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Sony: PSP was "under-supported," UMD wasn't brilliant, more snack-type games

Posted Mar 11, 2009 at 2:55AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Interviews, News, Games Tags: Atari, interviews, Lynx, Ray Maguire, Sony, UK

PSP was under-supported - Image 1

Ray Maguire, Sony UK's senior VP and MD, admitted to a couple of things during a recent interview, like how Sony's been letting the PSP slip last year, and how they're confident that it's really going to pick up this year. Sounds like a speech in an AA meeting.

Anyway, of the more interesting things he admitted was that the PSP was "slightly under-supported" in the past year, "mainly because a lot of the energy was going into stuff we're doing for PlayStation 3." He also mentioned how the UMD contributed to this too, saying it "wasn't brilliant for third parties, either."

However, he does say that things are looking bright for this year:

I think we had a bit of a barren year last year, and this year we seem to have a bumper crop. [...] We do have that confidence this year - many things are happening with the PSP.

The online side of it is developing nicely, and there are clearly lots of great games for it this year, but also we're introducing new colours - so it starts to become much more desirable for a wider range of consumers. This year is the year that PSP puts its head up proudly.

You know what, no one in the games industry has really been a serious contender in this market place, whether it be the GameGear, the Atari Lynx, or Gizmondo... but 50 million later the PSP is pretty strong.

His enthusiasm is apparent of Sony's overall plan for the PSP, which we've been hearing a lot about the past few months. Another interesting bit he said during the interview was that:

My gut feeling though is that people are looking for more snack-type content, and the downloads side of it will increasingly become a bigger part of its future. It's also something that development can get into at a much, much lower entry cost, and I think we can see this everywhere, [...] there is an appetite for smaller, snack-type games.

It certainly doesn't point outright to an incoming UMD-less PSP model, as David Perry keeps insisting, but it does sound like more PSN downloads is part of Sony's plan to reinvigorate the PSP.

Full steam ahead for the PSP:

Via GamesIndustry

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UMD was a decent format, and I hope the new psp at least keeps the UMD.

My only problem with it was that the name didn't live up to the title. It said universal media disc. Kinda defeats the purpose when the UMD movies are NOT region free.

Dave Perry is an old idiot who had one hit back in the 90's. His logic is beyond stupidity.

What's the point of owning a psp that only has a memory stick slot?

# pretty sure... — ov3rkill 2009-03-11 08:01

Now, i'm pretty sure there's going to be a turnover from UMD to the digital downloads. I guess they're going to cut-off UMD production sooner or later. Besides, having the digital download and run it through a memory stick is much faster than a UMD and it consumes less battery too. UMD was a brilliant media, it's just too bad it didn't see the light of the day. I just hope also that IF ever there will be a new PSP, UMD drives are still there and if not an expansion would be greatly appreciated. OR they could just remove it on the newer release and opt for some additional feature, they could probably make it into a phone, knowing that UMD drives are consuming a lot of space. Then again it would defeat the purpose of a PSP as a gaming system if ever it becomes a phone, but it's pretty cool though. As for UMD-less they could give us some digital download counterpart if ever you have the official retail UMD version, that'd be awesome.

# an idea? — jimftr 2009-03-11 09:37

what if the psp 2 had like an option. that you could buy one without a umd drive or buy one with a umd drive.

# Lol — blackthorn 2009-03-11 10:26

I love the enthusiasm... but it's misguided.

What on earth would make you think that the PSP will 'pick up' in a year where we're seeing a global recession hit full swing?

Well... it made me laugh :)

# But... — blackthorn 2009-03-11 10:29

it hardly is due to the choice of storage media though. The PSP game quality is superior because of the internal hardware, not because it's on UMD.

No Gravity, first released as homebrew, shows quite clearly that game quality is independant of the media it's distributed on and with Flash memory now far outstripping UMD in terms of cost per gig, it's more or less a moot issue.

# lol — blackthorn 2009-03-11 10:32

You're missing the point Stealth. Delta is talking about the next generation tech in portable handhelds playing the PS2 and I reckon he's on the right track. The next logical step forward at the very least is dual analogue control to open up more gaming options, but if you can get a portable PS2 compatible hand held, you will certainly do well in the market. Even with the PS3 the current generation tech, PS2 sales are still strong.

