WEBVTT - Sony's Portable Gaming Systems 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:17.720 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everyone, 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.639 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Pallette 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:22.760 and I am the tech editor at how stuff works 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.639 dot com. Sitting across from me, as always is senior 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.120 writer Jonathan Stricklin. What's shake and bacon? All right? Then, 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.879 I think we, uh, we're gonna get into some games today. Yeah, 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:39.760 we're gonna start off with a little listener mail. This listen, Now, 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.040 I didn't I'm mean to go all Casey case in there. 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:44.440 I don't know where that came from. This listener mail 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:47.680 comes from Mikey, who says I'm getting the new PSP 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:49.960 GO and I want to know more about it. Sent 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.600 from my A T and T iPhone. Mikey sent this, 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:56.240 by the way back in October, which probably means that 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:58.920 he's had the PSP GO for a while now. So 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.200 I apologize my key, but I think you're other people 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.319 want to know about the PSP GO. So we thought 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.240 we talked about the PSP system in general and then 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:10.240 work our way to the go. Yes, the the PlayStation 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:16.040 portable or PSP is a the newest venture from Sony 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.240 in the I mean the line itself is newest venture 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:21.680 from Sony in the the portable gaming market. Now, there 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.920 have been many, many, many many many portable games over 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:29.080 the over the years, dating back to the nineteen eighties 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.920 electronic games, I should say, you know, I wasna say, hey, 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.520 baseball is pretty portable. Yeah, I need THEE and all. 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:40.440 But no, no, I I remember somewhat fondly the days 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:45.119 of the Mattel electronic football with the little blinking Yes, 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.000 that red light is my quarterback and it's throwing this 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:51.800 other blinking red light to this other red light, which 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:57.640 is my who catches the ball from the quarterback. I'm 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:00.480 no good with sports. Uh, you can just a receiver 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.200 receiver se different people might. They were all just blinking 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.160 lights to me. So since that's the problem. Is that 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.880 everything I know about football I learned from those really 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.600 primitive handheld games. They don't look anything like that in person. Yeah. 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:14.519 I was very disappointed when I went to my first 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.440 football game and the music wasn't done in these tiny 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.680 little blips and bleeps. It was actually I was I 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.400 was quite scared and ended up hiding under the bleachers 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.320 for most of the game. No, no two bit sounds there, No, 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:30.280 it was. It was overwhelming and frightening. But that's ah, 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.880 that's that's talking about the early early days of portable gaming. 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.120 And of course for a really long time, one particular 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.440 name dominated in portable gaming. Actually in a way, they're 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:44.480 still dominating. But that name would be Nintendo. Yes. Now, 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:46.320 they weren't the very first though, I mean, there were 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.000 other people who handed you know, making being the next 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:54.760 electronic gaming giant, but the Nintendo Game Boy managed to 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.640 catch on with gamers in a way that no other 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.600 portable gaming system had at that point. And one could 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:05.680 argue since even um there have been a lot of 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:08.440 other portable gaming systems that have been out there, some 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:13.520 from manufacturers like Atari and UH and Sayers, Sega and UH, 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.760 and some of them had stats that and specifications that 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.200 were very impressive. When stacked up against the Nintendo Game Boy, 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.280 it was just amazing. You you look at the difference 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:29.080 and think, wow, uh, this is almost as dramatic a 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.200 a leap as the nes was over the old Attori 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.560 twenty six hundred. But it turned out that the game 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.560 Boy games the library was so huge, and the games 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:43.000 were really well designed and had a very very strict 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:47.880 policy when it came to um uh allowing games onto 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.839 the system that uh. Most of these systems, even though 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:57.280 they were technically more uh impressive than the game Boy, 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.920 just didn't catch on. So when Sony got into the game, 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.640 it wasn't a short thing. I mean, it wasn't a 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.400 done deal. Well yeah, I mean many many companies had 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:13.360 taken on UH Nintendo and tried to dethrone them because 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:15.440 they had a pretty strong hold on the market from 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:19.200 the early nines, and UH Sony has been the only 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:21.160 one who's been able to hold on as long as 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.320 it has. Although it's still you know, running a distant second. 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.520 You're at least second place, maybe not distant second, but 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:28.719 and I'm sure there are a lot of people that 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.720 owned both. And again we're talking about a system that 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.320 can do a whole lot more than just play games, 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:36.480 which when you think about that, and you think about 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:43.080 how relatively limited the Nintendo system is in comparison, it's 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:49.400 amazing still that that Nintendo's system is still dominant in 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:53.640 that market. However, Sony has fared better, better than some 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.960 of the predecessors and as Chris was saying, the PSP 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.799 is still alive and well, and it has its share 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:06.240 a very vocal, very passionate fans. It's a good system. 