Devil's Advocate - PSP Go: Why Sony are missing the mark

Sony’s new PSP Go might be the slickest-looking piece of handheld technology to arrive this year, but don’t let the looks fool you. The new machine is a slap in the face to existing PSP owners, and a complete misstep for portable gaming and Sony’s online offerings.

It has nothing to do with the hardware. The PSP Go is a stylish, well-designed piece of kit, smaller and lighter than its predecessors by far and easier on the eye. But we’re not talking about the hardware, at least, not in strict technical terms. We don’t care about the potentially uncomfortable placement of the analogue nub, the clumsy addon to allow you to use older PSP peripherals, the 3-5 hour battery life despite no moving parts. We don’t even care about the clearer screen, the improved size ratio, the integrated Bluetooth functionality or the 16 gig memory built in.

We care about what the machine means for the gamer. And that, dear reader, is where the PSP Go misses the mark so far it’s on another firing range altogether.

Cast your mind back to earlier this year, when Nintendo released their DSi. A couple of minor hardware revisions were accompanied by far more important software changes, with the ability to download DSiWare apps and games to store in the device’s memory, and the machine sells for a cool premium slightly above the original DS. In return, it plays all of your old DS games, and offers new functionality for new games designed specifically for it.

I don’t believe Sony needed to make any revisions to the PSP hardware, at least, not the internals. It’s still a powerful portable machine by any stretch; the visuals on games like Wipeout Pulse and MGS: Peace Walker rival the PS2 in its heyday, and look fantastic on the small, comparatively high resolution screen.

For me, it’s all about the software, and that’s why the PSP Go needs some major work.

First of all, there’s the issue of backwards compatibility. We don’t blame Sony for dropping the UMD format; the experimental discs were doomed from the get-go, and having an optical drive never made good economical sense for battery life. Writing them off completely, however, seems a little excessive- it means that anyone with a PSP won’t be able to use their existing games with the new console. Despite early rumours, there won’t be any way to transfer these old games into digital versions, due to ‘various issues’ including licensing. Some of these games, however, are already available in a digital format via the PSN; and yet we won’t even be able to get those versions. If you own Resistance: Retribution for your PSP-3000, for example, you’ll have to buy the digital version of the game (at £24.99) in order to enjoy the exact same title on your PSP Go.

Even more galling is the fact that software hackers have already managed to clone the contents of a UMD, to make games installable on existing PSP hardware. Sony, however, won’t be following suit; yet we know it is technically possible. As a consolation prize, consumers with at least one UMD will be able to trade it in for a coupon entitling them to choose three games from a limited selection; not a bad concession, but it’s not the same as still being able to play the original game. If I fork out a £225 premium to upgrade my console to a new version with little extra functionality, I expect a bit more in return.

There’s no doubting the appeal of digital games, at least. Despite the obvious issues regarding resalability, the appeal of having all of your games to hand cannot be denied; you only need look at the success of the iPhone app store and downloadable games on PSN and Xbox Live Arcade to see that. Carrying a selection of games around- particularly 2” diameter UMDs- is cumbersome at best, whilst having them all available on your device is much easier, particularly for those rare few who do actually use their handheld to game on the go.

The issue comes with the availability of these games. So far, all PSP Go games are available to buy digitally through the PSN store. That means that Sony alone control the price premiums, and no other retailers will be able to compete. Having one set price for a game might be good for publishers, but could work out costly for consumers. A better option would, surely, be to allow retailers (and e-tailers) to sell coupons for downloadable games; redeemable vouchers and codes that entitle a consumer to download a specific game? This would benefit the consumer in the long term, as well as retailers, who currently stand to make absolutely nothing by stocking and selling PSP Go hardware.

Resale value is also a problem. Since titles are digital, and are tied to a specific PSN account, there is no way to trade in a title once purchased, no way for another gamer to enjoy it- unless you go down the questionable route of opening a new PSN account for every single game you purchase and then pass on the account details when finished. But this is related to another problem: What if you don’t like the game? Trade-ins offer a legitimate means for purchasers who discover a game is not to their liking to be able to pass it on, and receive some remittance. If you buy a game from PSN and don’t like it, tough- you’re stuck with it. The same problem can be levelled at any downloadable games, but at least with those on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Indie Games channel there will always be a trial version to give you a taste. Not all PSN games even have this, and it seems unlikely that developers will choose to invest valuable time in creating free demo’s for the public when they could be working on their games. Whether some sort of time-limited play could be enabled, to let users play the first hour or half hour of a game and see if they like it, we don’t know, but it’s probably unlikely.

The biggest, most criminal mishit is the XMB, or rather, the lack of integration with the PS3’s version. Its nice that both consoles sport a similar interface, but why stop at merely similar? If the PSP’s XMB could offer the same functionality as the PS3s- with individual profiles, account-specific friends lists, messages, and trophy support- Sony would be the first company to have truly nailed the concept of unification across platforms. As it is, Microsoft still has the advantage here, as a single Live profile can be used on Xbox Live, Games for Windows Live, and Zune applications. Sony could easily do the same thing with their machines, but so far seem to have resisted any attempts to do so.

We’re not suggesting that anyone boycott the PSP Go. We’re not even suggesting that it’s a bad console- on the contrary, its a very sleek and stylish piece of kit, if rather overpriced (you could buy a standard PSP-3000 with 16 gig Memory Stick Pro Duo for less than the cost of a PSP Go, and have access to the entire back catalogue of UMD games as well as upcoming digital releases). But it has missed the mark. With the PSP Go, Sony had the chance to completely revitalise the handheld gaming market and offer unique features no other company is offering. As it stands, the PSP Go is more of an incremental upgrade that actually offers less to the consumer than its predecessor, and sees Sony still playing catch up with its online services and operating systems in its hardware. Whether time will see the company address these issues and allow the PSP Go to be the device it could be we don’t know - it’s certainly possible- but for now, the PSP Go will hold little appeal for those gamers without very deep pockets and money to burn.