Sony Ericsson "PSP" phone could threaten Apple's iOS game revenue

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  • Reply 41 of 83
    ckh1272ckh1272 Posts: 107member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by kotatsu View Post


    Did you rebuy all your PS2 games on PS3? No, you bought brand new PS3 games.



    This new device, which makes a lot of sense if you actually think about it, would have brand new PSP Phone games on it.



    It will also surely plug into Sony's PSN store for games, which would be unavailable to non PSP Phone devices. Sony will want it's exclusive IP well protected and kept off non Sony Android phones. Sony will also surely make a non phone version, just like the iPod Touch, which would be a direct replacement for the PSP Go.



    It's also worth noting that Sony already have their own iTunes clone (it's called Media Go), from which people can buy games, movies, comics etc and transfer them to their PSP.



    ...for all the people who ditched the UMD PSP for the PSPGO, they should just suck it up and pay again for a game they already had on UMD?? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. BTW, bad comparison with the PS2 and PS3. Those were a totally different set of games. The PSP with UMD and the PSPGO were the same games on different formats. See the problem with your logic here?
  • Reply 42 of 83
    I loved my psp when it first released It was one of the had to have items and I had my father pick one up in japan before it was released in the states. Looking back it would be cool to have a psp/phone but I don't really game that much anymore (he'll I don't even play the games on my iPhone 4 anymore..



    Good luck Sony I don't really think it will put a ding it apples game though I'll be rooting!
  • Reply 43 of 83
    stuffestuffe Posts: 394member
    I don't believe this will ever get released. Think about how the encumbant gaming ecosystems work. They spend a fortune on developeing new hardware, which they then sell at a loss, with the view to replacing the lost income on the initial purchase with revenue from games. They don't get a cut from game sales (well, unless they are first party) but in licensing the ability to distribute games on their hardware. I can't go and write a game for PSP, even a download game, without I pay Sony. Same goes for DS/Xbox/Wii etc etc. It's these licensing fees that earn the money.



    So, if there is a Sony Android Gaming phone, which will sell probably at a loss for the hardware, where does the lost revenue get replaced from? From the phone contract? Nope, the telco will get that. From the games developers? Doubt it, there's no requirement to be an official developer in the same way that there is in the existing structures. The only way they could earn money, is to write games and sell lots. That's not what Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo do. They provide the platform for others to write the games, and hope to get fat on the proceeds.



    For me the iPhone, and portable gaming on other platforms like Android and no dount Win Mob 7 etc are all about the smaller developers, the independants, who chose these open platforms because they don't want to, or have the ability to get into the big boys territory. Any move to muscle in by any of the big 3 is doomed to fail if you ask me, because the model is all wrong, and the content will be all wrong.
  • Reply 44 of 83
    The one thing that I am completely confident in is how bad Sony and its Partners will screw it up!



    #1 Cost of Apps

    #2 Purchasing Experience

    #3 Applications there will be a just the old PSP library for a while.....

    #4 It will be a hardware functional equivalent of the current PSP and not a multitouch enabled game system that can run PSP apps as well as new enhanced hardware and software.



    PSPS A GO GO!
  • Reply 45 of 83
    shaun, ukshaun, uk Posts: 1,050member
    Compare the experience of buying games (or movies/music, etc) with the iPod/iTunes and PSPGo/Store and it's not hard to see why the PSPGo flopped. Gamers and parents like disks coz they can swap/exchange/sell them when they get bored, which is important when you're paying £20+ per game. The iPod/iTunes system works coz most games are less then £5 so if you get bored with a game just delete it.
  • Reply 46 of 83
    joe hsjoe hs Posts: 488member
    For numerous reasons, I doubt the PSPhone will be a success.
  • Reply 47 of 83
    shaun, ukshaun, uk Posts: 1,050member
    The one thing I would change in iTunes is the ability to add video previews for games and other app's in the AppStore rather than just screenshots.
  • Reply 48 of 83
    Reading this thread, its pretty obvious that most of the posters gaming experience is limited to either iphone games or at most nintendo wii.



