not sayin the cryptics suck(i dont own it) but its not something i can see to many people really excited about. but i do think what he said is true. look at monster hunter.

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The PSP is a weird platform. Given the userbase (about that of the 360), software should sell, but it simply doesn't (not in the West). It's hurt by 2 gigantic things - insanely easy piracy and lots of people who don't view it as a gaming platform, but as a media player.

I really don't see how a casual racing game is the solution to either. Unless it's downlodable from PSN.

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I watched the "demo" of the cryptics, because I thought it sounded like an interesting idea, except that it sucked, so I didn't watch any further.

I think what the PSP needs is more of all kinds of games, but specifically system sellers, regardless of what that might mean. With games like Chains of Olympus and Crisis Core, they've obviously got some awesome games, and I think they've brought in some older (20+) buyers. But I haven't seen anything (outside of Monster Hunter in Japan) that's aimed at a younger crowd that was really any good. Then again, the DS sells like hotcakes to that crowd, and I don't think there's all that much that's any good on it either, so what do I know? :)


Btw, love the sleeping giant picture, well played :)

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Software piracy doesn't spare any console, so it shouldn't be a major reason for the weak sales (which I don't think they really are). However, you may be right, Jeremy, about how is it easy to obtain a pirated PSP game via the internet. The games have no kind of security whatsoever; no registration key required, no patches. It's like 'plug-n-play'. I still wonder why Sony does not add any kind of security patching to their UMDs.

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And btw, I don't think the PSP is perceived well as a media player either. Encoding videos for the PSP is frustratingly difficult (even to the pretty experienced PC user that I am). I don't know why they insist on the AVC and MP4 formats. They're the least common video formats.

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Cryptics is fine, and doesnt suck. And yes i own it. I actualy dont like this comic book too much, but i wanted to see the value, and support the authors.

I am not disapointed all in all. The video interviews are a great add on, and the animations and sounds a god idea. But they should first PICK A WELL KNOWN COMIC...at least to start the process and the buzz around the PSP comics.
Second, it could be improved. The Metal gear novel was amazing fr that. Outstanding even.

So please, dont drop the PSP comics, but choose the right one, or make a deal with Marvel or DC...edit some classic xmen, or spiderman, some 1960's batman....etc

As for the PSP, i hope this plateform is not dead yet, for the developpers. The software sales are so low in america and europe, that i guess they would not bother for that much people pirating their games.

Even the already translated japanese games are not released out of japan....

Come on people, show some love to the PSP, buy tons of games ( the price of some are so incredibly cheap, i dont see how some still copy them ), and UMD movies ( i dont know in us, but in france, all new release are below 9 euros, even below 5...great value )

Voila ! I did not post for long, but i am one of the most hardcore defender of the PSP. It is the best handheld i own, since the GB ( and i own them all )

LOVE PSP....

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Thing is that it is too confusing.

"Do we remake a PS1/PS2 game?"

"Do we release our PS1 games through PSN instead of remakes?"

"Do we release a UMD or a PSN version of our PSP game?"

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Man, I just watched the Spogs video....those are some weak graphics. Shouldn't a racing and collision game have at least *some* physics to the "cars"? They don't even lean or anything during high speed turns--just just slide left and right. Completely divorces you from any kind of immersive feel.

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Excellent sleeping giant graphic, but I do not buy the whole argument about games being easy to pirate as the reason for the downfall of the PSP. I agree that they're easy to pirate and, if you live in or near a major city, you can get your system modded without much hassle. But, for the majority of users, they're buying umds for their non-modded PSPs, plain and simple. Unless they visit specific psp fan sites, modding is not even in their vocabulary.

And I have yet to see any actual stats comparing game sales of PSP games with XBox or PS3 games, for example. Not a basic "PSP Game1 sales are X while XBox Game1 sales are Y", but stats that compare sales within the context of how many consoles have been sold (as more consoles sold will naturally lead to more games sold). Telling me XBox games sell more copies that PSP games is just short of meaningless. Telling me there are 3 times as many XBox consoles sold as PSPs and that a given XBox games sells 6 times as many copies as a given PSP game would carry weight. But no one has done that.

And tell me how costly in real actual dollars is it really to port a PS1 title to the PSP? Or to translate a Japanese title? It's not free, obviously, but it's also not as costly as developing God of War from scratch either. Yet this doesn't seem to be happening. Given the library of global PS1 games, there should be 3 full game downloads a week on the PSP store, as well as some enhanced UMD packages. Who wouldn't buy a revamped Tactics Ogre? Or Intelligence Qube? Or a Tekken collection?

If Sony really wanted to make this system dominant, it would do the porting, distribution, and marketing ITSELF and pay the license fees based on sales. Frankly, I'm just not seeing a commitment from Sony for this system. It's content to let other developers' games market the system for it rather than doing any of the real promotions it needs to. Its focus is solely on selling new PSPs rather than creating a community of users that would create buzz about the console. Once it sells you a system, it's done with you. That weeks go by without releases in this country and Europe is just insulting to PSP owners and symptomatic of the lack of focus from Sony on building this platform.

It's a fantastic platform, I play my PSP more than any other platform, actually, but Sony doesn't get it.

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It's nearly the summer. Gaming droughts happen in the summer. I think last summer was the first one on record that there wasn't a gaming drought.

And the commenter above who said DS piracy is insanely easy and PSP piracy is not is right on. You buy a card, you download 128 MB at most game, you put game on card, you put card in device. Done.

On the PSP, you buy or mod special battery. You find special software. You format memory card in a certain way. You put special software on memory card in a certain specific way. You boot device with special battery and software and go thru cryptic menu process. Once all that is done, you download 1.5 GB game files, and figure out where it goes to work right. I might add you have to basically figure most of this out for yourself because none of the tutorials on the web describing how to do any of this are worth a damn.

Not something I would call 'insanely easy'.

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Well I agree , but lets be honest , this game will bomb ... the PSP needs better ads and more games like Portable Ops , MHP2G , CoO , GT ...

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