Pros and Cons of the PSP Go

In an attempt to enter the handheld market and
weaken the stranglehold Nintendo has long possessed over it, Sony
extended its PlayStation line with the PlayStation Portable, or PSP, in
2005. It successfully launched despite a high price tag of $249.99,
boasting a stylish appearance, respectable widescreen display and use
of a new media called the Universal Media Disc (UMD) . Unfortunately,
the PSP never really met the expectations Sony had for it. In fact, it
barely dented Nintendo's dominance, which has only gotten stronger with
the Nintendo DS.

Sony has not given up on staking its claim in
the handheld market, however. After three versions of the original PSP
(1000, 2000 and 3000), Sony has decided to almost completely redo the
PSP's concept. With a different look, more compact size, internal
memory and no UMD drive, the PSP Go is more a distant cousin of its
predecessor than its brother or sister.

Some of the changes made
to the handheld are very beneficial for gamers, while others only hurt
it. Here are some pros and cons for the recently released PSP Go.

Pros

Size:
The point of a handheld system is so that you can take it virtually
anywhere. The Nintendo DS and original PSP models are sized to do that,
but the PSP Go truly offers pocked-sized convenience. It's smaller by
about 1.5 inches in width than the PSP and weighs over an ounce less
than the PSP-3000.

Games are downloaded: Sony has decided to go
the iTouch and iPhone avenue with the PSP Go by making games solely
downloadable. With the absence of a UMD drive, players must purchase
and download games and other content from the PlayStation Network
Store. A 16 GB internal memory is in the system to handle those
downloads. Now you don't need to worry about lugging around a bunch of
UMDs to play games.

Con

Price: When the original PSP
retailed for $249.99 at launch, many people felt that was an outrageous
price. The system was still scooped up, but it wasn't without guilt.
So, over four years later, Sony was determined to make the same mistake
by yet again pricing its new release at the same price point. The PSP
Go will run for $249.99, which is $50 over the regular version's
current price, only $50 less than the PlayStation 3 gaming console and
$80 over the handheld king that is the Nintendo DSi.

No UMD
Drive: The creation of the UMD was basically a failure for Sony. The
media never really caught on for movies, most likely because they were
priced just as much as DVDs yet could only be played on the PSP. And
they were also exclusive to the PSP for games, which was fine if Sony
didn't intend on making the UMD a more universal media. Perhaps
realizing the pointless nature of the UMD, Sony has decided to scrap it
for the PSP Go by not including a UMD Drive. That allows for the more
convenient approach of game downloads, but offers no way for owners of
previous PSP models to play their games. They must instead hang on to
their regular PSP, and therefore have no legitimate incentive right now
to purchase the PSP Go version.