# ... — blackthorn 2009-03-11 10:37

"What's the point of owning a psp that only has a memory stick slot?"

- Cheaper distribution costs

- FASTER access to the media (UMD is Slow!!)

- Less power consumption

- Much smaller form factor plausability for the unit

- The Mobile phone market shows this is already very viable

- Better scalability with software during the device life cycle (1.8GB is already too small for the PSP)

- Less crap to cart around with you when you're on the go

Seriously dude... unless you're blind to technological advances, that was one stupid *****ing question.

# hmm... — SeRosiS 2009-03-11 11:14

UMD isn't "that" slow, than again, most people who use the PSP are impatient.

Smaller form factor means more cramps for my hands, f*ck that, it already cramps my hands as it is.

I agree with the rest though.

# More snack :) — MrSpud 2009-03-11 11:28

The snack type games are great for people who are short on cash and play games for a short period of time. I hardly ever have time to play long RPGs and I find that as I get older, I have less and less time to to "get" into games. For me, Everyday Shooter is all I have time to play sometime, long RPGs are boring if you only play 15 minutes at the time.

# The biggest news here... — Acteon 2009-03-11 12:34

is that somebody at Sony finally gives a toss about their own system. The PSP is an awesome system and it deserves better than the shoddy, half-assed, piss-poor marketing and handling that Sony have given it.

Its also refreshing to hear someone recognise the failures so that we can correct them. Wish a certain British Prime Minister could do the bloody same. Well done Ray Maguire, my new hero ^^

# Snack sized games mean snack sized prices — BloodMachine 2009-03-11 15:12

It's possible they'd use this to create Nintendo DS style games, where they're nowhere near the quality or size of the games on another console, but still cost nearly as much.

Smaller games needs to mean smaller prices, like Flower, that costs around $15. Lets not forget that ;)

# ... — buttheadrulesagain 2009-03-11 18:10

Seriously, why people thinks UMDs suck that much? before UMDs were cartridges, with much less capacity for the kind of graphics and sound psp games come with. They are more fragile, but you can keep them in good shape with a proper case.

My only problem with UMDs is that they are cheaper to produce than cartridges, and yet, they are expensive

for blackthorn, remember that when the psp came in, electronic distribution wasn't developed enough for it to take over (and it isn't yet, for all places). Mobile phone games aren't 1 gb, a size many people find too cumberome to download.

# UMDs are great — houaruto 2009-03-11 20:27

i don"t wanna store all my media files on 1 memory stick...I've had 1 memory stick gone sour on me and lost all of my games, vids, pic, etc....

UMDs are great for easy sharing....i don't have 2 hand over my memorystick wid all my treasures to a friend to borrow and have his dog chew up his psp...and also U don't have to worry about loading media in the psp if you are on the go

nothing beats having the game and a real physical copy with instructions booklet, images, quick reference text....don"t have to worry bout it getting erase off the computer and if you ever wanna make a back up..(u kno what i mean) by all means let it rip....

UMDs fits most games design for it no problem...

The problem is not with UMDs...its the DVD that box3fixme uses...old crappy last gen tech that requires dev 2 waste 2 much time compressing the game 2 fit in and soon all x bot games will need 2 disk 2 design games on for everything you pick up.....

# no umd + lighter psp — yoshi314 2009-03-11 21:28

"What's the point of owning a psp that only has a memory stick slot?"

just think about how much of unnecessary hardware could be stripped out of psp. entire umd drive and the whole pretty big umd slot. this might lead to development of even slimmer and lighter psp. or sony could use the extra space for e.g. a bigger battery. or something else.

"It said universal media disc. Kinda defeats the purpose when the UMD movies are NOT region free." i think they meant universal as "sutable of all sorts of data." you can have games, movie and music at the same umd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD

DVD is called "Digital Versatile Disk". similar, isn't it? :>

# wireless g — cadillac2929 2009-03-11 21:52

If Sony wants to really make use of the psn download service they will need to make the new psp with wireless-G or better. Wireless-B is just too slow to download any good sized psp game.

