Friday, February 18, 2005

Why the PSP will fail

From Engadget: Sony reveals pricing for first UMD movies as well as all of five launch titles: XXX, Hellboy, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and House of Flying Daggers. These aren't exactly the best-reviewed, most popular, or even cult classic movies of the past few years. Quite the opposite, in fact. The long-awaited "Final Fantasy VII: Advent's Children" is still vaporware.

Let me get this straight. The PSP requires movies in a proprietary format and costs more than a portable DVD player. It also plays games, but will only have 3 hours battery life (the GBA SP's lasts 16 hours). I've seen pictures of people holding it, and it looks at least as bulky as an Atari Lynx.

Look at the history of handhelds. Technically, TurboExpress and the Sega Nomad pwned the competition. Like the PSP, they had hardware comparable to their console counterparts (they had to; they played the same games). What sunk them was their poor battery life, bulkiness and massive price: the exact same weakness that the PSP now has.

If the past can tell us anything, it's that the Playstation Portable will fail.

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