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:10.120 I mean, it's it's really really an impressive one. The first, 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.680 if you have never used a handheld gaming system, um 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:17.039 and or or if your only experience was with like 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.520 an old game Boy or even a game Boy Advance, 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.719 I think you'd be really surprised to see how the 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:26.520 PSP performs because it is essentially as powerful as the 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:31.560 PlayStation two and you've gotten a little portable framework. That's 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:36.320 that's pretty impressive. Yeah. As a matter of fact, um uh, 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:41.599 it has a better resolution than the than the Nintendo DS, yeah, 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.400 which of course is the the you know, the current 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:49.120 flagship on the Nintendo portable gaming front. Yeah yeah, um 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.799 and it's got a number of other specifications that really 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:58.320 have helped it cement its place as an entertainment device because, 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:00.760 um it's got a sixteen by nine and resolution, which 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.400 is the widescreen format as opposed to the four by three. 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:08.279 Um And of course, the the first uh few iterations 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:12.080 of the PlayStation Portable offered the opportunity to use U 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:16.240 M D S H universal media discs which you can 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:18.080 watch I mean, you can watch movies on it. It's 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:20.919 not quite as good as DVD as far as uh 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.200 you know, the resolution, but it is very close, so 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.240 I mean it. You can you can listen to music 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:28.119 on it, you can watch movies on it. Of course, 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:32.159 the the Nintendo machine has caught up in some regards, 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:34.359 but you're still not watching you know, you're still not 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:36.839 going to the video store and picking up a movie 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.760 to watch on your DS. Well, and you can listen 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.119 to music and some You could also download content uh 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.360 from a computer onto a memory stick and transfer that 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:51.040 to your PSP, which had the capable ability of having 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:54.240 memory six. I want to point out one thing really quickly, 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:58.240 just something that tends to bug me. So U m 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:02.120 d S yes, stands for Universe we medias. What else 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:03.960 do U m d s run on besides the PSP? 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.800 So what is universal about them? Well, you can put 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:16.080 all kinds of universal content. And that, my friends, is 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.239 why Chris should be in the PR department for Sony, 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:23.080 Because seriously, if you're gonna call your media format universal, 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.360 it darnwell better work for more than one device. This 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:28.840 this is just a personal bone. I have to pick 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.360 with with Sony in general, Sony is known for making 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:39.040 proprietary UM inputs and and and connectors and uh and 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:42.280 and cartridges and everything like that, anything that could theoretically 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:45.360 be proprietary, like a memory stick. Like a memory stick. Yes, 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.720 connectors for the power adapters right. Well, but you know, 0:07:48.760 --> 0:07:52.400 the one nice thing is that their USB connector for 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:57.800 computer is actually the mini USB, so it it is 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.600 the one thing that the p SP has that standardized. 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:05.880 Everything else is a proprietary format from Sony. Uh. Sony 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.320 tends to do this a lot with its electronics. I 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.960 had a Sony camera actually still have the Sony camera 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:14.520 that I was talking about that. Uh. I lost the 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.880 USB cable for that, and of course as soon as 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:19.120 I took a look, and I'm like, oh well, I've 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.080 got other USB cables, and I looked at him, Oh wait, 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.280 this is a Sony one, and sure enough it has 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:27.920 one of those specific proprietary connectors you have to have 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:33.280 in order to plug it into the camera. UM gets 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.120 really really irritating. However, Uh, that's that's really neither here 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:38.640 nor there. I was just wanting to point that out 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.640 as something that was really bizarre to me. To see 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.040 something called a universal media disc and yet it only 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.840 works for one particular device. Well, on the other hand, 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:52.960 you've got uh Sony's proprietary nature also gives you an 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.959 advantage in some other departments because you with the PSP, 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:01.320 you have the ability to take UH proprietary son game 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.480 franchises like you know, Grand Tarismo and Ratchet and Clank 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.520 on the go with you. Um so it's you know, 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:11.199 you're not going to find those titles available for other 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:13.880 gaming systems and some other things. We should point out 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:15.920 that the PSP is able to do. You can use 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.240 a you can use cables to hook your PSP up 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:22.240 to a television and actually view content from your PSP 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.520 on your television, which is that's kind of interesting. Um. 