You guys go ahead and only own 1's and 0's of the content that you purchased. Either give me a physical media that I can use/store/backup/resell at my own prerogative, or I don't buy it. End of story.

Sony always cracked me up with their 'Universal' Media Discs -- knowing damn well everything they make is prepriotory, including this new download only BS game system that probably has DMR on the downloads as well that will be cracked by Christmas. Get out of here w/ this BS already Sony.

Hackers have been asking for this for a long time. It is quite weird when a console maker responds positively to the requests of modchippers. :^D

Or, people will figure out how to hack PSP Go and will download games directly to it.
Whoops, Sony, is that karma biting your greedy collective ass?

are they going to replace the umd drive with a larger flash harddrive for storing games/movies?

'experience entertainment and a wide variety of digital content'

sounds a lot like

'we are going to show you commercials before, during, and after every game, loading screen and clip you watch.'

"used game sales that conceivably eat away at game publishers' bottom lines"

The new game market is not being harmed by the used game market!

Why would they think the fourth iteration of a device would appeal to early adopters? They've already bought an earlier version of the game system, complete with handfuls of UMDs. What incentive is there for them to do it again?

Sony lost ms when;
they stopped making clie's
changed the memory stick format
refused to honor the warranty on my Vaio
infected millions of PC's with rootkit malware

They used to make really cutting edge stuff.
Now they just abuse thier customers.

The PSP Go is not replacing the current line of PSP's. It will run concurrent with them. You can't really fault Sony for what they are doing, piracy is taking a toll on PSP game sales and development. This is no different than Apps on the Iphone, Xbox Arcade, and PSN titles. I'm not sure why Sony gets as much trouble when other companies have been doing the same thing.

@JollyJumjuck: People can already do this with their old PSPs. Any movie, any game, already downloadable. It's just legal, now.

@anonvmoos: yes, they have added 16gb of flash memory to the PSP-Go

Sony announced a good-will incentive program that lets PSP Go buyers download three of the games they already own onto their new systems.

Wow, how kind of them. A whole 3 games! What kind of idiots do they think people are?

@steveliv: No, those others are not forcing you to buy content twice in order to be able to use it on a "current" platform. What happens if your current PSP fails, and it's not cost-effective or realistic to have it fixed? You'd have to replace it in order to use the content you've already purchased, and in this case, you'd have to pay for the content again.

Sony is ass. Don't buy any of their stuff until they get a clue.

@steveliv: "piracy is taking a toll on PSP game sales and development."

Maybe you can back that up with some real figures. I call BS on it.

The purpose of the PSP Go is to eliminate the purchase and use of used sales. Sony wants us to buy new overpriced games. This is nothing but greed on Sony's part.

The difference between the new PSP GO and the Xbox and PS3 is that you can still buy used games for those platforms. Duh!

And everyone already knows that everything Apple does is based on corporate greed, so that's old news.

@Lucky225: I think what you mean is "proprietary" and "DRM" ...DMR is apparently the Department of Marine Resources.

But aside from that, there's a reason why I haven't owned a Sony digital camera since the early 1990s. Even back then, I knew that their proprietary Sony memory sticks would create a dead end should I decide to buy a different brand of camera.

I don't like the way this is headed. Yes, downloads are better for the environment, but I want to own something when I buy it.
If I buy a hard copy of a game, I can load it to a friend, or I can sell it when I am sick of it. If I am ever hard up for cash, I can sell all of my games. Not with a download.

@lincolnparadox: Not necessarily. The hacking scene has slowed down in recent months. Newer games being released require a firmware that hasn't been hacked yet. The newest model of PSP (the 3000) also doesn't have a full hack available for it. Personally, I wouldn't place bets on the PSP Go being hacked until these other hurdles are cleared.

Um... they're still selling the regular PSP units.

There is no conspiracy. No one is being forced to buy this PSP. And based on people's reaction, it may not be around very long...

@GMFish:

[kotaku.com]

You are trying to reconcile portable systems with console systems. The two are different. Greed..hmmm.. aren't companies allowed to make profits? You act as if the consumer is entitled to hard copies of games. Game prices have stayed roughly the same for quite a while. I agree that not having a secondary used game market is a bad thing, however, everything is moving toward a non-physical transaction. If you are up in arms about the PSP Go, then you need to direct some anger at Nintendo, Apple, and Microsoft as well, as they're sights are set on the exact same thing.

@Radi0logy: So I assume you don't own an IPhone?

@pecan 3.14159265: if it weren't for the fact that flash memory is so inexpensive, i could agree with you 100%.

PSP go also doesn't support the DUO memory card Sony pushed on old PSP users. So even if your ok with not playing your disc games you still get screwed on your memory card being useless in the "superior" model.

Why would retailers even agree to stock such an item? There is little to no profit made on the sale of a system, as they're typically sold just above cost. The real money is made on the games, new and pre-owned.

So if a retailer can't earn any money on the games, as they are download only, and earns nothing on the sale of a system, why sell it in the first place?

Bad show, Sony

@GMFish:
BUYING A USED GAME IS NOT PIRACY.

So... when I sell my old couch at a garage sale, is the college kid who bought it for their dorm room "pirating" my couch-- maybe the counch manufacturer should get a royalty?

When I buy a game its MINE MINE MINE-- and no one elses. If I sell that game to a shop or to a friend, its MINE too. That's the way the world works.