# Blackthorn... — ptspyder 2009-03-11 22:47

Point of fact, my CFW PSP uses far, far, FAR more battery running iso's then umd.

UMD gameplay - about 3-4 hours

ISO gameplay - about an hour, 1 1/2 hours tops

I realize that this seems to not be the case for most users, but of the 4 people I know who use cfw, all have the same issue to varying degrees. And before you ask, no none of them are overclocked.

# - — APerson 2009-03-12 03:56

Quick, downvote what Sony said! Because its exactly what every non PSP-fanboy was saying last year.

xD

# jimftr — 73N5H1 2009-03-12 04:09

that's not a good idea, then Sony would have to support game releases on two media types... it would be cheaper just to drop UMD. Hell, they could even sell games at major outlets on Pro Duo sticks for people that couldn't download.

# blackthorn — Stealth! 2009-03-12 04:18

Technically I'm not missing his point. He stating PSP4. the only PSP 4 that's about to release is PSP-4000. PSP2 is coming out in the next year or two. How the specs of that system will go, i'm not entirely sure. I suppose anything is possible where it beats and be able to support playing PS2 titles. however, if he was talking about PSP4, we'll have to wait 13+ years or so before we see that model. How he stated his post made no sense. You can't blame me for misinterpreting it. however, I still stand by my point though that PS2 is more powerful at the current time than PSP to be able to play them.

But I want Sony to focus on bringing more/new games on the PSP first.

# you're not looking close enough... — 73N5H1 2009-03-12 04:19

"i don"t wanna store all my media files on 1 memory stick...I've had 1 memory stick gone sour on me and lost all of my games, vids, pic, etc...."

ummm, that's why you keep it all backed up on your PC....

"UMDs are great for easy sharing....i don't have 2 hand over my memorystick wid all my treasures to a friend to borrow and have his dog chew up his psp...and also U don't have to worry about loading media in the psp if you are on the go"

Memory sticks are actually cheaper per GB that UMDs right now... you could actually buy a small memory stick for cheap and use it when you want to let your friends borrow games...

"nothing beats having the game and a real physical copy with instructions booklet, images, quick reference text....don"t have to worry bout it getting erase off the computer and if you ever wanna make a back up..(u kno what i mean) by all means let it rip...."

that's nothing to do with the media format.. that's just marketing... games could be sold on a pro duo stick in a case along with the manual, etc. etc... in this way, games would be sold cheaper in downloadable form and if you bought it in memory-stick form, then you'd have a usable memory stick afterwards.

"UMDs fits most games design for it no problem..."

yes, with the current design, but as games continue to become more complex and with better graphics, the UMD will be outgrown, especially when a next-gen PSP is released.

# . — 73N5H1 2009-03-12 04:22

wow... what's up with QJs formatting right now.. that's not at all how I typed that reply out...

# hmm.... — 73N5H1 2009-03-12 04:24

NVM refresh fixed the formatting issue...

# well personally... — Rayn389 2009-03-12 07:30

CoD4 is the best FPS still to date the reason why people wanna say killzone 2 is better because they wanna say oh my system has the biggest ***** in the yard lol...and not for nothing but PS3 online sucks i experience nothing but lag in any game I play except MGO my xbox runs perfect on live...So its like the difference between the AK-47 and a M4... they both shoot the same type of round the AK shoots the bullets out at a better velocity but its highly inaccurate so what good is a gun whos bullets cant hit. If you dont get the metaphor...AK=ps3 and M4=360

# @ptspyder — KylBlz 2009-03-12 15:40

"my CFW PSP uses far, far, FAR more battery running iso's then umd."

... WTF?!? i hope you know UMDs take way more energy because they have to:

-spin the UMD

-shine a laser at it

-get the reflected data

-interperate it

-process it

meanwhile an ISO does 2 things:

-interperate compiled code

-process code

you fail.

# UMD — GUNBEHINDTHESUN 2009-03-16 01:07

The UMD doesn't suck. It works just fine for what it's for.

# - — mr.x256 2009-03-16 01:07

I think that the main idea of UMD was more about not being able to copy them, but that didn't work out too great.

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