New questionable PSP rumors surface
by Chris Powell 
{ Aug 22nd 2006 at 12:00PM }
I know how you all love rumors, and a new set of them have been making the rounds the last couple days. A gen[M]ay forum poster supposedly has access to all sorts of Playstation inside information, and he says Sony has huge plans for the future of the PSP and PS3.
Any kind of announcement like this should be met with a high degree of skeptivity, especially since a lot of his post is filled with blatant and hate-filled fanboyism.
Here's what he had to say:
- The PSP's GPS peripheral is currently on hold;
- The PSP PS1 emulator will be included in a firmware upgrade in October;
- The Playstation online store for the PSP and PS3 will launch before Nov. 13;
- A new PSP entertainment pack is coming next month. It will retail for $250 and will include a 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails, and the Lords of Dogtown UMD. No headphones will be included;
- Sony has plans to use the PS3-PSP connectivity similar to the Location Free Player in that you'll be able to see your PS3's screen on your PSP as long as they're both on the same network. However, this feature may not be ready in time for the PS3's launch but should be soon after;
- Sony plans for more than 200 new PSP titles between now and the end of the year; and
- The reason for the UMD flop can be blamed on Sony's "hands-off" approach concerning certain UMD stipulations, like pricing and extra content. Because of this, movie studios began releasing less than stellar movies with next to no special features. Sony isn't ready to give up on the UMD and plans to rectify this by instituting a $15 MSRP cap and all future UMDs must have the same features as their DVD equivalent.
P.S. Can anyone find my very special, made up word of the day?
(Via the gen[M]ay forums)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
No Name @ Aug 22nd 2006 12:11PM
Was it "skeptivity"?
200 games? Sure...
Joel @ Aug 22nd 2006 12:50PM
nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I bought my Giga Pack for 250 without a game!!!!!!!!!whaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
Maybe thats kind of a pricedrop....who knows...
henry @ Aug 22nd 2006 12:58PM
was it fanboyism?
gregger @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:15PM
Skeptivity is a perfectly crommulent word! It embiggens my vocabulary and has a certain ring of truthiness to it.
TTFN
SuicideNinja @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:53PM
$15 is still too much for UMD moves. $10 or less. I wouldn't mind if they didn't have special features if the cost wasn't so ridiculous. DVD or UMD? Let me think about this...I'll take the former.
pixelator @ Aug 22nd 2006 1:54PM
GPS on hold - No biggie, this would be a pricey niche item.
PS1 emu firmware update in Oct - Good, so long as they don't hose the game pricing.
The entertainment bundle, if true, lends credence to the $150 price drop theory. $150 PSP + $30 game + $20 UMD + $50 1GB stick = $250.
Seeing PS3 display on PSP wirelessly sounds interesting, but a bit gimmicky. I doubt it'll look great, either, since the resolution of the PS3 output would be much higher and need to be compressed. This might only be for UI stuff, since he doesn't mention games.
$15 UMD cap plus features would go a long way toward reviving the format, but they would also need a stronger marketing push. If any retailers have actually signed off of UMD, it'll take a lot to bring them back.
200 games sounds like BS, though I could see Sony trying to make the claim.
Don @ Aug 22nd 2006 2:08PM
"P.S. Can anyone find my very special, made up word of the day?"
I'm still trying to find the information that doesn't "sound too far-fetched".
h0mi @ Aug 22nd 2006 2:20PM
"plans to rectify this by instituting a $15 MSRP cap and all future UMDs must have the same features as their DVD equivalent."
Well, it's a _cap_... I'd better not see a $15 UMD next to a $19 DVD, that UMD better be under 10. I can live without special features; I want it to be cheaper for a format that I can't use on a television.
I've got a 2.01 PSP. I'm thinking of delving into the homebrew side of things, but it doesn't seem to be terribly easy, and this ps1 emu thing means a firmware update (3.0 anyone?) that would undo alot.
Sin Adam @ Aug 22nd 2006 2:25PM
So what's the word?!?
pixelator @ Aug 22nd 2006 2:42PM
"$15 is still too much for UMD moves. $10 or less"
How realistic. Remind us, o Sonyhater/PSP & PS3 basher extraordinaire, how your opinion matters on ANYTHING Sony?
Zay @ Aug 22nd 2006 3:15PM
lol, what about "fanboyism"
pixelator @ Aug 22nd 2006 4:37PM
I also found this interesting - provided the guy is on the level - that the PSP has supposedly outsold the DS by 1.2m units. Here's one post questioning it and then his reply:
""PSP has outsold DS and DS Lite by 1.2m units." In America? Because I've seen the stats in Japan, and the DSL is selling like crazy over there. It's like a 3 DSL to 1 PSP ratio."
