Okay, I'm done with the classic hip-hop references. In the midst of all of the Q4 insanity ensuing, and the fact that getting a PS3 and a copy of Ricky Bobby on launch day is going to be comparable to getting on one of those stupid makeover reality shows, I decided to talk (and talk, and talk) about lots of Sony stuff. And also because Xzibit won't come to pimp my PS3, even if I sob for the camera.
Number one: My PSP. Again.
As I sit here on a chilly Sunday afternoon in San Francisco, I'm frustrated. Six months ago, I'd set up my wireless router at home for WPA encryption, which gave me a more secure connection, minus the trial and error of MAC address filtering and a variety of things that I've seen my friends do, but can't actually do myself. Upon doing so, my laptop worked fine, as did my PSP. Unfortunately, it meant no Mario Kart online for yours truly. Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection doesn't like WPA. It only supports WEP encryption.
After recently moving up to San Francisco to work out of the Bay Area for GameSpy, I set up WEP encryption in order to get my handhelds online. Being the picky primadonna that it is, the DS would only work with Shared WEP. I didn't try playing my PSP online, but while planning to take some time and play something today for a review (and the Halloween Loco Roco stage), it didn't work. After some diligent research, I discovered that the PSP doesn't like Shared WEP; it only goes for Open WEP.
So, why can't this PSP get online with the same WEP configuration as my DS again?
As much as I'm annoyed at Nintendo's finicky tendencies just to set up a frickin' game of Tetris online, I'm equally annoyed that the PSP, which can run on far more settings than the DS, including WPA, can't even run on a frickin' Shared WEP connection, inferior security or not. I'm sure there are many of you in the readership who know this stuff more than me (I'm a writer, not an IT wizard), but if it's frustrating me, it means that the average consumer would probably give up twenty minutes before me. And I'm writing this with a raging hangover from last night's Halloween party.
What does all of this mean? Frankly, if handheld gaming is supposed to live up to the hype that this generation of machines have been experiencing, how freaking hard is it to find a standard that both machines can use, outside of an open signal that anyone in the neighborhood can leech? Even if some of you write in with solutions, it's still an issue that's going to turn off both the average consumer, or their kids, who've just inherited a new digital babysitter. This Tower of Babel is a huge mess, and one that maybe not all gamers face, but plenty of them do.
Also, the PSP needs a price drop like yesterday. I sincerely hope that at some point in the next three to four weeks, SCEA announces that the MSRP will go down. While I don't think a $149.99 core SKU is realistic from a business standpoint ($179.99 seems more likely, given the rate that hardware historically experiences price drops), it's a nicer price to swallow for a system that seems to be plagued with long-loads and overpriced PS2 ports. Also, when are those 8 gig sticks coming out that we saw at CES?
