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PSP battery life official (R.I.P) kidding

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
DCharlie said:
"Heh, hadn't thought of that. Will bc suddenly not be a big issue when Microsoft's not pushing the platform?"

he he - that's what i was getting at.
He he - you guys are so cool. Why don't you just come out and declare the names of people who you think are hypocrites?

Everyone took it for 3 hours in something like GT4mobile...
I don't see any but a small few making that distinction.
 

mj1108

Member
neptunes said:
Does anyone have that pic of the external battery ?

e3-2004-accessory-pics-20040515054647591.jpg
 

Flakster99

Member
I dunno, i personally enjoy the vast difference of software from the gameboy brand to it's console sibling.

I'll wait and see when the software comes, then judge the system on all it's merits. However as far as the battery life for gaming is concerned, nice product it may be but call a spade a spade, it's a joke.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
That's the battery? Man, I wouldn't want to carry a battery around...reminds me of the AC adaptor for my regular Gameboy. That thing was a bitch to have around
 

andthebeatgoeson

Junior Member
Wario64 said:
That's the battery? Man, I wouldn't want to carry a battery around...reminds me of the AC adaptor for my regular Gameboy. That thing was a bitch to have around

Yeah, that large dildo connected to the wire was a fuckin pain. It was like lugging a midget around just to play games. I think it fucked up the connection after awhile since it tugged at where it plugged into the GB. After a year, I had to hold it in a certain position and not move too much. BTW, I play most of my GBA games at home but still doesn't detract from the fact that the GBA saved me on the 14 hour flight to Australia. Zelda:Seasons rocked for me on that trip. With the PSP, you are fucked, apparently. Bring a book.
 

GDGF

Soothsayer
Sony has fucked up. They'd be better off delaying the thing for a year or so, so they can better work things out (of course by then the NDS would be on it's 10 millionth console sold or some crazy number)


Rock and a hard place.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
"He he - you guys are so cool. Why don't you just come out and declare the names of people who you think are hypocrites?'"

because i don't recall the names and because no one has flat out mentioned that lack of BC in PSP is an issue, so there is no issue of hypocracy.

I'm just curious as to whether it is an issue or not, and if so, why?
 

GDGF

Soothsayer
That's a wacked out analogy, Mr Bob. Allow me to explain this to you. The Gameboy family's thrived on backwards compatibility. It's always been a huge feature. Comes in handy also when an anticipated title for the previous version of GB arrives at the same time as a more advanced version of the GB. No sales lost. Either buy it for your older system, or upgrade and you can still play (which is why I think Final Fantasy for the GBA will also be a nice killer app for the NDS) Plus, with the GBA market just so freaking huge, the third parties dont get pissed off at you because no system is alienated. It just works out for everyone, and of course it keeps your userbase happy (who have grown to expect BC )

Sony's playing by the rules Nintendo set up now. Looks like Sony's dropping the ball, though.
 

WindyMan

Junior Member
If you're saying the PSP will have PS2 ports:

Yes, it will. It will also have plenty of original games, too. The GBA has a lot of ports of NES and SNES games, but the overwhelming majority of them are original titles. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to say that a big chunk of the PSP's launch lineup will be ports or games from familiar franchises, because you aren't going to easily buy a (possibly) $40-$50 game if you don't know what you're getting.

A few of you are bringing this up, but it has nothing to do with the PSP's battery life.


If you say you'll be fine by plugging it in:

While it's true that you, as an individual, might just plug it in to the wall all day, the fact is that Sony will be marketing this thing as portable, (hence the second "P" in PSP) meaning you can take it wherever you go. The vast majority of people who will be picking this thing up will be using it outside of their home (or otherwise not plugged in). If you can only play games on it for three hours at time, that means you're going to have to charge it up every time you're not using it. This can start to become a hassle, like if you want to take it out, but can't because the thing isn't charged.

You don't buy a laptop or iPod to use exclusively at home. You take it out with you. Don't think the PSP is any different because it'll play games. You might notice, though, the iPods and most laptops have great battery life. Think there's a reason for that?


If you say you can just buy an extra battery:

Have fun paying another $100 on top of the $400 unit and $50 games; i.e., it won't be cheap. Also note that the SP doesn't need an extra battery because of how long it lasts, and the "extra batteries" for all other Game Boy models are AAs and AAAs. Cheap.


If you say different games will take up less battery juice:

You do not know this. No one knows this. Kaz doesn't even know for sure, because he had to take a shot at a "realistic" figure. While it's okay to speculate, trying to justify being okay with the poor battery life by saying this is wishful thinking. Here's what we do know: Disc media needs to be spinned, and spinning takes up a constant amount of power. Today's games either have load times or stream it off the disc to cut them down. Either way, that disc doesn't move by itself.

