Comments on: Game System Review: PSP Go! … or PSP No Go?

By: mookie kong

mookie kong — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:18:22 +0000

Great detailed review. I think you made one mistake though, you mention that once you hit the limit of activations, there is no way to deactivate a system. That's not true. People have been activating and deactivating devices easily through the account management:

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/stor...

I think some people are having issues because they don't have access to PSPs that they want to deactivate (ie. sold off). Otherwise, it looks like you have all your PSPs in-hand, so you can deactivate them whenever you like.

By: Haesslich

Haesslich — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:13:18 +0000

Michael: I think the only people who WILL buy the Go are the ones who have to have the latest devices, and damn the expenses. If you don’t have a PSP already, it’s not a ‘must not get’ system, unless you have friends who have PSPs who you want to try out games with… or if you like to rent games from Blockbuster… and you don’t have anything invested already in any Sony gaming device or its accessories, as even the PSP-2000/3000 can charge from the same charging cables and chargers that the PS3 uses for its wireless controllers.

Like I said, Sony seems to blindly copy competitors ideas now, rather than coming up with something actually worth getting by itself. Look at how they copied the SixAxis motion control after seeing the Wii succeed with it, or the PSN Store after seeing the Xbox Live Marketplace take off, or now selling games on their own app store after seeing Apple take off… and look at how well two of those concepts are doing now (not very well – Sixaxis seems to have been abandoned, and the PSN Store fails to understand why Apple’s succeeding in selling things online; lower prices and easy-access).

By: Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:49:21 +0000

Haesslich – I completely agree – all of those things are stuff that bothered me as well. I really don’t see who *should* buy the PSP Go … it is beautiful hardware but as you mention there are so many things they did wrong that they could easily have done right. It feels like they are deliberately trying to mess with PSP owners current and future.

By: Haesslich

Haesslich — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:45:48 +0000

… and it’s not like you don’t have to register your hardware with the PSN Store already. If you registered a PSP and a PSPGo to the same device, then you can use the same game on both of them… and yet, with purchased UMD’s which you already end up registering with Sony on your Playstation Network profile anyways… you can’t redownload. Major, major miss on the PSPGo’s side – I can imagine exactly how many purchases were lost due to the whole ‘damn it, I have to spend HOW much to repurchase those games AGAIN?’ issue.

Heck, even Apple’s managed to keep iPod game prices fairly low, since they recognize that with complete control of the distribution chain that they can cut costs due to a lack of a middleman… but Sony again, as always, fails to recognize the obvious when they blindly copy other people’s ideas and expect the same success without accounting for the factors behind them.

By: Haesslich

Haesslich — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:42:51 +0000

I’m also thinking of the fact that I need to spend more on the M2 cards if I don’t already have a few lying around, since if I’ve spent money on the MS Pro Duo’s… well, that money’s thrown out the window, since they’ve refused support for the MSPD with even some of their newer cameras. Yes, it’s a smaller device, but isn’t there enough room in the case for a larger reader, so I haven’t wasted the investment in MSPD cards? Or better yet, an increase in battery size so that the PSPGo lasts longer than the old PSP did battery-life wise, since the old UMD-battery-sucking-motor is gone?

Or even the whole ‘if I buy a new game on UMD, I can’t get it on my PSPGo’ issue. If they included a ‘digital copy’ the way some Blu-Ray and DVDs do for portable use on the UMD disc, that’d perhaps add more value to the PSPGo as suddenly a purchase of Disgaea 2 wouldn’t be rendered worthless if I decided to get a PSPGo. Or Little Big Planet purchased on UMD having a PSPGo copy available for download upon registration of the game… so I don’t have to spend another $30 on the game which I already bought once.

Heaven’s sake, APPLE let you use music on more than one iPod with FreePlay, yet here we’ve got Sony somehow being unable to come up with the same solution.

By: Talib Rashna

Talib Rashna — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:30:44 +0000

Game System Review: PSP Go! … or PSP No Go? | Gear Diary: Things more or less make sense, but the overall syste.. http://bit.ly/4TBmZV

By: Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:45:42 +0000

I did a thing on LittleBigPlanet here (http://www.geardiary.com/2009/11/19/where-can-you-get-the-latest-greatest-psp-games-not-on-the-psp-go/) … and I agree that they are completely screwing things up.

As for repurchasing – I said that you’d be stuck keeping your existing PSP, which is what I ended up doing. I think it is inexcusable that you can’t get *every* new release on the ‘premier’ PSP.

By: Haesslich

Haesslich — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 03:16:52 +0000

I’d have to argue that the PSN store is even more of a miss when you realize that not all titles are going to be available on the PSN Store for weeks after their UMD release; not even first-party titles like Little Big Planet. Between that and the fact you have to REPURCHASE every title you ever owned, and heaven help you if your PSPGo dies (I’m imagining authorization issues, as if the hardware’s dead you’ll have to call PS support to get your hardware deauthorized, if they will even allow you to do so).

By: Wally Thames

Wally Thames — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:54:35 +0000

Game System Review: PSP Go! … or PSP No Go? | Gear Diary: When the PSP came out, the games were too often price.. http://bit.ly/0845uGu

By: qwerty58

qwerty58 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:02:48 +0000

Nice review – I like the way you organized it into sections giving a clear verdict for each and one overall. Other reviews I read (other websites) often say, “well it’s up to you.” This is sort of unrelated to the review but to the entire commenting system. I’ve noticed that on a lot of the posts, which I realize having written a few reviews myself, take a long time, there are not many comments. There only seem to be comments whenever there is a product giveaway. I know that introducing some sort of commenting system that has “approved commenters” might be too difficult, but maybe this can be remedied by hiding some giveaways into other posts (not stating the giveaway in the title). This might help reward the readers that contribute to the site and do not only care about winning prizes. Those are my thoughts. If you would pass them along to the other members of the Gear Diary team, it would be greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work on the site! Once again, great review!

By: Coleman

Coleman — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:23:00 +0000

Game System Review: PSP Go! … or PSP No Go? | Gear Diary: With the PSP Go users can download the best digital g.. http://bit.ly/4TBmZV

By: Mike Calvo

Mike Calvo — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 23:56:54 +0000

Game System Review: PSP Go! … or PSP No Go? http://bit.ly/6d0xV1