[QUOTE="Generic_Dude"] The system needs more games... that simple. There aren't a lot of must-haves for the system.
I pretty much bought the thing to have Lumines portable (have it already on my 360) and because an Elder Scrolls game was coming out for it. I knew what I was getting into when I bought it, and I don't regret getting it but I understand why many, many people wouldn't see the point. Sony focuses too much on stupid crap (UMD movies, a clunky and useless internet browser) and not enough on games. In fact, the only focus I've seen on putting games on the PSP is Sony's feeble plan to overcharge people for PS1 games that they have to buy a PS3 to acquire. Rediculous.
As I said, I'm happy enough with my PSP as it suits the purposes I got it for, but still. There shouldn't be a big mystery surrounding why the DS is crushing the PSP in sales. Plain and simple, the DS has games. Whether or not you LIKE the games, it HAS them. PSP's library is too small, and out of what's there only a few are real winners.
Topmanfaz
On the contrary Generic_Dude, PSP has loads of winners (MGS, RaC, Daxter, Socom, Killzone, Lumines, Burnout, GTA, Ace combat, Loco Roco, MHF to mention a few). From this list, the only game I can see that might interest my parents is probably Lumines or Loco Roco at best. As for buying it for a kid say 8 or 9 yrs old, I as a parent would worry about the price, the fragility, and the fact that there arent many kid-targeted games released. However, if we look at DS' library, we have New Super Mario Bros, Brain Training, Warioware - T, Pokemon, Yoshis island, Brain Academy, Nintendogs, Mario Kart. From here, all these games seem suitable for my kid, a handful of games (Brain Training, Warioware, Brain Academy, Nintendogs) would interest my parents and since DS has touch screen and a lower price, it appeals as a better buy. Lets face it, PSP has power, DS has revolutionary technology. Seems even. Which is cheaper though? (DS). Which has a larger audience? (PSP-teens, DS everyone else). And which seems more appealing, more fun to use? We've all seen DS commercials, we all cant help thinking 'Wow'. All I can say is after 20 years in the business Nintendo is too f*ck*ing clever for its own good. I'm not as big an MGS fan as the next guy... I don't recognize what Rac is... Daxter? Not really interested. Socom isn't so much my thing, particularly when I play similar games on a big screen. Killzone looks OK, but nothing I could really get into... Lumines is great -- Tetris killer, really... Burnout is silly to me... the GTA games are available elsewhere (PS2, specifically) and are substandard in quality to their non-PSP counterparts (though more GTA is always better IMO). Never played Ace Combat or Loco Roco and I'm not sure what MHF means.
The fact is that the games aren't system-sellers. It also seems that handhelds are more of a kid's market these days... I see more kids with a DS than a Wii, PS3 or 360. So the price point does hurt sales in that regard, but even for people around my age -- 26 -- who have the money and are more willing to spend it than a parent buying something for their 8-year-old, have to wonder whether or not their several hundred dollars would be better spent elsewhere. I guess it's a combination of things, really, but if you're going to charge $300 (or $200 lately) for a system, you're going to need more than Lumines and some half-baked ports to make it worth it. I think more than anything, Sony was too focused on making the PSP everything BUT a gaming handheld, that games ended up getting the short end of the proverbial stick. I paid $160 for my PSP refurbished and have handheld versions of Lumines, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo and Buster Bros and a sequel to Vice City. That, coupled with me doing some things to the unit that we can't talk about on these forums, made it worth it to me. But, for the average consumer, I think that the system wasn't even close to what it COULD have been. I mean, think about it... the PS2 was the greatest console, IMO, since the NES. It has a massive library of games that have a wide range of styles. Final Fantasy, GTA, MGS, Suikoden, Dragon Quest, Dark Cloud, Half Life, Xenosaga... the PSP is only slightly less powerful, but doesn't have to run in as high a resolution anyhow so they could have done almost as much. But they were too focused, as far as I can see, on the rediculous UMD movie format, an awful internet browser and a media player that required that your music and video files fit on an expensive memory format... to say nothing of their fanatical obsession with updating once a week to fight a losing battle on software piracy. Meanwhile, the DS completely ignored that battle and all these poorly implemented bells and whistles, and instead provided games, games and more games that satisfy the lucrative child market and feed the nostalgia of people like me who grew up on their franchises. It isn't even close to as powerful, but it's affordable and has a handful of games that range from excellent to extremely innovative, or at least different. That's the power of focus. Sony could learn a lot from their failures with the PSP and apply it to their PS3... focusing on providing quality games for their gaming console, rather than having it do everything from play next-gen movie formats to cure frigging cancer. I buy a console to play games, and I bought handhelds for the same purpose. As I said, I get enough out of my PSP to warrant the money I spent on it, but I don't think it's a real melon-scratcher as to why the masses got on board their competitor's ship.
EDIT: Crap, sorry about the wall of text.
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