Then everybody jumped on the Palm format, the clamshell format PDA disappeared, and users had to resort to crippled input via slower pens. Soon thumboards and folding keyboards were added (indicating a dissatisfaction with pen input) but neither had the portability nor convenience of good, small, keyboards. Music, email, video, and all sorts of other bells and whistles have been added, and game machines now exceed the power of early mainframes – but we still haven’t got back to a small PDA which permits extended work to be done for days in remote locations (and syncs with Macs!)

If peripheral makers are willing to foot the bill for game development, sure. I would really like to see how much RedOctane’s made back on their investment; the game has won tons of accolades, of course, but the price point is extremely high. The appeal to non-gamer players is a point in its favor.

If PSP use exploded because people were excited about using the platform for mobile computing (i.e. email), etc, do you really think none of those new customers would be interested in buying UMDs to watch while on the road? Or games to play? If you *do* think that, I’m afraid we simply have a fundamental disagreement on our hands.

Interested, yes, but if Sony fails to supply the UMD channel with sufficient content, I’m not sure if having lots of people buy a PSP for email is going to translate into much. Right now, other than the homebrewers (which are definitely a small group), anyone buying a PSP really has no choice but to buy some UMD content, because it’s not really good for anything else.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with having a keyboard for a PSP, but its existence would require diversion of resources and attention in Sony to properly support it with software and services; I’m not sure if they can afford that diversion right now. (Alternatively, I’m also not sure if they can afford to continue with their current strategies.)

“I generally try to assume that companies behave in rational ways (even though it’s clear that this isn’t always true.)”

If I were to write that sentence it would read..

I always assume that companies are incompetent (the bigger the more incompetent.)

Well, Sony does have a reputation for tightly controlling its systems (and resorting to proprietary standards).

> Another possibility is that Logic 3 couldn’t get their
> shit together and are trying to pass the buck off to Sony.

LOL. Fair point. I concede this is a possibility.

Another possibility is that Logic 3 couldn’t get their shit together and are trying to pass the buck off to Sony. Everyone wants to hate Sony these days.

Neither is the guitar controller for Guitar Hero.

> making games for optional peripherals only makes sense for
> companies with a strong foothold in the arcade business
> (like Konami) or peripheral market (like RedOctane and Logitech)

Why couldn’t develolpers work with peripheral makers, in the same way Harmonix worked with RedOctane?

> Thus, the only things that the keyboard will be specifically
> useful for would be non-authorized-game use

That strikes me as a bit of an assumption, though it’s certainly true that non-authorized game use would be very significant.

> Sony may not want to have to deal with compatibility with a
> range of different third-party keyboards.

Fits argument #2 in my list. I’ve never been very sympathetic to this kind of argument. Maintaining a reasonable list of protocols isn’t impossible, or even terribly difficult if you’re careful.

> I suspect that they’re more paranoid about the homebrew
> possibilities of a keyboard-enabled PSP

I think you’re right about that.

> You can always make the argument that more PSPs owned
> will always translate into more games sold, no matter why
> they were bought for in the first place, but there’s a very
> strong element of wishful thinking in that argument.

If PSP use exploded because people were excited about using the platform for mobile computing (i.e. email), etc, do you really think none of those new customers would be interested in buying UMDs to watch while on the road? Or games to play? If you *do* think that, I’m afraid we simply have a fundamental disagreement on our hands.

I think the more technically-inclined among us (i.e. MIT guys like me and you) overstate the number of people who would instantly dive into homebrew and forget all else. There’s definitely a big (and growing) homebrew community. But I really doubt that the average guy on the street would buy a PSP *just* to do homebrew stuff — at least, at the current time. More like, if he saw a keyboard bundled with an email app, he’d just buy that. Plus a game to play on the way home. *grin*

Again, you can disagree, but I’m afraid it would come down to philosophy, since I agree there’s a vibrant homebrew community, and I seriously doubt that homebrew users would stop buying games and UMDs either way.

Thus, the only things that the keyboard will be specifically useful for would be non-authorized-game use, which either means non-game (like e-mail) or non-authorized (homebrew). If Sony launches its own keyboard, then it probably has non-game applications planned for future firmware revisions, and Sony may not want to have to deal with compatibility with a range of different third-party keyboards.

I suspect that they’re more paranoid about the homebrew possibilities of a keyboard-enabled PSP. Folks who end up buying PSPs just so they can use it as a cheap portable Linux laptop may likely hurt Sony’s bottom line. You can always make the argument that more PSPs owned will always translate into more games sold, no matter why they were bought for in the first place, but there’s a very strong element of wishful thinking in that argument.