June 16, 2010
In an interview with VG247, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president, CEO and CFO Andrew House admitted that the company underestimated PSP owners' attachment to physical media (UMDs).
He also said that the "day all games go digital, like on iPhone, is hard to determine." His admission relates to the PSPgo, which eliminated support for PSP UMDs at launch and relied more heavily on digital downloads via the PlayStation Network.
"I think that’s really interesting, but I think the data capacity becomes a real factor there. [iPhone games] are small-scale, data-tiny experiences, and clearly Apple has proved that there’s an online marketplace for that. But when I look at the trend toward bigger, deeper, more intense experiences – certainly on home consoles – I think packaged media will be around for quite some time."
He also added that consumers have an attachment to the games they already own that the company underestimated. Of course the company could have simply listened to the chorus of voices complaining about the elimination of UMD support in the PSPgo long before the company launched the system..
Source: VG247
Comments
Re: Sony Admits PSPgo Shortcomings
The PSP Go is a failure because we can't play the games we already OWN,
Sony always fails at listening to their customers. It's why we still do not have a 2nd analog stick.
Re: Sony Admits PSPgo Shortcomings
oddly enough, this is also a large reason I prefer owning a physical copy of something (digital distribution aside) rather than pirating it.
then again, Internet access speed is also a factor, and I know Japan's is a hell of a lot faster then in the U.S.
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Re: Sony Admits PSPgo Shortcomings
That is not the lesson they should have learned. We dont like the UMD's themselves we just like the game that on the UMD, Sony needed to facilitate a way to download digitaly one of the UMD games you already own.
Sony is so disconnected from their users, it's pittiful really.
Re: Sony Admits PSPgo Shortcomings
The failure of the PSPGo has more to do with Sony management than the actual hardware. It was too expensive with no way to import UMDs onto the device and not every game came to the download store- to say nothing for the games being overpriced. All this from the same company who said rumble was a "last gen" feature and told it's customers to go get a second job.
Re: Sony Admits PSPgo Shortcomings
I think the PSPgo was more tot est the fisablity of a digital only portable system. I think for the most part it worked. As a PSP it kinda fails due lack of UDM support.
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Re: Sony Admits PSPgo Shortcomings
"He also added that consumers have an attachment to the games they already own"
uh...I think it's more that people don't want to buy something they already own a second time to play it on an inferior system(inferior to the normal PSP, that is)...
Re: Sony Admits PSPgo Shortcomings
Yeah, the mind boggles. I am still trying to wrap my brain around that sentence. They didn't realize people would want to still be able to play the games they'd already bought? Just...wow.
Of course, it could have been largely mitigated if Sony had actually, you know, been telling the truth when it said it would allow users to download games they'd already purchased on UMD...