DRM Ridiculousness Just A Part Of The PSP Go's Problems

from the how-unappealing-does-this-sound dept

Mon, Oct 12th 2009 4:03pm — Mike Masnick

A bunch of folks have been sending in various versions of the stories popping up all weekend about the disastrous PSP Go launch, with a product that seems designed to piss off as many consumers as possible. And, of course, one of the big problems? DRM. Apparently a promotion in Europe gave people free downloads of games -- but if you have both a PS3 and a PSP and were used to downloading games to the PS3 to put on the PSP, you're out of luck with the PSP Go. The games are locked to the platform where they were downloaded.

Sony, Sony, Sony. This is the same company that has been locking things down for years, and always regrets it. Way back in 2005, the company admitted that it needed to stop locking down content, and learn to open up more. The company got a lot of press for that statement... and kept locking stuff down. Earlier this year, Sony got a ton of press for basically saying the same thing about being more open. So what does it do? It goes and releases another device using locked down content. At some point you have to wonder who's in charge at Sony.

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Filed Under: drm, psp go
Companies: sony

27 Comments

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Esahc (profile), 12 Oct 2009 @ 4:33pm

Nobody
I don't think anyone is in charge at Sony. One side of the company likes to lock down. Another side creates decent PC hardware that is used to subvert said lock downs.
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slackr (profile), 12 Oct 2009 @ 4:49pm

I'm wary, are you?
A recent purchase of a high def tv my decision was swayed away from Sony, although of the 2 models I was considering I liked their picture better. In the end I decided that with streaming media becoming more commonplace that I did not want to be party to Sony's continuing locking down of content. It may be early days in the country that I live (NZ) for streaming media, but Sony's competition won my purchase on precisely this point. Once bitten, twice shy.
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thomas, 12 Oct 2009 @ 4:50pm

Given that...
Sony as a company doesn't really have a real connection to customers that use their products. They have some decent, maybe even great, products, and always manage to shoot themselves in the foot in the details like DRM, installing rootkits on customer systems, etc.
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mcme (profile), 12 Oct 2009 @ 5:02pm

the apple of electronics
Sony has always been known for its quality and cool products, but this is one area that would do them good in the long run. I guess too much restrictive planning ahead might cost them bad. The could have gone to being 'must have's - but have stayed stumped at 'good' - bcos of such dumb decisions as you have stated. Times to come might not be as decent if they stick to their current mode of thinking - what with competition catching up and all.
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Ima Fish (profile), 12 Oct 2009 @ 5:08pm

Sony's problem is that it's both a hardware company and a content company (Sony Pictures and Music). Thus it has a desire to make innovative and useful electronic devices for consumers. But then it also has the contradictory desire to lock them down to ensure that no one can actually use them in any meaningful way.

Sony has released updated Blu-ray, dvd, and audio discs that could not play in Sony's own players. Does that make any sense? Not to a normal person. But the content industry has never been known for its normalcy.
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- Vincent Clement, 13 Oct 2009 @ 11:16am
  
  Re:
  These problems existed well before Sony became a hardware AND content company. Selling content just compounded the problem.
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- Javier, 16 Oct 2009 @ 9:50am
  
  Re:
  no it isnt
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Cheezy Fry, 12 Oct 2009 @ 5:17pm

Still pissed at Sony
I still haven't forgiven them for the whole root kit thing. Man, can I hold a grudge. Gotta talk to the therapist about that one...
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Lucretious, 12 Oct 2009 @ 5:17pm

Yes, please let me trade in my orginal PSP in which there is a huge homebrew community and hugely expanded functionality for this overpriced, locked up, flimsy little poo scraper.

usually there is SOME redeeming value when an upgraded game system comes out but there is not a single solitary thing about the PSP GO (perhaps maybe the compact design) that would make me buy it. There is no upside to this thing.
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- zaven (profile), 12 Oct 2009 @ 5:29pm
  
  Re:
  Even better. The PSP Go costs something like $100 more than the normal PSP which has the same functionality, but you can buy physical games, let friends borrow said games, sell said games, ... So essentially, the cheaper version can do much more.
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- pjhenry1216 (profile), 13 Oct 2009 @ 6:38am
  
  Re:
  Honestly, I was considering purchasing one because it does have one advantage: you don't have to carry around those big game discs. When you get even more than a handful of games, it starts becoming a pain carrying them around with you on trips if you're not sure what you wanna play in the near future. However, my purchase was contingent on their "goodwill" program to allow the transfer of already purchased UMD games to the psp go... however, they've backed out of that one so they've lost me. Until I can transfer my UMD games to it and buy any game that's available on the original PSP, I'm not buying one. And a decent price drop would be welcome as well. I mean come on, its not that much cheaper than the PS3 now.
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  - Lucretious, 13 Oct 2009 @ 7:01am
    
    Re: Re:
    unlock your unit, buy a few 4gb flash memory cards and load your games onto them. If you don't want to unlock it yourself check out Craigslist video games section as there are usually a few guys offering an unlock service for under 50 bucks.
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- Valkor, 13 Oct 2009 @ 11:16am
  
  Re:
  Anyone who bought a PSP Go deserves all the crap they get.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2009 @ 5:19pm

Sony sucks. Nothing new and if you buy a PSP Go you're just asking to be abused by Sony.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2009 @ 8:12pm

Sony have always sucked. Overpriced reverse engineered appliances... can't say the same for PSx but as a whole, Sony = FAIL.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2009 @ 11:45pm

Sony sounds that family (there's always one) at your kids' school. You know, the one where the parents are at EVERY PTA meeting to show what good parents they are, but then they go home and as soon as they walk through the door, out comes the alcohol and the concern for their kids goes right out the window, leading to the kids becoming juvenile delinquents. And when the police bring them home, they're SHOCKED that their kids could've been involved. Not THEIR kids - they're GOOD kids. Right.
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Mojo, 13 Oct 2009 @ 12:20am

Ima Fish hit the nail on the head - Sony is a hardware AND content company, so they are always screwing themselves with conflict of interest.

