Hacking How dead is the PSP?

[LumInvader]

How much you've played a library does not indicate the general life of a system. For example, the SNES is dead, but that doesn't mean I've played every good game the system has to offer. It just means that development has completely (or all but completely) stopped on a professional and fan level, really. I almost find it humorous how hard people are trying to prove what life the PSP still has in it too. Compared to the past, the PSP is on life support. Fan translations are the most active section of PSP anything right now, and it's naive to say they'll continue on indefinitely. How many other legacy systems still have a hearty fan translation base going at it? If you said "none", you would be right on the money. Sure, the odd translation here or there is spit out, but after awhile, people just stop caring about games on old systems that never got translated with the exception generally of fans of specific series. It's a shame, but it's just how interest works. Homebrew is basically down to nothing. The fact that you can list the active projects going on with one hand, and the fact that you can count the number that are likely to reach completion with no hands, I'd say homebrew on the PSP is right on the edge of done.

It isn't as if I don't love my PSP for what it can do, but there is a lot of denial going on in this thread about how alive this handheld is. The PSP launched essentially completely in 2005. People can't be that surprised that the system is reaching its end days over a decade after launch. The only reason much PSP anything is still alive and kicking is due to the fact that there's nothing better to do on the Vita yet. Even then, most PSP devs have moved on and don't really deal with the PSP directly anymore.

Once the current round of fan translations either reach completion or fizzle out (they're fickle things, so it'd be silly to say any of them are certain), I'd say the PSP is all but done. Sure, a handful (and I do mean a handful) of PSP titles are still releasing, but they're largely meant for digital to be bought and played on a Vita, and they're fairly niche titles that aren't expected to sell amazing well. Few people are actually trying to appeal to the PSP userbase itself anymore, and that's generally a good sign of a dead or dying system.

I don't see a meaningful argument here since we both agree in principal:

The PSP homebrew/retail scene has reached it's end of life phase. We just differ on how we use the term "alive".

Going back to your SNES example, for many of us, as long as SNES emulators are still being ported/created, the SNES is still alive. As long as translations are still being released, the SNES is still alive. As long as SNES flash carts are still being sold/updated, the SNES is still alive. As long as there's an interest in that particular system, it's still alive. Outside of flash carts, the PSP qualifies on all counts.

But you're correct about the PSP's status as far as new software goes.

 

[gamewitch]

[Rant]I think part of what has slowed it to a near death crawl is the fact that you can't seem go two months without some of the Vita hackers at each others throats, just look at total_n00b's recent track record got caught ripping off pro CFW then bitched when everyone else ripped of his vita wCFW. Edit: Oh and don't even get me started on him putting malicious code in his shit. Toxic assholes like him have in some ways nearly killed the psp/vita scene.[/end_rant] Edit number 2: Also notice how when all the Vita scene bs started psp releases dropped of the face of the earth, just a year or two ago it seemed like every other week one of the major emus was getting an update we were seeing a steady stream of new homebrew releases and then it just kinda dried up in a few months.

 

[Hargrun]

AaAaAnd I come to the conclusion that I have no idea about the meaning of "a live console".

Seriously, just look at it.



Games still being developed for my first console ever! (Which is still active and well, despite some scratches and children's stickers marks... Well, I was little. *cough*)

I'll be playing it on my Mega Drive and PSP in the coming years, for sure...

 

[Joel16]

AaAaAnd I come to the conclusion that I have no idea about the meaning of "a live console".

Seriously, just look at it.



Games still being developed for my first console ever! (Which is still active and well, despite some scratches and children's stickers marks... Well, I was little. *cough*)

I'll be playing it on my Mega Drive and PSP in the coming years, for sure...

Count me in on that. I even bought a new PSP go

 

[Scorp]

I am still playing games (some on emulators) on PSP, which is much better choice for me, than my smartphone, as it have real keys and I get almost same experience I got when I played SNES/NES/Genesis/PS1 back in the days. I recently tried to play Alien3 on my home plasma 50" and... well... It is okay, but on PSP it looks just so much better...

So I believe I will continue using PSP as long as buttons and joystick are functional. And maybe will code some homebrew one day for it, keeping scene alive haha

 

[flame1234]

I looked at Wololo and they don't have any threads I would be interested in:
1) Threads about reverse-engineering games for translations
2) Threads about recruiting

 

[Omega2058]

A good chunk of members on Wololo are hooked on the Vita right now. There was a blog post about recruiting people to work on the SDK a while back. But since the SDK was just reported as being finished I don't think anything else like that will be happening.

If someone makes a thread about needing help on a translation (Which is pretty rare), I just tell them to come here. They'd receive more support as well as interest and more than likely people will just turn a blind eye to it over there.