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Groucho on 19 January 2009
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MaxwellGT2000 said:
Groucho said:

I think there will be a PSP-4000 before there is a PSP2.

And yes, I think PSP sales will pick up this year in America -- DS/DSLite owners are eyeing it as an upgrade, instead of the DSi I think.

Remember that when the PSP-2000 was released, Sony effectively increased the speed of the PSP processor to 333 MHz, by removing the firmware cap on it (it had been capped to 222 MHz for the first couple years, and 277 MHz only after the release of Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, as I recall -- battery reasons).  The 333 MHz "upgrade" effectively coincided with the release of God of War on the PSP -- and I think the reason is obvious.  

This "bonus" speed increase would have had an influence on game performance in the past year, but will start to have an effect, from a PSP game design perspective, starting this year (since games releasing now were very early in development when they got news of this speed increase, and could be adjusted to benefit from it). The PSP games coming out this year are thus, a little more ambitious, and it'll probably show in terms of quality.

The current PSP models are damn near as fast as a PS2 -- faster in some ways -- and they have 64 MB of memory to boot.  I would not at all be surprised to see a PSP2, in ~3 years, that sported a 848x480 LCD (the PSP1 is 480x272), and perhaps even had the ability to play downloadable PS2 titles from the PSN, as well as PS1 and PSP1 games.  It could have the horsepower of a Wii, easily.

 

... wow I never thought I'd ever see that... an upgrade that doesn't play any of your old games brilliant... DS is an upgrade of a GBA, PSP is a solid stand alone and has a different variety of games for it, very good games but very different for the demographics. 

Also with Sony's finanacial troubles new PSP development would probably be put on hold since PSP is profitable and developing, plus with the idea you have would probably mean Sony would sell the PSP2 at a loss like they did with PSP1 and they can't do that right now...

OT: PSP will have a great year I think there will be more sales this year over last, and as long as they have amazing bundles like the R&C bundle with the 3000 series that comes with everything you need to play right out of the box even a memory card then they'll get great sales.

I know a downright huge number od DS owners who are looking for something "new", and they already own a DS/DSLite.  A good portion of them have gone out and purchased a PSP (go figure).  With such a small number of handheld gaming options out there, I think this makes a lot of sense.  The PSP provides gaming variety that merely upgrading your DS to a DSi cannot provide.  Both handhelds are aging, and this is exactly the phase of a console generation where the number of multiple console owners *really* starts to rise.

The PSP is the perfect (and only, really) candidate for DS owners to purchase, if they're looking for something new and fresh (from their DS).  I think the PSP, in a sense, fits into the "next gen DS" category, after this extended time of both handhelds' existance -- nothing wrong with the DS, except yeah, its market saturation is WAY higher, and there's already a clear "upgrade" in existance (the PSP).  Simple "out with the old, in with the new".  The DSi doesn't cut it, thus the PSP will pick up (some).  It will NOT do so in some huge manner, but it will pick up this year, I feel certain.  Lots of good titles coming, etc.  The PSP has proven itself a viable alternative to the DS (like no other handheld has done vs Nintendo), and Nintendo has just plain not upped the bar at this late stage (instead they removed BC with the GBA, and reduced battery life... wierd).

Merely by releasing the DSi in America, Nintendo has effectively stated "Guess what?  No new Nintendo handheld anytime soon".  Which is a darn good reason to buy a PSP, if you're looking for a change/serious upgrade at this stage in the handheld gaming arena.  Unlike the home console market, the handheld market is still thriving largely on technological improvements, and catering to the gamer demographic, rather than the blue ocean.

The Japanese trend wasn't all Monster Hunter, IMO.  They get tired of "the old" faster than the West does.  I think the same thing will happen in the US this year, as in Japan last year (although I don't think the PSP will outsell the DS for a while, like it did in Japan).