Sophie's PSP choice: Wi-Fi or power

by Alexander Sliwinski on Aug 10th 2007 9:56PM

Originally reported by Beyond3D, apparently the PSP's new found power comes at a price. Turns out the PSP has to disable Wi-Fi to utilize the new CPU speed. Sony confirmed the information saying that the increased CPU speed does disable the PSP's wireless feature. Sony says they are "working closely" with developers to take full advantage of the new functionality where appropriate.

Developers now have to either choose to utilize the full power of the PSP or focus on multiplayer -- but not both, never both. GameDaily BIZ followed up on the Beyond3D story to find out why this either/or concept was put in place. Speculation is that it was to conserve battery power in the unit as the the Wi-Fi turned on affects battery life already, but Sony America is currently contacting Sony Japan to get the official answer.

[Via GameDaily BIZ]

Source

Tags: power, psp, wifi

Reader Comments (38)

I love my DS, though, as time goes on, PSP gets more and more difficult to pass up.. must hold out.. must wait until new version happens and better battery arrives..

@ Mabui
If you do get one, hack it! It's easy and is worth it! You won't believe what Sony is keeping us from. I'm probably not helping you keep out on your PSP purchase now am I? haha!

I rather have Power for sure especially because unlike Nintendo Sony never released a PC usb like the one the NDS has to turn a PC internet signal into a wifi signal.

And I don't want to spend 80$ on a router just so I can play with my PSP online.

Ummm, PSP can connect to that very same dongle....

Yeah the 'dongle' works with both DS and PSP.
I wonder if it works with Wii though.

Yep, works with Wii, too.

PSP works, huh? With the official software (which I thought only would work with Wii and DS) or with the homebrew one (which turns the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connector into a regular wi-fi hotspot)?

Guess I'll have to try that out once I get a PSP.

No clue on that. Friend of mine uses the dongle from Nintendo for his PSP. Never told me how. Personally, I had to buy a router anyway to replace an old dead Linksys and I gave up trying to find a traditional router and finally caved for a wireless. Seriously, why did regular routers become so hard to find?

This just reeks of poor design. Perhaps Sony should have opted to make the next revision of the PSP a true progression that wasn't hindered by familiar flaws.

That being said, it's still kinda cool that the new CPU speed basically ads a new coat of paint to dusty PSPs all over the world.

yeah, it's like sony's copying nintendo now

thank goodness I'm thrifty. the only handheld i ever bought was a gameboy:SP. I still love it, though don't play it much because I graduated

totally agree with you....the second time around you think they would plan things out better....ahh well.im still buying one

Bwa-hahaha! Now my plans come to fruition!

It's YOU!.

It was you all along.

It's a tradeoff. If it means better games, who cares? does anyone even play using Wifi? if

Well in matter of fact the few games PSP that count with wifi are awesome if not the best.From Syphon filter to MGS ops and Killzone Liberation with wipeout pure.

But the only games that IMO need to take advantage of the wifi are Yugioh GX tag force 1 and 2,Metal Gear AC1D 2 and Killzone Liberation maybe worms.

With the rest I would be happy with DLC like in Megaman Powered up!.

If you look up "damage control" in the dictionary you get this post.

@ Neebs.

Me or him?.

him

i guess if you did you would know ;p

Um, don't you nee wi-fi to play online?

sorry, "need"

Lol, Sophie's choice. Such a funny movie.

that's a bit strange considering the hacked PSPs that could amp up the mhz to 333 worked just fine with online, it even gave you an advantage over other players.

Ditto. This sounds like damage control PR to me, new PSP having a smaller battery and all that. Though IIRC there were some problems originally when 333mhz mode was unlocked with wifi, but Dark_Alex and co. worked it out. So maybe this will be one of those things SONY will 'somehow' surmount to achieve better press. Still 333mhz mode will only affect games programmed for it, don't see why they don't include a option under the HOME button to switch up any game to 333mhz mode at a whim.

