Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Uh oh, Sony again
I noticed at The Register a review about the Sony PSP, which was actually written by Trusted Reviews, and didn't agree with their verdict.
#1 "Sony has redefined mobile gaming with the PlayStation Portable."
Hardware-wise it has every bell and whistle, but to really redefine an industry doesn't necessarily mean the product needs to be better than what's out there in the market.
Look at the console era when it was the Nintendo Entertainment System versus the Sega Master System. Sega definitely had a better engine but in the end which system was more popular(and also survived)? Sega and other companies tried to release future technology earlier by introducting market terms called 16 bit up to 64 bit architectures in the hopes that gamers would appreciate the better engine. Some gamers accepted them but in the end Nintendo won out in popularity. What was strange was that Nintendo took its time in upgrading their consoles.
Another historical case is in mobile gaming especially the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx. I remembered they captured the crowds with their color screens and advanced engines that the Nintendo Game Boy lacked. But was it popular enough to really redefine the mobile gaming industry? Nintendo finally came out with color screens years later and a better engine even some more years later. Again here is another strange case of Nintendo taking its time to release advanced technology. Maybe a strategy here?
So just because Sony's PSP has all the snazzy stuff I don't think it will be popular enough to redefine the mobile gaming industry. On another note, I understand within a few short weeks of the launch, Sony has already cut the price. In all my years of seeing product launches this smells like terrible planning. Of course it's a boon for customers but it's just that usually the cuts occur after there is some plateau adoption line.
#2 "When Sony released the original PlayStation, the balance of power in console gaming shifted away from Nintendo. Now that the PSP is here, I expect to see the same thing happen in the hand-held gaming market."
The transition conclusion is wrong. Yes Sony has popular console products with PlayStation One and 2. But I don't think the execution of the PSP will affect favorably in the balance of power because the comparision isn't the same.
Although the core of both products is gaming, the differentiation is that one product is for home use while the other is for mobile use. With mobile there is always a balance of performance versus battery life.
Lets look at the PSP. First it uses what Sony calls a UMD drive to load games. Terrible mistake... in other words the PSP is just a glorified CD player. I wouldn't want to waste my time using a CD system to play mobile games. Imagine the horrible wait times to start the game, then to start the next level or fight the boss. Also imagine the skipping problems, ugh. Remember how portable CD players supposedly "solved" the problem by using buffer memories?. Those things were absolutely ridiculous and useless(never worked well for me). If the companies are using buffer memories to protect the inherent problem of portable CD players, why not erase the whole product altogether and design from the ground up using flash memory. Hello?! Solid-state! And what if I accidentally drop it or bump it too many times? Say good-bye to worthless broken PSP, hello to expensive paperweight!
Second it has a Memory Stick reader/writer which can handle higher capacity formats 1GB or more. I'm left to wonder why the heck didn't Sony just publish games on those instead of wasting time, money and development on their own UMD which is so limiting at only 1.8GB. Flash memory these days can go up to 2GB, 4GB and later on more. Use SD got damn it, it's cheap!!! Sony says Memory Stick is for saving games. What a load of crap! So Sony is telling me after I spend a bucket of money on games, I have to spend a few more to save my game-plays? If the games come in cartridges/flash memory, naturally there would be some space left over to save my games right? Greedy idiots!
Third is battery type and life. I like standard sized batteries but in this day in age where size is increasingly favorable by customers, companies have no choice but to look to other battery types to prioritize size. So the common type these days is lithium-ion. I think there is a conspiracy behind lithium-ion because I see it as a Play-Doh of batteries for companies. It is so cheap to manufacture and can be moulded to various sizes. Back to the PSP, the review says life is about three to five hours. I think that is not acceptable. Yes Sony can use higher power batteries but that will increase cost. They should re-inspect their system architecture and find out which part is not being used efficiently. My guess is the honking UMD/CD drive. That part alone has a laser, motor/spindles and logic and buffer memory chips to control and access it. If Sony would remove all that and depend on flash memory, they would save a bundle on cost and development time, but more importantly increase battery life. Some residual benefits would also be size reduction and then the holy grail perhaps shift the balance of power.
