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PSP Vs. DS One Year Later 104

Posted by Zonk from the let's-get-on dept.
1up has a feature revisiting the ongoing struggle for supremacy in the handheld market. The PSP and the DS have had many ups and downs in the past year, and the column lays out the successes and failures for both systems. From the article: "And then there were two. The DS is cleaning up in Japan -- the sheer demand for the console there has siphoned every single unit from the marketplace, while PSPs sit unloved on store shelves. But here in the U.S., it's a neck-and-neck race. And, since the PSP launched one year ago on March 24th, 2005, we thought it'd be an excellent time to revisit the past year and gauge the situation as it stands today."
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PSP Vs. DS One Year Later More

PSP Vs. DS One Year Later

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  • if the japanesse like it then i like it, thats what i always say.

  • The DS, of course (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) * <akaimbatman AT gmail DOT com> on Friday March 31, 2006 @05:17PM (#15037175) Homepage Journal
    But here in the U.S., it's a neck-and-neck race.

    A lot of people purchased the PSP because it was new and cool, and for its multimedia features. Now that the PSP isn't so new anymore and the UMD format is falling out of favor, I fully expect that the DS will begin to pull ahead of the PSP in sales. The reason is that DS sales are driven by the titles themselves (e.g. Nintendogs, Metroid Prime, Mario Kart DS, Tetris DS, etc.) rather than the hype of the hardware. As a result, the Nintendo DS is likely to gain momentum as long as Nintendo keeps producing blockbuster titles for it.

    In addition, the Nintendo DS targets a far larger market (adult men, teenage men, children, and women) than the PSP (young adult men with disposable cash) and competes heavily at a lower price point. Customizations like "pink" hardware help push it with the alternative markets.

    Basically, Nintendo has a winner on their hands, and will do well as long as they don't screw it up. Sony has a first attempt on their hands that did exceptionally well. We'll see if they follow it up with a more focused device.

    • Re:The DS, of course (Score:2, Insightful)

      by toleraen ( 831634 )
      I guess I don't really see how the UMD format falling out will affect PSP sales at all. People obviously weren't buying them in the first place, which shows that they weren't really part of the selling point. I didn't buy my PSP for UMD movies...I never would even think about paying 125% for a UMD movie over a DVD. The few people I know that own one got it for the games, homebrew applications, as well as a portable media player. It's web-browser feature is also extremely handy in a pinch.
      • Well if people purchased a PSP, a movie and a game and nothing else then it doesn't matter if PSP sales are neck and neck with DS sales. The DS is the clear winner. The point is that media for the PSP isn't doing so hot and that is where the money is at.
      • I don't know. I imagine alot of the "young male with disposable income" market felt attracted to it because of the list of features like movies and music, and maybe tried a few UMDs, but then lost interest. Particularly if you look at the marketing they did in someway emphasize the multimedia capabilities
    • Yeah, I agree. I think the introduction of the DS lite will help to shift even more consoles as well, as it will allow the DS to compete in the "sexy gadget" area of the market. And with Brain Training, New Mario Bros, Zelda DS all coming this year as well it should be another great year for the DS.

      I'm particularly interested to see if Nintendo can recreate the sales frenzy Brain Training caused in Japan. Normally I'd be sceptical but Nintendo's success at turning Tetris and Pokemon into global phenomenons
      • I'm not sure I can see brain training games being as big of a hit with REAL adults over here like they are in Japan.

        (I say real because a lot of kids seem to think they are adults)

        Over there you can see 60+ year old people playing those games. I'm not sure I expect to see that so much over here.

        I'm sure they'll do well with the Nintendo fans in their 20's and maybe 30's.

        I hope I'm wrong. I hope it takes off over here just like it did over there. That would be great.
        • The big problem I see is that the screenies seem to show the games being really simple math problems. Not anything I need to think about, but basic arithmetic. If it doesn't get harder, its unlikely I'd buy it.
        • With Brain Age coming out and Magnetica on the horizon, I'm thinking about buying a DS for my mom. She already asks to play Meteos.
    • I don't see this neck and neck race. I am a programmer and no one in my office owns a PSP. Lots of people own GBAs and DSs. From what I have seen there is nothing for the PSP that makes me say I have to have it. The UMD IMHO is one of the WORST features. Why would I buy a movie on UMD when I can buy it on DVD and rip it and put it on my IPod. Maybe the PSP is more popular out on the West Coast.
      BTW has anyone noticed that most "Mature" games seem to be targeted at 16-25?? year old men? Not exactly my defini

      • Re:The DS, of course (Score:1, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I would take that one step further and say that mature games are markted towards 13-25 year olds.

