back to article 'Fat PSP' owners won't get Skype

Sony will release the PlayStation Portable firmware that will load the handheld games console with Skype's VoIP app late this month, it said today. But the software will only run on the second-generation PSP. It's not as yet clear why Sony's is limiting Skype usage to consumers who bought a PSP since September. Apart from …

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  1. Ralph B
    Paris Hilton

    Well, Duh!

    > It's not as yet clear why Sony's is limiting Skype usage to

    > consumers who bought a PSP since September.

    You don't think it's maybe because they want more people to buy a new PSP rather than carry on using an old one?

  2. Steve
    Happy

    Hmm well see

    See http://www.psp-hacks.com/2008/01/06/make-phone-calls-with-your-psp-right-now/

    You got to love teh homebrew scene..

  3. David Stewart

    It's because of memory !

    Do some research, the reason is because the slim PSP has 64K memory, double the 32K of the original and they couldn't fit the skype client into 32K.

  4. Hugh Cowan
    Stop

    More memory?

    I was under the impression that the newer PSP has more RAM. Perhaps this is something to consider!

  5. Mark Broadhurst
    Thumb Down

    Sony screws early adoptors...newsflash

    Thats not news

    they did it with the PS2 by dropping the price 6 months after launch.

    they did it with the PS3 by dropping the price 6 months after launch.

    they are doing it with the PSP in order to get people to chuck their old console and try and make them buy a new one.

    I'm expecting them to do the same with the PS4 when it arrives in 5 years time.

    TBH I think people are learning and next time they have a launch it will flop.

  6. Busby
    Unhappy

    So screwing the early buyers?

    This seems unfair I bought a PSP the day they came out not because I planned on it but I was in a store that day were someone was showing them off and was drawn to the shiny black case like a moth a 100 watt bulb and left the store £300 lighter. Honestly the thing has sat in a drawer most of the time and I can't remember using it for anything other than remote play in the last six months, wouldn't have wanted to use this feature but now that I'm being told I can't I want it, god gadget envy is getting out of hand.

  7. Mark Rendle

    @Mark Broadhurst

    "TBH I think people are learning and next time they have a launch it will flop."

    As opposed to the raging success of PS3?

  8. Saint Taco
    Flame

    So never improve anything ever?

    I bought a Car last year, and this years models are better, and cheaper too...

    BuHu

  9. Greg

    Oooh, look, more ill-informed bashing

    "Screwing the early adopters?" Oh, come on! The PSP's been out for over TWO YEARS. That's hardly knocking "early adopters." Get some perspective. Companies have been doing this since the beginning of time. MS anyone? Or perhaps the mobile phone companies that pull similar tricks on a daily basis? If the old PSP can handle Skype then yeah, they should release it, but they probably won't, and neither would anyone else.

    I only got my PSP last year, and yeah I'm kicking myself slightly now there's a newer, better one out, but if I want the new one I'll trade in on it, and if I don't I'll stick with this one. I'll probably get the new one so I can have video out and play Chains of Olympus on my TV, but that's my choice. Don't want the new model? Don't get it.

    I wonder how many of these people were having a similar rant when Nintendo bought out the DS Lite - only ONE YEAR after the DS. Oh, wait, Nintendo are the friendly cuddly company that would never relaunch a product for increased profit.

    Note for the inevitable "Sony r evil" retorts - I'm no fanboy. I have a limited edition DS Lite sat next to my PSP, and I have consoles from all the major players.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    @Mark Broadhurst

    With any luck, the PS3 will go the way of the Dreamcast.

    Albeit without the popular die-hard fanbase

  11. Lul Whut
    Stop

    Re: So screwing the early buyers?

    Similar position here... Bought on launch, sat in the drawer for a year, played with homebrew for a couple of weeks, sat in the drawer some more. Wish I had sold the damn thing after the novelty wore off...

    Now, where did I put my DS?

  12. Steve Barnes

    FYI

    Dropping the price of something isn't screwing something over. It's a good thing. Tard.

  13. Michael Sheils
    Stop

    Sony screw us again, but it doesn't matter

    As one of the most active homebrew teams have already released proof of concept code for a full SIP phone homebrew app that works just fine on both PSP-1000 & 2000 series. And since it's not skpye you might actually be able to understand what the other person is saying on the line.

    http://www.noobz.eu/joomla/news/make-phone-calls-with-your-psp.html

  14. Matthew Coulson
    Stop

    It's been out for ages

    Early adopters?!?!

    I bought mine on japanese release. That's nearly 3 years ago!

  15. JeffyPooh

    Oh, so what...?

    If you don't have a PSP Slim, and you want one, then go buy one. I've got one of each, and my son got a slim for Xmas. They're cheap as chips compared to the stack of UMDs or a couple years of ISP bills. Consoles and similar hardware are not normally the numbers that add up over the years. Of course, I acknowedge that YMMV.

    For those that don't use their PSP because they're bored, then update the firmware to 3.80 and browse the 'net, listen to Internet radio, subscribe to RSS podcasts (audio and video). I've never used my PSPs as much since they added RSS feeds. My PSP downloads a whack of BBC WS & R4, NASA, RocketBoom, and much more every night at about 2am. Goto RSS4PSP.blogspot.com for more info about RSS feeds for the PSP.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Why oh Why!!?