I was thinking of getting me a psp but? What you're gonna give up multiplayer for clock speed? So my games are faster but any chance of playing a future release online is 0% Who the hell thought of this? You just took your handheld offline and left the competition online. Am I the only one that sees this or is everyone else blind?

Yes, you are the only person who sees this. Mainly because you're the only person lacking in reading comprehension.

"Developers now have to either choose to utilize the full power of the PSP or focus on multiplayer -- but not both, never both."

In other words, let's look at Wipeout Pulse, which still features it's immense multiplayer aspect and, of course, free extra levels. Now... in single player, the PSP can access the full 333Mhz. However, when in multiplayer, the system locks the game from accessing the boosted power and runs it at 233Mhz.

However, the smarter of the fanbase will realize that PSP2000 does, in fact, feature double the RAM. Which of course has a more significant impact on gameplay than CPU cycles. Of course this isn't locked out during 333Mhz mode either. But regardless, no matter how you look at it, the PSP is getting a performance boost across the board.

Don't most multiplayer games take a performance hit during multiplayer anyway? Just wondering.

Okay, time for the tradeoff....

Good: Speakers moved to the face
Bad: Same speakers, just relocated.

Good: Better battery life
Bad: Weaker battery as a standard

Good: No more accidently flipping on WiFi
Bad: WiFi likely eats up CPU cycles now....

Good: Being able to play games on a TV (imagines DJ Max Portable at the top of the list)
Bad: No additional port for a second controller. Best feature of Nomad... CHOPPED!

Haha, Nomad... That thing was pretty cool.

However, I don't think it'd be easily implemented to have a 2P controller port on a PSP, anyways. Games wouldn't be programmed to have multiplayer on one system, but with multiple systems.

...Unless that bit was a joke, and my sarcasm detector is defective...

Basically, it sounds to me they have to make a choice of how to drain the battery. Either with a faster CPU speed (which would drain power faster than the slower clock speed) or with wi-fi enabled (which would drain power faster than having it disabled). And then to do both at the same time would drain even faster.

Oh, and that extra RAM couldn't be utilized for gameplay, just loading from the UMD drive. Since the first model lacks the extra RAM, it would either make games unplayable or with serious performance hits on the first model.

I.... I never even thought of lanpartying PSPs.......

Wow. Somehow, a Wipeout Pulse match between several TVs just sounds too awesome for words. Hell, I'm halfway templted to organized a Guerilla strike where a bunch of people go into Best Buy, just start plugging in our PSPs on the TV walls, and play until they kick us out, then repeat over at CC, etc.

Prediction: Nintendo will copy Sony and give players online functionality at the cost of motion control.

Nintendo already offers both. Why would they remov... oohhh I get it.

@Kazi

genious!

I want the slim PSP.
Don't care so much for the old one

This reminds me of those PCs with "Turbo" switches...

This is sad. =(

Damage Control? Man, I bought my PSP to play Super Nintendo! WiFi on Portables translates into Nintendo, even on the PSP! hahahahah... Maybe the should hire some of the emulator coders and Dark Alex to really bring the PSP to a B quality console.

Hah, oh dear oh dear. Any other tradeoffs we should know about?

333MHz _or_ WiFi? I'll stick with both on the OE firmware, thanks.

who in here plays yugioh tagforce using wif ccuz someone needs to face my e-hero deck

Sophie's PSP choice: Wi-Fi or power

Reader Comments (38)

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:00PM Mabui said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 12:05AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:05PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:58PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 2:25AM iBubbles said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 11:52AM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 1:09PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:07PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:46PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:14PM mr nimblewick said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:15PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:20PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:27PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:48PM Neebs said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:54PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 11:03PM Neebs said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:27PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:27PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:33PM preciousj said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 10:42PM DVersion said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 12:07AM 4ham said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 11:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 11:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 11:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 12:01PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 1:33PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 11:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 10th 2007 11:52PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 1:54AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 12:18AM megapenguinx said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 1:13AM Picklesworth said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 3:48AM ThornedVenom said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 5:26AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 6:11AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 11th 2007 1:00PM db26 said

Posted: Oct 12th 2007 8:08PM (Unverified) said

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