Sony’s evolution in the gaming industry remains captivating. The company has learned a lot over the years, but they still succumb to many of the same mistakes. At this point it seems like a guarantee that Sony has turned their back on the handheld market, which isn’t exactly a surprise, but it’s still a disappointment.
Sony’s PSP and the PlayStation Vista accomplished a lot in their own ways and while they weren’t perfect, there’s still a lot of nostalgia associated with them. The PSP signaled Sony’s entry into handheld hardware and even though the portable console was a learning experience for the company, it’s still impressive for a lot of reasons.
10 Got Right: USB Support And Remote Play
Something as simple as USB support may not seem like anything revelatory, but it honestly was during the time of the PSP’s release. The USB drive was a bit of a mixed bag for the handheld since it also enabled certain internal storage issues, but the USB opened a lot of doors for the PSP. The USB allowed the transfer of files from a PC and PS3 onto a PSP, vice versa, and even remote play. This opened up a lot of opportunities for customization, including personalized soundtracks.
9 Should Have Changed: No “Gimmick”
Sony really had no reason to doubt that a powerful handheld console would be enough on its own to get people’s attention and admittedly, the PSP was much more popular in Japan. However, the Nintendo DS was able to drastically outsell the PSP because its touch screen mechanic brought something new to handheld gaming and won over audiences. People wanted it for the novelty of its innovation, not necessarily the quality of the games. The PSP offered nothing new in this sense and a gimmick—even a frivolous one—could have gone far with improving the PSP’s audience.
8 Got Right: Its Video Program Capabilities
It stands to reason that with a handheld, the priority is still going to be the games, but the PSP really tried to prove that it could be more than that and offer up a whole multimedia experience out of the tiny device.
The PSP was able to impressively play movies as well as function an intuitive image browser that could do things like display magazines that were properly formatted for the PSP. Certain models of the PSP can even run Skype, which is a feat that something like the Nintendo 3DS can’t even handle.
7 Should Have Changed: Internal Storage Ambivalence
The PSP struggled over the issue of internal storage with various models requiring the use of the USB drive to add extra space. The only memory storage that the PSP initially supported were Memory Stick Duos, which at the time went for around $150 for one gig, turning internal storage into an expensive issue. This would be a major issue when encoding movies into MP4 format, because they’d easily be over 500 MB, so extra storage was necessary if this feature was to be enjoyed.
6 Got Right: Stereo Speakers And Audio Capabilities
So much time in the video game industry can be focused on things like graphics and hardware power that other important areas, like audio, can go neglected. The PSP rights that wrong with stereo quality audio and the ability to play MP3s without compromise. Audio quality is especially important for handheld games and it’s still an area that Nintendo doesn’t take completely seriously for their handhelds. Even those that don’t want to play video games are able to use the PSP as a great MP3 player, which shouldn’t be a surprise, coming from Sony.
5 Should Have Changed: Screen Issues
The ironic thing is that the initial PSP model debuted with a very impressive screen that got tons of praise. However, as the hardware was adjusted for updated models, the screen was affected in ways that frustrated gamers. The PSP-2000 model was prone to ghosting, but while the revised PSP-3000 model fixed this with an incredibly brighter screen, there were now interlacing problems during video playback.
Different PSP models have screens of wildly different quality. Many preferred the PSP-2000’s screen over the 3000. Gamers shouldn’t have to hunt for older models to get the best version of the console.
4 Got Right: Wi-Fi And Online Play
Sony has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to their online gaming capabilities, so it’s exciting to see this treatment get transferred over to their handheld hardware. The PSP had very impressive online support for the time that easily put the Nintendo DS’s alternative to shame. Not only was wireless multiplayer & local play extremely easy, some games like Ridge Racer would even allow for up to eight people to play against each other at once. On top of this, there was also a ton of free DLC for players to enjoy.
3 Should Have Changed: Too Many Ports
The PSP deserves some credit for how it created some genuinely impressive spin-offs to major franchises, with games like God of War: Ghost of Sparta and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, acting as proof of what the handheld could accomplish. The PSP could pull off incredible things, but unfortunately it also just turned out a lot of pots of older PlayStation games. This started to become the predominant perception of the PSP and many viewed it as a way to play updated games of the past rather than the titles of the future.
2 Got Right: Its Homebrew Capabilities
Granted, this wasn’t one of the aims of the PSP when Sony put it out on the market, but the handheld has been able to stay so relevant in the modding community because it’s turned out to be such a resilient and powerful machine when it comes to emulation and homebrew. It’s not a difficult handheld to take advantage of in this capacity, especially with the earlier models. The PSP has a great library of games at this disposal of its users, but some people just have a PSP purely for the emulation and homebrew aspects.
1 Should Have Changed: The UMD Video Format
One of the most interesting aspects of the development and evolution of video games is looking at how the format of software has shifted over time. The days of cartridges for consoles have mostly faded with CD and DVD-like media becoming the dominant method. That being said, there are still anomalies like the GameCube’s smaller optical discs or the PSP’s Universal Media Discs. What was supposed to be an innovative format just ended up alienating the handheld. Movies were released on UMDs, but they became few and far between, with the media slowly turning irrelevant.
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