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According to this article by ConsoleMedia, the PSP is about ready for the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.

I agree with the majority of the points mentioned in this article. The failure of the PSP, coupled with the as yet unrealized failure to move PS3's off the shelves when they release, may spell a long rebuilding/hibernation period for Sony.

I'm predicting it now: the mighty will fall.

Linky goodness

This post has been edited by Hamedo on 20th July 2006 12:54

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Hate to say it but I agree.
Wal-Mart is NOT moving hardly any games.
We have more games stolen in a week than bought.
It's a damn shame too. It had so much potencial.
I expect that the only thing that will save the PSP will be the new MGS coming this Christmas.
I wish they had brought Breath of Fire 3 to the US.
I had to pay nearly $50 to import it from England.
The odds of me getting a PS3 during the first 3 years of it's life time are next to 0%.
Not at $600 that's for sure!

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Sammie Jo Bray
1986-2006

Please help stop the hate

I don't see how the PSP can survive without Sony doing something drastic, like, oh, letting people use them however they want instead of installing firmware to block emulation, etc.

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

Well I never saw any of the PSP's games all that intriguing, I remember when they first came out I had a friend telling me to get a PSP instead of a DS, and I had a feeling nintendo would pull out on top. Anl it turns out I was right, entertaining games will trump better graphics anyday.

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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

Put hey...

Porno on the go is always good

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Sammie Jo Bray
1986-2006

Please help stop the hate

Not to hijack my own thread, but even though I detest Nintendo... they really do put out the best handhelds on the market.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

I can't help but notice that Nintendo stuck to just making good games, and now the DS is king. Could the failure of the PSP be a microcosm of things to come on the console front? If the PS3 loses its focus as a gaming machine, it'll probably lose market share, which would be disastrous for Sony, since it looks like they'll need to completely dominate the market to make any profit. Sony isn't looking as invincible as it did a year ago, and given the momentum that the Wii seems to be riding, it's looking like this year's holiday console war will be fascinating.

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Cannis Rules: Balance of Power - My favourite Yuri's Revenge Mod

Quote (Matt @ 20th July 2006 13:15)

I can't help but notice that Nintendo stuck to just making good games, and now the DS is king. Could the failure of the PSP be a microcosm of things to come on the console front? If the PS3 loses its focus as a gaming machine, it'll probably lose market share, which would be disastrous for Sony, since it looks like they'll need to completely dominate the market to make any profit. Sony isn't looking as invincible as it did a year ago, and given the momentum that the Wii seems to be riding, it's looking like this year's holiday console war will be fascinating.

I agree, Matt. I touched on this in my initial post, but you expounded on it more eloquently.

I think that Sony will be in for a fight for their life this Christmas.

In January, the new console heirarchy will be thus:

1st place: X-Box 360

2nd Place: Deathmatch tie b/t Sony and Nintendo, with Nintendo eventually taking a slight lead.

That will be huge for Nintendo, because they have been the low rung on the ladder for many years now.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

gas prices are high so people are going to go for what's in their budget.
Sony is putting too much on th line.
Their milking Kojima for everthing he's worth.
You know he's stepping down after MGS4?
Sega did it with Sonic but then again, Sonic could never compare to Snake.
My bets on the Christmas race are...
1st-360 Assuming Halo3 comes out in Dec.
2nd-Wii
3rd-PS3

Even if MGS 4 makes it to Christmas, $600 is just too freaking much period and then you're looking at paying at least $50 fo that game. Does the PS3 need memory cards? That's another $29+ so you're looking at paying around $700.

I'm sorry but no thank you.

As for hand helds, The PSP might see it to next Christmas but the DS has obviously won. The Japanese are pushing next generation technology to quickly and will pay for it in the long run insted of the consummers. But I'm glad I do have the psp because I get to know why Big Boss defects.

Oh yay.
*Still wishes he had a DS so he could MK online for free*

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Sammie Jo Bray
1986-2006

Please help stop the hate

I like my PSP... however, its amusing for people to take delight in the failing of a handheld, like they have a personal stake in things.

Whether the PSP fails or not, we'll see. It is losing, yes, but me, my 2gb flash memory, and 1.5 gb of snes, nes, and genesis roms wont care all that much.

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Feeling unknown
And youre all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
Ill make you a believer

...and neither will my BOF3 Europe import either.
I never said I din't like mine but facts are facts.
Unless Sony does something...It's doomed.
I'm under the impression that you can DL PSP games and play them from the Memory Card.
It's a shame I can only afford a 256mb card because I'd already have a library if I had a 1,2 or 4GB memory card.

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Sammie Jo Bray
1986-2006

Please help stop the hate

Nothing personal about it, TitoJackson. I haven't seen any posts to suggest that it is personal to anyone.

I must say, though, that I do take a certain sick pleasure in seeing a corporation that had a virtual stranglehold on the industry take a fall. Humility.... it's good for people, and c-corp entities!

