Bull#$%@#. The four ports were left out as a cost cutting measure. If Sony really believed in online gaming from the get go they would have included a NIC.

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3) The reason the PS2 having DVD capability was so important, was because it was the cheapest DVD player in Japan at the time. Is a consumer reallying going to pay more and get less?

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I agree it was a wise decision in regards to selling the unit. However, to your question "Is a consumer reallying going to pay more and get less?" I would reply that you are misrepresenting what the PS2 DVD capabilities are. Have you ever compared the DVD quality of the PS2 to a standalone? It's pathetic. Yes it does the job, but it only provides about 50% of the picture quality improvement the DVD standard is capable of. The point yes, yes you get more "abilities" with the coupled DVD player, but it in no way is comparable to a stand alone; thus a demanding consumer is going to buy a full fledged product anyway.

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4) Battery life is low, but definetely better than was predicted. When you are pumping PS2 power in a hand-held, its going to suck a lot more than an N64.

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The power required by the processor may be greater then that of the DS, however with 2 separate central processors it's likely that the DS processing actually requires more power then the PSP. So no, it has nothing to do with "the power of the system", its completely separate although traditionally a corelation does exist. However with DS running two ARM processors it likely requires more power to run.

The PSP has low battery life due mostly to its large screen, second being its optical based media which requires a motor to spin it. This is why Sony has put the responsibility of the battery life in the hands of developers. Developers are being asked to program in a manner that minimizes drive access.

If the PSP used a similar screen technology and ROM based media, it would likely have longer battery life then the DS.

The PSP does not suffer low battery times because it is more powerful platform.

A cost cutting measure was to not include a network adapter or hard drive. An extra two ports would cost them nothing.

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I agree it was a wise decision in regards to selling the unit. However, to your question "Is a consumer reallying going to pay more and get less?" I would reply that you are misrepresenting what the PS2 DVD capabilities are. Have you ever compared the DVD quality of the PS2 to a standalone? It's pathetic. Yes it does the job, but it only provides about 50% of the picture quality improvement the DVD standard is capable of. The point yes, yes you get more "abilities" with the coupled DVD player, but it in no way is comparable to a stand alone; thus a demanding consumer is going to buy a full fledged product anyway.

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Its digital. There is no quality loss. The only thing you can lose is numbers, and there definitely is not that big of a difference or it wouldn't play at all. Yes, the PS2 DVD player doesn't have as many bells and whistles (like all the picture correction) that stand-alone players do, but it does display the entire encoded picture. It just doesn't filter it, AFAIK, like stand-alone players to do make it look better.

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The power required by the processor may be greater then that of the DS, however with 2 separate central processors it's likely that the DS processing actually requires more power then the PSP. So no, it has nothing to do with "the power of the system", its completely separate although traditionally a corelation does exist. However with DS running two ARM processors it likely requires more power to run.

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Do your research. PSP runs two processors.

The screen size is comparable to the two screens that the DS is running. The only difference is that the screen quality is much better. The screens are much brighter and clearer which consumes more power. ROM based technology is great for the 80's, but in order to provide PS2 quality graphics on a ROM, you would need an extremely large memory unit costing $100s of bucks. You may recall that this was the NeoGeo's problem. The system relied on tons of memory on the carts which drove cart prices in the hundreds of dollars. Optical medium is what was needed to do what Sony wanted to do. This isn't a rehash of a system from the late 90's. This is technology of only a few years ago.

That UMD drive is probably a big part of the battery issues as well.

Battery issues are really the only negative I see for this handheld. Battery is a problem with PDAs as well. They have gotten faster, with more features and better screens, but the battery technology is holding them back. It is not uncommon now for PDAs to only last 4-5 hours on a charge. We really need some kind of advancement like butane battery cells and soon. Sony put a big 1800mAh battery in it, so you really can't blame them for skimping on the battery.

Using the Wi-Fi features of the PSP will not give much play time unless you plug it in for that. Wi-Fi is a real battery killer.

Nintendo may give up graphics to the PSP, but the DS will be a much more portable device. That 4-6 hours of battery is really going to be a tough limitation (I'm hoping for some real time tests to see how accurate that 4-6 is). With the frequent chargings the PSP will need the battery probably won't last much more than a year either if used frequently. Lithium Ions can only be recharged a few hundred full cycles. Thankfully Sony has made the batteries user replaceable.

I just can't wait to own a PSP!!! This thread isn't about the DS...it's ALL PSP baby!

The crux of the matter is that Sony priced this puppy way below what people had anticipated. I'm sure Nintendo is quaking in their boots right about now. The PSP releases 10 days after the DS in Japan which will put a lot of pressure on the DS to succeed right out of the gates. No matter which system "wins" remember that competition is good for the consumer (us). That said I'll be getting a PSP for $230 (with all the accessories).

ps. I find it funny that the Gameboy crowd forgets all the accessories that Nintendo "makes" you buy like a frikin backlight for the first GBA because you couldn't see the screen, or better still just buy a new GBA:SP where we fixed the problem. And then buy a special port just to use standard headphones!?

joshd, I do not have time to fully respond your post, but you have my word that I will do do before the weekend is up. Frankly, most of what you posted in response to me is incorrect.

I hope to post a much more technical response in its own topic directly comparing the hardware of the devices that will show you were you are misinformed.

I lied, I'm not going to get this up this weekend, I have to many projects to complete for tomorrow, don't worry though, I'll "get er done" eventually. At least before they launch. ;) Seriously, in a couple days.

