP2 comes out....
I think what PSP2 needs is re-thinking over the controls. too much buttons on a portable console, that because of the lack of space makes it hard to use them properly. I think the PSP2 must be something like iPod for motion sensing and touch scree and better controlling scheme. more buttons wont hurt if they're well placed. analog should go away.
I think using motion sensing instead of analog stick can be more fun. it might sound confusing on a portable devise but it is much more comfortable comparing a small P-size analog button.
Wait until the PSP fans hear from you. One of the biggest complaints of the PSP is the lack of a second analog stick. Imagine how crazy they'd go if there would be none at all!
Ya I'm with Patriks7. That was one of my biggest problems with the PSP was the missing 2nd analog. I love racing games (for ex) but without 2 analogs, for me, they just suck. I HATE using the buttons to control speed and breaking. But I disagree with the whole motion sensing thing. I love my iPod Touch to death but it's annoying when you're laying down or somethin and it still switches like you're standing up. I don't think I'd like a touch screen for this either. Touch for simple games gets annoying and I can't picture it being much better with more serious games
"My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious."
UMD was perfect. There's no other CONVENIENT way to bring such large games with you. You may have a memory stick than can fit a couple games, but most people own more than any memory stick can store
UMD's were annoying..... Even the cartidges for Gameboy were more compact and that was 4-bit....... When something like paperboy was amazing......
Sony, do yourself a favor and make the PSP pictured here already! When this fake mock-up was leaked the Sony fanboys just about lost their minds. If one device could have a chance of lifting Sony out of this wretched economy, this would be it.
That is of course if they didn't charge $399 for it and it came with decent codec support, neither of which are things Sony is known for.
Couldn't agree more! Make that screen a touch screen, include some decent storage (64 - 128 GB flash) and I will buy one even at 399$! That is, as long as the screen is big enough for movies :p
Sony has the best codec support of all 3 console developers. What are you talking about?
The PS3 is even a certified DivX device. When DivX7 comes out it'll support Matroska.
If Sony handles the storage on their end, allowing redownloads at any time I'll be happy. Otherwise I don't see the benefit of having to. Also, they better allow for current UMDs to work. Rebuying is not an option.
Seriously Engadget needs to stop talking about this. They just put out the PSP-3000 do you really think another one is coming that soon? I believe they are working on one but I seriously doubt we will see it anytime soon. With the economy the way it is who would buy it now anyway? It seems Sony has plenty of time to make a really good product so why rush it?
dude, video game sales actually INCREASED this year. people are spending more time at home rather than going out and are still buying games, even more so than before actually. Video games forever!
I want one.
I really don't understand why there's so much hate for the UMD. You don't hear people screaming about cartridges on the DS. If Sony called the UMD a cartridge instead, most people probably wouldn't have even cared that its a proprietary format. The one legitimate complaint about the UMD is that its slower than games loaded from the memory stick. But you can bypass that if you hack your PSP.
Digital download wasn't feasible as the only way to get games when the PSP was first released. Not only was broadband penetration lower back then, but memory sticks were really expensive. It would cost too much to sell games on memory sticks, and if Sony sold games online only, it would be really expensive for gamers to carry around more than one or two games.
Things have changed, but that still doesn't explain the hate for the UMD.
I've never had a problem with UMD either. Memory sticks were through the roof when PSP was released, even now they're not cheap compared to SD and others. My UMD usage has always been flawless.
Pre-recorded content still has to be sold in a few years, I say. I like that games can be shared easily with removable media and I like that the originals cannot be written to at all (rather, game saves are stored on the memory stick). I much prefer this to game saves being stored on the cartridge itself (Nintendo). Accidental overwrites are never an issue if you share your game.
I think it's hard to imagine how they could have made it better while still keeping replication costs and size and battery life reasonable like they did.
Getting rid of UMD will save them on PSP hardware costs (adding to their hardware profit margin, no doubt) and perhaps give them some extra room to play with design-wise, but if they go for a wide screen, the unit will pretty much still need to be the same size to be comfortable and they will still want a cheap medium for mass replication that cannot be written on. I hope that whatever medium they decide to sell games on will not be rewritable and as iffy as flash memory can be (assuming that they still find this important in a few years... I think it is). Originals should never be sold on a rewritable medium, IMO.
Some weight might be saved, and it may get a bit thinner... but apart from that... a UMD-less PSP will not be much different. Battery life and speed of loading will improve, yes, but I think UMD is perfect for what it was meant to do at the time it was meant to do it, and even in a few years will be hard to beat as a cheap (to manufacture) pre-recorded platform.
Meh - I'll be interested if it comes with MDK and Earthworm Jim integrated. I'd never need to buy other games for it.
When are people going to wake up and demand opensource video gaming? Wake up...this merry-go-round has to end. Stop giving Sony Microsoft and Nintendo excuses for not agreeing with a gaming format. This shit's gotta end and I'm tired of people defending these companies.
Agreeing on a format means one format for all. I prefer diversity in nature and electronics. While open-source has some great qualities (ie. if FLAC and Ogg Vorbis would only be implemented...) there is just way too much proprietary patented technology each of them own that the negotiations alone - just to reach a level of understanding and compensation to cross-license - would be something that would take years, I'd think.
Besides, I think it's better in the end (for all of us) that they compete.
Even devices like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(console)
...are chock-full of patented, proprietary tech. IMO, devices like this are great examples of kitchen-sink feature syndrome and perhaps great emulators, but weak on innovations (and it doesn't help I can't get my hands one one for evalution ;).
I think it would be a bad idea to completely remove the UMD drive right now. It needs to stay there for at least one more generation. Lots of people have bought UMDs and it would be rather unfair to screw over your actual supporters. Keep it there for backwards compatibility for one more generation, but depreciate it so that games are now distributed only via wi-fi, a flash memory slot, or whatever Sony has come up with for next-gen game distribution.
if the mockup is what the psp2 will be then i will buy it on day one. if it doesnt have 2 analog sticks i will never purchase it... that was the main downfall for me about the psp, i love FPS's and it just cant be done with buttons. The mockup looks AWESOME and cant wait to see how the psp2 actually turns out!
This is the PSP-4000 specs not a PSP2 the 4000 is a model coming out the end of this year. It's just a remade model of the psp not new hardware.
this looks good, i think however it needs a apple ipod sized hardrive which sony havnt competed in. also ive heard roumers of phone cappabilities, then it would need a querty??? iphone killer
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.
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.