PSP : Possible case of over ambition?

[MonkeyWrench]

So how do you explain the Gameboy's success before a Pokemon game was a reality? You can't put a systems success purely down to one game.

[Ady]

The device will probably be 3D and I have no doubts that will be a good thing. The GBA is a 2D machine at heart and all anyone ever seems to do is port across 3D stuff like Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi and Sega Rally. What do those games have in common? They push the envelope too far and are nearly unplayable.

At least with dedicated 3D hardware, you'll get less crap 3D botching.

That's not 'everyone' though, that's just Sega and it says more about its complete lack of imagination and love for throwing good money away.

The real problem with the GBA is that develoeprs tend not to take handheld gaming very seriously. With the GBA, the technology is there as is the potential for a 2D renaissance. Nintendo shoots itself in the foot though with its rigid politics and pricing.

The GBA as an open platform with concessions for hobbyists and homebrew coders would make it the best thing ever, IMO. That and ports of some old Treasure classics. Those games deserve a new audience and are too good to be forgotten or left as the sole preserve of smug, chin-stroking collectors.

Now, if Sony can change developers' and consumers attitudes towards the culture of handheld gaming with the PSP then my hat goes off to it. The only issue there however is convincing the public to buy handheld versions of games they can play at home on a 'proper' console.

[John Beaulieu]

here are the official stats for the psp



Launch dates

[Treble]

So how do you explain the Gameboy's success before a Pokemon game was a reality? You can't put a systems success purely down to one game.

The GameBoy sold well over a long period of time (well, better than 'well'!), and over the course of its existence, the demographic changed. I have no idea why (ask Baroque for sales guff ) but, anyway, I know that by the time the GBC came out, it was kids and not adults buying the machine.

Maybe it was just natural product evolution: adults got bored of it, it was no longer 'cool' to own one, so it was only kids playing on them. Then Pokemon came along, and elevated the sales of GameBoys from immense- to pandemic-like quantities.

Anyway, be this circumstantial stuff as it may, the point is handheld devices these days are both bought for kids and marketed at kids. The percentage of adults who own GBAs, I bet, is paltry compared to kids (don't let the fact us lot own GBAs fool you into thinking the general adult populous do to the same degree).

If you imagine you take the chunk of GBA owners who are over 16, add-on a generous helping of people who would want a handheld that was manufactured by Sony and that can't be used as a phone - its purely an entertainment device (and an expensive an unwieldy one at that, I would guess), and I bet you dollars to donuts it still wouldn't be a fraction of the GameBoy market.

[MonkeyWrench]

Anyway, be this circumstantial stuff as it may, the point is handheld devices these days are both bought for kids and marketed at kids. The percentage of adults who own GBAs, I bet, is paltry compared to kids (don't let the fact us lot own GBAs fool you into thinking the general adult populous do to the same degree).

Yes, handheld gaming is very much marketed at kids, but then so was videogaming in general before Sony launched the PS1 and aimed it at the 20 something market. We all know what happened then I'd bet my left leg that is what Sony is wanting to try and do with the PSP (hence the "Walkman for the 21st century" claim). Us adult folk have way more disposable cash than the kiddies, so why would Sony want the kids market? If it's marketed at adults, they will come, just like they did with the PS1.

[PeteJ]

Full specs (gamefront):
They may mean something to someone.

Cutting Edge Technologies (Aiming to explore the future):
- 90nm Semiconductor Process
- Dual MIPS R4000 Core
- Vector Floating Engines
- Reconfigurable DSP Engine(VME)
- Advanced 3D Graphics Engine
- AVC(MPEG4) Decoder
- AES Crypto System
- 1.8GB UMD

21st Century Portable System:
* Vereint alle Formen der digitalen Unterhaltung *
- 3D-CG Game
- 7.1ch Audio, 3D Sound
- ATRAC3 plus, AAC, MP3 for Music
- AVC/@MP for Picture / Movie
- 16:9 Widescreen TFT LCD
- Embedded Wireless LAN 802.11
- Li-ion Battery
- Extension for GPS, Digital Tuner...

