when will they make this? because this would make Unity 100000 times more popular with the game developers, and I would expect that they would rake in the cash, so why haven’t they made it yet?
post your thoughts on this!
I honestly think less than 5% of Unity’s userbase will use it, and it will lead to a net loss at present for them to develop it. It might be cool for fanboys but its still a business loss, and likely, they would make it under the same conditions as wii/xbox which means you wouldn’t get it anyway.
Plus the PSP is a totally failed market really.
PSP2 is rumored to be out next year… maybe Sony will do a better job, but TBH this is unlikely.
Well personally I’m excited by the nintendo 3DS :] only nintendo have any chance at all of competing with the smartphone gaming market.
There has been a lot of talk lately about a Playstation phone, and there is already a prototype going around. Perhaps this is the future of the PSP. The only thing it’s really seems to be missing is a phone and more app centric OS which all seem to be in the prototype which Sony admitted to existing earlier this month.
Because the PSP doesn’t have the hardware specs to handle Unity. The original iPhone is the absolute minimum where it’s feasible to use Unity at all, and the PSP is below that.
–Eric
Not if the hardware specs are really as bullshit as mentioned I fear.
Nintendos believe that “innovation” is enough and that you can come around with hardware that can not even compete against the iPhone 2G and is lacking memory, vram and power by a margin of 2-3 years in technology is laughable and will break their mobile neck if the specs that leaked especially on RAM and VRAM are even remotely true.
Also their innovation is only half as much innovation as one might think, as the company that developed that screen for them has brought / is bringing 2 android phones to market on the current gen high power level of the android edge.
So if the stuff we’ve seen and heard so far of 3DS is all about it, I don’t think it will go anywhere actually and I would consider it a comparable Dead on arrivel as the Virtual Boy and PSP Go that flopped totally
Yeah, i was excited about the 3DS as it looked like Nintendo again achieved it to come up with something which ( at least in the western world) for portable devices is so unique, that it made it likely Nintendo could have an interesting platform again despite falling behind in appeal in several areas compared to smartphones more and more due to the other devices implementing more and more features nicely which a console probably will hardly ever have.
But dreamora is right regarding the technical specs, i was pretty disappointed, too when reading what hardware they seem to have settled on.
Still hoping the final hardware turns out better but yeah, not holding my breath regarding that.
I go with what dreamora said, the innovation with the 3D display only exists in the handheld game console market, there are already phones out there in Japan and elsewhere and some will come out in the US and Europe, soon, too which will have similar 3d display tech included, so that side alone wouldn´t make the 3DS be able to keep up well in the long run and to me it feels like with more and more portable platforms shaping up the version of a game for Nintendo´s portable would maybe even way earlier in their hardware lifecycle feel like the way downscaled version.
With Sony, hm, i feel like they are sorta really doing chaotic things these days, it seems like they are not sure which way to go either.
They release the psp go way overpriced and it sells poor, also due to things like umd content/licenses not being transferable and also many umd titles not being available at all, or later or for higher price as downloadable version for psp go than umd retail versions.
Next to that the piracy problem seems to be never be addressed in halfway satisfying way either.
That thing was just prone to failure from the beginning.
Then they have to hold out longer with the old psp, there its no good idea to focus the marketing campaign on dissing iPhone and iPhone games, it just puts more focus on the comparison with the competition and so on the fact that psp content in general nowadays sells badly in most areas of the world outside japan while the iPhone market grows massively overall.
And then, when one thinks they might have another chance with the psp2, well, they lead to some market confusion by getting psp phone info out while at the same time psp2 coming soon rumors are getting louder. Unless those are both the same device or at least able to run the same games, well, that might lead to some confusion among consumers and developers which device to invest into.
The psp phone for example seems to run android but with custom ui and store front so its unlikely everyone would just be able to run/ sell every usual android game on it. So when both devices need custom software which doesn´t run on the other, hm, that´s not ideal.
Looking at both Nintendo and Sony in broader view they have a way fiercer becoming competition now and even more so in the future, the classic console/handheld manufacturers are still sorta in longer hardware lifecycles and stricter developer and content policies traditions
while the rest of the portable devices market seems to go at a way more accelerated pace on several ends.