To be fair I think Sony was feeling pressure from the great response the DS has gotten so far and that is why they priced the PSP at $199. Nintendo probably priced the DS at $149 because of the threat from the PSP as well.

This is why competition is so good. If Sony had not felt a threat from the DS they probably would have launched the system at $299 and I'm sure the DS would have been at least $199 if it was launching against no competition.

I'm sure I will get both handhelds and I really hope both find a strong market. We really don't want Sony (or anyone else) to fully dominate the gaming market.

The PSP launch lineup is just awful, IMO. It's even worse, relatively speaking, than the PS2 launch games way back when.

Only 4 of the 12 launch games have been announced:

Need For Speed Underground Rivals
Tiger Woods Pro Golf
Dynasty Warriors
Hot Shots Golf

Everything else is pure speculation. You can't really comment on all the launch titles until they are announced.

One killer GTA original title with full craziness (i.e. no top-down silliness) and PSP will fly out the door like hotcakes. That's their killer app.

Only problem with that is that GTA is constantly streaming data during game play. That is not something that will work well on the PSP with its limited battery life.

That is the only big hurdle I see for a PSP version of the PS2 type of GTA game. I'm sure they will find a way to do it though it will have to be scaled back a lot from the console version.

Untrue. The extra two ports would cost them the 40 bucks (why so much if it's such a trivial thing?) they forced everyone to pay to get the multitap. Witness the slimmed down PS2, still two ports, but you have to buy a brand new multitap...

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=5251

Kutaragi comments raise fresh concerns over PSP battery

Rob Fahey 14:51 01/11/2004

Battery life will eventually be good, but what of first-generation machines?

Speaking in an interview with Japanese site Impress PC Watch, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has admitted that graphically intensive game will drain the PSP's battery more rapidly than the quoted figures.

"A puzzle game will last longer, but Ridge Racer will probably be shorter than that," he told the site, referring to the battery life statistics released by SCE last week - which claimed four to six hours of battery while playing games.

The figures quoted by SCE rely on playing with headphones, without using the wireless multiplayer capabilities of the device, and with screen brightness set in a specific range - leading to widespread speculation that using the full power of the system will bring the battery life down closer to the originally rumoured two hour level.

Kutaragi's comments seem to confirm that games which use the features of the console more intensively will drain the battery life faster, and are backed up by the firm's efforts to restrict developers from using features such as data streaming from disc (as used in a large number of PS2 titles) due to their high power consumption.

The SCE boss was adamant, however, that the battery life problem would be solved in future - telling the interviewer that "in the future, we'd like a single charge to last for a flight between Narita [Tokyo] and New York" - a fourteen hour trip.

He cited the Sony Walkman as an example of battery technology progress, pointing out that the device had started off with an exceptionally short battery life. However, he stopped short of saying that the company plans to upgrade the battery technology in future revisions of the PSP, instead focusing on the possibility that developers will find ways to optimise their games to use the battery life more efficiently.

The implication is clear, however, and Kutaragi's comments will undoubtedly be taken as a tacit admission that there is a problem with the PSP's battery life - and that the firm may be hoping to fix this in a later revision of the hardware.

Whether this problem is likely to scare off early adopters or not is a major question - but Sony is certainly being conservative in its shipment estimates for the device. Reports today indicating that the company expects to ship three million units of the device in its financial year, compared with Nintendo's projection of four million units of the similarly-priced Nintendo DS console, citing this as the ceiling of its production capacity for the system.


Chris

I appreciate Kutaragi's candor, but it really pisses me off that they continue to put the onus on developers to make up for their deficient hardware. The whole reason the PS1 gained the market share that it did and the PS2 maintained it was that they made it easier and more enticing to develop for them than to develop for Nintendo or Sega. Looks like they've forgotten that.

Without the first party strength and the long track record of handheld success that Nintendo brings to the table, Sony had better realize that courting developers is the only hope they have. I'll wager a few of them are taking a hard look at the DS right now and saying, "You know, that'd be fun to develop for..."

Yeah well, in the future, I would like 10 millon dollars.


Oh, and a 14 hour long battery charge for the PSP.

I agree it's pretty poor but the long-term 3rd party support looks good. And the US launch will be way better than the Japanese one.

His Walkman comparison was pretty lame. The original Walkman may have only gotten two hours of battery life, but to get better battery life you had to buy a brand new Walkman a few years later. I hope that is not the case with the PSP.

It will kind of suck if two years later you have to buy a PSP+ to get decent battery life.

I'm just hoping some real reviewers get PSPs soon and can do some real testing of the battery life.

If they had anything worthwhile it would have been announced some time ago. These games are the definition of shovelware.

Man this is looking worse by the week. I sure hope for Sony's sake this doesnt crash and burn.

We'll see. I'll be passing on both handhelds.

All 4 of those have the potential to sell fairly well. I really enjoy the Dynasy Warriors series. However none of those will be "system sellers".

Dec 12 releasing dates and the stores have no idea how many sets they are going to get and when to start the pre order!

Rumored to also be out 12/12:

Lumines
Ridge Racers
Darkstalker's Chronicle
Tower of Purgatory

For me, I need to own Lumines, Darkstalker, and NFS with the possibility of getting Hot Shots and Ridge Racers

Josh,

Sorry to get off topic, but just wondering about the statements you made in this thread (http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=301014) since you havent been there in a while.