Fils-Aime questions PSPgo "benefit"

By Tom Bramwell Published 13 October, 2009

May have "fundamental concept problem".

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has questioned what "benefit" the PSPgo offers consumers.

The new Sony handheld, which launched worldwide on 1st October, may have a "fundamental concept problem in terms of 'Who's it for?' and 'What's the benefit?'"

"I have the utmost respect for all our competitors," Fils-Aime told the Washington Post (thanks Joystiq), "but it's interesting to try and answer the consumer question of 'What's in it for me?' in that product."

The poor old PSPgo has taken a bit of a kicking for many reasons - its smaller screen, use of a new style of Memory Stick, incompatibility with old PSP peripherals and lack of a UMD-to-digital upgrade route for existing handheld gamers all counting against the unit, which boldly ditches physical media.

The WaPo piece posits, however, that Nintendo may be facing its own difficulties, as Apple's iTunes App Store presents iPhone and iPod Touch owners with a vast number of downloadable games at significantly lower prices than those associated with Nintendo's own DS.

Fils-Aime denied feeling the heat, arguing that games like Scribblenauts, Mario Kart DS and Nintendogs are "unique" and cannot be found on "their App Store". He also said that Nintendo has no desire to "get into the phone space" when asked about the future of the DS.

"We think the game business is competitive enough," he said. So, expect a Nintendophone at the next E3 then.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • monkeylite #1 2 years ago

    Right back at him regarding the DSi.

  • berelain #2 2 years ago

    Indeed.

    Though at least the DSi wasn't twice the price of the DS...

  • Charlie_Miso #3 2 years ago

    Yeah, no one wants a DSi.

  • aliki #4 2 years ago

    Both has its pros and cons.

    DSi
    + new faster CPU
    + camera (though largely useless)
    + fixes DS Lite hinge problem
    + SD card
    - no GBA

    PSPgo
    + 8GB storage
    + More RAM
    + Bluetooth
    + Compact design
    - M2 slot

    Both offers downloads, though with the PSPgo, you can download full games where as the DSi only offers DSi specific apps/games. Also DSi exclusive games can not be downloaded on old DSes, where as all games hosted on PSN are compatible with PSP-1000 upwards. DSi uses points, where as PSN uses real currency.

    DSi games are not transferable to a new system. Sony's PSN is more flexible allowing the user to download to five seperate systems.
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/09 @ 09:00

  • SeesThroughAll #5 2 years ago

    DSi games are not transferable to a new system. Sony's PSN is more flexible allowing the user to download to five seperate systems.

    This isn't the ideal either, but it certainly is a step in the right direction towards user-friendly DRM.

  • photoboy #6 2 years ago

    People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, Reggie. Until people can freely transfer their DSi purchases you're just as equally bad as Sony.

  • VMerken #7 2 years ago

    Mroowwww! Hisss! Fcchhhhh!

    EDIT: What, -5 for accurately stating/describing what this is, namely giving free open mic space to one corporate fat cat to snarl on competing corporations for doing things they're guilty of (in one covert way or another) themselves? We're all entitled to an opinion but when it's one of these guys, their "opinion" is always pre-fabricated corporate propaganda, so utterly pointless to report and little more than a one-way feline hissing session.

    Oh, and of course I have nothing but the utmost respect for all creatures great and small.
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/09 @ 15:59

  • Gaol #8 2 years ago

    I love my DSi but the downlaodable store has been very slow to get going. There's no reason that retail DS games couldn't be delivered through the store.

    PSP minis are off to a compariteively decent start, and the store has a fairly wide selection of full retail games. The chief advantage of PSPgo is clearly size and weight... I still think I'll be hanging on to my UMD drive for a bit though.
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/09 @ 09:41

  • malexous #9 2 years ago

    @aliki

    DSi

    +Bigger screens
    +More RAM
    +Others

    @monkeylite

    Maybe you can't see anything in the DSi but some of the 6,000,000 that has bought one since its launch less than a year ago must be able to.
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/09 @ 10:37

  • GamesConnoisseur #10 2 years ago


    DSi
    + new faster CPU
    + camera (though largely useless)
    + fixes DS Lite hinge problem
    + SD card
    + Bigger screen
    +More ram
    - no GBA

    PSPgo
    + 8GB storage
    + More RAM
    + Bluetooth
    + Compact design
    - M2 slot
    - UMD BC
    - Price (compared to PS3 Slim)
    - Smaller screen
    - New wires required

    Fixed.... now both are not quite so comparable but yes I second that the reason for getting DSi is not too high but would bet DSi is selling much better than PSPgo!

