Viewing Thread:
"Hands up if you're getting a PSP"

My argument that handheld games just aren't cool is being put to the test here.

Sony reinvented the gaming industry, the Granddaddy of video games, Nintendo, are faltering as Sony have changed the way games will be played for ever.

Fortunatly for Nintendo their handheld department has crushed any opposition it has come against, SEGA, Atari, Nokia and soon Microsoft as well.

Now Sony want in. If the PSP does outsell the DS and the GBA SP as well as the next generation of GBA (due in a couple of years i'd imagine) it could spell the end for Nintendo.

Yet I don't think Sony will, and here's why. Handheld games just aren't cool, hardcore Sony fans (many of you lot) may pick it up but will the billions of casual PS2 gamers get one? I've not met one casual gamer (all of them PS2 owners might I add) who intends to get it. In fact they've dismissed it almost immediatly.

Truth be told none of them want a Nintendo DS either but then the Nintendo DS corners a different market. Hardcore gamers and Kids buy handhelds... I know only young people and hardcore gamers who own them. Nintendo's DS with its "revolutionary" ways of playing games looks set to appeal to those two fanbasses. Whilst Sony seem to be gunning for the Ipod generation.

I digress slightly. But my point stands, will the PSP be popular with the joe gamer? Could you imagine hundreds of punters up and down the country playing a PSP down the pub?

No, neither can I.

So, although you are more of a hardcore fanbase, hands up if you want a PSP?

My argument that handheld games just aren't cool is being put to the test here.

Sony reinvented the gaming industry, the Granddaddy of video games, Nintendo, are faltering as Sony have changed the way games will be played for ever.

Fortunatly for Nintendo their handheld department has crushed any opposition it has come against, SEGA, Atari, Nokia and soon Microsoft as well.

Now Sony want in. If the PSP does outsell the DS and the GBA SP as well as the next generation of GBA (due in a couple of years i'd imagine) it could spell the end for Nintendo.

Yet I don't think Sony will, and here's why. Handheld games just aren't cool, hardcore Sony fans (many of you lot) may pick it up but will the billions of casual PS2 gamers get one? I've not met one casual gamer (all of them PS2 owners might I add) who intends to get it. In fact they've dismissed it almost immediatly.

Truth be told none of them want a Nintendo DS either but then the Nintendo DS corners a different market. Hardcore gamers and Kids buy handhelds... I know only young people and hardcore gamers who own them. Nintendo's DS with its "revolutionary" ways of playing games looks set to appeal to those two fanbasses. Whilst Sony seem to be gunning for the Ipod generation.

I digress slightly. But my point stands, will the PSP be popular with the joe gamer? Could you imagine hundreds of punters up and down the country playing a PSP down the pub?

No, neither can I.

So, although you are more of a hardcore fanbase, hands up if you want a PSP?

I want one

BUT

I doubt I will go out and spend however much they cost on one. Or on the DS for that matter. Don't often find myself on the move with the chance to play games so would seem a bit pointless, money could be better spent on other things.

Will wait though to see how it turns out, might get more tempted if it proves to offer some good gaming fun at a reasonable price.

Dringo wrote:
> So, although you are more of a hardcore fanbase, hands up if you want
> a PSP?

*Puts hands up*

With a PSP, when I'm on a 2hr train journey, I can watch Spiderman 2 the movie, then when the train gets delayed for an hour by a leaf outside Slough I can listen to an Evanescence album, then I can play Gran Turismo in the taxi on the way to the hotel. Possibly in a wireless 2-player face-off against the guy in the taxi next to me who also has a PSP.

£250 for that kind of entertainment is cheap. If the RRP is anything near £150 (which is what many analysts are currently guessing), that kind of entertainment is a bargain.

BTW: New PSP Adverts:

[URL]http://wakayama.cool.ne.jp/warzard/psp_02_15.mpg[/URL] - Gran Turismo (12 cars on the track? Might be Ridge Racer...)

[URL]http://wakayama.cool.ne.jp/warzard/psp_03_15.mpg[/URL] - Golf

[URL]http://wakayama.cool.ne.jp/warzard/psp_04_15.mpg[/URL] - No idea

[URL]http://wakayama.cool.ne.jp/warzard/psp_05_15.mpg[/URL] - Puzzle

FM, if it lasts that long, then I'd probably put my hand up as well.

But I doubt that.

Looks decent, but there's no chance I'll be buying it if the battery is 5 hours long...

I'm probably not going to get one, because I've got a PS2 already...

In all seriousness, though, for a handheld, it's pretty incredible in terms of visual performance and other technical achievements. However, as a number of people have already highlighted, the battery life is going to be a serious issue, especially seeing as almost as much time is going to be spent watching the thing charge up again than actually playing it. No use for long haul flights or anything, in which I've previously found the GBA to be perfect for.

Plus, the games are going to be pretty much the same as their PS2 incarnations. This argument, I feel, can't be aimed at the DS, as if the developers put the touch and dual-screen features to good use then there is a lot of potential innovation. 'If' is the key word, though, and I just don't see developers like EA actually doing much with it. Nintendo will though, and they're the reason I'll buy the DS.

PSP is a good-looking handheld, and the price is much better than was expected, but this is Nintendo's market, and as far as creating something new and interesting goes, Nintendo have it covered.

*nails hands to the earth's core*

FantasyMeister wrote:
>listen to an Evanescence album,

BURN

I concur.

Burn... How can you like a band who make less sense than Slipknot?