It doesn't look like Sony has figured it out. At least not in the North American market. While the product has performed extremely well in Japan, the sales in America have been somewhat of a letdown. Their answer, despite being unoriginal and entering a market with already saturated with multiple SKU products, is to release another model with a brighter screen. Now let's go over the reasons why this may not be the best approach...
Sony: PSP Brite Is Coming, But Is It A Good Idea?
First of all, the PSP hardware sales, like the Nintendo DS Lite, has been thriving primarily due to (though we know it's hard to admit) rampant piracy and ability for developers to make their own homebrew software on the systems. For us, this can be seen as a good and a bad thing. "With developers and publishers reluctant to create new content on a system that never breaks NPD's software top 10 charts, Sony had to change something ... and fast."
The system itself is already a spectacular piece of hardware and is constantly updated with new features (for instance Skype is a feature that's been recently incorporated) has always been well received within the PSP fan community. However, by updating it once again (it's been less than a year since their last revision announcement), it leaves many gamers feeling their hardware is inadequate.
I think people want a device that connects them. Or perhaps an online store like Apple's iPhone App Store. So my question is, "Will this drive up software sales at all?" My gut says no, but who knows, maybe this brighter screen may work out just the way Sony wants it to - drawing people in like gnats hypnotized by a bright fluorescent light.
Any PSP users out there happy to hear of this new revision? Maybe I'm just being a little pessimistic here.
[via PSPFanboy]
Comments (3)
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When PSP has actual phone capabilities, I will get one. Until then, Apple catches up...
view Peter_Unplggd's profile
These little things are dead. With the iPhone out and getting an annual refresh, and other pocket PC/phones sure to follow, there isn't going to be any market left for dedicated gaming handhelds.
view sunspot42's profile
You mean like the iPod is dead? Or the digital camera? Or the GPS unit? There is always going to be a market for dedicated devices because the inherent compromises required in a 'do everything' solution will never truly match their abilities.
iPhone is cute for casual games; but you won't see a hardware design in a phone form factor that will be wildly successful and ship Gods of War quality games. That's not to say Sony isn't losing ground, but it won't be due to form-factor issues.
What Apple has done a brilliant job at is making it incredibly difficult for illegal versions of games sold via Appstore to run on iPhones. They are pricing what's available reasonably, and most importantly offer a comprehensive developer ecosystem to make it happen.
Even though it has glitches to iron out; Apple as a software company knows way more than Sony does as a consumer electronics company. It's the same reason Microsoft did so well against Sony in only a single generation of gaming platforms competition. Fanboy rants about either company aside; they both understand the developer audience and needs far better than Sony (or Nintendo).
Sony's strong suit (and Nintendo's) is as consumer electronics and they're playing to their strong-suit. Different SKU's with minor variations. It's working in Japan where culturally the "rampant piracy" isn't as significant a challenge; and developers still make great games for the device. Sony's weaknesses as a software company are reflected in the poor usability of its current online offerings and poor on-device experience for both the PSP and PS3. Honestly one could claim the opposite is true...Microsoft's weakness as a hardware company is shown with its massive Red Ring of Death (RROD) failure rate.
If Sony wants to compete, it needs to start by taking a look at its competitors in the software business and figure out what they are doing right; and what it can do better than they can. Right now, hardware seems to be the only answer they have.
view RJHD3's profile