While it's probable that a game like GT4 would take up a hell of a lot more juice than something like Tetris, don't forget that a hell of a lot more people will be playing GT4 than they would be Tetris.
 

arter_2

Member
WindyMan said:
If you're saying the PSP will have PS2 ports:

Yes, it will. It will also have plenty of original games, too. The GBA has a lot of ports of NES and SNES games, but the overwhelming majority of them are original titles. It wouldn't be too far-fetched to say that a big chunk of the PSP's launch lineup will be ports or games from familiar franchises, because you aren't going to easily buy a (possibly) $40-$50 game if you don't know what you're getting.

A few of you are bringing this up, but it has nothing to do with the PSP's battery life.


If you say you'll be fine by plugging it in:

While it's true that you, as an individual, might just plug it in to the wall all day, the fact is that Sony will be marketing this thing as portable, (hence the second "P" in PSP) meaning you can take it wherever you go. The vast majority of people who will be picking this thing up will be using it outside of their home (or otherwise not plugged in). If you can only play games on it for three hours at time, that means you're going to have to charge it up every time you're not using it. This can start to become a hassle, like if you want to take it out, but can't because the thing isn't charged.

You don't buy a laptop or iPod to use exclusively at home. You take it out with you. Don't think the PSP is any different because it'll play games. You might notice, though, the iPods and most laptops have great battery life. Think there's a reason for that?


If you say you can just buy an extra battery:

Have fun paying another $100 on top of the $400 unit and $50 games; i.e., it won't be cheap. Also note that the SP doesn't need an extra battery because of how long it lasts, and the "extra batteries" for all other Game Boy models are AAs and AAAs. Cheap.


If you say different games will take up less battery juice:

You do not know this. No one knows this. Kaz doesn't even know for sure, because he had to take a shot at a "realistic" figure. While it's okay to speculate, trying to justify being okay with the poor battery life by saying this is wishful thinking. Here's what we do know: Disc media needs to be spinned, and spinning takes up a constant amount of power. Today's games either have load times or stream it off the disc to cut them down. Either way, that disc doesn't move by itself.

While it's probable that a game like GT4 would take up a hell of a lot more juice than something like Tetris, don't forget that a hell of a lot more people will be playing GT4 than they would be Tetris.


iawtp
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
DC, had your posting stopped with your first question about BC, I might believe all that. But then you and jarrod have a giggle over the possibility of catching people in a contradiction and the innocent intentions of your original question just go out the window :p

Lost Weekend:
The GB-centric explanation for why the PSP is supposedly a fuck-up fails to take into account the wider perspective of portable electronics in general from which vantage point battery life performance of the PSP is normal, not sub-par, for example. The 18-34 yr old male audience that Sony has repeatedly said is their primary target should be more than familiar with this wider perspective from personal experience.

I really don't think that Sony said to themselves, "hey, let's target the people who's primary experience with portable devices is a Gameboy and who like it specifically for being an overachiever in terms of battery life at the expense of system power...by creating a device that manages only average battery life in favor of much higher system power..."
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
"DC, had your posting stopped with your first question about BC, I might believe all that. But then you and jarrod have a giggle over the possibility of catching people in a contradiction and the innocent intentions of your original question just go out the window :p"

Well, at least now we've given people a heads up not to just dive in on their usual sides. ;)

It's just for some people (very Sony oriented people (i recall Pana being one)) in the other thread would chose something that was BC over non-BC. I'd just be interested if they take the same line with handhelds.
 

Bebpo

Banned
DCharlie said:
It's just for some people (very Sony oriented people (i recall Pana being one)) in the other thread would chose something that was BC over non-BC. I'd just be interested if they take the same line with handhelds.

I know for sure BC will be a nice bonus for PSP2 when I can play PSP games.

Oh wait you were talking about PSP, which can have BC with the previous handheld model that doesn't exist =P
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
of course - it's a first round product so it cant be BC. I agree with that. But the DS -is- BC.

"by creating a device that manages only average battery life in favor of much higher system power..."

I think we need to see the actual battery life for ourselves, but 2.5 hours doesn't really strike me as "average". I appreciate Sonys efforts in bringing a very powerful bit of kit to the market place, and i look forward to picking one up, but i am concerned about how far through a day it'll get me. This could all be moot if the extra battery pack gives an extra 4-5 hours or so.
 
DCharlie said:
"DC, had your posting stopped with your first question about BC, I might believe all that. But then you and jarrod have a giggle over the possibility of catching people in a contradiction and the innocent intentions of your original question just go out the window :p"

Well, at least now we've given people a heads up not to just dive in on their usual sides. ;)

It's just for some people (very Sony oriented people (i recall Pana being one)) in the other thread would chose something that was BC over non-BC. I'd just be interested if they take the same line with handhelds.

