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PSP Breakthrough (ps1 emulation, custom firmware, etc.)

Marcus I imagine people say that because it's harder to really see the great PSP games as a non-PSP owner, since aside from MGS there aren't that many huge titles on there. It's alot easier to recognize AWESOME NEW MARIO/ZELDA/MEDTRIOD/CASTLEVANIA/POKEMON/etc GAME as a reason to buy a system than it is to recognize some really awesome puzzle game you've heard mentioned a few times (Lumines maybe?)

That's probably the same reason I don't have any PC games even though I have a semi-powerful PC (for like four years ago anyway). I'm sure there are plenty of PC games but aside from stuff like Warcraft, Starcraft, and Half-Life, I don't really know of any series that are known to be universally awesome, and when I make a gaming purchase I am usually really unlikely to get a game that's probably really good but fits into a genre I have already tried, doesn't deviate much from the standard, and isn't part of a series I already know I like. It's my suspicion that that's how most Nintendo fans shop and it probably isn't the best way but it would definitely lead to at least a sub-conscious perception of a lack of PSP games.
 
Marcus, http://www.pspfanboy.com/2007/01/03/debunking-a-psp-myth-it-has-no-good-games/ is a very nice link, thx bro.

I hate fanboys, of both sides really. it's just stupid. play what you like, period. Simple as that. I'm more on Sony's side n used to hate DS. but i "grew up" n stopped that garbage. its pointless n leads nowhere. DS is undeniably superior in sales but PSP is a success IMO, no other "non-nintendo" portable console had ever penetrated the market right?

and Marcus, UMD ISO loader has been exsisted before 3.02, and dumping the ISO is probably the homebrew part, considering Sony created UMDs with hopes they would never get dumped, but you see, thats what they get dumped in the only UMD Reader there is...the PSP itself xD
 

Marcus

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^_^
Minkoff;129383 said:
Marcus I imagine people say that because it's harder to really see the great PSP games as a non-PSP owner, since aside from MGS there aren't that many huge titles on there. It's alot easier to recognize AWESOME NEW MARIO/ZELDA/MEDTRIOD/CASTLEVANIA/POKEMON/etc GAME as a reason to buy a system than it is to recognize some really awesome puzzle game you've heard mentioned a few times (Lumines maybe?)

And I agree. Sony practically has zero advertisement for the PSP and even the people who make PSP games don't advertise their stuff. I walked into EB games the other day and noticed that there's 10 new titles stuffed in a corner of a shelf. When I go on gamefaqs to find info on the games I found out they came out 4-5 months ago.

I like to keep track of games that come out but when an entire library comes out with no word or info of it's release (no major publication even reviewed them) it's a little disheartening. It's even worse when 50% of my PSP collection isn't even in print anymore which seems to be the case for DS games as well. It's like all the good games are out of print (I haven't seen a single copy of Animal Crossing, Castlevania DS, Mario 64 DS, Kirby's Canvas Curse, or Advance Wars DS at all this year) and all the bad games are being distributed weekly.
 
Marcus;129822 said:
Sony practically has zero advertisement for the PSP and even the people who make PSP games don't advertise their stuff.

Nah, other than weird accounting schemes by some companies involved. I see about as much advertising (probably more) for PSP-related things as I do DS. Nintendo's marketing is probably much more memorable to you if you're familiar with their brands.

Though PS3 vs Wii, Nintendo definetely has that hands down other than the media's concern with PS3 while Wiis were & are selling like hotcakes.

For those older games, try the big box stores & online. Shelf space at a lot of specialty stores is mostly sold off and publishers like to have some new games instead of all the old ones that the gameresque-crowd already bought.
 
Goomba;130061 said:
Nah, other than weird accounting schemes by some companies involved. I see about as much advertising (probably more) for PSP-related things as I do DS. Nintendo's marketing is probably much more memorable to you if you're familiar with their brands.

Though PS3 vs Wii, Nintendo definetely has that hands down other than the media's concern with PS3 while Wiis were & are selling like hotcakes.

