The PSP2 - Page 2

Honestly, Sony has proven to be the best company for indie developers or digital distributed game developers to work with.  MS is very limiting in what they will deal with in terms of really supporting good games and how flexible XBL can be, Nintendo has a lot of bottlenecks (and awful interface) on the Wii Shop Channel, but Sony is willing to promote good indie games and let them do what they want on the PS3.  It's very, very different from how Apple treats downloadable games on iOS platforms.

 

That said, it's different when you're talking about games that are full-sized retail products being downloaded.  Apple doesn't have in-store purchaseable software for the iOS and is, frankly, aiming for quantity over quality, so its a very difficult comparison to make.  The PS3 and PSP currently have Minis, which are iOS-style small/quick/cheap games, but their focus is still on big titles like Metal Gear Solid and Monster Hunter.

I was watching the press conference live on YouTube and I'm pretty sure I could hear everyone in the crowd groan when they announced AT&T as the exclusive provider.  Pretty funny moment.

 

I was really impressed by their Vita presentation.  The 3DS is priced where Nintendo believed people would willingly pay for it (according to their words) but the Vita seems to be priced where people will believe it's a high value for the price.  $250 is probably perfect for this device.  I also have a much more positive impression of what this thing can do and add to the gaming landscape after seeing the demos.  My sole concern is that, like most gaming platforms that introduce something new, the unit will be flooded with old-school software or games that adhere to the same gimmicks over and over again.

 

I'm just wondering if all the good PSP games will get HD PS3 re-releases before the Vita comes out.  Also, will they allow people to buy one copy of a game for Vita and also have it on PS3 (since they showed a few games that would work cross-platform)?

 

EDIT: And yeah, I agree that the name is kind of a "meh" overall.  OK name, not great, and certainly everyone saw it coming.

I kept wondering about the name.   Am I too much of an old fogey that the moment they announced the name I just thought of block cheese?  

 

The thing about portable media that will make it sell are passive games.  It's great they show off uncharted, but that's almost too much attention to play on a mobile device.   There is a reason why stuff like iDogs/iCats and the like sold in such huge volumes.  It will come down to the games to sell this thing
 

 

Thanks, although I didn't learn anything new except that Ruin's name has been changed to Warrior's Lair. Still no tough questions being asked, though.

Memory card pricing is still an issue, they need to bring it down even more at the higher end. $30 for 8gig but they want $60 for 16gig. People expect to pay less per gig for a higher capacity card. The 16gig card should be no more than $50 and the 32gig card should be no more than $80. And even those prices are still excessive. The memory card issue is not going to go away and is the single biggest stumbling block for a lot of people. A 4gig card should be standard in the base price.

Still no word on the following. Digital download pricing versus retail pricing. Digital downloads need to be cheaper than the retail version. Also, more troubling is we're not hearing enough from 3rd party developers. Will EA be making a Madden for the psv? Aside from Fifa, what are their plans? I'd love NHL on the vita. The biggest thing that killed the psp was the lack of software support from western developers. It just dried up badly.

Yeah, that's only a 10% discount though and you will need to download the full game and put it on a memory card. I guess this means you're better off buying the $100 32GB card at launch and only buying games through download.

This is also potentially a way to motivate people to not buy used games since they could get them at a slightly reduced price anyway.

How are used games useless?

I buy used games but also way after their release. The exception is for big franchises that I really like or want to support. That said, I tend to play a lot of games. I don't mind buying them used and late at a reduced price because, frankly, I don't get all of the value out of them and don't feel it's worth a full $60. For example, I'll buy a game like Call of Duty (I don't buy CoD, but I'm using it as an example) and then play through the single-player mode on normal one time then stick the game back on my shelf, completely ignoring the multiplayer modes and other difficulties, and also probably ignoring any future DLC. Is that experience worth $60 to me or somewhere more around $20? If the game was available at a pay-for-what-you-want price, I'd probably only be spending $20 on it.

That said, I bought Uncharted 3, ICO/Shadow Collection, and a handful of other games new on release day because I care enough about those games/companies to support them with my money.

As for the Vita, I'm kind of disappointed in how expensive some of the games are. I also don't like that there's such a big disparity (some are $30, some are $50) but I think it does open the market up for people to try out a variety of experiences based on their budget. That said, if you have a game like Uncharted that is probably going to sell a couple million (it looks to be the big-name highlight of the handheld for now) then why charge $50? I'd think you would want more people to play a AAA-caliber game like that at a more friendly price than a cheaper game that is probably going to be disappointing. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to bump the price of the Vita up a little and then throw Uncharted in as a pack-in game.

3% off? Who sells used games for 3% off? GameStop sells used $60 MSRP new releases for $55 (over 8% off) and they go down from there over time.

And yes, it's true you don't get much when you trade in games. If you want more money, sell 'em yourself on eBay or Amazon or Craigslist. That store has to justify the shelf space and employee effort (not to mention the inventory taxes) on those trade-ins, not simply the difference between the trade-in credit and the resale price. For the trader it's a simple matter of taking less in exchange for convenience.

I *rarely* pay more than $20 for any game. I don't have nearly enough time to play to keep up -- I have plenty of games that came out a couple of years ago that I haven't gotten around to yet. And I won't be finished with all of them by the time something new that I want (Uncharted 3, say) is under $20.

I have never seen GameStop sell a $40 new game for $38 used. And I've been shopping there since around 1980 (back to Electronics Boutique days). The closest to that would be $20/ $18, and that's 10% off.

I don't get the whole pawn shop complaint. You add a middleman with brick-and-mortar expenses to a transaction, the deal won't be as good for the original seller. The seller is basically paying the middleman for its services. Nobody's forcing people to trade in their old games either. When you trade in a game at GameStop, you're not pawning it (i.e., taking a loan and paying interest to get your own stuff back).

What $60 flops are sitting around and never getting price reductions? If a game is a flop (and doesn't say "Nintendo" on it), the price usually drops like a stone!

You don't seriously believe that if used games weren't available, the price of new games would be lower, do you?

I constantly buy games used.   Sorry.   $3 off?   I just bought God of War III for $18.  New, when it came out it was $59.   More like 1/3 the cost.   Here's what I've learned:  maybe rent a game one night (Redbox) see if it is any good.  Then wait a couple months and buy it later.. plus, waiting a while means you get all the patches you KNOW are coming.

I'm going to officially declare this conversation about used games be moved to the other thread.

Back on topic: I have been looking at the selection of PSP games on the PSN that I could buy and play on the Vita, which leads to a good question: has Sony revealed if all PSP games from PSN will play on it or if only some will? I know a selection of games are getting updated to work with the dual joystick setup, but I'm wondering if I can download any PSP game and just play it.

My understanding is that certain psp games can benefit from the dual joystick setup by mapping the face buttons typically assigned to camera control over to the right analog stick. I'm unaware of any actual updating process. All games in a digital download format should work. I don't know of any incompatible game, but I'm sure the odd game may not work. That said, the digital download version of a game may not perform as well as the same game on umd, although for the most part, they should.

For the record, psp dd games should all work along with psp minis. Psone classics will not, but they're supposed to address this at some point in the future. Once I get my vita, I have quite a few psp dd games that I'm anxious to try out and I'll report back if I have any issues.

Also, is there any way to to change the title of this thread. There is no psp2. If not, then I think we need a new thread.