The PSP Go came out a week ago now. Do you know anyone that has one? Anyone that wants one? I don’t either. There doesn’t even seem to have been any hype surrounding the product, even if you compare it to other slight upgrade like the Nintendo DSi. Why?
For one, the design is pretty, but not really an improvement. One of the biggest problems of the PSP is that its big, beautiful screen is just hanging out there. You’ve got to cover it up or enter a world of scratches. I would never put it in my pocket. With this new design, Sony almost fixed it by switching to a clamshell design. But they got it reversed, the controls are supposed to go over the screen. Not the other way around, you idiots! I don’t care if that makes it slightly smaller when I’m not using it, I’d much rather it protect itself. How do you mess this up?
The real reason the PSP Go exists is because Sony wanted to move to downloadable games, forgoing the lame UMD medium. So they ditched the UMD drive. Fine, but giving current PSP-owners some way to export UMDs seems pretty necessary too. Not to Sony. If you buy a PSP Go, you have to start over with you PSP collection. And with the used game market, you’ll probably end up paying more money to download games too. Plus, I heard that you won’t be able to log into foreign PSN marketplaces, destroying the region freedom that I loved the system so much for. In Europe, at least, Sony is letting you download three games for free. But over here, you’re screwed.
Finally, Sony expects you to pay $250 for this bad boy. That’s $50 less than a PS3, and $50 more than a PSP-3000 which can do everything the Go can and comes with a free game. That’s a rip off, no doubt about it.
I guess my point is Sony really fucked the chicken on this one. What were they thinking?