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

I'd like to say that the demise of the PSP is good in a way though. Liquidated, priced-to-go units and titles could make a lot of fans of Valkyrie Profile happy, especially after that Lenneth port just got released. Usually, the death of a console warrants a Viking burial, heartfelt speeches, and all that. In the case of a rare game with a facelift, though, I feel a rebirth coming on.

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You are not your username. You are not your avatar. You are not the number of posts you have. You're not your signature. You are the all-typing, all-chatting crap of the Web. --Friend of a Friend

Id have to agree with what is happenening with the PSP, it started with UMD movies and now its leaning to this, everyone at school says PSP is better, but look which one is selling better now, I wnated the DS to come out on top.

All of you base this on your own skewed perceptions. The PSP is NOT going to fail. There is hardly any evidence to suggest it. with some great games coming out, such as tekken, I believe the PSP is well on the path to sucess. I'm fairly certain that none of you have the slightest clue to how a major game company thinks, and probably have no idea how much much game development costs either. None of you are qualified to hand out the PSP's death certificate, so stop trying.

This post has been edited by ArcnightDelita on 25th July 2006 02:44

I think Matt still nails this on the head: there was a time when death-knells were being rung
for the DS, as Sony entered the market. The Developer's System, though, made not just a
plethora of ports available for new, sophisticated hardware (as with the PSP), but wholly
innovative ideas. I never would have thought Kirby could be so much fun with a stylus, or
to try BrainAcademy and love it. I was securely in the camp that thought it was a weird idea,
but now I'm ready to get one (FFIIIds is the deal-maker for me). There's a point where
Nintendo has mentioned that they don't see themselves in the same market as Sony,
and that's telling to me: they made a gamer's system. I love GTA, but got LCstories for
my PS2. Now if they would just port MGS, and there's just no reason for me to get one.
Sony seemed to want to take on the iPod market, arguably where the real money is,
since the market cap for that is virtually unlimited. There are 90mil iPod users; the DS is
hugely popular and yet has less than 25mil users (BusinessWeek). Sony went after the
personal-entertainment market, and are only now introducing the feature sets that will
make it more relevant to the demographic: self-made dvd rips, tv-to-mstick conversions.
They're just now starting to react to win, not proact to win. And Apple, Blackberry, and
Nintendo have clearly shown that the key to winning the portable markets is to make it
as gotta-have-it as possible.

In fact, old foils curse new systems, once again. Remember how notorious the N64 known
amongst developers (as described in gaming magazines)? With its high-costs for catridge
production and associated difficulties in programming, Nintendo found the worst time to be
obtuse, as Sony entered the market with low-cost CD games and in-roads to developers to
assure development. That fascinating article posted by the irascible Hamedo mentioned a
host of similar development problems with the PSP (and haven't we heard these rumblings
about the PS3 too?). It's amazing that no company ever appreciates the penalty of hubris.

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Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

Do I really come off as irascible? That's something I'll need to work on, I suppose.

Or not.

My temper notwithstanding, I see the PSP, and Sony as a whole, getting ready to take a huge fall. Not down for the count, mind you. Sony will most definitely be back, and most likely will climb to the top of the console ladder again. I don't see them holding dominance for much longer, though.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Heh, passionate, then. Not necessarily angry. Doh! And why work on a key character
trait? We all have our in-char bonuses; it's good to see people defend with eloquence.

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Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

Quote (ArcnightDelita @ 22nd July 2006 13:51)

All of you base this on your own skewed perceptions. The PSP is NOT going to fail. There is hardly any evidence to suggest it. with some great games coming out, such as tekken, I believe the PSP is well on the path to sucess. I fairly certain that none of you have the slightest clue to how a major game company thinks, and probably have no idea how much much game development costs either. None of you are qualified to hand out the PSP's death certificate, so stop trying.

Finally someone on this thread I can agree with. I'd like to also add that since UMD movies have failed, the focus can now be switched to games and I think that's what will happen.

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Elena Indurain

Currently Playing: Suikoden II

In a situation like this, it almost feels so good to be right that you get guilty.

I would go back and count the number of "loldssux" posts there would, but I don't think I can count that high. So sorry, Sony fanboys, but you should've realized who owns the handheld market.

At times, it just gets too easy to say "I told you so."

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

Quote (Kappa the Imp @ 24th July 2006 21:49)

In a situation like this, it almost feels so good to be right that you get guilty.

I would go back and count the number of "loldssux" posts there would, but I don't think I can count that high.  So sorry, Sony fanboys, but you should've realized who owns the handheld market.

At times, it just gets too easy to say "I told you so." 

You act like its already over with. I think maybe you should wait a while before you start gloating. Unless of course you are only speaking of general sales as opposed to the actual failure of the PSP, in which case you are actually right.

Edit

Also, I do admit that UMD movies were a terrible idea, but who didn't know that from the start?

