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PSP Go Revealed
Sony's widely-rumoured PSP Go will be released this autumn, according to SCEA’s director of hardware marketing, John Koller.
Speaking in the June edition of monthly gaming show Qore, which was prematurely released on the US PlayStation Network before being recorded and posted online by viewers, Koller talked up the new handheld's specifications, Sony’s downloadable content strategy and new PSP titles.
"It has a 3.8-inch screen, it's 43 percent lighter than the PSP-3000, [it has] 16 gigs flash memory, Bluetooth support and all digital content so the UMD drive goes away, so it's going to be, I think, something a lot of consumers are going to really like - download straight to a hard drive," he said.
"There are games like Gran Turismo that are being announced at E3, LittleBigPlanet we announced before and Jak & Daxter, and there's even a new Metal Gear Solid coming, so all of those games will be available. But then there are movies… that you can rent or buy through the PlayStation Network and TV shows, so you can bring so much content over with you and fill it up with that 16GB flash memory.
"A lot of people like to be able to take their content from PS3 with them on the go," Koller added. "We always look to push innovation. For us we wanted to get into digital and really meet the needs of our consumers. More and more consumers are going online to purchase music and they’re starting to purchase games and they’re purchasing some movies. We always want to be ahead of that curve.”
Koller, who said Sony has decided to pursue “a shared strategy” between hard media and downloadable content, also noted that the company looks at each of its products “as ten-year lifecycle products” and that the PSP-3000 will remain on the market following PSP Go’s release this “autumn.”
Further PSP Go details, perhaps including pricing, are expected to be announced on Tuesday at Sony’s E3 press conference.
Picture credit: Eurogamer
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Indeed, Sony needs to be out of UMD's, like, yesterday.
Going forward, Sony's best chance is making downloadable, touch-capable content simple, like the iPhone. 16GB is more than enough for that. All major release titles need to be switched over to the Pro-Duo format. Last I heard, Sony managed 32GB on one of these cards; they should be able to "phone-in" 4GB. The worst kept secret in silicon valley is that Flash Memory is expensive to produce. This way, Sony won't alienate customers from developers - already "gun-shy" about sales potential. Of course, this will only happen if Sony's arrogance toward UMD is being feigned to reporters. If not, then it's more likely the 2 PSP's will consume themselves.
This device sure is sleek -
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2381/2257628900_77906cf29f_o.jpg
Oops! I forgot. That's not the 'Go. That's the fan mockup from 2 years ago. It was based on a Sony DVD player, & the fan's idea on the best way to compete with the iPhone. To bad Sony would end up sitting on a bunch useless Mylo molds; we might have had a better device.
Maybe someone can give me an answer as to why, after 13 years, Sony still treats analog control like an afterthought?
I think the size is pretty cool, you could carry it in your pocket, and assuming similar quality to an ipod, the screen should be ok. I believe an average PSP UMD game was about 1.3Gb (not sure where I got that from, I seem to remember it), so you should be able to fit about 11-12 games?
The biggest question in my mind is; couldn't they have easily fit a numeric pad where the start/select buttons are? Then jam a simcard in the back, and you've got a massive seller, surely? I'd buy it, and you'd think sony would have access to some decent phone technology lying about?
"all digital content so the UMD drive goes away"
All this time I never realised that UMDs were analogue storage. Now that you mention it, I want my old analogue psp, the games are so much warmer =p
I accidentally deleted a game I purchased on PSN once but you can view and re-download anything you’ve purchased on your account so they may use a slightly improved version of this to manage downloads. I doubt many PSP games are over 1Gig so 16Gig isn’t bad. Problem is PSP Media Manager, which I guess you’ll have to use to manage downloads, it's typical of Sony software in that it’s slow, a bit clumsy and restrictive. Also I can’t imagine they’ll allow you to upload old UMD’s as this will create huge potential for game sharing and piracy, this is the thing most people are going to complain about.
littlewilly91 (oh wow, did I just write that?) pretty much summed up everything Sony should have done with the PSP. Kudos to him for that!
PSP Go, then, seems to do everything Sony didn't have to/shouldn't have done with the PSP. It looks awkward and cumbersome, not very comfortable to hold at all. The screen still has no protection, so it's obviously still prone to scratches and smudge, and from the pictures is looks like it's easy to break (although that might not be the case, and not really possible to determine without seeing the device for ourselves). 16GB is not enough, it always comes short. Regular media players have the same limitation, 16GB has been the norm for almost two years now, where have the 32+ GB solutions gone? I'm aware that it's possible to extend that memory space with a memory stick, but unless Sony manages to provide an easy way to manage the data, it might prove to be quite awkward.
At the moment I can't see all that many advantages to the PSP Go over the PSP 3000, but I'm hoping Sony has some extra tricks up their sleeves their E3-keynote in form of software-solutions and so forth. The details are still rather sketchy, and so it wouldn't be right to draw conclusions just yet. Because if done right, this definitely has the potential to become a very attractive and diverse portable video game console, much like how the iPhone/iPod has turned out to be (and it is also quite obvious that Sony has found some inspiration from these products too).
Well then, here's to hoping for the best for the PSP Go!
ooo painful analog position. maybe we cant say that until we get our greedy mits on it but hey, looks bad. Anyone know if you can delete a downloaded game and redownload it later for free to the same account? There's gonna be space issues otherwise.
...
Sony weirds me out. Just put all the PS3 sixaxis buttons on and add more power so you can get proper ports. Patch some old games, new ones can work with the old control scheme and less CPU power whilst taking advantage of new controls and power in new system. Touchscreen. Subscribe to 3G. Play all formats and let you make playlists. Ebooks/audiobooks combo so you can click to speech when you want. full size USB slot and all the stuff hackers have been able to do ready-installed, word processing, dictation tool, email, youtube, movie and photo editor. 69p games like iPhone available in store. Screen anti-smudge and scratch and less reflective so you can play it outside. Better speakers. Anti-piracy. Might do alright