    /facepalm
  • Reply 49 of 83
    gotapplegotapple Posts: 115member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bdkennedy1 View Post


    OOooooo that's gonna hurt. But Sony won't get it right the first time.



    Sony's been in the games business for a long time.
  • Reply 50 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by yeshuawatso View Post


    Will this be a flop? Depends on how many psp lovers are moving to the iphone or android for their gaming fix. If Sony's goal is to slow that number, then we won't be able to compare it to iphone or android sales as a whole. You'd have to separate those small group of players that crossed over, and that's a harder thing to measure.



    Your comments are in line with my thinking, but I'm going to be harsher than anything I've read at this point. WHAT THE HELL IS SONY THINKING? An Android-based PSP phone? This makes almost ZERO sense.



    Here's MY main problem. Will this mythical phone be AS good an Android phone as the latest Android phone from Motorola? I was putting together my bullet list for "requirements" for any new phone I might buy: Front-facing/rear camera, >= 5MP, HD vid recording, online marketplace, Bluetooth, WiFi, accelerometer, multitouch. Once you get past all of that... you have the apps to utilize the features well, etc. THEN, you come to the next level.



    Sony is working with Google to carve out their own hardware profile in the Android Marketplace. What's that mean? So, new games are going to bounce into the hardly popular Android Marketplace and burn up the charts? If I'm using another Android phone I won't be able to even SEE them, let alone download them? Part of me can "get it" when you're telling me that iPhone owners can't see iPad ONLY apps. Ok. The screen is so much bigger. But if you're just adding a game controller... why wouldn't a simple hardware accessory allow me to take say... my Nexus One, and download "God of War" to it? While, the different Google handset profiles may make it difficult, I figure a killer game or three would give people reason to undercut Sony's hardware specs with a low-cost accessory.



    Recently, after playing Eliminate Gun Range on an iPhone 4, I went to download it on an iPhone 3Gs, and it said that it required hardware the 3Gs didn't have. Sometime later, I see an update saying that the software has been tweaked to use the compass and accelerometer to approximate the giroscope toting iPhone 4 so that they widen the market for the software. Good move. I don't see Sony doing the same here... by design. Welcome to the world of arbitrary distinctions.



    Street Fighter IV on iPhone is a mixed bag for some people, but I love it. Recently, there's been talk of Tekken on iPhone, but that they were figuring out the controls through the touchscreen. I love that kind of creative thinking. Would I love an "OPTIONAL" accessory to make gameplaying easier and remove on-screeen touchpads? Sure. OPTIONAL. Definitely.



    The nut shell is this...



    When you look at iPhones... they're developing in ONE direction. If they "split" the marketplace with hardware requirements, either they're significant differences (iPad) or evolutionary (iPhone 4, everyone will have these features on future phones after). A Sony PSP phone threatens to fragment Android Market even WORSE than it is now. I can imagine buying God of War for my new Android PSP phone, then... after paying through the nose for the game... not being able to play MY game on the new Droid Ultimate I pick up (with the same screen res) 7 months later from Motorola... even though the Ultimate has this AMAZING feature I really can't live without and Sony hasn't said anything about adding it to any new Xperia/PSP (in fact, they likely won't because they're adding it to another Android line they've opened and they want to differentiate their users like Nokia does).



    This NEW announcement... is a JOKE. I think the ONLY significant thing, is that it adds marketing dollars to Android, and that's what made the biggest difference with Droid last fall. Verizon Marketing. A PSP phone? Meh. Add Android... interesting, but I'd like a PROMISE that these new games will work on Android phones with USB accessories. If they did? (A huge if) this WILL be massive and stunning. If they don't... then this might as well not exist. Google has to watch this vector closely.



    Apple's whole trajectory is keeping almost everything compatible that can remain compatible. It's push for no buttons has been pretty loud and persistent. That and its 30-pin connector have been very dependable constants (despite a patent filed on a gamepad accessory).