It's not just Sony oriented people, it's Nintendo fans too due to both of them being exposed to the benefits of BC. No matter how you cut it, giving the consumer more options is always a plus. And when some developers are doing it and others aren't, it's a plus for the developers that are doing it. Just like it was a plus for Sony and MS to include DVD playback with the PS2 and Xbox.
 

GDGF

Soothsayer
DCharlie called it for me (sorry I was watching Adult Swim)
Sony's estimate doesn't really sound average for similar devices to me. It still sounds like a fuck up.
 

Bebpo

Banned
DCharlie said:
of course - it's a first round product so it cant be BC. I agree with that. But the DS -is- BC.

Oh, hmm forget about what I wrote then :p

I'd been skimming the posts and I thought the BC argument was coming up because people were upset that you can't play PS2/PS1 games on PSP through BC.

Errr..I need to stop skimming and start reading I guess ^^;
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
In the "other thread" a notable misinterpretation of several people's pro-BC stance was that they were claiming it was a make or break feature for any console when, in fact, most were simply disagreeing with the contingent who were trying to completely downplay BC as having little or no effect on the success of a new game device.

If you can offer BC, I think it adds significant value to do so. That's not to say that there aren't other ways to compensate for the inability to offer it.
 
I don't think it's completely make or break. But it does play a role I think. For example, if someone were going into buy a system next gen that didn't own one this gen, what would be more appealing? The PS3 that can play PS3, PS2 and PS1 games, the GC that can play GC2 and GC games or the Xbox 2 which can only play Xbox 2 games? I'd say the PS2 or GC2.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
I think we need to see the actual battery life for ourselves, but 2.5 hours doesn't really strike me as "average".
Well, that's because 2.5 hours isn't the average, its the worst case. Kaz provided a high and low estimate for battery life based on low and high system utilization, respectively. I think you're going to find that the average battery life for most people will fall somewhere in between those two estimates, as averages tend to do ;)

I'd expect 4-6 hrs on average, given that the min-max is 2.5-10 hr based Kaz's comments. Which is definitely "normal" battery life in the wide world of portable devices.

Furthermore, I'd love for you guys to introduce me to all the portable devices with similar hardware power as the PSP that manage significantly better than 2.5 hrs of battery life when their hardware resources are under high utilization. If you can show me that the majority of such devices manage this, then you may very well have a point.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
i think it depends on what you already own and to what level convenience is important to you, coupled with what system are the good new games on.

Although everyone will look at it differently.

For me, i've played the games that are good this gen, in this gen. Therefore, as for the next gen, i'd pick up the console which has the new games that appeal to me most.

But i do appreciate that everyone has a different take on this
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
'Well, that's because 2.5 hours isn't the average, its the worst case. Kaz provided a high and low estimate for battery life based on low and high system utilization, respectively. I think you're going to find that the average battery life for most people will fall somewhere in between those two estimates, as averages tend to do '

do you have the quote from that interview? i don't recall seeing a range, just an absolute figure and some talk about how you are damned if you give a figure and damned if you don't.

Although i am going senile, so i may have missed it.

"Furthermore, I'd love for you guys to introduce me to all the portable devices with similar hardware power as the PSP that manage significantly better than 2.5 hrs of battery life when their hardware resources are under high utilization. If you can show me that the majority of such devices manage this, then you may very well have a point."

I don't see how that makes 2.5 hours of batterly life any less inconvenient! I appreciate that it's great in terms of power - but i don't see how me showing you a device of similar power with similar crappy battery life makes 2.5 hours any better/longer ! ;)
 
DCharlie said:
i think it depends on what you already own and to what level convenience is important to you, coupled with what system are the good new games on.

Although everyone will look at it differently.

For me, i've played the games that are good this gen, in this gen. Therefore, as for the next gen, i'd pick up the console which has the new games that appeal to me most.

But i do appreciate that everyone has a different take on this

It's definetly not going to appeal to everyone, but like DVD playback I think it appeals to enough people to matter. There are always games you miss in a generation and hear about later on and decide to pick them up. Having a system that can play those games is an advantage I think. I think the DC might have gotten a bit of a boost if it were able to play Saturn games. Especially since once the DC was released alot of interest came up for SAturn games like NiGHTS, PDS, Burning Rangers ect. But people didn't want to buy a Saturn fora few games.

I guess there's no real way to gauge the importance of BC till next gen when there will be 2 systems with it and 1 without it.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
neptunes quotes the relevant answer in the first post of this thread...it's only a small paragraph, DC, not that hard to read in its entirety rather than skim...

"Again, if you're just listening to music with no visuals at all then it should last, as I said yesterday, about eight to ten hours just like an iPod would. If you are playing a game that is consistently cycling through and putting the CPU to good use, yeah, battery life is going to be shorter. Maybe about two and a half, three hours."

