PSP Battery Life...

[dog$]

Sorry, I'm a moron. I meant more time; Sony themselves the thing would play movies for at least 2 hours.

So if the PSP is constantly spinning the disc and getting 2 hours out of use from the thing, how could it lose 25% of that time for playing a game?

[Jeremy]

I don't know, but I can't wait to laugh and find out their PR response to it.

[dog$]

PR responds to unsubstantiated rumors in any fashion other than flat-out denial? Interesting.

[mollipen]

So if the PSP is constantly spinning the disc and getting 2 hours out of use from the thing, how could it lose 25% of that time for playing a game?

Watching a video only requires the processor to handle codec issues, which is an ever-constant kind of thing. Playing a video game is much more taking on the processor and GPU, requiring them to do more work. I'd say that playing a game for the PSP is a much harder task than playing video.

[dog$]

I could see that, but only in the case where a game manages to constantly require more processor work... and since there's plenty of times when the game loads crap to RAM and doesn't need the disc to spin, I could see how there'd be periods of the device having less activity than playing a movie througout.

I donno. I'm not the ones with the dev kits or answers, I'm just wondering how a rumor is so readily embraced.

[Jeremy]

That could be true, but I can't help but wonder the validity of really any assessment like this given that developers aren't even using the hardware to make their stuff. I can't imagine they can do much testing with it either.

[AstroBlue]

Watching a video only requires the processor to handle codec issues, which is an ever-constant kind of thing. Playing a video game is much more taking on the processor and GPU, requiring them to do more work. I'd say that playing a game for the PSP is a much harder task than playing video.

No, the motor that spins the drive and the laser diode use MUCH more energy than just operations and memory. Most games don't access the disc constantly.

[Ragnarok the Red]

The company that pretty much created the world of portable music, and the company whose head was furious that Nintendo was the company to come up with the GameBoy. Where has that gotten them?

It's taken them this long to respond to the GameBoy, and if this talk is true, their response is turning out to be a mess.

They're been rendered obsolete in the portable music market, Apple is the new Sony, the iPod is the new Walkman, and Sony's first real answer to the iPod, their recently released whatevertheyarecalled, are far too late and a total joke.

I like Sony, but when it comes to portable entertainment, it's almost amazing how much they're screwing up.

That's true, doshi, I forget how many years, decades practically, since Sony had a market-dominating portable electronic device.

I know Sony wanted to one-up Nintendo with the PSP, but it's starting to seem more and more apparent that the PSP is just another in a line of overambitious handhelds that failed in some way or another against the GameBoy. Criticize Nintendo if you may for creating underpowered handhelds against the time they're released; for releasing an SNES-power handheld in an XBox age. But the GBA simply works, and is able to get by with battery power to spare and an attractive price point.

Another great point Wilykat, there has been criticism of Nintendo in the past in the argument that they are INTENTIONALLY holding back the technological advancement of the portable gaming market because of the monopoly they have on it. But people sometimes fail to realize that there are really large technical and battery issues that have to be addressed first to make a portable system practical.

Comparing the original GB to the GameGear, the GG was far more advanced graphically but also required 6 instead of 4 double AA batteries that lasted 1/3 as long, was almost twice as big, much heavier, and more expensive. If this article is accurate, PSP is going through basically the exact same issues that eventually crippled the Game Gear and it was overwhelmed by the technologically inferior GB because of how much more practical it was in terms of portability, price point, and battery life.

And hell, jumping from the GBA's 16-bit-ish power to the DS' Nintendo 64-esque output is probably the biggest technologicl jump portable gaming sytems have yet had. DS should be plenty powerful.

I really hope Sony can get some of these issues sorted out before unleashing a faulty system on the Japanese market to basically beta test before the worldwide launch next year. The thought that someone could actually fall asleep playing this thing in bed and it might set their mattress on fire is disturbingly hilarious.

[AstroBlue]

They should have called it the PlayMan, and said it was a merging of their two most recognisable brands. Then if Nintendo bitched about PlayMan referencing GameBoy, Sony could bitch that the GameBoy was a reference to the WalkMan anyway (which it was).

Oh... and they should've made sure that the hardware didn't suck.

[Joust Williams]

"They should have called it the PlayMan"

Yeah but then the name would be really stupid ;p I'm actually a bit bummed about all this news. There's going to be worthwhile games on the system (I think), and not being able to play them on account that the system sucks is too bad.