        I have a kid. A lot of my friends have kids. My parents baby sit a lot of kids.

        Lets just say I am around a lot of kids.

        Probably close to 70% of them (the boys) are all about the Mature rated games. I'm talking 8 year olds to 16 year olds here.

        All of my cousines are between those ages (and I have a ton) ALL have PS2's and games like GTA3.

        Infact my roommates son who is 12 makes FUN OF ME for playing Nintendo games
      • Here in NYC, I see a lot of both. Only males have the PSP though. There are a lot of SPs too.
        • ive seen a bunch of females with PSPs here on the east coast [inclusive of NYC]. the major difference is that most women [girls] i see with psp's are playing music off them or just watching movies.
    • It's the shit ass UMD movies that aren't selling well. UMD games are still selling like... well I was going to say hotcakes, but let's just say like every other system's games.

  • DS VS PSP (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 ) on Friday March 31, 2006 @05:19PM (#15037196) Journal
    I haven't read the article, I try to avoid things like this because of the insane fanboyism but..

    In the community it seems the PSP is mostly being used for emulation and the DS is being bought for DS games. The PSP might be a good jack of all trades machine, but the DS is for games and in the gaming community it's wiping the floor with the PSP.

    To quote a message I saw once "I love my PSP, but it's collecting dust while I play my DS". This seems to be the general feeling around the two handhelds. One is worth playing and the others great, but it's not being used as a handheld, more as a portable PS2. Which is not what people want.
    • The article, scant as it was, is remarkably balanced.

      I have a DS, but through a friend I had a chance to test the PSP over the weekend. It's hard not to love the PSP -- the screen is amazing, the graphics are superb and the ability to play MP3s and custom video on a memory card is a huge bonus. That said, the PSP has three weaknesses that the DS does not have namely, in-game battery life is a short four hours (which drops like a rock to two hours if playing a WIFI game. Straight MP3 play time is a respectab

      • Just a few responses to your criticisms of the PSP (I don't own a DS so I can't comment) -

        in-game battery life is a short four hours

        This is partially true. If you play a game on full brightness, you have really low battery life. However, I've managed to play a game on low brightness for up to 8 hours before. I can't really comment on wireless play, as I haven't tried it on battery power, just plugged in.

        the screen is extremely easy to scratch or mar with fingerprints

        Very true with the fingerpr

        • I think the 100% truth is that the UMD is slow, but good programming and testing by the developer can definitely overcome the UMD's shortcomings.

          The UMD may or may not be slow; I don't know about that. I do know that Sony expects developers to test their games for PSP energy consumption. In other words, they are not allowed to leave the disc spinning. I have no doubt that good programmers can overcome this in certain situations, but I also have no doubt that there are certain types of games that are harder
          • In other words, they are not allowed to leave the disc spinning.

            A dev from Rockstar told me that leaving it spinning isn't a problem, the spinup drains all the power. Why any game spins it down I don't know.
        • That's funny my roommates PSP only last for like 3 to 6 hours tops regardless of what settings you have on it.
        • the screen:

          ill admit fingerprints are a bitch, its worse than my ipod because at least the ipod is white. but scratches? i dont have a screen protector for my psp, but i have ZERO scratches. what am i doing wrong? my ipod on the other hand looks like its been through war with all the scratches. i bought the ipod only 2 months before i bought my psp.

          battery life:

          odd, i usually get about six hours of life out of a charge. but then again, i dont play GTA or use the wireless very much. heres a hint... if you ne
          • if you need to play a handheld for more than four/five hours at a time you should just plug it in; youre obviously not outside.

            It's not necessarily one sitting, could be spread out over the day or even longer. Long train trips can leave you without an outlet for hours.
        • i apologise in advance,

          >I can't really comment on wireless play, as I haven't tried it on battery power, just plugged in.

          kind of defeats the point doesn't it :-)

          seriously, the psp is very pretty but its trying to do to much. the ds which i have does games very very well. i would be keen though to get my hands on the opera browser when they release it.
        • On a related note on your totally unrelated note.........

          Worms is also comming out for the DS very soon, and I couldn't be happier. It looks like they really nailed the user interface, the top screen is used as the default view of the scene and the bottom screen is used for weapons managment and scrolling the top screen. [consolecity.com]

          The bigger screen on the PSP will be nice, but being able to flick through your weapons, quickly set homing missles, and scroll the map at anytime is a big plus. Anyway, I'm sure my li

      • Re:As a DS owner... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 ) on Friday March 31, 2006 @06:18PM (#15037696) Journal
        Gonna pull you up on three things..

