PSPgo makes you rebuy your games.

[panzer_unit]

Thats like the Who's Who of badly designed products. Sony, much like hipsters are just copying other peoples shit just to fit in. Just another overpriced Hipster wank unit.

Exactly. The product design and obnoxious price point are perfect for someone whose friends are all playing games on iPhone and wants to show off with something that will do them one-better. I never said I agreed with the purpose, but I think the Go will do a good job of being what it's supposed to be.
I can't see myself wanting or needing one until my current PSP gives up a few years in the future. Speaking of which, the exposed screen on the Go is hardly a liability in bad weather, it's under a solid plastic shell... unlike the openings around the d-pad and face buttons on PSP. Even then mine happily survives jogging for an hour or two even in light snow or rain.
Maybe there's some magic in the hipster pants I buy?

So basically if you have an older PSP, you have to carry two PSPs around to play all your games.

Unless I'm wrong the older PSP should be able to play anything that comes out for Go so all you need to do is not buy a Go, right?

A majority of PSP games aren't worth paying for either.

That's the same with music, food, clothing, all kinds of stuff. IRL you don't waste money on things you don't want, why are games any different? You won't be missing out on much anyway, right?

[Kent]

I'm literally ashamed by the number of people who are so proud that they don't pay for their PSP games.

Do you guys understand how a supply & demand economy works?

Next time I'm in the fast food restaurants you guys work in, I'll make sure to just take the food I want instead of helping to pay your salary. That sounds like a good plan, right?

I'm with you on this one - this is part of the reason I'm hesitant to play my PSP in public. People know how I am with electronics, and immediately assume I've hacked it and an playing everything I could ever want, for free. It seems to be a common notion that, more often than not, anyone who's moderately intelligent and owns a PSP has hacked the thing.

Granted, I've got a whopping total of three games for the thing and two thirds of them are sub-par and make me regret purchasing them (Patapon, Daxter - even though the latter came with the thing, the sheer lack of quality makes me feel bad) - but that's no reason to steal games.

People think it's okay to pirate games because "Well, they're only losing one sale from me, so it's not hurting them much," and then don't realize exactly how many other people are thinking and doing the exact same thing.

[amtalx]

Unless I'm wrong the older PSP should be able to play anything that comes out for Go so all you need to do is not buy a Go, right?

Yes, that's correct. I just meant if an older PSP owner buys a Go and wants to look all cool and trendy with their Go, but also wants to play UMD games. They would have to carry their old PSP for the UMD games and their Go for the new stuff.

That's the same with music, food, clothing, all kinds of stuff. IRL you don't waste money on things you don't want, why are games any different? You won't be missing out on much anyway, right?

Its no mystery that Sony's support of the PSP was pretty much scheisse for the first couple years. Its really only even the last 1/1.5 years that more than a handful of notable titles have sipped out in a given year. The DS has an almost insurmountable list of top quality games by comparison.

[Powder Keg]

Retailers have been asking Sony the question of 'what's going to happen to existing games' forever, and the answer has always been "We're going to work out a plan" and this is it? Rofl

[Akaimizu]

Retailers have been asking Sony the question of 'what's going to happen to existing games' forever, and the answer has always been "We're going to work out a plan" and this is it? Rofl

Sony using a Darth Vader voice: "The plan has been altered!! Pray that I don't alter it any further!"

But for me, it just means that I'll just have to pass on the Go until some unforeseen future. As long as my PSP2000 is good for it, I'll stick to that model.

[panzer_unit]

Yes, that's correct. I just meant if an older PSP owner buys a Go and wants to look all cool and trendy with their Go, but also wants to play UMD games. They would have to carry their old PSP for the UMD games and their Go for the new stuff.

The Go's getting to the point of being as convenient to carry as spare UMD's in some kind of storage case. I'd still say upgrade your memory stick to a 16 gig and show that off instead. Seriously, the only rational purchase of a Go I can imagine is 1) if you have made it a personal goal to keep Sony profitable 2) you don't own a PSP already and would rather have the hipster version than be able to buy used disc games for next to nothing.

Its no mystery that Sony's support of the PSP was pretty much scheisse for the first couple years. Its really only even the last 1/1.5 years that more than a handful of notable titles have sipped out in a given year. The DS has an almost insurmountable list of top quality games by comparison.

Sony always seems to take a couple years to really get behind a product. PS1, PS2, PSP, PS3, they ALL sucked for a couple years after starting out. I don't get how Sony can have been in the game console business for so goddamned long and still pull off such awful support for services and software in the first couple years to make a laughing-stock of themselves with every new product. On the other hand, props for keeping going until they get their groove on with a product.

[amtalx]

I actually really liked the PS1 right out of the gate. Just about all of their launch titles were good as opposed the usual launch of most consoles where there is one title that stands out and the rest feel like filler. The PS2 and PS3 definitely suffered from weak launches, but where Sony started launching salvos in year two for the PS2, I still feel like Sony is sitting around saying "you still like us right?" for the PS3. I like the idea of a PSPgo, but it reminds me of a hardware redesign (something Nintendo has been doing successfully for many years) and instead of being awesome, they totally screwed the pooch.