Sony was - and still is - HUGELY embarassed that APPLE and not SONY are the kings of the MP3 Walkman; Sony by all rights should have ruled that market, but they were too worried about wholeheartedly putting their weight behind a product that fostered the piracy of their content - so they essentially did nothing and watched Apple steal away the market they created.

How painful do you think it was for Sony to actually release iPod products? It must kill them.

But that's what happens when you have a conflict of interest - nothing. Hemming and hawing and a whole lot of doing nothing while you decide what to do.

If they just made hardware, you can bet that the PSP GO would be an awesome product - but since they're worried about their precious content being spread, they cripple it.

Come on, Sony - it's not like you'd actually LOSE any money by being open - it just means that you might make $100 billion in profit as opposed to $105 billion. Is it worth pissing everyone off?

Why don't you just TRY being "open" for a few years and see how it goes? Because you know how people react when you keep doing what you're doing...
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Cody Jackson (profile), 13 Oct 2009 @ 5:49am

I've been boycotting Sony for 5 years
The last thing I recall buying with the Sony name on it was a PS2. (I don't count Sony movies since they own so many different studios).
The last straw for me was MiniDiscs. I was a big user of MDs, with more than 80 discs in my collection. I used them to copy all of my CDs so I could sell the CDs; no since taking up space since I move so often.
I posted my encounter with Sony customer service to a forum after it happened. In a nutshell, my request was to open up their MDs to upload back to computers and use other operating systems; they considered it a tech support issue and kept sending me what was effectively a form letter saying my problem was a tech support issue.
That's when I realized Sony doesn't care about their customers, just the money. Then, they had the rootkit fiasco and the DRM-encumbered Blue-Ray tech and it just reinforced the fact that Sony doesn't care about customer service.
There are too many other companies that want my money and make as good, if not better, items for me to bother with Sony.
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Richard (profile), 13 Oct 2009 @ 5:54am

PS3
Not a surprise - this is the company that locks up the Graphics hardware in the PS3 so you can't use it without a hugely expensive developers contract.
The result - our PS3 lab is being sidelined after just a year (without the Graphics hardware the PS3 isn't that much better than the PS 2 and is much harder to use.)

Don't expect that there will be many programmers available to write PS3 games - since there's nowhere to go to learn how!
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Me, 13 Oct 2009 @ 6:12am

@Previous

360 in Europe and Japan are not very successful. In USA i know its the opposite, but the world is not just USA. If 360 wasn't hackable they wouldn't sell as much units here also ...
PS3 Blueray also doesn't mean a sh!t as sometimes many salesmen focus, most people i know with a PS3 never used Blueray and use HD media from other sources.

Also on electronics Sony has lost its charisma from the 90's to be a normal company now. Today if you buy a Sony that doesn't necessary means better ...

PSP will die with next generation Iphones alike. I say ...
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inc (profile), 13 Oct 2009 @ 7:53am

Sony needs to learn their DRM sucks. I had a mini-disc back in the day, before ipod, and it was awesome audio quality. You could fit lots of songs on small durable discs. You could also record digitally which was great for those making their own music. The DRM killed it though. Having to create AC3 file format, a crappy check in/check out system for those files, and no way to digitally download your self recorded music to your PC other then real time optical output. Ever since I could never buy into any Sony product no matter how good it sounds. They just end up hamstringing their products making them useless and letting the competition one up them.
So of course the iPod came out allowing MP3s without the need for discs and allowing you to upload the song to as many iPods as you own; this totally made the mini-disc a paper-weight. Now with the iPhone doing so much and even having decent games why would I carry another bulky device that requires discs and seems destine for the same fate?
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Overcast (profile), 13 Oct 2009 @ 4:23pm

They "locked down" the Beta format on VCR's too - that worked out well.
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www.eZee.se (profile), 14 Oct 2009 @ 8:29am

"At some point you have to wonder who's in charge at Sony."

A person I know on the inside sent me a secret picture of this mysterious entity who seems to be in charge:

http://eclectech.co.uk/b3ta/200905chimp.jpg

I must say, I never thought he would look even this intelligent.
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Kevv, 15 Oct 2009 @ 5:24am

"but if you have both a PS3 and a PSP and were used to downloading games to the PS3 to put on the PSP, you're out of luck with the PSP Go. The games are locked to the platform where they were downloaded."

That's not true, all the games on my psp (go) were downloaded from my ps3 then transfered to the psp....
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Oct 2009 @ 8:25am

ur right good luck !!!!!!!
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shampoovta, 18 Oct 2009 @ 2:30pm

PSP GO
I will keep my Go but I deleted that stupid SendsMe crap and that GD charging/USB cable just burns my buns. Oh well to decent battery life, this thing is going to be stuck to my computer every Fing day now. How portable is that?

SONY Why? WHY?!!!

>:(
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Dirtysouth_54, 15 Sep 2012 @ 6:31am

sony
i got a ps3 and already am getting an x box 360 PS3 is just the the worst the should fire every person i think the should test it before ripening us off on all the new things.
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