Sony Fights to Define the PSP

I think releasing two different products divides the customer base - elite and non-elite. That's best left for major consoles, not handhelds. Aside from that, with the rumors of the PSP being integrated as a controller for the PSP in the same fashion that Nintendo did with their GBA / GBA SP and the GC.

Overall for a handheld with as much power and ability as a PSone and a half, its wasn't TOO overpriced. There are really nice things you CAN do with it, and it is expandable, which Sony has proved. I think that MP3 / WMA / ACC / A-TRAC was sort of a "demand" thing. It was the customers that pushed it hardcore.

The PSP is suffering from "Dreamcastitis"... Enough customers, not enough (good) games. The ones available do not generally tie into the PS2 version or have swappable data, except things like MG Acid 2 and MGS3. I suspect some of the Final Fantasy things will tie in, but not until PS3.

I do agree that it may have been a bad idea to combine both media and games - we all laughed / watched Nokia try this and fail - twice. Yes, the "talk to me taco" known as N-Gage. While phones are becoming a "game" system on their own, its not as huge of a push here in the US. We want sillier things like...a camera and an MP3 player (like most people don't already have an iPod or two).

I don't know... maybe this will eventually be locked away in the vault that contains Nintendo VirtualBoy, Panasonic 3DO, Atari Jaguar, and the N-Gage. I hope not... I like mine a lot.

See, I see it like this. Releasing them as 1 combined product alienates the customer that justs wants to play games but can't afford it because they just bought a 30 gig iPod that plays music and movies just as good as the PSP does.

They should have followed the Nintendo rule of thumb - "Stick tp what you know within your market". In this case it was games. They should have only released a product to play games...

Honestly I think Sony totally lost it with the PSP as they were trying to develop it as almost a game console on the go. When people play with handhelds we play something that we can play on the go that is fast and interesting enough to keep us playing while on the go. Why play a game that takes the same amount of time as a console game in 1 sitting? Alos combined with the load times. I think that's the biggest problem.

I can't disagree here. Though, I am an avid RPG gamer so not only am I used to a decent lengthed load time, but "on the go" is fine with an RPG as long as you can save anywhere, like some of them are now allowing. The reason I think that the PSP has all of these console style games is so they don't waste their units capabilities. 233Mhz is skimpy, but then look at the PS2. Why NOT take some of hte console style game to the handheld. The price does sort of kill it, in inasmuch as a PStwo costs LESS than a PSP.

Their biggest problem IMO was trying to be everything to everyone. No single console or Computer company can do that; the user base is too diverse and the larger the audience you target the more diverse you have to be. Apple has known this (but kept it in control by forcing certain things on the user), Windows knows this and it is their own short coming, Nintendo knows this and, like Apple forces certain things on the user, and Sony is about to find this out. If the PS3 flops... I'm afraid it'll be between XBOX and Nintendo - which means XBOX needs to stop making the console a media PC and Nintendo needs to offer heavier titles off the bat. This is a small part of why I root for Sony - they have an important place in the industry.

All console makers have a flop - Nintendo and the VirtualBoy (too obscure) and GBMicro, Sega and the Game Gear (too soon), Xbox and the XB360 (too little too late or too much too soon), and Sony with the Mylo / PSP (too diverse with too little support), NEOGEO with that NEOGEO Pocket Color (too late, lack of titles). I'm sure that IF Sony makes a second gen handheld (as such would be trend), the PSP2 might be a lot better... now that we can put 4GB of data on a cart, 320KBps MP3, and by the time that a second gen. PSP makes it to the shelf the price of a 4GB cart would be that of the UMD we buy today.

Still, I get a lot of use from my PSP and the games, while could use some work, are still in the first gen. Look at PS2 games now.. .like MGS3 - graphics that parallel XB on a great day. I'm sure that mid next year we'll be seeing better titles and possibly more features. This is the strength of the PSP... its upgradeable to an extent..and they ARE working on it. Gotta give 'em credit for at least trying.