[Akaimizu]

Partially because they got lucky with the Sony Playstation. They had good timing and got the right games to impress folks early enough. So in the early stage, they had the 3D titles going. Once Playstation 1 became a rip-roaring success, they pretty much had a die-hard fan base. Anything Sony said was golden. So anyway, people bought into Playstation 2 simply on Sony saying they were making a Playstation 2.

They didn't need games, or any true releases for it. PS2 got an early success simply by being the followup to PS1. It took a while for good stuff to come out, but people could play PS1 games on it, so they did. Not to mention, people at the time, were so hung up on the fact that it could also play DVDs. There wasn't the thought that they were likely going to have to buy a separate DVD unit anyway, but it worked. The PS2 then got a lot of game support due to having a good consumer population, in the first place. It just took a bit of time.

Fast forward to how much of a library the PS2 was able to obtain, the PS3 was going to try to do the same thing again. The only problem, this time, the competition really built up steam, and support for those were growing. Then of course, timing was everything. PS3 came at a very bad time for the west. Just before everybody started to count their pennies. Not to mention, arriving after the 360 already gained a large foothold in 3rd party software support. And like the PS1, people flock to the games, and all the 3rd party software available. They're more forgiving for issues like hardware failures (especially providing that the manufacturer foots the repair costs).

Back in the PS1 days, money was a little less of an object, so while it had alarming hardware fault percentages, Sony didn't have to foot the bill and people still followed the software. They felt they had you by the balls and people said, "Ok. Just keep the games coming." People aren't quite as forgiving these days. I know, I ended up buy 3 PS1s because of two things back then. Store replacement plans were not the way we know them at the time, and as long as Sony said the over-heating issues were not honored with the warranty, you're buying a new PS1 because the repair costs were the same. (Me thinks that stuff may have sparked the extra payment coverage with the store warranty plans we know today. Fortunately, people could buy the better warranty plans later in the PS1 life-cycle)

So anyway, the struggles of the PS3 is basically Sony getting a taste of their own medicine. Still, I keep thinking that they're bound to wise-up and learn that communications go both ways. You gotta figure what the consumer want the most, and try to accomodate so that the sales increase. They're starting to do that now with the PS3, let's see if they can do what they need to do.

[watashiwa]

For those who are slow, the PSPgo doesn't add anything new to the PSP camp with the exception of Bluetooth.

There won't be anything "released for the Go".

The PSPgo can only play titles downloaded from the PSN store or transferred from your PS3, after downloading them from the PSN store.

However, the regular PSP can also do this as well as play UMD games.

With your current PSP, you can go "all digital" from this point on, as well. Anything currently on the PSN store and anything that will show up on the PSN store can be downloaded and played by your current PSP, even without custom firmware. You just need a Memory Stick Pro Duo.

Since Sony has stated any UMD PSP titles that come out after Octobe 1st, 2009 will also be put on the PSN store, there really is no reason to buy a PSPgo unless you're brand new to the PSP scene. (well, unless you don't mind ditching all of your UMD games for the smaller, but better due to no interlacing and improved colors, screen. )

[panzer_unit]

I actually really liked the PS1 right out of the gate. Just about all of their launch titles were good as opposed the usual launch of most consoles where there is one title that stands out and the rest feel like filler. The PS2 and PS3 definitely suffered from weak launches, but where Sony started launching salvos in year two for the PS2, I still feel like Sony is sitting around saying "you still like us right?" for the PS3. I like the idea of a PSPgo, but it reminds me of a hardware redesign (something Nintendo has been doing successfully for many years) and instead of being awesome, they totally screwed the pooch.

There were some early PS3 games that were enormously underrated. I hadn't played Uncharted or Folklore until recently and they were amazing, especially considering how early they came out. LittleBigPlanet is a new joy whenever I have time to sit down with it. But without public opinion already in their favor creative new games with an incredible amount of polish can't even sell well for themselves, let alone count for anything in terms of moving consoles. A lot of people are going to sit on the fence until "their" huge franchise (be it MGS, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo) finally shows up.

It's the opposite with the nintendo DS. It's two screens combined are smaller than the PSP display, harder to keep an eye on, and in a homage to the goddamned N64 controller some moron designed the thing so you need three hands to use all the controls at once. Doesn't matter: it had a new Pokemon game so it sold a billion units immediately and only a moron would ignore an install base of that size if they've got a portable game on their minds and can squeeze it down to a cartridge format. The games PSP tends to get are PS2-sized games, not big enough to put on a HD console but too big to squeeze down to a cartridge. As best I can tell it's been picking up steam as an alternative to current gen consoles since it's been selling huge numbers in Japan ever since Monster Hunter Portable 2... lately there have been a lot of ports or sequels to good PS2 and PS3 titles and even PS1 games from the online store look respectable when you crunch them down to such a small screen.

I think Sony's best move with the Go, as a PSP owner, is that I have no compelling reason to buy one. This isn't some Nintendo-style incremental upgrade, it's Sony trying to cash in on the iPod Touch/Zune HD media-gadget douchebag market... a space I thankfully (or sadly, because it would imply having more money than I know what to do with) don't inhabit.