#1 "Sony has redefined mobile gaming with the PlayStation Portable."
Hardware-wise it has every bell and whistle, but to really redefine an industry doesn't necessarily mean the product needs to be better than what's out there in the market.
Look at the console era when it was the Nintendo Entertainment System versus the Sega Master System. Sega definitely had a better engine but in the end which system was more popular(and also survived)? Sega and other companies tried to release future technology earlier by introducting market terms called 16 bit up to 64 bit architectures in the hopes that gamers would appreciate the better engine. Some gamers accepted them but in the end Nintendo won out in popularity. What was strange was that Nintendo took its time in upgrading their consoles.
Another historical case is in mobile gaming especially the Sega Game Gear and Atari Lynx. I remembered they captured the crowds with their color screens and advanced engines that the Nintendo Game Boy lacked. But was it popular enough to really redefine the mobile gaming industry? Nintendo finally came out with color screens years later and a better engine even some more years later. Again here is another strange case of Nintendo taking its time to release advanced technology. Maybe a strategy here?
So just because Sony's PSP has all the snazzy stuff I don't think it will be popular enough to redefine the mobile gaming industry. On another note, I understand within a few short weeks of the launch, Sony has already cut the price. In all my years of seeing product launches this smells like terrible planning. Of course it's a boon for customers but it's just that usually the cuts occur after there is some plateau adoption line.
#2 "When Sony released the original PlayStation, the balance of power in console gaming shifted away from Nintendo. Now that the PSP is here, I expect to see the same thing happen in the hand-held gaming market."
The transition conclusion is wrong. Yes Sony has popular console products with PlayStation One and 2. But I don't think the execution of the PSP will affect favorably in the balance of power because the comparision isn't the same.
Although the core of both products is gaming, the differentiation is that one product is for home use while the other is for mobile use. With mobile there is always a balance of performance versus battery life.
Lets look at the PSP. First it uses what Sony calls a UMD drive to load games. Terrible mistake... in other words the PSP is just a glorified CD player. I wouldn't want to waste my time using a CD system to play mobile games. Imagine the horrible wait times to start the game, then to start the next level or fight the boss. Also imagine the skipping problems, ugh. Remember how portable CD players supposedly "solved" the problem by using buffer memories?. Those things were absolutely ridiculous and useless(never worked well for me). If the companies are using buffer memories to protect the inherent problem of portable CD players, why not erase the whole product altogether and design from the ground up using flash memory. Hello?! Solid-state! And what if I accidentally drop it or bump it too many times? Say good-bye to worthless broken PSP, hello to expensive paperweight!
Second it has a Memory Stick reader/writer which can handle higher capacity formats 1GB or more. I'm left to wonder why the heck didn't Sony just publish games on those instead of wasting time, money and development on their own UMD which is so limiting at only 1.8GB. Flash memory these days can go up to 2GB, 4GB and later on more. Use SD got damn it, it's cheap!!! Sony says Memory Stick is for saving games. What a load of crap! So Sony is telling me after I spend a bucket of money on games, I have to spend a few more to save my game-plays? If the games come in cartridges/flash memory, naturally there would be some space left over to save my games right? Greedy idiots!
Third is battery type and life. I like standard sized batteries but in this day in age where size is increasingly favorable by customers, companies have no choice but to look to other battery types to prioritize size. So the common type these days is lithium-ion. I think there is a conspiracy behind lithium-ion because I see it as a Play-Doh of batteries for companies. It is so cheap to manufacture and can be moulded to various sizes. Back to the PSP, the review says life is about three to five hours. I think that is not acceptable. Yes Sony can use higher power batteries but that will increase cost. They should re-inspect their system architecture and find out which part is not being used efficiently. My guess is the honking UMD/CD drive. That part alone has a laser, motor/spindles and logic and buffer memory chips to control and access it. If Sony would remove all that and depend on flash memory, they would save a bundle on cost and development time, but more importantly increase battery life. Some residual benefits would also be size reduction and then the holy grail perhaps shift the balance of power.
# posted by kfcblog @ 10:40 AM 
