just a rant. an unfinished rant.

The DS has been outselling the PSP worldwide for some time now. The main reason could be argued as a third party support issue, as the quality of the games on PSP dropped significantly shorty after its launch titles were released. The titles on the dS, however, have only seemed to get better as time passes, making the DS simply a better choice for gaming in general. It definately doesn't help Sony that the DS is now value-priced at $129.99, and the game prices are far easier to swallow at (generally) $34.99 a pop, as opposed to $49.99.

The main reason I don't touch my PSP is because it's so bleeding fragile. I once dropped my DS (caseless, mind you,) down two flights of cement stairs. Aside from a few scratches on the top casing, it came out more or less unscathed. I can only imagine the terror and horror I might face if that happened to my PSP. I can imagine the phantom laughter of Sony's tech support as I tearfully try to explain what happened, whereas Nintendo would very likely just sigh and tell me to send it to them so they could supply me with a new system. (Because they're just cool like that.)

Another complaint I had was this whole idea of UMD movies. It's a decent idea in theory, but in practice, it's very simply a bit irritating. The umd dvd's, on average, cost anywhere from $19 to $25. The only vaugely exciting thing about these is the idea of portability. After actually trying a film out on the PSP one realises that the extremely high frame-rate very simply saps your battery, and the sound quality is absolute crap. The only way to enhance that is by purchasing a decent speaker dock, and by then you've likely spent enough money to feed a third-world country for three days.

Real DVD's (with features and 5.1 sound and alternative language tracks,) cost about $15 at Best Buy. One could also easily procure a portable Dvd player, which will have a larger screen and better sound, not to mention a better battery life. And did I mention the movies won't cost a fortune? Yeah. icon_pirate.gif Oh. And this whole package, including dvd's, is probably cheaper than the PSP itself, which (I think,) is a bit more that slightly overpriced at $250 (at most major retailers.).