Dropping the UMD would have been a disaster. Imagine downloading a 1.8gb game on 2005 internet. It took half an hour to download an mp3 to my shuffle from Limewire. Even when we got broadband it was only 256k.
Downloading a 1.8GB game on 2005 internet would've been rough for most people. But I think Jobs was thinking a few steps ahead. Maybe he didn’t want 1.8GB games. Maybe he wanted smaller, smarter games that fit in your pocket
I do believe that Jobs saw the future. But I also believe it was way too early for a few reasons:
- given the price of flash memory, the only alternative to UMDs was hard drives. Hardly an improvement size-wise. Or small games which wasn't possible considering the PSP was made to use the PS1 and PS2 catalogs.
- Internet being way too lousy for most outside of Japan.
- console gamers not being even remotely ready to give up on physical media (Steam had just appeared).
Dropping the UMD would have been a disaster. Imagine downloading a 1.8gb game on 2005 internet. It took half an hour to download an mp3 to my shuffle from Limewire. Even when we got broadband it was only 256k.
Downloading a 1.8GB game on 2005 internet would've been rough for most people. But I think Jobs was thinking a few steps ahead. Maybe he didn’t want 1.8GB games. Maybe he wanted smaller, smarter games that fit in your pocket
I got my copy of your book, Sony Year by Year. It looks great and it is well-made.
Thank you so much! I’m really glad you like how it turned out. Hope you enjoy flipping through all the Sony history!
I do believe that Jobs saw the future. But I also believe it was way too early for a few reasons:
- given the price of flash memory, the only alternative to UMDs was hard drives. Hardly an improvement size-wise. Or small games which wasn't possible considering the PSP was made to use the PS1 and PS2 catalogs.
- Internet being way too lousy for most outside of Japan.
- console gamers not being even remotely ready to give up on physical media (Steam had just appeared).