        1. The DS's main screen doesn't scratch easy.. on the other hand the Stylus's are slightly sharp when held at an angle, so you must have a screen protector. I've had my DS a year and the screen protector is honestly scratched to all hell. Get screen protection for your DS.

        2. Graphics capability are underwhelming? Gameboy colour = NES, GBA = SNES, DS=N64. Seems to be a natural evolution to me. The DS looks better than the N64 with Mario 64 but doesn't play quite as well as the N64 did (D-pad isn't so great as a stick). As for the speakers.. well turn the DS up to full, it's louder than I'd have my TV on.. you hear everything fine. If anything I think the DS maybe a little too loud.

        3. You've just hit the nail on the head. PSP is a portable console, complete with loading times and "Oh we can make better graphics than you!" ideals. Nintendo know full well that doesn't work, you must make a handheld console, a handheld console. While GTA may be great for an evening in, doing 30-40 minute missions after a 5 minute loading is just a bad idea for most people going places. I went to the hospital a few days ago and had to wait to see a doctor (1am emergency clinic), I was in pain and rather restless, so I took my DS and when I felt like playing I just turned on Mario kart, when I wanted to stop I turned it off. 4-5 minute bursts when I needed to distract myself from the pain. That's how most people play handhelds. 10-20 minute journeys, waiting in line, going to the bathroom etc.

        The PSP tries to be a shark in a fish pond. It's big, bad, oh so pretty and can beat anyone up in the pond. But it's so big and bad it can't get around the lake, so it loses out to the little fish who can just side step it. The PSP has been side stepped over and over. It hasn't quite figured out why it's being beaten yet and as soon as it does, it'll see that a shark just doesn't work in a pond full of tiny gold fish.
        • I've got both PSP and DS.

          The start-up time of a PSP can be a pain, therefore I never turn it off, just put it to sleep which gives me a near instant start-up. Playing for 20 minutes on the train every morning and evening is fine.

          However, when playing, my right thumb hides the power light which starts flashing when the battery is almost empty. This means I always run out of battery before I can save. most of the time this is not a problem since after recharging I'm back where I left of, but not always.

          The bu
      • Damn my DS's only get about 6 hours. 8 tops. Never more than that. (I've owned 2. My roomates dog chewed one to hell. It almost still works, but he got some critical parts)

        My old GBA SP can go forever. I don't think I ever ran it completely out of batteries before I decided to charge it just to be safe.

        That thing is AMAZING with battery life.
      • "The DS Lite is expected to have a theoretical battery life of 15 hours..."

        I wouldn't take that for granted just as yet. The DS Lite has a larger capacity battery, but it also has a much brighter screen. Now maybe my information isn't as up to date as yours, but it read to me like the extra battery capacity was needed for the screen, not because they were trying to double the life.

        Take what I'm saying with a grain of salt, though. I personally am not expecting greater battery life from the Lite. Either
        • From what I've been told, the DSLite does actually have a longer battery life when using the lowest brightness setting (out of 4). It has roughly similar battery life to the DSPhat on settings 2 & 3, but actually has much shorter battery life on brightness setting 4.

          Of course, the screenshots I've seen show that the level 1 brightness setting is significantly brighter than the DSPhat's backlight, so I can't imagine you'd ever actually need to take it up to brightness setting 4.

    • If the PSP is only being used for emulation then how is Sony going to make money on it?

    • Re:DS VS PSP (Score:3, Interesting)

      by ruhk ( 70494 )
      Emulation is the only reason I would want a PSP actually.
      • If emulation is all you want my friend, I highly suggest you check out the GPX2. This is a linux-based opensource handheld gameplayer and media player. Files are stored on standard SD cards, full support for just about every encoding method around for movies and music, and emulators for nearly every classic console and computer are either in development or 100%. With it's dual 200MHz CPUs (overclockable to 266Mhz, and for some units 300MHz even PSX emulation is becoming playable dispite the lack of a 3d

  • Article warning (Score:4, Informative)

    by cbiffle ( 211614 ) on Friday March 31, 2006 @05:21PM (#15037209)
    Warning: the article's data is 75-80% ads, the server is slow, and it's broken up into tiny little pieces. I couldn't find a printer-friendly link.

    Translation: reserve most of the afternoon to read this baby if you must.

