It seems Sony is asking gamers what they think of the PSP, which means Sony has no idea what it wants the PSP to be. Do you use it for gaming exclusively, or do you also use it as a media player? Do you exclusively use it as a media player? Will you please buy 10 PSPs and five games per system so we don’t close a bunch of divisions? And so on.
Edge, as always, has a pretty keen examination on the state of the PSP, such as it is. It attempts to answer many of those very questions. You can read the whole thing (and you should, it’s pretty good), but in a nutshell: Sony needs to put less emphasis on the the PSP’s media capabilities and focus on making it a successful gaming machine. Four years after its introduction, and despite several hardware revisions, it’s not the sleek piece of hardware it once was; the iPhone is the new shiny object of desire, and it, too, plays movies and music, so there’s no use in try to market the PSP as a media device. Sony needs to update it: make it smaller, maybe add a touchscreen, etc. That’s the basic argument, and one that’s hard to argue against.
As I mentioned yesterday, it’s not like the PSP doesn’t have any games worth playing. Games like WipeOut: Pulse, Crisis Core and God of War are good clean fun. I don’t know, maybe Sony should just kill the UMD altogether and sell games exclusively on the Internet? Do something crazy.
Be bold with the PSP, Sony.