As for whether 2.5 hrs is convenient, that wasn't the original point you gave me to address, was it? If you want to talk convenience now, you already addressed it well enough yourself when you said that you appreciated "that everyone has a different take on this". :)
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
"Again, if you're just listening to music with no visuals at all then it should last, as I said yesterday, about eight to ten hours just like an iPod would. If you are playing a game that is consistently cycling through and putting the CPU to good use, yeah, battery life is going to be shorter. Maybe about two and a half, three hours."

Yes, i read this - and the original article.

I apologise - i am talking about this in reference to gaming life , rather than overal life (implying multiple uses).

"As for whether 2.5 hrs is convenient, that wasn't the original point you gave me to address, was it?"

Um... i thought we were discussing the 2.5 hour batterly life for at least the last 3-4 interchanges *looks up* - yup - looks that way to me.

"If you want to talk convenience now, you already addressed it well enough yourself when you said that you appreciated "that everyone has a different take on this"."

indeed - but 2.5 hours for people who wish to play games on the go , i would imagine, is not acceptable for most people. My GBA gets hammered on commutes , long trips and flights. 2.5 hours for me isn't enough. Again, different people have different takes on it.

Okay , so lets say this is an average (2.5h) and that lower usage games use much less - then isn't that kind of a waste of tech and sort devalues the effort that went into the machine to some extent? I don't want to be sitting with the choice of playing ridge/GT4 (the games which will make the machine sing) for 2.5 hours, or playing Tetris / Worms for 8 hours. That would be disappointing. IMO anyways.

Then again, this is all speculation with out any hard figures , so you can ignore everything above (i'm sure you already have).
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
DCharlie said:
"DC, had your posting stopped with your first question about BC, I might believe all that. But then you and jarrod have a giggle over the possibility of catching people in a contradiction and the innocent intentions of your original question just go out the window :p"

Well, at least now we've given people a heads up not to just dive in on their usual sides. ;)

It's just for some people (very Sony oriented people (i recall Pana being one)) in the other thread would chose something that was BC over non-BC. I'd just be interested if they take the same line with handhelds.

The DS has a good point in being GBA compatible and since I have skipped the GBA SP ( I am not going to let Nintendo screw me in the ass too much ), the DS would be the first GBA for me with a nice lighting solution that is default.

If the DS kept GB/GBC backward-compatibility as well, I'd probably trade my GBA for it and get it at launch as the financial hit would be minimised.

The problem is that I am going to buy either one at launch and when my finances recover ( the gf actually wants the PSP too so we might co-buy it ) I would get the other.
 

jarrod

Banned
kaching said:
Lost Weekend:
The GB-centric explanation for why the PSP is supposedly a fuck-up fails to take into account the wider perspective of portable electronics in general from which vantage point battery life performance of the PSP is normal, not sub-par, for example. The 18-34 yr old male audience that Sony has repeatedly said is their primary target should be more than familiar with this wider perspective from personal experience.

I really don't think that Sony said to themselves, "hey, let's target the people who's primary experience with portable devices is a Gameboy and who like it specifically for being an overachiever in terms of battery life at the expense of system power...by creating a device that manages only average battery life in favor of much higher system power..."
Sony's talk of expanding into the adult market might be a bit brash though. Looking at other high end adult targeted handheld electronics and the most recent phenomenon, iPod, has managed only 3 million sales in 3 years (which includes the new iPod Mini model)... comparatively Sony's expecting to sell 3 million PSPs in just 4 months. I dunno, people say Sony's not targeting the GB market but then why are they anticipating sales that only the GB market seems able to sustain in handhelds? Or are they looking to cannibalize their own PS2 market instead? Where exactly is this mystery market coming from?
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that Sony isn't hoping/planning to poach *any* customers from the GB-owning crowd, just not the ones who clearly like exactly the way GB presents portable gaming.

My point was mostly focused on the fact that Lost Weekend can't objectively say that the PSP is a "fuck up" and that Sony's "dropping the ball" strictly from the perspective of that type of portable gamer.

Like I said in the pre-neo-GAF forum, there's going to be a contingent of the GB-owning populace that are just into portable gaming in general and obviously Sony will target those people at the very least.

I'd expect that the initial 3 million projected for the PSP is the easiest number for Sony to predict, since early adopters interested from the the GBA camp and from the Playstation camp should go a long way to filling out that 3 mil. Maintaining momentum is where I expect things to get more interesting...
 

jarrod

Banned
Yeah, I agree with all that and I think the 3 million target is easily managable (they could probably get more if production allowed imo). I'm just getting tired of the idea that somehow PSP isn't competing with Nintendo handhelds but instead will carve out some new sizable mystery market... it reminds me of the spin Nintendo fans used about GC not being in direct competition with other consoles.
 
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