  • "Mature Games" And Other Oxymorons (Score:5, Insightful)

    by American AC in Paris ( 230456 ) * on Friday March 31, 2006 @05:25PM (#15037240) Homepage
    From TFA:

    It's difficult to ignore, though, that the PSP seems like the most attractive prospect right now for Western developers making "mature" games.

    [...]

    But in the U.S., the DS is seen as more like the successor to the Game Boy. Far from the brief flirtation with adult games like Sprung, Western devs are looking at the DS and thinking, "kids."

    I still don't buy the "maturity myth"--or rather, I'm increasingly convinced that the "mature game" demographic is rapidly shrinking as a percentage of the overall gaming population. I genuinely don't think that either system's success or failure hinges primarily on the availability of "mature" games.

    I wish the author had provided some support for his assertions--for example, which Western developers are shunning the DS because they think it is for kids? What makes the PSP inherently more attractive to the makers of "mature" games?

    I think that Sony not releasing US sales figures is telling--if they were outselling the DS, don't you think they'd be shouting that fact from the rooftops? Of interest, too, is the slow-death of UMD movies. The DS is flying off the shelves--is the same true for the PSP?

    • Mature games.. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by JMZero ( 449047 )
      That's an excellent comment.

      When I think of truly mature games, I think of the games that adult visitors would be willing to play in a group setting (hint, not DOA volleyball). My games that currently fall into this "mature" category are:

      1. Mario Kart DD
      2. Donkey Konga
      3. Super Monkey Ball

      I own other good games like Resident Evil 4 (or now Oblivion on the PC) that feature more non-child-appropriate content that's appropriate for the type of game. I suppose there's a teen demographic that specifically looks

  • Doesn't Hold Muster (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Really? I know plenty of people who have a DS but no PSP, but everyone I know with a PSP has a DS. Something to do with the utter lack of quality games for the PSP.

  • I would say that in the US, (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Clockwurk ( 577966 ) * on Friday March 31, 2006 @05:28PM (#15037271) Homepage
    The PSP has done well because of its overwhelming advantage in the war of shelf-space. At the local Circuit City, the DS shares a shelf with the GBA, while the PSP has its own special stand devoted to it and accessories. The demo DSs always are heavily scratched and look like shit, next to the PSPs superior (and unscratched) screen. Adding insult to injury is the terrible selection of DS games that most retailers (wal-mart, target, etc.) stock. The games that really utilize the system and show off what it can do aren't even on the shelf, instead you get the EA shit, Disney shit, and crappy ports from other consoles (King Kong). If Nintendo America was really aggressive in marketing the DS over here, I think they'd have a lot more success. DS has been out a year or so and the only ad I've ever seen on TV is the new one for Tetris; the PSP ads (its portable cheese? a nut you can play with outside? wtf?) are on all the time.
    • I've seen quite a few adverts for the DS on UK TV - they sponsor a lot of programmes on Channel 4, mostly alternative comedy. Trauma Centre, Animal Crossing etc.
    • Even with Reggie, NoA is not really great at marketing. They have improved over the GC, but it isn't quite at the level it should be.

    • Odd, I've seen plenty of DS commercials. From the ones for Kirby Canvas Curse (quite possibly one of the most surreal commercials ever) to the new Tetris ads. They tend to only play during the day though, or early mornings. I don't think I've ever seen them during prime time. That might be the issue (although, truth be told, I Tivo everything in primetime, so I never actually watch the commercials).
    • The demo DSs always are heavily scratched and look like shit, next to the PSPs superior (and unscratched) screen.

      Translation: the demo DSs have been thoroughly mauled by an endless parade of people wanting to play on them. Nobody's even touched the PSP.

  • Lumines (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Erich ( 151 )
    Does it play Lumines [penny-arcade.com]? If not, I don't care about it.

    Not that I'm an addict. I could stop any time I want.

    • Too true. Best puzzle game evah--crank up the dance music and get in the zone. Syphon Filter and Wipeout are also among the best games I've played on any platform. I've got two PSPs and two DSs. I'm a big Nintendo fanboy, but I must say our DSs are the ones collecting dust, but I'm sitting here watching the clock, waiting to go finish Level 3 on Syphon Filter...
    • With a Supercard and the GBA homebrew version of Lumines it does. Then with the Supercard you can keep going and run any GBA/DS rom you want.
    • No, but the DS does play Meteos, which I personally enjoy more than Lumines. Lumines is a fine game, but not nearly as fascinating as Meteos...but that's a personal preference, so make your own judgement there.
    • Two words...