And I too refuse to buy anything that's just 1s and 0s.

@steveliv: Sony has every right to choose whatever business model they want. By making another boneheaded move they deserve to have another loser product. They can blame piracy or used game sales all they want when studies have shown that both help get more people interested in your products.

@suburbancowboy: So don't buy it... If people don't buy these dumb systems other companies won't be so eager to play follow the leader.

@robocop_is_bleeding: I was thinking the same thing. This harms the early adopters who bought the original PSP and a ton of UMDs who are SOL if they want this thing.

@sleze69: Correct

@korybing: Whoops, who=and. Proofreading skills are go.

@Lucky225: To be fair, I think the "universal" meant that it could hold multiple types of media (movies, games, music, etc), even though the only thing worth buying on the discs were really the games.

@steveliv: "You are trying to reconcile portable systems with console systems. The two are different"

God, learn how to read before mashing your fingers. I didn't compare the PSP Go to consoles, I was only responding to steveliv's comparison.

This was announced around June, you're a little late to the outrage game.

@Radi0logy: cya, i say as i pass you by on information superhighway that is now life.

@steveliv: Honestly, I'm cool with this. It seems like a good idea for customers who are buying a new system (not buying a replacement PSP). If you want to replace your PSP, go with the one that has a disc drive. Otherwise, this strikes me as the nicer solution, as you don't need to carry physical media with you. It's a portable game system, and in this day and age with wireless internet, physical discs and cartridges just seem like a bulky waste. Plus, an optical drive takes a lot more juice than flash memory.

@pxf9641: I think retailers would stock them as long as there were other peripherals they could make money from, like carrying cases and stuff like that. I really don't see a lot of retailers being happy about this, though.

CNET review says PSP Go has a poor battery life of 5 hours.

To recap:
-PSP Go has worse battery life than a PSP.
-PSP Go does not have UMD Drive for old games than a PSP.
-PSP Go has a smaller screen than a PSP.
-PSP has all the same functions and media capabilities as the PSP Go.

+16GB built in, but easily negated by PSP memory stick support.

Given all that PSP Go is more expensive than PSP, makes so much sense.

@Radi0logy: I suppose you're also against paying for other non physical services? I mean, you can't re-sell an education, right? Why pay for that? Watching a band live? Crap, nothing to show from that either.

@frari489: Yeah, we'll let you keep only 3 of the games that you own. Be careful which ones you pick, the others will have to be repurchased!

I've been looking forward to this system, but still unsure what the cost of a downloaded game will be.

I mean the system is expensive - but if the game company can skip a lot of the cost assosiated with bringing a game to the consumer (printing disks, manuals, shipping to stores, giving stores their cut, etc....)

IF THE GAME'S ARE CHEAP ENOUGH - then I will go and get this system.

Even though I have a feeling they will price the downloadable games the same as store-bought games which will make me just walk away.

@Jakuub: Paying for a license to use/view content sucks, but it's what we've got. I don't like the lack of physical media. The thing that makes me uneasy regarding digital media is that the license they sell will eventually run out, meaning one pays money for a game that MAY be available. It's sad though that most don't realize that buy installing a game or click OK on a random screen of legal garbage that you're agreeing to this.

@pecan 3.14159265: You're right on that one, I got burned because I bought a Sony camera (used) and after I wrecked it recently it meant that my next camera would either be another brand so I could get all the features I wanted for much cheaper, or it *had* to be a dSLR just so I could continue to use things like my memory sticks.

I waved bye-bye to Sony and said hello to Nikon.

@thereij: Yeah, comments like those from JohnDeere and Jakuub are just sad evidence for how poorly most people grasp the concepts behind this new business model.

@steveliv: It's only recently that flash memory has become so inexpensive. When sony made their move to their proprietary memory sticks flash memory was $100+ for 256MB. Now that you can get 8GB for $30 it doesn't really matter, but 10 years ago megapixel counts kept going up and up while flash memory prices refused to come down, which meant that people were spending some serious money to be able to shoot more than a handful of pics at their maximum resolution.

@TVarmy: I totally agree with you. I used to have a PSP, but I sold it a while ago along with all the UMDs. I'm in the market for a new PSP and the Go seems like the way to go - at least for me. I always hated carring around an extra bag to hold all the UMDs I wanted to bring with me.

I know the old PSP will also play all the downloadable games, but the smaller form factor of the Go also seems nice to me. However, I'm going to wait until the Go comes down in price by at least $50.

@steveliv:

So then a PSP owner can only own a maximum of 16gb of games?

@Radi0logy: Then get off your high horse and explain; looking down your nose at other commenters isn't a reason to comment. I'm here to discuss - what problems do you have with it that don't apply to the examples I cited? How is it different?

@GMFish:

Sure it is.

Every time that someone walks into a Gamestop and buys a used game it's potentially one less new copy of that game that could have been sold.

And yes, I'm quite aware of the fact that not everybody who buys a used game would have bought a new game but if the used game wasn't available I think its safe to say that a decent amount would have.

@GMFish:

Who are we kidding here, the used games are just as over priced. Gamestop basically sells their used games for $5 than a new copy. BFD! And in many cases these used games' cases are covered with ugly pricing stickers and the CDs have scuffs and fingerprints all over them.

I'm torn.

I personally like to have physical copies of all of my games but on the other hand I'd like to support anything that can potentially hurt Gamestop.