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Sony PSP: worth the $249+ for flaws? |
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Wednesday, 30 March 2005 |
Sony
PSP: worth the $249+ for flaws?
Indiana
Statesman
After 15 years of handheld gaming dominance, Nintendo finally has some
competition to worry about.
On March 24, Sony released its long-awaited handheld system, the PlayStation
Portable, or PSP.
The PSP features a bigger screen, a sleek black casing and PS2-quality graphics
you can now take everywhere.
The system also plays universal medium discs (UMD), movies and music. The PSP is
wi-fi compatible and features tons of little things like stereo sound and MP3
playback that should really bury Nintendo's DS and GameBoy systems.
Right?
Unfortunately, there is a dark side to the PSP - and one that Sony is well known
for. The PSP has much promise for features that will revolutionize handheld
gaming, according to Sony. But they also made the same promise with the PS2, and
it has never lived up to the pre-release promises made by Sony.
There is also the price. Retailing for $249, with each game going for $50 and to
save the games, you have to buy a $50 memory stick, to even play one game out of
the box, you have to chunk down over $350!
But it plays movies, you say? Yes, it does, but movies are played on such a
small LCD screen. To enjoy it, you have to hold it just right, and the screen
isn't even big enough to benefit.
Plus, each movie costs 20 bucks, and only Sony/Columbia films are going to be
released (the other studios are less than enthused with the new UMD format),
meaning the movies you can watch are narrowed considerably.
And if you spent $20 on a Spiderman 2 DVD last fall, why would you spend the
same money again for a much less inspiring presentation?
Sony has included a copy of Spiderman 2 with the system, but only the first
million units.
Which leads us to another point. Sony's marketing strategy for all of their
systems have always bordered on shady-ness.
They intentionally limit production to drive up demand. The PSP launch has been
in the works for over a year, yet Sony could only produce a million units for
the United States.
If you remember, they did the same thing with the PS2 in 2000 and again this
past holiday season with the slim-line PS2s.
It is a marketing strategy that works, don't get me wrong, but it really plays
on the emotions of the true, hardcore gamers.
One last issue that is classic Sony - the product's flaws.
Sony has in the past released inferior products only to correct the problem well
past the initial warranty period, forcing the hardcore gamer to plunk down
another $250 on a new system.
A good case in point is the fact that in Japan, Sony is now releasing the PSP
1.5, an upgraded unit that fixes some of the problems of the first generation
units.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 March 2005 )
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