Gaming, PSP, Sony|July 22, 2009 3:16 pm

Second Analog Stick Was Considered For PSP Go!



psp_go_rendering

Many Sony fans have been pleading for a second analog on the PSP since it’s release without seemingly any reply from Sony, but in a recent article in Game Informer Magazine, Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida shows that they ARE taking their customers’ wants into consideration.

“We also felt – like many users – that we wish we had a second analog on the PSP.  But we are talking about the mid-life cycle of this platform, and the PSPgo is designed to be perfectly compatible with the PSP-3000 and all the games that released before that.  So we had a very serious discussion about this particular subject, but we decided not to add a second analog, and some of the developers are doing quite a nice job translating the second analog functionality to different buttons.  We didn’t want to divert their efforts either.”
- Shuhei Yoshida, President of Sony Worldwide Studios

Basically even though they want a second analog on their handheld, it really made no sense for them to add one to the PSP Go, a system that is technically in the same generation as the original PSP.  Adding a different control scheme to the PSP Go would be like Nintendo deciding that the DSi would forgo the traditional touch screen of the previous DS systems for a different control layout.  For a system that is supposed to play all the same games, it really made no sense to add a second analog stick.  I think this is a good move by Sony, deciding not to split their handheld market into two halfway through the PSP’s life-cycle.  I’m sure Sony will listen to their customers and add the second analog stick whenever they decide to release the PSP 2.

Original article.

VGN24
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Author: Hi, my name is Jose Colmenares (but most people call me Danny) and I'm a 23 year old University Studies major at Texas Tech University. Right now I own both a PS3 and XB360 (although I tend to play my 360 more) so don't hesitate to send a friend request my way! PSN ID & Gamertag: Disciple027
  • DeadlyFishy

    Can’t they just have a second analog stick which will work with only PSP Go games? It would be like playing original Gameboy games in the Gameboy Advanced – the bumper buttons are there, but they won’t do anything if you press them.

  • Jacob Hruska (snakeman555)

    I agree with deadly fish! You can’t play any of the ‘original’ (UMD) PSP games anyway, isn’t that splitting their handheld market. And the DSi will have games that will not work on the DS lite. So, I am a little confused by this argument. If sony had taken the PSP Go, called it the PSP2, and added another thumb-stick the $250 price tag wouldn’t seem so steep. I do love Sony (Fanboy love) but this was a bad move.

  • racingfreak92

    “and some of the developers are doing quite a nice job translating the second analog functionality to different buttons’

    aka developers got tired of waiting for a decent control system. If they could map buttons to do the same work as a analogue stick then they could map a analogue stick to do the same job as buttons. The only reason they gave that excuse is its the best answer from a PR side.

    Biggest problem is that the PSP Go is a pretty terrible design and adding a second joystick was make it even worse. Unless they moved the face buttons to the back (or did a set up similar to the black,white buttons on the Xbox 1 controller) it would never work

  • http://twitter.com/Disciple027 Jose Colmenares (Disciple027)

    I guess the real argument here is should they have even released the PSP Go as a same generation PSP, or should they have gone ahead and upgraded their system to the PSP 2 and added the second analog. Now, following the Sony 10-year life-cycle trend, I think anyone can see why they went ahead and made this PSP to be in the same generation as the previous three.

    However, I’ve been thinking a lot lately as to why they would release something like the PSP Go with all these advanced features and still have it play the same games with the same control schemes, especially after reading the valid arguments stated above, and the only thing I can come up with is that the PSP Go is simply a test. I think the only reason the PSP Go is even coming out, is simply to see if a fully digital media system is even possible yet.

    There are still tons of people in the world without internet capabilities who would need hardware instead of software, and creating a fully software based system would cut those people out. Maybe this is a test run on an already successful system, to see if it’s worth trying to start the inevitable move to cut out all hardware from the games industry. It would make sense for them to see if this works now before releasing a PSP 2 that will run off of only software. If the PSP Go fails in the market, Sony is going to have to come up with a different solution than UMDs or digital distribution for the PSP 2. By creating a new way to buy games, but keeping the system the exact same, they can see whether people want hardware or software in the future of gaming.

    So in the end, maybe it was a smart move by Sony to see what the people actually want, so when the PSP 2 comes out, they have two different tested methods to go with instead of guessing what will actually work (which is what they had to do when they introduced UMDs). Sorry bout the length, but it’s an interesting topic as to why companies do what they do.

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