I never understood why people think no UMD is bad. In 10 years I doubt any consoles will have physical discs, so you might as well get used to it anyways.
I for one love not having to worry about losing a disc, not having to pay for shipping, etc. All you get out of a disc is a physical box that takes up space on a shelf somewhere.
Given how many PSP games pushed the storage capacity of the UMD drive, I would hope to god Sony is using a different media for storage this time around.
The PSP2 is a new handheld, I don't rank backwards-compatibility that high on my list vs. say, the PSP Go, which I'm surprised Sony never had an optional UMD drive for. Going to be the usual PS3->PS2 complaints all over again. Odds will probably be good regardless though that it'll support PSN releases of PSP1 games. It'd give me incentive to purchase new titles digitally for both PSPs whenever I get one.
no UMD is actually a step in the right direction because improved portability would mean not having to worry about carrying game discs and having all games be digitally portable.
the one concern it brings up for me is that this mean it wont be backward compatible directly with physical PSP games. This won't be any of a problem if their entire physical library is also available on PSN and that they'll set it up so that people will have the option of somehow proving that they own a legit physical PSP game so that they can download a digital copy to use with a PSP2. Then again I'm not sure if they already have something like this set up for the PSPGo.
If they can overcome this, i think they're golden... Backward compatibility doesn't seem like it should be a major focus but I think it really covers up Sony's weakness vs Nintendo (in the porta game market) in terms of gaming libraries. The NDS has like a decade of games to work with. PSP is struggling to keep up with PSP and PS1 classics. If the PSP2 can extend this with its own generation of games and maybe even digital PS2 games, I think far more people will be sold on it. I for one await the day that PS2 'classics' are available for DL and play.
I feel that eventually everything will go digital and physical copies are really just for collectors
Can't say I like the design from the last page. Looks like playing it would almost be like double-gripping a hamburger or something in terms of thumb stretch while trying to support the system with your fingers. Basically the buttons/sticks need to be a bit closer to the edges.
Yeah I personally would rather have them below the D-pad and buttons. If the pictures are real then I hope it is indeed a prototype and it's been changed already.
Sign into PSN on old style PSP with UMD that you want registered in, link it to your account, and then download said game on PSP2. The problem is finding a way to link the physical UMD to the PSN ID so that a single game can't be registered more than once. I'm not sure how hard that would be.
Impossible given I highly doubt that every UMD has a unique identifier code built-in. Besides, what's to stop you from just selling the UMD after the fact and making some money back while still owning the digital copy?
It'll never happen, and a more likely option is a UMD add-on for PSP Go/PSP2.
thats true.. it'd be too exploitable..
but then again, they already have homebrewers to deal with.
I think the most practical course of action would just be to have every single PSP game on the PSN library at far reduced prices, or possibly just make them slightly cheaper than physical copies from physical release and then lower the prices the longer its been... it should be able to draw more people in and switch people over to digital more..
The only way I can think they would give us free online DLs of UMDs is if you mailed in the UMD and/or proof of purchase off packaging (similar to how some companies handled trading blu-rays initially.) In the future they could simply put a ditigal DL code or something like a authentication key like with the physical copy. I still really like the idea of owning a physical copy of my game incase of whatever. Say you get banned from PSN then you're fucked if you need to re-DL the game.
Also did Sony change it's policy because initially it was you'd be able to DL a game 5 times for free but I'm not sure if they ever went with that.
The simplest solution is to switch to memory sticks/flash media to sell games on. Flash media may be a bit more expensive but it also has huge advantages over a format like UMD.
Afaik PSN's policy is you can download any number of times on the majority of content (developers *can* make it limited-download or have an expiry date I believe) on up to 5 PS3s and 5 PSPs authenticated to the account.
im glad that they're getting rid of the umd drive. so much easier to have many games playable from your hard drive
Or they could strike a deal with gamestops around the country, let them keep the umds (for a price, $2/ea?), and give them the ability to issue digital downloads of said UMD's free of charge to the customers.
Thus, gamestop would have an incentive to do the deal, they get product to sell to people with older psps, (for a cheap price), customer gets digital download for their new psp2. Also this would give gamestop the ability to sell the digital downloads out right.
I know its unlikely, but it is a possible concept they could use, if they so chose to work with game retailers.
i think its less of a reason than it was a side effect.
considering how reliable broadband networks are now with data transfer, digitally downloaded games are highly feasible and effective.. and the cost of setting that up and maintaining it is far cheaper than physical sales. Reducing/eliminating physical sales means saving on costs from physical production, packaging, storage, transportation and all sorts of other logistical issues...
stores like gamestop are at a losing end no matter how much Sony likes them.. but there will still be a certain demand for the 'hard copies' i suppose...
As long as they give you the ability to save/back up games to external sources like flash media I'm cool with DL only. I'd hate to buy a game and eventually down the road get fucked because the game gets pulled off the network after I erased it because my HDD on the unit was full. Either way I kind of wish that Sony would focus more on the PS3 anyways PSP has so many good RPGs and such. I'd give my left nut for a FF: Dissidia for PS3.
Figured i'd put this here since it's more along the lines of psp and not just consoles in general.
I'm really surpised no one has posted anything about this yet: http://www.tekgoblin.com/2010/12/04/...evealed-video/ Playstation "Zeus" (codename).....could this possibly be the newest version of the psp? (probably not, but running android on a playstation handheld somehow seems to arouse me...)
Okay, that is hot.