ZarkSeven

This week Sony is releasing their newest handheld: the PSP Go.  It’s the fourth iteration of the PlayStation Portable, and the first to differ significantly from its predecessors.  The console is smaller than previous versions, with a slide-up screen and controls located underneath.  The screen is slightly smaller, and overall the whole thing is smaller and lighter.  The biggest change is that the PSP Go does not feature a UMD drive for playing games and movies.  Instead, it has 16GB of internal flash storage, and all games playable on it must be downloaded from the PlayStation Store.

I was cautiously excited for it when the PSP Go was announced at E3 this year.  As the release drew near, I became less and less enthusiastic about it.  Since it comes out in a few days, I figured the time was right to outline why I think that the PSP Go is another misstep by Sony Computer Entertainment.

With the success that Apple has had with the iPhone and iPod Touch, it’s easy to see why the market for downloadable games and content is so appealing.  With the PSP Go, Sony is jumping headlong into this market, with their first “download only” device.  But by making it an iteration of the current PSP rather than a new console, Sony’s attempt to have their cake and eat it too might just backfire.

Look, I’m no fan of the UMD.  Sony is notorious for their BS proprietary formats.  Whether it’s Betamax, digital audio tape (DAT), Memory Stick, Super Audio CD (SACD), Blu-ray, UMD, MiniDisc… Sony’s been obsessed with pushing their own formats, with dubious success.  Just as the world was going to flash drive solid-state storage (think iPod Nano, Nintendo DS carts), Sony comes out with the Universal Media Disc (UMD) that will only play in a PSP.  They are slower to read off of than a solid-state drive.  They’re not large enough to contain the same content as a DVD release with all the extras, resulting in UMD movies that cost more than their DVD counterparts, and with less features.  And their cases are prone to crack.

That said, PSP games have been released on UMD for nearly 5 years now.  And with the PSP Go, Sony is abandoning all of that for downloadable content.  I presently have 82 UMD-based PSP games.  None of those will work on the PSP Go.  Ok, I may not be typical.  Let me put it another way.  There are currently 613 unique PSP titles (across regions) available on UMD, being played on nearly 60 million PSP-1000, PSP-2000 and PSP-3000 consoles.  Not one of those 613 titles is playable on the PSP Go without re-purchasing it from the PlayStation Store.

Well, that’s not entirely true.  Sony threw European owners a small (very small) bone with a PSP Go Rewards program, offering free 3 downloadable games for previous PSP owners by connecting your UMD-based PSP to the PlayStation Store.  But despite promises of a UMD solution for the PSP Go, Sony announced within the last week that there would be no UMD conversion or Rewards program for the U.S. at this time.

Why would I (or any of the current owners of the 6o million PSP’s out there) consider upgrading to the PSP Go?  I’m not talking being backwards compatible with a previous generation of games.  I’m talking being compatible with the current generation of games!  It’s unfathomable to me that Sony would release a current gen console that won’t play current gen games you already own on disc.  What’s next, are they going to take the Blu-ray out of the PS3 Slim, so if I wanted to buy it, my PS3 discs wouldn’t work with it?  It’s ridiculous.

It reminds me very much of the PlayStation 2 Hard Disc Drive?  Remember that?  I do.  I have one.  Theoretically, games could use the HDD to make load times faster, or could be patched and upgraded via downloads to it.  In reality, no one wanted to support it to any real extent, because that would limit game sales to only those people who owned a hard drive.  Only 19 games in the U.S. and 40 Japanese games ever supported the drive, out of a library of 1800 games.  Then, Sony released the PS2 Slim that was too slim for a hard drive, effectively wiping out what what little support those titles did have.  (Final Fantasy XI was unplayable on the PS2 Slim.)

Sony is trying to eliminate the “PS2 HDD syndrome” with their “dual platform strategy.”  They announced yesterday that on launch day they would have “225 downloadable games – a combination of full PSP titles, PSN exclusives, UMD legacy titles and Minis.”  Meaning that not all the games available now on UMD will be downloadable to the PSP Go.  And the ones that are available be purchased from the PlayStation Store will have to be re-purchased in full by previous owners.  But they are potentially crippling future offerings, by trying to appease old and new PSP owners alike going forward.  New games will be made available both on UMD and via download.  In other words, new games will have the same size restriction of 1.8GB, the size of a UMD disc, in order to be released both ways.

It’s not just games on UMD that are not compatible.  Most of the accessories and Memory Sticks aren’t as well.  The PSP Go does not have a mini-B USB port on it like previous PSP iterations.  Instead, it will use a proprietary (surprise!) multi-use connector for charging, USB functionality, and video and sound output.  So you won’t be using the same cables as you used for your old PSP.  Or the same cradle.

Of course the PSP Go, like the other PSP versions, uses Sony’s proprietary flash cards.  But unlike the previous PSP’s, the PSP Go uses a Memory Stick Micro, not a Memory Stick Pro Duo. So if you need to use a flash card in the PSP Go, Sony generously lets you buy a new card rather than using the one out of your old PSP.

Also, the PSP Go has a rechargeable battery like its predecessors.  Unlike them, however, the battery is neither removable or upgradeable.  So if you bought a large battery for your PSP to extend your playtime, don’t expect to use it, or to have any extended playtime, on the PSP Go.

The console cuts out the middle man by selling games directly to consumers.  Retailers have been taken right out of the equation, both for new game and for used game sales.  Manufacturing costs have been eliminated, since for every download purchased, a corresponding disc, case, manual and shipment do not have to be paid for.  And yet instead of all that making the PSP Go cheaper for the consumer, it’s actually $80 more expensive!  Uh what?!

This all seems like a big misfire to me.  Either they should have kept the PSP Go more compatible with the previous PSP’s, or they should have come out with a “next gen” handheld console.  Users were not asking for a download-only handheld with aesthetic upgrades.  Users were asking for better functionality, in the form of:

1.  Touch Screen
If Sony wanted to make the PSP more functional and more like an iPhone/iPod Touch, they should have added a touch screen.  They could have done that with no affect on old PSP titles, and potential new functionality for upcoming titles.  Plus, using the PlayStation Store, the web browser, or any number of applications would be a whole lot simpler with a touch screen.  Have you ever tried using that PSP keyboard??  Uggh.

2.  Dual Analog Sticks
Where the hell are the dual analog sticks?!  If there is one thing that PSP users have been clamoring for since before the PSP was released, it’s dual analog sticks.  Three iterations later, and we still don’t have it.  Why, Sony?  Why?

Once again with the PSP Go (as with the PS3), Sony thinks it knows better what consumers want than consumers themselves do.  Being the gadget hound that I am, you’d think that a newly designed PSP would be an insta-purchase.  If they had made it possible for me to transfer my old UMD’s, or recognized that I owned the UMD and allowed me to download the corresponding game or movie, I probably would have purchased a PSP Go despite its other shortcomings.  But for now, I think I’ll be sitting this one out.