    Why is it people who buy Consumer electronics with a notorious obselence curve moan when a producer brings out a revised product that doesnt work with an older preceeding model?

    do Ford or VW owners drive back to the garage demanding that they be given those new speed stripes or the tinted glass that the 07 model has but the 06 didnt? or the new ipod socket to be retrofitted into their 1997 Toyota??????

    or do they take back their old cornflakes, when kellogs annoucne a new improved recipie?

  17. Red Bren
    Stop

    And I would need this because?

    I bought my PSP just after release while on holiday in Vancouver. It's given me many hours of pleasure since, doing exactly what I bought it for - playing games.

    This skype functionality is all well and good but do I need it? No. I would need to be in a wifi hotspot which means I'm either at home, so I may as well use the land line or I'm in some public hotspot which will want to charge me for access so I'll be paying for calls that I can make for free on my mobile. And as I don't know anyone with a skype number I'll be paying an additional fee for the privilege.

    Why is there such an obsession with device convergence?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    @ Mark

    Mark asks: Would you rather Sony never updated the PSP at all

    Um, yes. The reason people console game instead of computer game is because at least on a console, all the consoles play the games/apps and the you don't ever have to worry about upgrading the hardware. You obviously aren't a console gamer, now go buy a new sound card, graphics card, and update your CPU so you can play this month's computer games, and see what you have to upgrade to play next month's computer games.

  19. Greg

    Re: @Mark

    So a console should be released and never changed, updated or improved. Uh....huh. Off the top of my head...

    Mega Drive II.

    Mega CD

    32x

    Generation NEX

    Saturn Mk II

    N64 Expansion Pak

    PS One

    PS2 Slim

    PS2 Hard Drive

    X-box 360 Premium/Elite/Super Elite/Hyper-Pointless Elite/Halo Elite

    DS Lite

    PSP Slim

    The impending Wii Mk II and possible (though now unlikely) X-box 360 Ultimate

    ...are all console improvements, many of which have an impact on capability. Not to mention the countless firmware upgrades/hardware revisions, some of which are required to play new games on the newer consoles.

    So console gamers aren't used to upgraded console versions, eh? Yeah, right. I *am* a console gamer, as well as a PC gamer, and you're talking nonsense.

    If I'm to be honest, I'd rather spend £700 on upgrading my PC back to God-like status every few years than spend the same amount of money buying new consoles to play the games I want to play, but hey, what can you do?

  20. Fab De Marco
    Stop

    I agree with Mark - a pointless feature!

    I agree with Mark that have skype on a PSP is pointless, most people have mobile phones these days so if you had to call someone whilst on the move surely the more compact mobile phone would have to come out! As as for making calls around the house with skype, wired headsets will set you back a tenner. If you want to be flashy a bluetooth one for 30-odd beer vouchers, hardly breaking the bank!

    I also think that consoles should be upgraded! I'm sorry to shatter the dreams of the hardcore console generation but if you crack open any modern console you will find it quite similar to a PC... Largely because they are PC's just with no heavy OS dragging it down.

  21. Steven Hewittt

    @Fanboi's

    I think the point of people complaining about shafting the early adopters is because proof of concept work has been done getting a first gen PSP to do VoIP. So if homebrew hackers can, why can't the people who own the source and make the hardware?

    They probably could do it, but they won't. MS/Sony do update their consoles with firmware - great. MS updated their early adopters of Zune's to the new firmware with new features for free when gen 2 was released.

    Why won't Sony do it for the PSP 1st gen?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    interesting move Sony

    interesting move - perhaps its the memory issue (not a piddling 64k either ;-) ) - but maybe its because they want people to start getting the slim version - not so hackable is it?

    I dont care, my mobile already does skype - and normal calls.

  23. peter
    Boffin

    Restricted

    As posted above, it runs on both slim and fat PSPs. So Sony are restricting it to the slim versions to make money.

  24. Steve Rowsell
    Stop

    Unwillingness to support older hardware is the problem

    As the 2 of the most recent posts have mentioned, it is possible for homebrew programmers to make a workable VoIP application for both flavours of the PSP.

    I'm afraid Sony have lost the plot as they are alienating ever increasing sections of their user/customer base. My PSP is the last Sony console I've bought after buying and loving the original Playstation and PS2 and this just strengthens my resolve not to buy from Sony again.

    There are many reasons why I decided to drop Sony like a stone, and I don't want to bore everyone (any more than I need to). The main reasons include :

    - Delays in bringing the PS3 to the European market,

    - Sony releasing substandard hardware in Europe at inflated prices (compared to US & Japanese PS3s released with the Emotion Engine included, Europe got limited backward compatibility via software emulation and got to pay more than US & Japanese customers for the privilege),

    - Sony attempting to force its customers to build their Blu-Ray market share when all a lot of people wanted was a capable games console that built upon the successes of the PS1 & PS2

    - Sony dropping backwards compatibility completely with the recently released 'castrated 40gb model',

    - And now, Sony are trying to force people who already own its product, (the fat PSP), to buy the 'Slim' version by restricting the functionality of their existing console for no apparent reason.

    Just wait, I imagine this will be just the first of an increasingly two-tier approach to firmware updates for the two (nigh-on identical) PSP models.

    Sony's marketing policy and business plan over the last couple of years must have been dreamt up by a madman with the tagline 'How to lose friends and alienate people'. Well, the plan is working...

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