What do you all think of the new PSPgo and is anyone going to be buying one?
If you haven't seen one yet, I've attached an image below.
And if you don't know what the PSPgo is, it is basically a Sony PSP handheld console, but repackaged with a few key changes.
The first thing you will notice is that it is much smaller and lighter than the standard PSP. Gone are the controls when the unit is shut, but slide it down to open out the game controls. I think this move has been in answer to people saying the PSP has always been a bit too large to fit into your pocket. I'm personally not however sure if holding the controls below the screen is going to be as comfortable as the original PSP.
Next you will notice the screen is smaller, shrinking down to a 3.8" LCD compared to the 4.3" of its big brother. The pixel resolution of 480x272 remains the same though so it won't effect games working or video playback that much.
I would have loved to have seen a touch screen added to this system, especially for when the controls are slide closed. That would have been great. I've wished Sony would add one since the PSP was launched. That large screen is crying out for it. An iPhone/iPod touch/smartphone style touch screen would add a lot to the system and give the NDS a run for its money for sure. But I expect that won't happen at least until a true successor to the PSP is announced.
Now for the biggest change of all. The PSPgo has no UMD drive. So you cannot load commercially bought game UMDs into the system. So how do you play games on it? The unit has 16GB of internal flash ram for storing games on, plus you can increase this further using memory stick micro (M2) flash cards up to 32GB in size. That is a big jump in flash storage over the older PSP which only allowed up to 8GB cards (due to firmware limitations).
To get games into the system you have to purchase them online and download them. You can do this on the unit itself via its built in Wi-Fi, or either via a PS3 or a PC running the special Windows Media Go Software.
You can see the thinking behind these changes and the release of the PSPgo. UMD is a proprietary disc format that only Sony and the PSP use. It is quite expensive for them to produce. Initially they were hoping the format would take off as a portable alternative to DVD for mobile devices, but it didn't prove popular for users to buy their films in UMD format. They would much rather buy a DVD they can watch at home, and convert the DVD to a video file on a memory stick for watching on their PSP. So the UMD format for video was a none starter.
The other thing to thing about is how the PSP hacking community have been using the PSP. Installing customer firmware to allow them to load games onto memorysticks and run them without the need for a UMD, proving to Sony years ago that the UMD wasn't actually needed to hold the game data. So ditching the UMD drive was a logical move in a way. However if I buy a game I like to have a physical copy of the game, rather than just a receipt for the download. But this is the method of software distribution Sony, M$ and others are looking at as the future model, as it is much more cost effective than having to produce discs, packaging, distribute it to stores etc... but this is going to hit the software/games stores like Game badly surely.
The only plus point with digital distribution is access to a backup. If you buy a commercial game on CD, DVD, UMD etc you only have the copy stored on this disc. However if you buy a digital copy and download it, normally you hold an online account for that purchase. If you copy gets corrupted or deleted you can probably download another copy of the game again from the account you originally purchased it though. So in this regard it has its plus points.
What does this mean for owners of the older larger PSP? Not much actually. The PSPgo has the same internal hardware as its big brother. And Sony are still going to be making the PSP Slim 3000 model alongside this PSPgo. And the downloadable games will also work on the older PSP, and all new games released from October 2009 will be available in both UMD and downloadable versions, giving owners of the PSP the option to buy UMD or downloadable versions of each game.
This surely however has to be good news for pirates also. No need to convert UMD games to ISO images any longer. Just get a copy of the downloadable version of the game! I don't know for sure but maybe Sony will fingerprint their downloads to the account holder? I expect something will be in place. But I'm sure that will get around that.
How long till the PSPgo gets cracked and custom firmwares appear, opening the system up? I might be tempted if this does happen, but for the moment I'm sticking to my US Phat PSP 1.5 that is currently running custom 5.00 M33 firmware.
The final big change is that the battery is no longer removable. Could this be in answer to the famous Pandora battery? If you don't know what the Pandora battery is then here is a quick explaination. PSP batteries actually have software built into them in the form of firmware. Hackers worked out how to reprogram this firmware on the battery and convert it into the special Pandora battery. Used in conjunction with some special software on a memory stick, you could use the battery to unbrick any PSP back to the legendary firmware 1.5, and from this be able to then upgrade to any newer custom firmware release. This is also useful for newer PSPs with a firmware that can't be hacked. Just use this battery to downgrade a PSP to 1.5 and then do what you wish with it. By Sony making the PSPgo battery internal and fixed it removes this ability. It also probably makes the system cheaper to make. However removable batteries are also useful as you can have a couple fo long journeys to swap over. That ability is now sadly gone.