  • Moz #11 2 years ago

    Surely the big advantage of the PSPGo is that you don't have to carry games around with you. what is there not to get?

  • Ryze #12 2 years ago

    Not to get?

    Your existing PSP games collection, that's what's not to get.

  • SeesThroughAll #13 2 years ago

    To be fair, I question the benefit of both the PSPgo and the DSi. I'll stick with the old-fashioned PSPs with a UMD drive, thankyouverymuch.

  • Gaol #14 2 years ago

    @Moz

    That's not an advantage over any existing PSP with a decnt sized pro duo.

  • zedzee #15 2 years ago

    Wooah! Hold your horses!

    What do you mean "use of a new style of Memory Stick"??

    It's got a Mini or M2 and NOT the usual sized stick that the rest of the PSPs have?! Crikey - another nail in the PSPgo coffin!!!

    Also, what's with the "+ More RAM"? I don't see that as an advantage at all - developers always write for the least common denominator every single time.

    Edited by 1 at 13/10/09 @ 13:05

  • SeesThroughAll #16 2 years ago

    @zedzee:

    M2 is hardly new, anyway. It has been the "standard" of Sony-Ericsson phones for quite some time.

    And the extra RAM actually is an advantage, since it allows in-game XMB.
    Edited by 1 at 13/10/09 @ 13:56

  • monkeylite #17 2 years ago

    "- Price (compared to PS3 Slim) "

    Funny, Amazon lists the DSi as £135 while the Wii sells for only £5 more. Like the PSPgo, the price of Nintendo's handheld and console is closer than you think.

    [link url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001T8W2 LW?tag=ms7-21&camp=2902&creative=19466&linkCode=as4&creative ASIN=B001T8W2LW&adid=1GW536SP0833P6TB32YY&
    ]http://ww w.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001T8W2LW?ta...[/link]

    [link url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0007UAT DG?tag=ms7-21&camp=2902&creative=19466&linkCode=as4&creative ASIN=B0007UATDG&adid=1DZ7ZBEF9AR9XXW1HZEC&
    ]http://ww w.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0007UATDG?ta...[/link]

    And of course the DSi is selling better. It has been out longer. And to play DSi games, you MUST buy a DSi. DSL users like me are locked out, and will eventually have to buy a DSi if I want to play DSi games. To play PSP/PS1/PSP Mini games, you can buy either PSP-3000 or PSPgo. The PSPgo isn't a replacement, it is a choice.

  • zedzee #18 2 years ago

    @ SeesThroughAll:

    Yes, however, having a different (and presumably) non-backwards compatible slot DOES mean that a PSPold owner - such as myself - will not be able to continue using their MemStick Pros with the PSPgo. This is an instant turn-off; after all, I've made a huge investment (buying the MemStick Pros at a time when they were not so cheap as they are now) in extending the storage of my unit and relying on it for my photos, music and gaming interests.

    As for the in-game XMB, I don't see a short sightedness in Sony's original vision for the PSP - in not including such a feature in the first place - as being a good excuse to side with them in justifying this RAM upgrade in the PSPgo. I'm sure if they REALLY wanted to, they would fine a technical way to do it on the PSPold models as well.

    It's almost an insult to current owners to make that a good reason (or should I say excuse) to upgrade to the PSPgo or even justify Sony's modified specification.

  • monkeylite #19 2 years ago

    The RAM upgrade is also used to speed up loading, but games are still written to use the original RAM allocation (16MB) so all PSP games are compatible across all models. Unlike new DSi exclusive downloads which works only on the DSi.

    PSP-2000 also received a RAM upgrade (32MB).

  • kangarootoo #20 2 years ago

    Yawn yawn yawn. Employee of one company says product of another company isn't that good.

    In other news, Jeremy Clarkson is not enamoured by the latest recumbent bicycle and the head of IBM thinks that Windows is rubbish.

  • bionutz #21 2 years ago

    Nintendo phone? Kawaiiii! I'd be really interested.

  • Ryze #22 2 years ago

    @monkeylite:

    wrong.

  • SeesThroughAll #23 2 years ago

    @ zedzee:

    I agree with you on both your accounts, and was also pointing out (but not clearly enough) that just like the first PSP was a trojan for marketing the Memory Stick Duo (the prices later dropped due to increased consumer demand, thanks to the PSP), the PSPgo is intended to serve the same purpose for the M2 card. I'm not excusing Sony for this, it's just their typical strategy.

    Same could be said about the in-game XMB, but we all know how it has taken them to begin optimizing memory usage on the PS3, and even on the PSP, we had to wait for firmware 6.0 to have the games list load to screen at a reasonable speed! I'm not so sure if they can easily find a solution for older models with less memory...