      Tetris DS

      ...er, one word and two letters if ya wanna be picky.

      Lumines is great, but nothing, and I mean nothing, can beat Tetris. Especially Tetris DS, which has done some really awesome things with the classic game, including that online play...

      Also, I think any puzzle fan should have a strong interest in the "Brain Age" games...

      If your a puzzle guy, the DS is really the only way to go. Anyone who says the PSP has better puzzle games is so Sony-brainwashed it hurts just to think about

    • The DS does play Lumines. It's just called Meteos :-)

      Seriously, though, since Tetris DS, all other puzzle games are dead. And there are plenty of awesome puzzle games on the DS.

  • DS vs. PSP (Score:3, Informative)

    by DRO0 ( 252117 ) on Friday March 31, 2006 @05:39PM (#15037379)
    When first evaluating my next portable hardware purchase, I was intrigued by the PSP appearing to be a portable "Playstation 1.5" as far as graphics and other capabilities go...

    But I ended up going with the DS for three main reasons.

    1. ~$120 USD cheaper
    2. GBA-compatible -- I have a decent GBA library so I could give the GBA to my son :) but still play the games on the DS.
    3. Mario Kart DS -- 'nuff said

    At first I was also dubious about the dual-screen thing, but now I think of it as a great idea. It's nice for even simple things like in Mario Kart where you can glance down to check the overhead view of the other cars, etc.

    For future RPG games it seems like a great thing as well to always have map or inventory available on another screen. I'm also looking forward to the recently announced Zelda game.

    Not trying to sound like a "fanboy", just my $.02.
  • Lets not forget the rest of Nintendo's offerings. Not only is the PSP competing with the DS, it's competing with the GB Advanaced (SP), and the GB Micro.
    • the psp isnt winning anything by a landslide, but given the way that nintendo has a chokehold on the portable market, i think the psp is doing just fine.
  • So, what, does the GBA not count anymore?
    Last I checked, that was beating both of them by a fairly sizable amount.
    • So, what, does the GBA not count anymore?
      Last I checked, that was beating both of them by a fairly sizable amount.

      American sales numbers are notoriosuly hard to get ahold of, but in japan at least [gamesarefun.com] the NDS and DSL have been smearing _all_ the competition over the last few weeks. The SP and Micro are selling only a fraction of that and the original GBA is being outsold by the XBox, not that winning by 117 to 98 is really something for Microsoft to boast about :)

      • Yeah, I tried to add on a comment specifying "In the US this is," but, apparently Slashdot ate it or something.
        Ah well.
        • Also, just to more specifically address the numbers on the US, the article does mention in passing at the end:

          "and that Nintendo sold nearly 5 million GBA units in the U.S. last year"

          As opposed to:

          "At any rate, it seems as if Nintendo and Sony are in a statistical tie. The most recent numbers that Nintendo has reported are that the DS sold 3.97 million units in the US by the end of 2005, putting them right up against Sony's figure."

          So, at least for the 2005 year, if not the recent months (since, as mentione
  • "The two are neck and neck based entirely on vague numbers given by each company with no context at different times, with no dates given to consider. Because we say so."

    That's persuasive!

    Trying to compare solds in the US is silly. People tried retailers, then realized that underrepresented Nintendo because Wal*Mart wasn't included. So we went to asking companies, which people think would be accurate. But, uh... companies lie? And not just in one direction or to the same degree-- sometimes it makes business

  • Developers! Developers Developers! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by displaced80 ( 660282 ) on Friday March 31, 2006 @05:55PM (#15037515)
    I bought myself a PSP a few weeks ago. I was attracted by the homebrew scene, and thought it just looked like an interesting piece of kit.

    Then, I noticed the problems in the PSP gaming community, and felt a little buyer's remorse. But I think things are looking up.

    The PSP was done no favours by the Playstation development community. Games seemed to be ports of PS(not P) games. Porting an existing franchise is a safe bet when a new platform's released. The Nintendo world did better out of this: Nintendo have a legacy of great games targeted at portable play. Developers saw the PSP's pretty damn awesome abilities and gave in to the porting temptation. But not straight ports from regular console games rarely survive 100% intact after the move to a portable. Even if the portable's got all the tech to make it an almost seamless port, many games just don't feel right on a portable. The controls are odd. The 'style' of play feels wrong. _Splinter Cell_ is a great example of this: the original was great, the PSP version's technically gorgeous.... but it's a bastard to play.

