New Sony PSP without the silly UMD slot?


psp_2_mockup

I guess the word ‘silly’ kinda tipped you off on what I think of Sony’s proprietary cartridge disc thing. It’s not that the games are way too pricey for physical copies, but rather that they can sometimes take years to load. The difference between booting a digital copy from my memory stick and loading the game from a UMD can be like night and day. But if we were to mention prices, I also like the fact that I can find certain games on the Sony Store for a mere $15.99 instead of the $20-30 they’d demand on store shelves.

But enough of my blabbering, you want to know about that PSP mockup at the top of the post. Rumour has it that the UMD slot is being ditched and being replaced with 8 or 16GB of flash memory, the controls will magically come out from under the huge sliding screen, and they’re still sticking with the one analog stick deal. As a PSP owner, I think that’s a horrible idea. One of the things I find that really holds the system back is the fact that there’s no way to tightly control movement and aim with only one stick. I understand that it might not  be as simple as adding a couple of new wires to magically enable the system to see new controls, but if Sony is aiming to make this a truly portable Playstation and not simply a Playsholder, then for the love of God of War, give us our second stick!

[news and pic from Slashgear]

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2 Comments

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Michael Anderson
Apr 30, 2009

Couple of thoughts:
- On the analog stick: I completely agree! I liked the mock-ups that had a second stick near the right control pad. Even though older games wouldn’t be able to recognize it (without patching), it would be a real bonus for the system.

- On the pricing: when I look at the store, the $15 games you can get are the ones that are $9.99 pretty much everywhere else because they are old … like Tokobot. Even decent ones like Jeanne d’Arc are $22.50! To me, digital downloads should be cheaper than retail … still waiting for that day …

Oh – another thought … my bottom line is this: the second analog stick could well be the difference between a break-out product and yet another meandering release.


Thomas
Apr 30, 2009

Agreed, Michael.
I just feel like the excuse is that it’s not a “next-gen” PSP and so Sony can just stick to form factor upgrades and a shift to digital downloads. That’s good, but is it good enough to shell out another $199 when I already have an 8GB Memory Stick?

Naaaaaah

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