For those older games, try the big box stores & online. Shelf space at a lot of specialty stores is mostly sold off and publishers like to have some new games instead of all the old ones that the gameresque-crowd already bought.

You seem to enjoy being contradictory don't you? I dunno, lately I've seen one single commercial for the psp, and it's about the media thing, and I don't see it often at all (Like I can't say I've seen it for over a week now), whereas I see commercials for random DS games like daily. Kirby Squeak Squad, Final Fantasy 3, that sort of thing. A while back though, I saw PSP advertising quite often, it just happened to be the worst kind of garbage ever, what with the whole 'let's throw ebonics out there and let that market our product' approach. (godamn squirrels...)

I own both a PSP and a DS, and I've gotta say that I have more games I like on the PSP, but there's definitely more 'blockbuster' games I see on the DS, like Minkoff said: Castlevania, Mario, Kirby and whatnot. The only real popular series thing I can think of on PSP is Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, which got incredible reviews, but I haven't exactly seen any advertising for it (could just be my shoddy memory though).

But on the actual topic... The whole PSX game playing thing is pretty badass. Now I get to play me my Final Fantasy Tactics on the go, and the new update that allows compression is pretty nice too, since I can get more than one game onto my 1GB stick at once. Bit of an annoyance that I somehow managed to kill my saves when I did that though... Oh well. I originally bought the PSP for the homebrew kind of thing. Being able to play old SNES/Genesis games and random things that people make (still not tired of Sudoku or PSPool) is pretty badass and the main draw when I bought the thing on launch day. I think when I got it the only cool game I heard of was Metal Gear Acid (yay card games).

EDIT: I seem to be making 1 post every 15 days. How silly.
 
The whole PSP == Media Machine ads that I see (the only ones really) seem silly as I imagine only 5-10% of the buyer base for the PSP bought it as a Media machine mainly, and not as a gaming machine.

I'm not sure what they're trying to push, but until I can watch DivX encoded videos on my PSP without a ton of effort, I don't have a lot of interest in it's media capabilities.

Game wise the PSP and DS both have great games, I play them semi-equally really, BUT the multiplayer is so much more rewarding on the DS... the only non-local multiplayer game I have for the PSP (Syphon Filter) is a terrible game to play online... unless of course you're in one of those "clan" teams that get a bunch of non-clannies in a game and then just repeatedly owns them.

Yeah, the multiplayer scene for the PSP is terrible for those who don't have a bunch of PSP owning friends... and it might even be bad with them. Each of us, my wife, my two sons, and myself, own a DS, (the 8-month old doesn't play too well though!) meaning that when we want to play multiplayer it can SERIOUSLY be a lot of fun.

It's kind of sad that of all my PSP playtime, I would say most of it came down to Lumines, Katamari, and (equal to those two put together) now Breath of Fire 3... an old PS1 one game. :)

I would have MUCH more gladly paid like $150 or even $175 and given up the media capabilities of the PSP. The point I was trying to make is that it's just not match for the other technologies in place to handle those media formats... if you want to watch non-UMD videos you use a computer, not your PSP.

It's so large that using it as an MP3 player is a step beyond silly, not to mention even the smallest MP3 players have a full 1+ GB usually to devote to music, usually more like 2-4GB, and you'd have to sacrifice all that space OR swap cards continually to make the PSP's MP3 player match up in just space considerations.

I guess those new ads are to make the "gamers" realize that they can use their PSP for more things... like meeting up with hot girls you apparently slept with after getting so drunk you both just kinda fell into it and don't remember the other person at all. (Good thing she keeps a cheap 32MB card with videos on it for you to track her down after though!)

I think a lot of people have realized that support for multiplayer games as well as single player games is becoming more and more an important part of the gaming community, especially with the advent of computers as wide-media gaming tools. The PSP had a lot of potential, but is failing miserably because most of it's multiplayer is local and I've honestly never met another person who owns a PSP... it's a much more rare device for non-hardcore gamers because of price and education levels, whereas the DS' simplicity makes it ideal for even older people and parents of younger kids to own.

