bdbdbd said: @Alby: There's also the thing, that in order for the PSP (and any other product), to remain profitable, it needs to remain a certain production and shipment level. If PSP hardware keeps selling, it shouldn't have profitability issues, but if sales go down, the profit margin may go down too.

Yes, this has to do also with Sony's size: a smaller company could pay to have sales even smaller than PSP, but for a big company it wouldn't be as good, a big company has bigger costs that need bigger earnings, and the PS brand itself needs good sales to be kept alive and kickin'. If SW doesn't help it enough, Sony must emphasize and advertise more those functions that permitted good HW sales anyway.

IMHO, for Sony and PSP, UMD is a bigger defeat than games sales. I alredy thought it was doomed years ago, UMD is an optical medium too Sony-proprietary, BD struggled to win even supported by a large consortium, UMD couldn't count on such third party support, they'd have supported it only if Sony were able to make it a winner by its sole forces.

Lolcislaw said: The problem with the PSP is lack of support from Western developers and Sony itself, they do not produce enough games to keep the system alive, it does get good japanese support but thats not enough to sell software in EU/America. PSP has some good games but it just needs more support from its own company. Because it sill is a good piece of hardware.

The problem with the psp is that its so easy to hack, almost everybody hacks the psp to play SNES, N64, DREAMCAST, FREE PSP GAMES.

Which= Low software sales

I dont hack my psp, im not really into handheld gaming, so I dont bu psp games, I still have yet to purchase FF VII CC, and GOD OF WAR PSP.

 

I tried it a lot of times at stores, I really can't stand PSP for games, its controls layout and size gives me writer's cramp in a few minutes, and about movies too, I wouldn't spend money to watch them on a so little screen, but I think it's a good multi-purpose portable device. Maybe, considering that HW sells well, SW not so good and movies really bad, I'm not alone with my opinions...

why is everyone talking like PSP is the only portable system that can be hacked and that's why PSP has low software sale? DS can be as easily hacked as PSP.

saicho said: why is everyone talking like PSP is the only portable system that can be hacked and that's why PSP has low software sale? DS can be as easily hacked as PSP.

 

Because it's popular to repeat internet memes instead of finding the real solution to the problem.  Which is lack of AAA software(because the few good games do sell) and marketing(if consumers know about your product they are more likely to purchase it)

It's the smaller titles that lack marketing that fall by the way side because would be consumers just don't know.  They do know the ones that were advertised like GOW:CoO and CC:FFVII and thusly they have good sales.  See the parallel?  I wish people didn't really think that if you just got a game to market you were done.  That's a problem that extends far beyond the PSP in many ways.

@Alby: Actually UMD was never meant to be anything other than a proprietary format, so in that sense it wasn't a failure in similar fashion with HD-DVD for example. UMD is supposed to have originated from BD developement, so it necessarily doesn't have much R&D costs behind it, which doesn't make it even a financial failure. I have no idea did Sony have any future plans for it, but if they had ones, nothing is really lost in that sense. PSP may have caused only a minor setback (perhaps major at tops).

@Kyros: The SD slots primary function is to serve as a strorage for DSiWare games (this is what Nintendo makes money with). Basically the "play your own music" has the same idea as it has with Wiis same function; it didn't create additional cost, so it's a function that you can have.
The build-in media functions in DSi are due to removal of the GBA slot, when you can't use any of the peripherals that use the slot (such as web browser and the music/video player) and basically you have to offer the functions, since they were available in the two previous DS models.

Or can you give a logical reason why Nintendo would want to duplicate its competition, when Nintendo has outsold it by more than 2:1 so far? It would be like Nintendo wanting to duplicate PS3 with Wii, having a BD player in it, with a pricetag of 600+. If Nintendo would have wanted to replicate PSP, DSL would have been a multifunctional device.
Look, there's a big difference between when you actually design the product as a multifunctional device and adding functions later on to a successful product in order to get additional sales. With the camera and DSiWare, you could also consider DSi being a completely new, online-only, platform with backwards compatibility to DS, when it would have been designed as a multifunctional device right from the beginning.

About the dying single use devices, considering that most of the devices sold overall are single use devices, i'm having hard time seeing how they are dying. Multifunctional devices can't really compete single use devices due to the added cost of extra features, since people buy the product for a certain use anyway. Only way to have multiple functions in competetive fashion is to add functions that doesn't increase the cost of the product. For example DVD players can play CD:s too, where the CD function can be put into the player without extra cost. Wii has backwards compatibility because it didn't add to costs. Digital still cameras can film video, because it doesn't increase the price in retail.

You mean similar to the inclusion of Skype and music/video playback in PSPs? Seriously I think this is a bad point.



Because the PSP has sold pretty well in Japan compared to the DS recently and many people are using it for video/music etc.?
Duplicating the advantages of the competing product would only be bad if they would loose anything in the process. But that is simply not the case. You can argue that the inclusion of the BluRay player made the PS3 more expensive.
But this is a one example. The 360 is a multifunctional device too, hell even the Wii will get a video channel.



It IS a multifunctional device. It plays music, it has a web browser. It has a camera.



Only true if the extra features are hardware. But as I said if you have a processor, storage, a screen, an input device and an internet connection your
possibilities are endless, and these hardware "features" are shared by a wide variety of devices from console, to phones. The problems of the PSP do not come because it was intended as a multifunctional device but because they tried to shrink a PS2 into your pocket. (My opinion).

He does make some good points, and I think the PSP is struggling bigtime outside of Japan, especially in software sales

But I'm freaking pumped I got a PSP for christmas this year cause i skipped the drought of games and have already bout like 10 older ones for dirt cheap. So for me right now the PSP has a ton of games to play since before christmas i hadn't played any of them

@Kyros: I'll start with "fitting PS2 into the pocket" (or to be more specific, a home console into the pocket), which i definately agree. That's the biggest mistake Sony did with PSP. It gives you very little reasons to buy a PSP in the first place.

Not having a video playback wouldn't have required an optical drive in it. Playback from memory stick would have been similar thing to the addition of playback to DS. Addition of Skype, then again, is the kind of example i'm talking about.
The difference here is, that when PSP was released, it already had its multimedia functions, while when DS was released, it could only be used to play DS and GBA games. Now, four years and 90 million sold units later, the third DS model gets its first added built-in function.

Yes, DSL has a camera, plays music and has internet browser, but they all are available by buying a peripheral. If you want a new function, you pay more money for it, and the function you don't need, you don't have to pay for it.

For the functions, even if they can be added through internet, may have costs associated, especially if you use licensed technology. The plug-ins etc. aren't usually free. Wii would have a DVD playback, if Nintendo hadn't had to pay royalties for each unit with playback. Or maybe Nintendo is saving the function for a later date if sales start to decline and they want to get additional sales.

When we talk about multifunctional devices, it's about overshooting the customer. Basically every device has its core function and the device is primarily sold to its core audience, ie. the people who use it for its core function. When you add a new function, you expand your potential audience to people who might want the device for its extra function, but at the same time the function adds to the cost of the product, when you have two options; either to sell it with less profit (or even at a loss) or sell it for more bigger price, when you lose some of the potential sales. Keep adding the functionalities, you keep adding the size of the potential audience, but you also either keep lessening your profits or the people who actually want to pay the price you want them to pay for it. PS3 is the best example i can think of, it's sold at a loss, for more than people wants to pay for it. Multifunctional devices usually face problems with single function devices, since the latter are often sold for cheaper with better profit margins.