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:27.880 Not everything is going to be full screen. It all 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:32.520 depends on the particular application you're running. Um. There are 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.720 also we should mention there are multiple generations of PSPs 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.000 out there. They're not all it's not just one unit 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:42.439 that has been on sale since it debuted and I 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.280 think two thousand four. Yeah, and it actually started in 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.800 two thousand four in Japan and made its way to 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.720 the shores of the United States in spring of two 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.240 thousand five, and um, that would be the very very 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:59.320 first model. Yeah, and uh, back back when it first debuted. 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:01.320 Just to give you an idea, this is this is 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:06.040 something I think is usually a mistake for a game company. 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:12.079 Debuting any kind of game console with only a few titles, 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.680 I think is a bad idea. It's always a better 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:17.920 idea to have as many titles as you possibly can 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:22.520 upon launch or shortly after launch. Otherwise, Uh, gamers can 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:24.560 lose interest very quickly. And I think when it first 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:27.800 launched there was something like six titles in Japan and 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:29.559 it wasn't until by the time I got to the 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:31.720 United States that there were many more. There was closer 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:33.520 than maybe thirty or whatever, which I think is a 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:36.400 much more healthy number. Yeah. Well, people were saying the 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:38.760 same thing about the launch than Nintendo. We that's when 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:40.560 it first came out, because there were I mean, there 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:42.800 were there were more than that, but you know, it 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:47.800 wasn't exactly overrun with two hundred titles when it started. Nervous. 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.679 I think that argument holds water too, because, as we see, 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.360 the one of the main complaints about the Wii is 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:58.280 still the lack of compelling games. So that's that's been 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:00.800 a problem that's hunted Nintendo for a while, although it's 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.240 not really hurt we sales. There was that one month 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.439 when PlayStation three sales overtook the Wei, but that was 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:11.640 a combination of several things. For one, that we had 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:13.720 been on sale forever and the p S three had 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:16.400 just had a massive price cut. Uh. And then of 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.600 course in November of two thousand nine, we sales picked 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:22.720 up again during the holiday season, so that you know, 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.880 it's just took kind of a temporary breather. Getting back 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:30.800 to the PSP they we were talking about the different generations, 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:35.400 so there's a they they designate these by numbers. UM. One, 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:38.520 the PSP one thousand is the first generation, correct as 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:40.360 far as I know, I haven't actually seen it labeled 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:44.040 that way. Um. But the PSP two thousand came out, 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.680 it was the next version, and it came out in 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.640 I believe two thousand seven, right, and this was slightly 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.720 slimmer and lighter, lighter, and uh. Then you have the 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.000 PSP three thousand, which came out in two thousand and eight. 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.000 That's got that was even slimmer. And also one of 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:01.200 the ways they managed to make slimmer was this is 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.400 this is what I thought was interesting. They managed to 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.360 reduce the size of the battery, which allowed them to 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:08.679 make the case slimmer, and it also meant the battery 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.280 was less powerful. However, they also made the system itself 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.120 more efficient, So even though the battery didn't have as 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.840 much of a charge in it as previous batteries, because 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.240 the system itself was more efficient, you still had about 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.760 the same amount of battery life as you had before. Well, 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:28.240 if one I'm reading is correct, um, I learned that 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:31.079 there are you have options in that regard. You can 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.839 opt for a thicker battery pack, which gives you more life. 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:38.160 Of course, you know that's also going to give you 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:40.959 back some of the weight that you gave up when 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.440 you bought one of the newer PSP models. Um from 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.200 what I understand too, Uh, the systems became a little 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.160 speedier the PSP two thousand and then three thousand UM 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.720 they improved the processor speed, although it sort of depended 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:57.520 on what game you were playing as to how fast 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:00.880 it would access and the um U um D is 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.160 also known to be sort of a pokey format. Yeah, 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:06.320 it does take a little longer to load up a 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.600 game than it would on a say, a cartridge based 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.480 or or system. Actually, that's been a problem for a 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:16.199 lot of gaming systems, not just portable ones. Any gaming 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.480 system that uses discs rather than cartridges tends to have 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.520 uh more of more loading times that you have to endure. Um, 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.920 the cartridges tend to be pretty much instantaneous, and the 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:31.200 anything that's on a disc, it just takes time for 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:33.440 the laser to find the right information to read it, 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.840 and then there's a little buffering period