As any long-time reader of this blog will know, the Bitfood team has been big fans of the GoPSPGo concept that Sony launched in Europe and Asia (but, to our disgust, not in the USA) in 2008. About 12 months ago we tried to find out what the state of play was on the long delayed introduction of PSPGo!Explore. We called the US and the UK offices. and eventually were sort-of told that it was never gonna happen!
The GoPSPGo site they set up was a real sweet one - and there was a tailor-made version for a whole stack of countries. The flash production was the kind of quality you would expect from a top game platform. But if you go to the UK url today - its just a redirect to the PSP section of the Playstation home site in the UK.
Seems like that whole product was a fizz-er and its just all quietly disappeared into the night?
Not so - there is a trail of wreckage - and a funny? post script.
Mop it up as they might, Sony can’t entirely expunge the past. First up, the wayback machine lets us see some of what used to be…at least for the gopspgo dot com version. There you can at least see the bones of the site that used to be. Click on any of the countries listed to see what used to be on offer. Go! Messenger, for example, used to offer:
With Go!Messenger you can use your PSP to keep in touch with friends for free wherever you have access to a Wireless connection
Lets take a closer look at Go!Messenger. This was provided in conjunction with BT . And even a year after they shut it down, there is a site still up saying:
…..we have had to do this…
And its a year later!
Does anyone else see this as really weird?
Well, weirder still is the postscript. When one of the Bitfood team started researching for this post they entered in pspgo.co.uk (understandable, right?)
And you would not believe what they found!!
The joke is on Sony because THIS is what is there….
That’s right - PSP Go-es Nintendo!!
What a trick Nintendo?? has pulled off?
Now to the UK reader this is probably not news (given the PSPGo). But for us across the pond, all we can say is hahahaha!! And frankly, we were surprised that Nintendo got away with it.
Well, they haven’t - as the site is not owned by Nintendo! It was cunningly registered in China in 2009 by a Pan Zuo. And he has simply top-framed the whole Nintendo site into his site??
Not sure what happens if you login on this site?
Not sure why Sony haven’t taken this guy down? Or Nintendo for that matter?
The whole thing is weird - or hillarously funny. What do you think?
PS I we had to guess, our bet would be that the guy is trying to get a big payout from Sony for the site and in the meantime is giving Sony the finger!
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The highly reputable research company, Nielsen, did a big study in 2009 looking at how teens use media. And it was a real “reality check” as they found that most of the beliefs out there are actually wrong!
For example, teens watch more TV now than ever (and have not abandoned it for the internet, mobiles or game platforms!). In contrast, they watch LESS online videos than adults do (actually spend a whopping 35% LESS time doing that than 25-34 year olds, for example).
But it is the findings regarding game play that the Bitfood team were wanting to check out. Nielsen found, for example, that:
* Teens play video games, but are as excited about play-along music games and car-racing games as they are about violent ones: Just two of their top five most-anticipated games since 2005 are rated “Mature.”
* Video consumption, led by TV viewing, is the centerpiece of teen media consumption.
Console gaming comes in third “in a day in the life of” the average teenager in the US. These are averages, tho, and we are betting that game players actually spend more time using their consoles than these figures would suggest - but averaged out over all teens that figure goes down a lot.
* The myth is that teen gamers spend all their time playing “Mature” shooter games But in reality just two of the top five “most anticipated” games among teens since 2005 were rated Mature (Halo 3, and Grand Theft Auto IV)
* Teens account for just 23% of the console audience and less than 10% of PC game minutes.
* 83% of teens have at least one console in their home.
What do ya think? Does this describe teen use as you see it? We want to hear your view on these results (For example, the last 12 months has seen a massive increase in the involvement of females in the gaming world - Nielsen are suggesting the Wii has played a big role in broadening the population of those playing games. But we suspect that the increasing use of mobile game platforms in education has had a big impact as well)
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If you have not yet got Need For Speed Undercover or Need For Speed Shift, you might like to try them out on the free demos that EA has provided. Now neither demo is available for play on the PSP, unfortunately, but you can still get a sense of the game and so decide whether tis the game for you.
Need For Speed Undercover can be played on a neat free demo player that EA has provided for us to download and use on our PC. This provides a demo screen that is a bit smaller than the PSP screen, but you will get the gist:
The free demo for Need For Speed SHIFT, can be played on our PCs as well - but in full screen mode. Still, again you will get a feel for the game and see whether you want to get the PSP version.
As the Bitfood team has said in many previous posts - we would like to see a lot more demos available for the PSP games.
Currently there is only one PSP game available as a demo in Playstation store (Sony should really take a leaf out of Apple’s marketing approach where literally hundred’s of “lite” - ie demo - iPhone games are available for free). Even as we wrote this post several free demo were dropped from the Playstation store! The EA free game demo - Army of Two: The 40th Day - is actually still listed at the EA site as available at the Playstation store!
The fact is Sony has just not discovered the value of providing free demos - and their dropping sales show that its just a dumb way to go!
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