Optical Disc System:
- Large Capacity (3 x to CD-ROM)
- Media for Game/Music/Movie/Publishing
- Lower Manufacturing Cost
- Minimize Inventory Risk
- Repoat Ordering System
- Parental Lock System
- Regional Code System
- Copy Protection

UMD - Universal Media Disc:
* Ultimate Portable Disc for SD System *
- 60mm
- Laser Diode: 660nm
- Dual Layer : 1.8GB
- Transfer Rate: 11Mbps
- Shock Proof
- Secure ROM by AES
- Unique Disc ID

PSP CPU Core:
- MIPS R4000 32-Bit Core
- 128 Bit Bus
- 1~333 MHz @ 1.2V
- 8 MB Hauptspeicher (eDRAM)
- Bus Bandwidth: 2,6 GB/sec
- I-Cache / D-Cache
- FPU, VFPU (Vector Unit): @ 2,6 GFlops
- 3D-CG Extended Instructions

PSP Media Engine:
- MIPS R4000 32-Bit Core
- 128 Bit Bus
- 1~333 MHz @ 1.2V
- Sub Memory: 2MB (eDRAM) @ 2,5 GB/sec
- I-Cache / D-Cache
- 90nm Cmos

PSP Graphics Core 1:
- 3D Curved Surface + 3D Polygon
- Compressed Texture
- Hardware Clipping, Morphing, Bone(8)
- Hardware Tessellator
- Bezier, B-Spline(NURBS)
- ex 4?4 / 16?16 / 64?64 sub-division ~ reduce program /data
~ reduce memory footprint & bus traffic

PSP Graphics Core 2:
- Rendering Engine + Surface Engine
- 256bit Bus, 1-166 MHz @1.2V
- VRAM :2MB (eDRAM)
- Bus Bandwidth: 5.3GB/sec
- Pixel Fill Rate :664 M pixels/sec
- max. 33 M Polygon/Sec (T&L)
- 24bit Full Color: RGBA

PSP Sound Core:
- Reconfigurable DSPs
- 128 Bit Bus
- 166 MHz @ 1.2V
- 5 Giga Operations/Sek.
- CODEC
- 3D Sound, Multi-Channel
- Synthesizer, Effecter, ...

AVC Decoder:
- AVC (H.264) Decoder
- Main Profile
- Baseline Profile
- @ Level1, Level2, Level3
- 2Hours (High Quality) ~ DVD Movie
- 4Hours (Standard Quality) ~ CS Digital

Kommunikation:
- Wireless LAN 802.11 (Hot Spots, Home Server, usw.)
- IrDA (PSP, Handy, usw.)
- Stereo-Kopfh?rer-Anschluss
- Memory Stick
- USB 2.0 (PSP, PS2, PC, usw.)

[Burai]

So how do you explain the Gameboy's success before a Pokemon game was a reality? You can't put a systems success purely down to one game.

Tetris.

[Super Stu]

With two of the biggest selling consoles ever released (behind the Gameboy) do you not think Sony were catering to the needs of the consumers?

Yes. That doesn't necessarily mean everything that comes off the Kuratagi production line will. This, of course, is the entire point of this debate which, for some reason, you were quick to poo-poo.

[charlesr]

Burai, I suppose you think you're funny...

[JibberX]

So how do you explain the Gameboy's success before a Pokemon game was a reality? You can't put a systems success purely down to one game.

Tetris.

BOOYAKASHA

(Man that was a cool retort Burai)

[charlesr]

What the... 7.1ch sound? What's that?

[Super Stu]

- Dual MIPS R4000 Core
- 1.8GB UMD
- 16:9 Widescreen TFT LCD
- Embedded Wireless LAN 802.11
- Li-ion Battery
- Extension for GPS, Digital Tuner...
- Memory Stick

= PDA for yuppies, assuming the software is written. All that's missing is Bluetooth to interface with SE phones.

Interesting twist

[evilmatt]

What the... 7.1ch sound? What's that?

Marketing hyperbole for a machine that isn't finished yet.


OR, maybe it comes supplied with a 7.1 speaker setup that you have attached to a frame you wear over your shoulders, to surround you with 7.1 channel sound loveliness Very practical!

[Super Stu]

Or they're re-using an old/new part which happens to do 7.1, so it's being tagged onto the spec to pad it out

[charlesr]

Phones are bad for games (useless controls). PDA's and phones are bad for mp3's (not small/light enough). Films get worse the smaller the screen they are displayed on (cinema = goodness).
The PSP is trying to do all of these things. Will it do any of them well?
Sony do have a knack of miniturising equipment whilst still retaining functionality, so perhaps they will succeed. But personally, I just want to have a phone, a GBA type device, an mp3 player and a PDA and then have them all communicate with each other if necessary and choose which things to take with me when I go out.