while the processor 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:38.480 gets up to speed. I mean, it's it's kind of 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:42.560 unavoidable right now. Um, the technology is just not fast 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:45.400 enough for it to be instant. And of course, we 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.959 as human beings used used to living in the digital age, 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:53.280 we want our gratification as fast as possible. Gosh darn it, 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:55.840 that's true. I mean, nobody really wants to be sitting 0:13:55.880 --> 0:14:01.400 around waiting anyway. Um. So, well, I was gonna say, 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:03.600 I'm sorry. One other thing about the processor speed you 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:07.520 were mentioned, Um, I had heard this is this is 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.640 something I need to verify. Actually, this is one of 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:11.520 those things that I read once and I'd have to 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.079 really research to make sure. But I had heard one 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.240 reason why the later models of the PSP are faster. 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.360 It's not actually necessarily an improved processor. It's that the 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:26.600 that Sony specifically limited the speed on the processor. It 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:31.720 was it was able to to uh go at least 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.000 three thirty three mega hurts, so they had lowered that 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.840 to around two hundred and twenty mega hurts on purpose 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:43.800 and and then so essentially they then remove that limitation 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.120 later on in the life of the PSP, which effectively 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.160 made it a faster machine even though it was really 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.200 just going at the speed it could always go. So 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.440 it's sort of fuel pardon the sports analogy here, uh, 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:58.800 sort of like a restrictor plate on NASCAR racing, where 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:00.600 they actually, you know, do some thing to keep the 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.000 engine from pushing the car forward at a faster rate. 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:07.680 They basically put a restrictor on the processor speed of 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.520 the earlier machines to keep them from hitting their actual 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:15.520 I want to say, yes, but you're talking foreign talk 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:17.520 to me now, all right. Well, as far as the 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.960 universal media discs disks, go, um, we do have an 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:26.720 article about how the PSP works on the website. And yes, um, 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:31.600 who's a fine fine writer. Um he from what from 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:35.200 what he wrote in that article, UM. Sony chose that 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.680 particular format because it would hold one point eight gigs 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.680 of information and UH, you know, it's able to be 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.040 manufactured very quickly and for a lower cost, which was 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.080 the advantage of it. Now obviously, UM if you look 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.760 at the PSP GO, UH, the point that you made 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:56.680 earlier about how UM UH flash memory can be a 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.440 lot faster, actually uh they they switch. There is no 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.560 um D and the PSP GO Yes, that's the latest 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:07.280 UH model to come out of Sony, and it's it's 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:11.120 running concurrently with the PSP three thousands. So you can 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.880 still get either the PSP three thousand, which still runs 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:15.960 on the discs the u m d s, or you 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.640 can get the PSP GO which does not have a 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:20.760 slot for U m d s. The only way you 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.720 get in games on that content on that is to 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:26.840 download it and to transfer it either by memory stick, 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.680 by USB cable or wirelessly. It actually has all these 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:36.560 PSP products, by the way, are also have wireless UM capability, 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:40.200 so that you can play games with friends without having 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.200 to hook up cables between the two. You can even 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:46.120 use it to make Skype calls on a PSP, which 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:50.680 is pretty darn cool now the PSP GO. Since they 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.520 got rid of the U M D option, they started 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.440 to run into a little bit that it's had a 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.359 rocky launch, it's had a rough couple of months. The 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:02.240 system it's off is very sleek looking. When you first 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:03.920 look at it, you think, oh wow, they must have 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.520 gone to a touch screen display because there are no 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.920 controls that I can see. Yes, um, the first ones. 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.720 If you haven't actually seen a PlayStation affordable. Um. When 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.119 you look at it, it is sort of sort of 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.280 like what they call the candy bar phones. They're very 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.360 long and the screen is in the center with controls 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:22.480 on either side of it. But the PSP GO is 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.320 a departure from that form factor, right, So the controls 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.280 on your regular PSP very much look like the controls 0:17:28.320 --> 0:17:31.240 on a on a PlayStation controller. You know, you've got 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:33.480 the basic buttons, the triangle and the X and the 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.040 square in the circle, and you've got the direction pad 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.160 and even a little analog joystick in the lower left 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:42.240 hand corner. Uh. Now, the PSP GO, when you first 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:43.840 look at it, looks like there are no controls on 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.760 it whatsoever. But in actuality, there is a slide out 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.680 section that you can you know, you slide out from 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.560 beneath the screen, and that's where all the controls are. