What Sony should really do with the PSP
17 September 2007 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
I got myself one of the new PSP Slims for my birthday recently. It’s my first PSP so I think I have a fresh take on the situation.
As a long-time happy DS owner, I like the PSP a lot more than I thought I would, but Sony clearly has some room for improvement.
Recent jackassery has forced me to write up my thoughts on the subject before I move on to something more relevant to my “real life” (like raising a kid or my day job).
Sony has created a handheld system for the hardcore audience. The PSP doesn’t compete with the DS any more than the PS3 competes with the Wii: it’s just a different kind of experience with different software. They need to capitalize on that difference, not try to close the gap.
So here’s my wishlist for the PSP:
- Better video support: I need to be able to throw the most common (within reason) video formats at the PSP and it needs to do the right thing. For me, that means 3GP files from cam phones and iPod video podcasts. IT’S AN INTERNET DEVICE THAT EVEN HAS AN RSS READER! It’s crazy that the PSP can’t deal with these files and you need to do some kind of re-encoding backflips to get them to play. I don’t know much about video so maybe it’s a hardware limitation, but if there’s any possible way to fix it in software without tanking the battery life, Sony needs to make happen, seriously. I understand these files are created for different hardware profiles than the the PSP (let’s not go into the reasons) but “good enough” display of common file formats would go a really long way. I need to watch the 1UP Show on my PSP without writing a bunch of crazy scripts on my Linux box to transcode everything to your dorky format. iPod video is the defacto standard and phonecam video is close behind. Transcoding is a total loser. Make it happen guys and actually leech a ton of free value out of that iPod ecosystem out there.
- “Steam for PSP”: I actually know much more about XBox Live than Steam but XBLA has its own problems so maybe what I hear about Steam is the right model. Nintendo is obviously not going to get this right so this is a place where the PSP can really shine as a native network device for a sophisticated audience.
- You need real single-sign on and friends list with presence just like XBL. Not cloning this is ridiculous, it’s pure software: just make it happen people. Try to come up with some kind of messaging without a real keyboard or microphone (maybe a better on-screen keyboard could suffice, that T9 thing is bad bad bad).
- The PSP online store needs to come on strong and it needs to happen yesterday. That doesn’t mean killing UMD. Killing UMD is a jackass move because it’ll piss off retail and maybe hurt your low-tech audience (if they exist). Every PSP needs to keep having a UMD drive at this point or you fragment the market and create a compatibility problem. But 4GB memory sticks are super cheap, and Steam lets you download games OR buy them at retail. Retail isn’t out of the loop, but people who hate UMD (or hate retail) can download games directly from the PSP store. Everybody wins. Maybe a few titles are too big or too political for download and you can only get them on UMD, but that’s fine since every PSP still has a UMD drive. But most games without crazy cutscenes bloating up the disk could be bought over download and I won’t have to fumble around with these stupid fragile slow-loading disks every time I want to change games.
And this can’t require me to own a PS3 or to plug my PSP into a PC, that way lies madness. It needs to be completely happening on my PSP or you’re doing it wrong. If I run out of room on my memory stick and delete a game, you need to let me re-download it again later without re-buying, again iTunes-style.
- (optional): Since you need to ramp the PSP store into high gear to sell new/catalog titles over download, I’d really love to see an iTunes-like flat-fee service for selling old PS1 games via download. I never finished my copy of Vagrant Story and I’d love to play it on my PSP, but I’ll need to hack my firmware to do it. Don’t make me deal with this crap: make playing old games so easy and cheap and good that I pay you for the pleasure. $5 for any PS1 game would be a non-brainer decision for me and I would rebuy tons of games I already have on disc with no ill-will, and a huge PS1 library available at a flat fee would make XBLA and the Virtual Console look totally overpriced.
Come on guys. You’re not going to beat the DS at their game but you can clearly make your own game and totally own it.
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i think that T9 should be made avalible on the on sceen keyboard