This post has been edited by ArcnightDelita on 25th July 2006 02:53

I realize that it ain't over yet, but I still feel happy for Nintendo. It's not like I want the PSP to do bad. (Okay, maybe I do a little, my friends won't stop on how the PSP pwns all)

Cool article Hamedo, and go DS!

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.

You guys are making me sad with this PSP-as-a-failure talk


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Quote

Do you think we're forever?

Hang on.

Managing to actually establish a respectable score in a market dominated by Nintendo followed by a slump in sales that happens practically everywhere as summer comes is a sign of impending doom?

It's not over, until the crazy bloke says "It's ridge racer, riiiidge racer!"

...Oh, wait.

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

I like my PSP. I'm not particularly bothered if it fails; it has some fantasitc games coming out for it in the next 2 or 3 months, and they will keep me busy for quite a while to come, I guarantee you that.

I must admit, it would be nice if the Sony handheld was a lot more successful, as it would mean much more opportunities for some nice multiplayer on these games, but alas, we can't have everything I suppose.

And as stated, it hasn't quite lost yet though.

Games I am really looking forward to a lot are:
Tekken 5.5
Namco Battle Chess
Metal Gear Solid. (Yes, a real version, not a card game)

These will give me all the gaming I need for quite a long time when they are released. There are quite a few other very decent titles due to be released as well, so I am happy enough.

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'Let that be a lesson to all oppressive vegetable sellers.'

Actually, I think UMDs were a great idea, and Sony botched the delivery. If, as a
parent, you presented me with a little gaming device that also plays movies, and
music---that's a JuiceBox killer app to me. Tell me those movies would only be $5,
and I'd buy a bunch just to keep my son busy. Even adults can appreciate that; the
screen is tiny compared to any tv (or portable dvd player), and can only be played
on the Psp (virtually theft-proof). But charge the same amount for a UMD disc as a
real dvd, which I can pop into my portable with a 6in screen or my home dvd player?
There's the flaw. The price-point never matched the functionality. Even Apple doesn't
charge that much for a downloadable movie to their iPods, because fundamentally
Apple knows their market.

The Psp was originally intended as an entertainment device, with little connection to
game developers. The DS did the opposite, and just as death knells were being rung
for it, it revived and now dominates with games I never even considered possible.

I think the Psp has great promise. After all, I went with the MotorolaQ and retired
my Palms, Zires, and Handspring obsession because finally I can enter data with the
ease of a keyboard. We all know and love that key layout. But Sony has to wake up
to the game, literally, and change their model to succeed. And I've seen little action
to indicate that is so (even the highly-popular Valkyrie is a classic port, not a fully-
new release). A harsh blow to them, of course, is FFIII going DS. The power of any
console is in its library, and there's where Sony has to improve. They can't change
the hardware at this point, so hopefully they'll relinguish licensing exclusions and
reduce licensing costs, to encourage development. The Sony name alone could carry
a lot. But, like rest of their market presentation, they need to stop playing 'catch-up'.
Now there's Sony stores in malls, just like a major competitor of theirs. What happened
to the Sony that launched Walkman and shook the world? How bad is it that they just
realized they needed a cell-Walkman, and are now just getting that to market? Like
AT&T or Verizon in telecom, Sony needs to be leading innovation, which Nintendo
took the risk to do, to dominate. They sure as heck did with the original Playstation.

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Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

PSP can rise drom the dead, Altered Beast style, if Sony makes good on their word to rerelease classic PSX games. They could move more units, but they need to get serious about it. There's no way Ill ever go back and buy Ridge Racer for the PSP, they need some killer aps, the ones that made PSX the system to own back in the day. If they made a deal with Square, and if Final Fantasy VII was re-released in any way shape or form, you suddenly have even footing with the DS, with just one game! That's the potential the PSP has with putting old PSX content on the handheld.

A11smart is 100% correct. Nintendo has more to lose by being innovative than Sony does because all of Nintendo's eggs are in the videogame basket, they dont see much revenue through other sales of things like playing cards (which Nintendo sells). Sony has income coming through in 100 different avenues so one of these avenues taking a temporary hit for being experimental and risky is alot more acceptible. This is the reason, I think, a failing PS3 will not kick Sony out of the videogame industry, Sony is too powerful of a company just like Microsoft, and neither of them will go the way of Sega. The only one who has the potential to go 3rd party and shun home consoles will probably be Nintendo because they dont have the deep pockets.

Sony's done nothing but succeed when it comes to videogames, so the PSP being behind has caught them offguard. However, the tools are there to make this thing not just the most popular handheld, but the most popular console out there right now. I dont declare it dead or on its last legs because of the sheer potential, but Im pissed at Sony for not taking advantage of the gold mine it has.

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Feeling unknown
And youre all alone
Flesh and bone
By the telephone
Lift up the receiver
Ill make you a believer