Overall the next year will be a very exciting one for portable platforms, the 3ds coming out, the psp2 and psp phone coming out or at least getting close to it, RIM/Blackberry and several others finally getting their tablets out and hey, then there´s also likely another new android and iPhone devices/ OS generation, next to the various things we don´t even know about yet.
So yeah, kicking it up a gear =)
Me personally, sure i´d like to be able to deploy unity content to every platform imaginable in theory, but in reality i find it a way better idea that they focus on those platforms which probably make most sense, both to them and their customers.
There isn’t room for sony on the handheld market in the west. The iphone really kicked things off with a gaming device that was actually truely portable that you’d have everyday reasons for carrying around in your pocket.
The problem with the PSP is just its too big, and its “just for kids” since I can’t see any busy adult wanting to carry BOTH a PSP and an iPhone. There’s just too much luggage for working/busy people to bother with.
The 3DS strikes me as a device I could play at home on the sofa or in bed.
I think there is always room for another device on the market. It could be seen when Sony entered the home console market with the PS (1), Microsoft with the Xbox, Apple with the iPhone etc etc. If the platform is appealing to enough people it can do greatdespite there being lots of competition.
Whether that platform can survive lengthy, be successful spanning several device generation iteration cycles or even just be one of the dominating ones for one cycle is a different story of course =)
I don´t think the psp has a “just for kids” appeal, the contrary, among hardcore gamers its for a good portion taken more serious than the ds and both the ds and psp are among a large part of the classic hardcore gaming crowd taken way more serious than iOS or android devices/ games, mostly due to the lack of tactile feedback controls, just have a look at the comments section on kotaku etc each time a smartphone game topic comes up.
You´ve got a good point when talking about the part that the smartphones are the devices everyone usually always carries around, the portable consoles automatically become at best the second or third device one carries around ( i usually always have my iPhone with me and often also the iPad, i think i´m part of a growing group of people who carry a smartphone and/or tablet around with em pretty much all the time =) ).
I don´t get your bottomline though, you say the psp is sorta doomed because it couldn´t be carried around or wouldn´t be carried around but then say you´d get a 3ds to play it at home. You could do that with a psp2/ phone, too of course, so i don´t get that point =)
I’d take a PSP over a iphone or nintendo anything. I don’t like how Apple won’t open up their hardware and let people have a choice how they want to use it. I expect I’ll go the Android route should I end up getting a cell phone in the next couple of years.
The current PSP isn’t even a realistic business case to begin with. Developers aren’t making money off of it and the platform is pretty much dead, thanks to piracy. There’s no sense in developing for the PSP, since you’ll never even making your development costs back.
If anything, I’d expect the Unity Team to support the 3ds / PSP2 - but not 5 year old hardware that’s pretty much dead by now.
Based on rumors PSP2 or the PSP phone is using Android but also Sony will have its own marketplace. This could possibly leads to a more open dev and casual titles instead of “just” full highly costly core titles and let Unity deploy to Sony PSP phone. 
I have some special hopes for Unite tomorrow and some Sony handled news. Crossing fingers darrrnnnnn. ^^
Its not the same thing at all. Portable devices have a real limit on how many people are prepared to carry around with them. That limit for the majority of the world, is one device. And the phone will always take priority.
There is no limit to the number of toys in your gaming room though.
its actually 2 devices as mp3 players are that common nowadays and most people don’t consider it acceptable using the phone for it unless its no smartphone, just cause the battery life gets killed …thats why the itouch took of that much: mp3 player with console (shit thats the only reason the ps3 sells at all, always updating Blueray player with console)
hippocoder: maybe that part in my message wasn´t well put, i didn´t mean there is always room for another device in the sense that people have huge bags where always another additional device would also still fit in. I meant it in the sense that as long as it is a product that creates enough interest for people to buy it there is always space for another competitor. Doesn´t mean that all competitors would then still sell the same amount of units or that consumers would buy a unit of every device type =)
As you said, for many consumers they tend to carry around 1-2 portable devices, for me that is the iPhone and iPad right now.