    ~ CB
  • Reply 51 of 83
    ckh1272ckh1272 Posts: 107member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by D_Brown View Post


    Reading this thread, its pretty obvious that most of the posters gaming experience is limited to either iphone games or at most nintendo wii.



    /facepalm



    ...Judging by your one comment with no explanation for your rationale, it's pretty obvious that you were just trolling.
  • Reply 52 of 83
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post


    Sounds like a desperation move by Sony if they adopt Android. Instead of "strong competition" it sounds more like "Sony's death rattle".



    Well, once upon a time, Sony was a licensee of Palm OS and made the CLIÉ Palm OS devices, and of course they sell Windows computers, so it's not like going out of house for a device OS is a major departure for them, and they have been in the pocketable computer business before this. (In fact, I think they were one of the major reasons Palm spun off it's OS to PalmSource, which was a huge mistake for Palm. And Sony's Palm OS devices were always significantly different, not necessarily in good ways, from the other makers' devices -- like memory stick instead of SD cards, and sometimes different in basic features as well.) It doesn't actually seem like such an unlikely or surprising move for them, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them also releasing Android tablets, possibly replacing their Reader with a full tablet.
  • Reply 53 of 83
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DaHarder View Post


    Personally, I never bought into Apple's declaration that their mobile platform was all of a sudden a suitable gaming system, so my expectations for Sony's effort is rather high given their storied history in this arena.



    We'll See...



    Yeah, all those games in the App Store are just languishing on the shelves. Can't we at least get intelligent trolls here at AI?
  • Reply 54 of 83
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cleverboy View Post


    ... Sony is working with Google to carve out their own hardware profile in the Android Marketplace. What's that mean? So, new games are going to bounce into the hardly popular Android Marketplace and burn up the charts? If I'm using another Android phone I won't be able to even SEE them, let alone download them? ...



    When you look at iPhones... they're developing in ONE direction. If they "split" the marketplace with hardware requirements, either they're significant differences (iPad) or evolutionary (iPhone 4, everyone will have these features on future phones after). A Sony PSP phone threatens to fragment Android Market even WORSE than it is now. ...



    Google will do this with Sony because the alternative is that Sony rips out the parts of Android that make Android useful to Google and replace them with their own. (Just like the Chinese have already done.) And, these devices will likely be quite different from other Android devices, based on Sony's history with Palm OS. It's probably best to just think of this rumored device from Sony as a completely separate platform, not really part of the Android ecosystem.
  • Reply 55 of 83
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,361member
    i'm surprised Nobody has made a real buttons gaming shell for the iphone and started mass producing it. Certain Games are just painful to play without buttons. These button heavy Games are always going to play better on a PSP.

    but just how portable could the PSP system get? It's pretty large now, isn't it?
  • Reply 56 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anonymouse View Post


    Yeah, all those games in the App Store are just languishing on the shelves. Can't we at least get intelligent trolls here at AI?



    Thank's for saying it out loud.
  • Reply 57 of 83
    kotatsukotatsu Posts: 1,010member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ckh1272 View Post


    ...for all the people who ditched the UMD PSP for the PSPGO, they should just suck it up and pay again for a game they already had on UMD?? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. BTW, bad comparison with the PS2 and PS3. Those were a totally different set of games. The PSP with UMD and the PSPGO were the same games on different formats. See the problem with your logic here?



    You completely missed my point. The PSP Phone and the PSP will be totally different systems. Different architectures, different games. It would be unreasonable to expect backwards compatibility, although I don't doubt plenty will.
  • Reply 58 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Firefly7475 View Post


    The sun is going to explode



    HAHAHA!!!!
  • Reply 59 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    An unconfirmed report claims that Sony Ericsson is at work on a Playstation-branded Android smartphone with a new gaming ecosystem....



    This is very bad news for Apple. No wonder they've been hiring game people like crazy if this is true.



    Apple has always sucked rather mightily at "social" and gaming.

    This "human stuff" is their Achilles heel.
  • Reply 60 of 83
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Firefly7475 View Post


    The sun is going to explode



    Yes, but the Andromeda galaxy will collide with us even before that. So we gots that to worry about too.
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