The PSP Homebrew scene has a lot more potential than the DS, thanks to it's power and natural ability to be more useful IF you can find a way to run things on it. That potential is being wasted by Sony however, as they could REALLY make a lot of money if they created maybe a UMD or firmware upgrade (maybe even an optional add-on that you can run from your card that you have to pay for) that would let non-mainstream game developers actually USE the PSP.

Of course, there's a lot of legal issues with homebrew... what if someone writes something malicious that ruins your PSP? Sony doesn't want to get sued over that, and EULA aside, people COULD still bring legal action to bear on them. In that sense if they support Homebrew at all they're just opening themselves to dangerous action from upset users who don't take care when dealing with user-created materials.

Like so many other things, including the DS, it's just a lot of currently wasted potential; the PSP's potential is just a bit more wasted than others as it stands.
 

Marcus

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The PSP multiplayer is actually getting a lot better. Fireteam series has always been good, Capcom amazingly supports MegaMan Powered Up's custom levels (which are incredibly fun and inventive), MGS: Portable Op's multiplayer is INCREDIBLY fun (it's like a mature version of pokemon but instead of Charizards you have OCELOTS), and Call of Duty and Medal of Honor are (very surprisingly) competent games that don't feel like your trying to control a rock.

There's also talk of a new Monster Hunter with ACTUAL online play, Sega has a Phantasy Star game planned (although it's still just "talk"), and there are a few other online centric titles I've heard about but really can't keep track of.

As far as homebrew goes, I really wish Sony embraced it. I remember they tried to sell off a $300 developers kit on the PS2 that gave you linux OS and tools but the PS2 was balls hard enough to develop on to begin with. Developing games for the PSP is as simple as knowing LUA which is a common and easily learnable language. If sony released something like "PSP Dev kit: Make your own PSP games and learn how to get them published/distributed/etc." I'm sure sales would shoot up from budding developers.

There's already a surprising number of "indy" developers making PSP games like Mumbo-Jumbo who released Luxor and Platypus (two very good SHMUPS) and Variant Studios who are working on a remake of Cave Story.
 
Are there really enough developers to change sales significantly? That would be pretty interesting. I've always thought that homebrew developers were something of a vocal minority.
 

Marcus

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There are thousands of people who would love to get their hands on a dev kit but they cost so much frikkin money that it turns into a major investment. Garagesalegames has an indy convention every year and there are people with booths set up with working PSP titles as well as custom Nintendo DS titles. A decent number of people bought Sony's linux pack but Sony pretty much dropped support for the set up the moment they released it. Thousands of people still buy the console versions of RPG Maker even though they suck compared to the PC ones.

Yea, if Sony just realised a LUA interpreter and guide book for the PSP and advertised it I'm sure budding developers would be all over it like flies on the proverbial fecal matter. dcemu is a website that has hundreds of custom homebrew programs made by random people who aren't even into videogame developing. I couldn't imagine the popularity if Sony just said "urgh fine!" and actually made this OFFICIAL.
 
I wouldn't really call a few thousand that significant, especially if people focused on homebrew aren't likely to buy alot of games (since Sony still sells PSPs at a loss, right?)
 

Marcus

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Minkoff;130720 said:
I wouldn't really call a few thousand that significant, especially if people focused on homebrew aren't likely to buy alot of games (since Sony still sells PSPs at a loss, right?)

A few thousand is better than none. LUA is a real programming language and a one commonly available. If people knew the power of having that in your very own hands it would draw on hundreds of thousands as most gamers are aspiring developers, not just ones that are already developing. To the casual gamer, graphics are everything so RPG Maker Xp isn't exactly their cup of tea. People also like having a known name backing up their products and Sony is a popular one.

It certainly wouldn't hurt. It might not be GOLDMINE, but it's still something which is 100% better than nothing.
 

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