Sony: PSP2 will be a download-only!!!

[MikeB]

Galaki said:

MikeB said:
I am probably more a tech enthusiast than most here.

This will allow the device to be sleeker and more sturdy. It's a portable device and I think removing moving parts is a good idea. It's good for a better battery life, making the device slimmer, less wear issues in course of time, better loading times / higher tranfer rate for streaming and you don't have to worry about carrying storage media with you.

IMO it's the way of the future for handhelds and certainly a much better approach from a technical perspective for long term potential. For retailers it may be less interesting as they will probably only carry PSN code cards for credit.

Broadband internet is also a good idea, the popular iPhones and Blackberries have paved the way for improved coverage. Online gaming can thus become more advanced on handhelds.

Pretty sure most would agree but the majority of consumers aren't ready for it.

I think the market is ready for this, smartphone game sales are exploding.

The PSP isn't ready for this, nearly all of the games weren't designed to take advantage of this just like for example Halo 3 wasn't designed to take advantage of full harddrive installation on the 360. The PSP2 however can be a clean start and Sony will have to highlight the clear benefits. A couple of years from now I think many gamers won't want it any other way (as it's a portable handheld, totally different from a console sitting underneath a HDTV connected to home cinema setup where (size, weight, seperate storage media, etc) the benefits don't outway the disadvantages here).

For example it also to a much greater extend open up the possibility of smaller companies to release games which aren't full retail games published on CD or cartridge. I am confident this is the road to take for the future.