Which device(s) are more useful for a particular person is very subjective to that person and his/her current preferences and life situation though. For example a few years ago i worked at a design agency which was quite far away from where i lived so i went there by train 1.5 hours (and 1.5 hours back) each day. Back then there was no iPhone/ iPad etc and i used to always take a ds/ psp with me to waste the travel time. Nowadays i hardly ever use the train for longer than 10 minutes in one go so i never ever consider taking a psp/ ds or other just for gaming handheld with me, on the other side i generally always have the iPhone with me and many times also the iPad.
So different people prefer different kinds of devices depending on their preferences/ life situation, though sure the tablets/ smartphones, mostly by combining more and more features into a single device become more and more the type of thing a larger selection of people would cary around by default. not too long ago a mobile phone would typically have a tiny screen with super low res and one could be happy if it had halfway ok features related to the telephone side, nowadays something like an iPhone becomes a better and better replacement for more and more devices every iteration. Sure a pro photograph/filmer would most times use other equipment than the iPhone camera, but for most average use cases the iPhone camera is perfectly fine for doing the photo/video for in between. And likewise that´s the same with the browser, the voice recorder, maps/navi apps etc etc.
The ds has games and a crappy working browser in comparison not a lot in can do in nice way which would make it worth carrying around other than when one specifically wants to play ds games. So yeah, that´s the most difficult part for the handheld manufacturers Nintendo and Sony, how to compete with device types which get reenvisioned and updated every year and which most people carry around all the time by default. I feel like Nintendo after a year of ignorance and then a year of ridiculing Apple finally got it who their strongest competitor is, Sony is still in the denial phase.
dreamora: i think you´re over generalizing there. Some might prefer an additional device for mp3 listening, others not and the reasons why someone goes for an additional device or not might vary, too.
For many for example there are surely many other reasons for getting an iPod touch, like that it can do most things the iPhone can do besides being a cellular connection phone, which might be nice for people not wanting to deal with such things like phone connection fees, contracts etc. Or maybe its just that it is much cheaper or one of many other possible reasons =)
I also think for many there are many other reasons for getting a ps3 other than that it plays bluray. For me for example i´d only get a home console (and i have some =) ) if it has enough games i´d like to play a lot which i couldn´t have in same most enjoyable form on the other systems i already have; i couldn´t care less what kind of optical disc type games are pressed onto (as i´m not at all into getting any movies on bluray either, i´m the kinda guy who´d meanwhile totally prefer digital delivery for everything if its done in fair way =) ).
So yeah, different folks do different things for different reasons =)
To get back to the actual thread topic i thinkt here´s meanwhile consensus that it wouldn´t make a lot of sense for UT to support any of the old handheld console platforms and would be way more interesting to get support for the more appealing ones among the upcoming ones =)
Those are additional reasons that it is like an iphone without contract (although apple actively fucked all on 4th generation as 4th gen itouch is significantly capped over iphone 4 due to missing 256mb RAM).
But for many it initially came in cause “it could at worst serve as mp3 / movie player and at best as gaming console”. The itouch 2nd gen does not cover over 30% of the install base for fun 
yeah, see, you mentioned another good reason for why some people getting iPod touches, in some cases instead of iPhones. In some generations the iPod touch was actually the better performing device, first because some parts weren´t capped as much and second because the OS and default system apps on the iPhone in some cases actually requiring more memory leaving less for apps the user might launch like games.
So yeah, i feel like any reason is as valid as the other =)
Regarding the latest iPod touch i totally agree, its a bummer that this time around the iPod touch is the considerably gimped device thanks to having less memory.
I´d really appreciate it a lot if Apple from now on would maybe just release iPhone and iPod touch with same internal hardware besides the phone specific stuff. On the business side i can see why they don´t of course, but yeah, that´s another different topic =)
It really never hurts to provide support for other gaming devices. For those devices that can’t handle some of the higher end stuff, its as simple as not using the elements the device will not support.
It hurts if there’s no good business case for supporting a device and you end up losing money.
At least with the original PSP it’s just not feasible run Unity on it at all. It’s not a matter of leaving out features (they already do that for the iPhone).
–Eric