"See above. The numbers surprised me too, but it's still considered a very tight battle. There's also the matter that Sony and Nintendo are targetting very different demographics - so the PSP reaches a lot of people with interests the DS just dosn't address."
Matthew @ Aug 22nd 2006 7:34PM
There's only one thing that will really make a place in the world for UMD. They must release a method for us to make our own UMDs. It's that simple. I know they won't, and I know why, but they are cutting off their own feet on this one.
-- Matthew
pixelator @ Aug 22nd 2006 8:23PM
Well, if by 'place in the world' you mean home video market acceptance across the board like a new VHS or DVD standard, no, of course UMD isn't going to get there without UMD-R.
Thing is, Sony isn't trying for that kind of market, as shown by the fact that they haven't released any other devices (yet) that use UMD. Think about it: UMD as a media format for the PSP includes games AND movies. Movies aren't selling. Why? Because people see them as pricey when you can pay under $100 for a bigger screen that plays your existing library of DVD's. It doesn't have anything to do with the proprietary aspect, because iTunes has shown that people will pay for movies and TV that won't play on anything else as long as it's *convenient and cheap* although the video IPOD _does_ do the video out. At least UMD is a physical format (enjoy them while they last).
Put extras in movies, release more first-rate films, institute a price cap of $14.99 with many $9.99 titles and you've just addressed the major complaints most people have had. Add video output and get the online content going and you won't only sell more films on UMD, they'll sell more PSP's.
ZRX @ Aug 22nd 2006 9:17PM
Am I the only one who wanted the GPS ?
Doc P @ Aug 22nd 2006 10:19PM
what if the 200 games include 150 emulated PS1 games, seems possible to me?
OmegaPirate @ Sep 15th 2006 8:07PM
what if the 200 games include 180 emulated PS1 games, seems possible to me?
Virtuous @ Aug 22nd 2006 11:40PM
Could the 200 game titles claim mean 200 titles if you add together existing and scheduled new titles?
You also must remember that DVDs are often sold at discounts from their MSRPs as loss leaders to draw customers in to stores. Maybe Sony should give up on UMD movies and sell movie downloads on Connect. Some people think Internet downloads will render the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray a moot issue.
Tiago @ Aug 23rd 2006 8:48AM
I thought there already was a PSP Shop (at least in Europe) --> https://download.eu.playstation.com/shop/locale_select.htm
Except everything's free... good or bad as that can be =P
Chris @ Aug 23rd 2006 6:43PM
all i wanna know is the word.
:S
Tom @ Aug 23rd 2006 9:36PM
Hey gregger, your FACE is crommulent!
Sponge @ Aug 23rd 2006 11:05PM
How can you believe that the PSP is outselling the DS? That is ludicrous. Sales 7-13, this month:
DS Lite: 196,719
PSP: 41,289
That is just Japan. From http://www.m-create.com/jpn/s_ranking.html (look at the bottom right)
And for US from NPD
July Hardware Sales
NDS = 377,000
PS2 = 241,000
360 = 206,000
GBA = 163,000
PSP = 161,000
GCN = 44,000
Xbox = 12,000
pixelator @ Aug 24th 2006 1:21PM
1). I'm not saying the PSP has outsold the DS everywhere, or that the balance isn't shifting thanks to the Lite and some of the newer DS Mario titles. But if you read the post and Scrivener's replies, you realize there's more to this than just NPD and M-Create (JP). There's some question about how M-Create arrives at their figures, too. In the end, only Sony and Nintendo really know the sales and even then they don't always have sell-through figures for all distributors and retailers.
2). NPD is but a portion of actual sales in the USA (no Wal-Mart, etc.). Japan isn't the biggest or most influential gaming market in the world - and there are other countries involved, such as South Korea and other American, Asian and European nations.
3). There's the small matter of sales up to this point - that other than in Japan, the PSP was overall outselling the DS (Phat) in many countries like Korea, UK, USA, etc. While the momentum is certainly favoring the DS right now, the PSP had a very strong post-launch after the initial hardware shortages were solved and even topped the charts for a few months in Japan. Some biased fanboys would have us believe that Sony's 21 million shipped figure is heavily padded (one site I saw firmly asserted an actual sold figure of 12 million), but in reality there are no vast stockpiles of these things in retail chan warehouses (otherwise they would stop ordering more).
4). Don't always believe the market analysts. They often base figures and predictions on total BS. There's a firm called Gartner that supplies sales figures, market shares and data for tech hardware like PDAs and phones; I talked to an exec of theirs once and he confided that much or most of what they put out there was pulled straight from their staff's asses.