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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Why I WIll Never Buy a PSPGo



See all these lovely UMD cases? 29 Games and 4 video disks. Since The PSPGo was announced, it was believed that Sony would be handling the conversion of UMD to digital downloads through some sort of program where game-owners would be shipping in their old UMDs in exchange for a ticket for a digital download through the Playstation store. However, recently it was announced that at release data, this program would not be offered and anyone who owns a UMD would have to re-purchase their beloved PSP games if they wanted to play them on their new players.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't have boat loads of money (especially in this economy) to go out and drop a few hundred dollars on a new hardware system without some sort of trade in compensation from my old hardware. Thus, it would be un-economical for me to keep my old fat PSP1000 just so I can play all my old games without having to pay for them again.

UMDs aside, there is a whole slew of other reasons I would never purchase the PSPGo.

Reason 1: It looks like a third graders cell phone that can not make calls unless on WiFi using Skype. Not that I don't like skype functionality, I really do. Yet, if you are going to make it out of cheap cell phone plastic and give it the slide open look that a sidekick has, then let it make phone calls. Sony claims that this is going to compete with the IPhone market... Well, let me tell you what, my IPhone can also make phone calls and surf the web on 3G networks. Which brings me to reason 2.

Reason 2: No 3G support. If this device is suppose to re-revolutionize mobile gaming, then you better have 3G support because what if I am walking around the city and I just NEED to get my God of War fix, then I do not want to have to walk around for 20 minutes to find an unprotected WiFi router to hop onto so I can download my game. I would really rather just turn it on, download it quick, and start playing. No 3G support? Well, I guess I'll just go buy a new app for my IPhone. Sorry Sony!

Reason 3: SDK for PSPMini apps should have been made more accessible. Apple did the right thing when it introduced its app developer program. Anyone with a mac can make applications for the IPhone. I took a brief look at the requirements to make a PSPMini application... It seemed like you basically need to be a full time game developer, with an office, and an LLC behind your name before Sony will let you touch the SDK. Not a smart move Sony, look at the numbers of IPhone applications that Apple is making bank off of that were made by indy game/application developers in their bedrooms.

Reason 4: No touch screen. The phone, I mean PSPGo, has a beautiful big screen on the front of the device. However, this screen is practically useless when the device is closed. Another big downfall of an already failing system. My biggest complaint about this though is that with the device closed, the screen is basically useless in this state. Maybe they should have had the screen fold in to protect it instead of being exposed to the elements and my scratchy jean pockets. Would this have made the PSPGo too much like the Nintendo DS? At least my Nintendo DS screen is protected when I'm not using it.

Reason 5: Old operating system and an old processor. I would have liked to see the PSPGo have a faster processor in it than what they put in. I'm sure that it wouldn't have been much more expensive to speed up the OS, maybe even add some more ram so my web browser doesn't crash on me every other page like the older PSP systems are known to do. In this age we have a more diversified web with applications that are rapidly growing in complexity. The system needs to be able to support more hardware intensive operations. I just feel that this hardware is not going to be able to keep up for much more than a year, and perhaps its time has already passed.

Sony... If you ever read this, take my words into consideration. Quit alienating your customers. They are the only reason you're still in business. There are many of us that are very loyal to the brand, but loyalty only is granted through a continuous relationship of trust and understanding. I am starting to lose faith in your products, and I can not bring myself to buy a new PSP under these circumstances. Wake up!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That is a very respectable collection you have there, and your reasons for not wanting to purchase a psp go are valid.I miself have had 3 psp's and i have also purchased the psp go and most of my reasons are that ijust love the size of the handheld.It fits in my pockets much better than the slim or psp fat.And most of all, i always hated carring around 2 or more umd's on a daily basis in my pockets when i travel too and back from work, so the diskless aspect of the psp go really make it a perfect fit for me....keep on gamin. ( onslaughtree )