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.080 So you know, it looks really compact and sleek when 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.879 it's all when it's all closed up. Um, And I 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:04.399 guess ideally the you would be able to just slide 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.800 it in whenever you were maybe watching media, like if 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.240 you're watching a movie or something that didn't need the controls, 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.760 you might just you know, close it up. Otherwise I 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.000 can't really under I don't really understand the design behind that. 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.960 I don't know why Sony would have gone with that 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:25.280 particular design. Um, it's it's fun, it's fun, but you know, people, 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.760 you know, I think it's a there's a tactile um 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.760 pleasantness about something that slides out. I suppose so because 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.080 I do. I do occasionally mess with my HTCG one, 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:38.159 which also has a slide out keyboard. Yet so I 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:42.040 can't deny there is a satisfying click when you slide 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.480 the screen all the way. Um. It just seems odd 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:48.200 because it does make the device thicker than it would 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.159 have to be because you have that I'm sorry you 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:55.080 have that extra layer. Yeah, and another disadvantage or or 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:58.440 let me say this another complaint that I've read and 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.960 and doing research for the podcast asked, is that it 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:04.879 seems to be made for people with smaller hands because 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.200 it is a smaller device. As a matter of fact, 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:10.800 the screen is smaller, and but although it maintains the 0:19:10.840 --> 0:19:17.639 same resolution um sou it seems to be more appropriate 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:19.760 for people with smaller hands. People with bigger hands have 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.400 trouble playing with the the PSP GO, or at least 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.800 as far as I've read, and there's been some other problems. 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:30.119 One of the problems was that when it launched again, 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.639 they did not have that many games available for the 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:36.840 PSP GO. Uh. Now, ideally, whenever you would get a 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.600 system like this, you would be able to make old 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.960 games available via download as quickly as possible, so you'd 0:19:43.000 --> 0:19:46.240 have access to the library of games that already exists 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.119 for the PSP. Yeah, it's not like you can go 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:51.440 to a your local used game store and buy games 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:53.240 for it, because the umd s are not going to 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.480 work with it. This is very clever on Sonny's part, 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:57.280 by the way, because it means that they are going 0:19:57.320 --> 0:19:59.479 to get a lot more first sales and then they 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.560 don't have to about people selling their games to other players. Um, 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:07.680 but it also means that, uh. The the other thing 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:11.520 that that the promise that that Sony PSP go owners 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:13.960 kind of had was that when a new game came out, 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.600 it was gonna come out in uh, the PSP go 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:19.320 format as well as the regular PSP format pretty much 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:22.720 at the same time. So ideally, if you were really 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:24.720 anticipating a certain game, you would be able to get 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:27.439 on your PSP Go before your buddy could get go 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.240 to the store, pick it up, come back and start playing, 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.960 so you could have bragging rights, oh, you know, I've 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:34.840 been playing this for forty five minutes while you went 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.560 out to go and buy the physical copy. But in 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.680 several cases, Sony has released games where the PSP go 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:45.360 version was not ready, and so the physical format came 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.960 out and the PSP go version did not come out, 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:49.639 and so then you had all the people who had 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:51.639 the old PSP saying, I don't know why you wasted 0:20:51.680 --> 0:20:54.000 your money on that new device because my old one 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:56.000 I can play this game and you still have to wait. 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.040 So that's been kind of a black eye. Another one 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:01.439 is that there was talk for a while of a 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:05.280 um D exchange program where if you had a U 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.000 m D for a game for your old PSP and 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:10.960 you now have the PSP GO. You could start to 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:13.440 turn in your old U m d s to get 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.720 either credit or some other kind of game in exchange, 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:19.040 or even the same game in exchange for the PSP GO, 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:22.520 and the idea being that, well, if you hand over 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.640 the physical media back to Sony, they should there shouldn't 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:27.359 be an issue there. They'd be like, all right, sure, 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.400 here's your game. But that hasn't happened either. Even though 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:32.520 Sony originally said they were going to make plans for it, 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:37.760 that's still in the oh we're making plans phase. And meanwhile, 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:39.280 the device has been out for a couple of months, 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.240 so it's uh, yeah, from what I from what I understand, 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:47.800 there just hasn't been any real, you know, communication from 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:52.119 Sony other than the oh, well, you know, yeah, the 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:54.800 there there have been a lot of there's been some grumbling. 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:57.680 Now granted, things have been getting better as time has 0:21:57.720 --> 0:21:59.480 gone on, you know, more games have come out for 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:02.639 the Go. Um, it's still one of those systems that 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:07.480 I think most uh most gamer reviewer types would say, 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:10.280 let's wait a little longer before you dive in and 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.600