As someone else has pointed out, the biggest problem with the PSP isn't the price. I bought it at the $199 price, and found it to be very reasonable considering just how powerful it is and what it can do. The DS doesn't come close. But the gaming library is just horrible. I only bought 2 games for it, Metal Gear and an RPG I resold(can't remember the name). This is more than made up by the fact that I can play old PSX games on it with custome firmware. And that I can rip my CDs and watch it on the go at incredible quality. Which brings to another point. Who would buy an UMD video for $20 when they can buy a DVD for the same price, then rip it into PSP-playable mp4, and watch it anywhere? I really don't understand why Sony haven't tried making killer apps for the PSP. COnsidering games are where they make their profit.
God I hate this Core , Elite, Basic, Advanced terminology when buying your gaming system... $169 is what going to raise there sales 3-5% ... You know nintendo would just cut there DS to 99$ if they wanted to and still make a profit..
You know what I'm tired of is hearing the word SKU (actually 3 words, but you can say skew as well). All of these gaming fanboys on forums accross the internets had never heard this term until this current generation (unless they were marketing students). I'm convinced most of them don't actually know what the S K and U stand for and probably didn't bother to look it up.
This is why I hate the way Sony has marketed the PSP (or the games specifically anyway). Granted, opinions vary from person to person, but the PSP library is very good IMO. Assuming a person isn't too picky with their game selection, I could probably list a ton of games for them to check out, and they'll probably enjoy a good number of them. Too bad Sony can't push these games themselves. That was definitely the big problem with UMD movies. I kept hoping that Sony would release a UMD burner to let us burn our own media, but that never materialized, even though they definitely considered it IIRC. As just an overpriced, under-featured movie format, I'm surprised the format lasted as long as it did and did as well as it did. Should have been DOA. It isn't like it is easy to make a killer app, although I guess that depends on what you call a killer app. Sony has certainly tried to create a "killer library" that mirrors the PS1 and PS2 though, at least when it comes to main PS franchises. The PSP has 2 GTAs (at least one of which was consider a killer app of sorts when was released), 2 SOCOMs, 2 Ridge Racers, 1 Wipeout (soon to be 2), 1 Syphon Filter, 1 Jak & Daxter game, 1 R&C game, 1 Tekken game, 1 MGS game as you mentioned (and 2 other Metal Gear games, plus a digital comic), a couple "Tales of..." games (forget how many), 1 Killzone game, 2 Burnout games, 1 Ace Combat game, 1 Hot Shots game, and a lot of other games that make up the usual PS library (and AFAIK, most/all of those games are pretty good, probably about 80-85 at Metacritic, with some probably being close to 90). This totally ignores the "killer apps" they have in Japan though (some Gundam games and Monster Hunter are really huge there), as well as any new IPs that have done well on the PSP. And in the future, they'll have a God of War game, 3-4 Final Fantasy games (although only 1 is really new, and 2 are ripoffs), a Disgaea game, an Oblivion game, a Silent Hill game, a Castlevania game (complete with SOTN), etc. Perhaps one of the many vaporeware titles (DMC, GT, RE, etc.) might someday be released as well. Maybe some of the upcoming games (particularly GOW or FF7:CC) could be a killer app of sorts. That said, I imagine if they get the same marketing as these other games, they'll probably sell about the same too (although I'm sure SE will try to make sure their first major PSP game sells well, so they may push it hard themselves). I do agree that the PSX emulation does add to the library, particularly since it adds some nice RPGs (perhaps the best ever actually). Most of the good PSP RPGs are stuck overseas or still in development. That's another thing I hate about how Sony has handled the PSP, but I imagine that affects me personally more so than it affects how the product is perceived by the majority of gamers.