    I think Playstation development world needed a taste of failure to make them take a step back and actually develop _for_ the PSP. Continuing along the 'Splinter Cell' vein, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is what SC on the PSP should've been. The 'stealth-combat' genre reworked for the portable format... and it's fantastic. Nintendo already knew how to make great portable games, and the DS has some brilliant titles. Looking at some upcoming PSP games, I'm a bit more happy with my purchase. It's taken a while, but I think the PSP's on its way towards getting out of the shadow of the PS. I hope we'll see some games that are both great to play on a portable, and make full use of the PSP's abilities.

    • I agree with you. I bought a PSP earlier this year, and didn't use it for awhile because of the drought of good games (some of which is natural to a new console, of course). Recently, I bought Syphon Filter and Grand Theft Auto, then loaded up a couple of emulators, and am having a blast. Hopefully the next wave of titles coming takes a cue from games like SF.
  • Just analyzing the numbers is interesting.

    Hardware wise, in Japan, the DS is cleaning house. (And even more so now with the DS Lite is out). But in the North American market, it's a more even race.

    Software wise, in Japan, the DS continually has 7-9 titles in the top 10 software sales charts. That's incredible if you ask me. I don't know of any place that tracks North American software titles by system, but if Japan is any indication, then it sounds like people are buying the PSP for other reasons than games
  • One of the upsetting things about the DS was that it basically looked like a big chunk of ugly plastic compared tot he PSP - it was not exactly something cool to be seen with, or at least that was how I felt when I was roaming around the airports at Cristmas......this was alleviated by the fact that I was playing Mario Kart :)

    The DS Lite [cheapassgamer.com] looks like it will change all that - the hard core gamers are saying that they are getting one to replace their existing one because the screen is much improved, but everyo
  • Who cares if the PSP and DS are neck and neck here in the US.

    How well are PSP games doing?

    Last time I saw numbers the DS was selling way more games.

    I'm sure Sony is losing money on each PSP sold so who cares about that.

    I want to know who is selling the most games. That's where the money is.

  • As E3 2006 draws near and the great next-gen console war begins to take shape, it's easy to forget, in all the hype surrounding the Nintendo Revolution and the Sony PS3, that there's already a major knock-down, drag-out brawl in progress.

    That fight is, of course, between the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP. And it's been a bloody affair. In fact, the portable-format wars have already seen their share of casualties. Nintendo and Sony, for all their competition, can take heart in the fact that the time and mo

  • I will acknowledge that the general public are not developers or hobbiest's before my post. That being said, I take the PSP hands down any day over the DS due to how easy of a device it is to code for. Once you get the psp-sdk(modified gcc for embedded hardware) from www.pspdev.org compiled and running, you can easily start developing games and applications for the psp, without any expensive hardware mods.

    With the sdk, comes tonnes of samples which outline how to use the features inside the psp, such as
    • The problem with what you suggesting. which is a strange problem to have. Is that your not spending any money on the PSP. To continue your home-brew on your PSP, you cannot buy anything for the PSP anymore, as it will upgrade your firmware, and break your PSP applications. The only other way around this is to buy another psp, and use that solely for bought items. Also noting that the new PSP have the latest firmware(hopefully). The main problem with your frivolous activities on the PSP, is that your makin
    • I know this is a silly point to contend on, but DS development really isn't all that expensive. You can easily get everything you need for about $80.

      GBA Movie Player: $25

      CF Card: around $30, more or less depending on capacity

      PassMe: $25

      Roll in the DS and that's still not as expensive as a PSP base package. (And that's assuming you don't get one or more components for free; for example, I bought a wireless card for WifiMe, flashed my firmware and returned it the next day; and for some reason all my relativ

  • When the DS and PSP were revealed to the public, but not yet released, I thought that I would probably purchase both, but get the DS first. I got as far as the DS, and I don't think I'll be picking up a PSP. There's a lot of cool things about both systems, but when it comes down to it, I love the touchscreen. The PSP offers me a portable version of PS2 gaming, which is cool and all, but I don't really play video games away from the house, even with my DS. Since I have the PS2 experience at home, I might

  • PSP. . . (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I work at Gamestop. Remember a couple months ago when Sony announced they had shipped x million units worldwide? Less than a week before that announcement my store received a serious overstock of PSPs. Now we're loaded up on PSP "core" systems as well, which leaves out the memory card and other little extras for $50 less. It doesn't really matter, though, because we always have used PSPs in stock and people always buy those. The PSP's biggest problem is that people don't buy many games for it, they don't bu

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