$450 PSP?

[OB1]

That would be a better point if the Japanese price wasn't the same as the European one...

They're also more expensive in Japan. But we don't have an official price yet, do we?

I just fundamentally don't understand how you think it's fine to take facts from the home console market and transtlate them straight to the portables without any additions. As I've said many times, there are different realities and expectations in the portable market. Sony has made a product. It is a product that fits well in a specific market. That market is the group of products on the next level up from the Game Boy. It looks like a competitor to the Palms and iPods of the world, not the Game Boys, from every measure I can see.

The two markets are very similar to each other, the main difference being that Nintendo is the only one in the handheld market. They're both video game markets. Both have/had a cocky Nintendo thinking that no one can touch them. The only way Nintendo will be able to maintain the number one spot is if they do two things: 1) Take Sony seriously and have an even more powerful handheld ready no more than six months after the PSP launches, and 2) Sony makes more than just their usual amount of mistakes and screw up big time. As much as I'd like that to happen, I don't think it will.

But still you have a lot of other flaws in this post. Let's tear it apart.

Haha, I love it when you people say that you're "tearing a post apart" when you have nothing more than poor debating skills and inane points on your side. It really brings a smile to my face.

I didn't say and didn't mean that. I said it wouldn't fail, and that it could succeed in some ways... but 'do great' to me implies that it would compete on an even level with the newer consoles. I don't think that. It's obviously not competition for the NGC/PS2/X-Box... and as for the GBA, it isn't if it's not a handheld which it doesn't look like it is.

Oh I see, so now you're saying that it wouldn't succeed in its own right, but that it would fail when compared to the regular consoles. So basically it would only succeed if you compared it with little Suzie and her lemonade stand.

Luck and great marketing. If Nintendo had ditched them two years earlier the PSX would have been just like the 3DO.

Oh please, not even I believed that when I was a super-biased Nintendo fanboy. You don't get 7+ years of clear market dominance based off of luck.

They are looking at the hardwares. The GBA-SP has greatly helped that one with older gamers. With it Nintendo finally moved the GBA into the market the PSP is aiming for... partially. I know it's stuff that people like Nokia have said, but it really is true that the GB isn't "cool" among older people... it definitely is seen as a kids toy where the major home consoles have grown up somewhat. As for adults who have GBAs I'd say that it's a more specific market that already had interest in videogames... Sony is aiming wider. They are trying to make the next Walkman. That's what they have said from the start. Oh, sure, the Walkman was just for music, but what they mean is more of this 'convergence' stuff they're pushing with their home consoles too. They want something that isn't just a game machine, it's a MP3 player and probably a PDA and several other things... if it just sold to gamers Sony would call it a failure. Actually, that's another good reason that they want to make money off the hardware... they can't rely on the PSP selling lots of games with every console for years. They got burned on the PS2 with all the people buying it for the DVD player, remember...

That's the exact same thing they said about the PS2, that it wouldn't be just a games machine but rather an all-in-one device. Of course that wasn't really the case and people still looked at it as a games machine. Sony and MS are still trying to make that set-top box and they will probably eventually get there, but I'm sure the PSP will be seen as mainly a games machine.

We drove a Yugo for our year in Yugoslavia... it wasn't quite as bad as it's reputation, I think.

*gasp!* How can you say that? Yugo's are terrible cars! They were all over the place in Croatia (well duh), and they were so crappy. Especially if you're over 6 feet tall.

Yes, the PSP greatly outclasses it in almost every way (read: except for price, price of games, and battery life). But those three things matter a LOT. Oh, and don't discount the next Game Boy... sure, it won't be out for a while after the PSP, but as is becoming more and more obviously clear that won't be a problem.

I love it how you've already found out the price of the PSP and its games even though we only have rumors and speculation. Great "facts".

If the N64 ran for 12 hours before having to be recharged and the PS2 went three. And if N64 games were cheaper than PS2 games. And if the N64 before the PS2 launch had 95% of the market.

Again, you have no facts on your side, only speculation. Okay, a better comparison would be the PSX coming out at the end of the SNES' life, but instead of being a nobody they were the most popular brand name in video games and had huge hits like FFVII out the door at launch.

It will indeed compete with the next GB... well, either this PSP will or one of inevitable hardware revisions will... but it will compete with the GBA first and for most consumers the choice will be obvious. The PSP may look really cool, but the limitations are just prohibitive (or plain unatractive) for a handheld for most people.

I'm glad that you know so much about what kinds of handhelds people like. Although of course, you do know what the final system looks like, how much it'll cost, how much the games will cost, and the exact battery life, right? ... oh wait, you don't know these things and you're merely guessing and pulling most of the information out of your ass? Wow, that certainly changes things, doesn't it?

Rumor? Please "read" the articles you see before you say that...

Here is the source article.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/conten...me=new&aid=2787 <http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=new&aid=2787>

Look at it. Sony Europe head... oh, then add those two paragraphs from my post a couple posts up that I got from VE3D, they were in the original paper article mentioned in that article. This is the Sony Europe head, not some nobody... and those "rumors" of the Japanese price being 48000-50000 Yen sound fairly reliable too. As I said, you're just in denial because you're a PSP fanboy.

Yes, I'm a PSP fanboy because I'm not blind and biased like you are, even though I want Nintendo to succeed more than you do. I hope that's not all you got, Brian. Because it's wearing pretty thin.
The yen price is a rumor. It's a guess. And the Sony head was giving a guess as well. I'll wait until official word.

Yes, Sony has always had low liscencing fees. The low fees on this should indeed attract developers. The Byzantine programming will repel them (I have heard rumors that it's quite hard to develop for), but that prospect of making more money off games sold than with the GBA and of Sony marketing should get developers behind it... or, at least some of them. But as I said, Sony is smart to make a profit on units sold (not a bad idea, BTW... Nintendo always does it...) in this case is definitely a smart decision. Oh, sure, $300 and $400 are different, but for handhelds... it's not that huge honestly. Most people won't spend that much for a handheld, but for the ones that will it's only a small step from one level to the next, I think... and it means a LOT to Sony's profits, which the company badly needs. And they just know that at either price they won't sell the numbers needed to make a profit anytime soon... as I said, it'll sell plenty of units up front, but the number of early adopters doesn't mean everything... just look at the N64 for proof of that...

Tell yourself whatever you need to sleep better at night, but remember what you said when the times comes. Your points are so laughable I don't even know why I bother responding to them. Difficult to develop for? Rumor, but if it's true it won't matter much. Just look at the PS2. And Sony knows it'll sell at a certain price point. Unless of course they've gotten too cocky.

Oh, and it leaves Nintendo with a lockhold on the children's market. The place they will be competing is adults... in that market it's less certain. Many people are used to three-hour battery lives and expensive electronics, after all... enough that the PSP will probably succeed, when you factor in the Sony marketing machine. But that market just isn't enough to take over from Game Boy. Not until they change the public's opinion on the handheld, something that I don't think will happen quickly...

Yeah, because they couldn't do that with consoles.
Sure Nintendo will have the pre-school market like they've always had, but that's not where the money is. Adults aren't buying handheld gaming systems now for the same reason they didn't buy home consoles before the PSX arrived. Think about it.