UMD Games: Now With Installs
We are all used to mandatory installs on PS3 games. Now it seems UMD PSP games are to start having optional ones. Article written by Watchful in PS3 News, on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 7:00.We PS3 owners are all too familiar with the experience; you rush home with your latest game purchase, tear off the shrink wrap, open the case and slip that blue-tinted disc into you PS3’s Blu-ray drive. Skipping across the XMB you click on the game’s icon eager to kill, race, adventure or sing.
Almost inevitably if it is not a first-party title you will then be forced to spend anything up to thirty minutes watching a progress bar crawl slowly across the screen as the game installs data to your PS3’s hard drive. The process almost certainly saps some of your excitement and let us be honest, there is only so long we are willing to watch Snake smoke another damn cigarette. Of course the alleged pay off for that wait is faster load times once you are in game. In many cases the jury is still out as to whether it makes much difference and it did nothing for Snake’s cigarette consumption as he takes similarly unhealthy pauses throughout MGS4.
Now it seems that the PSP is about to get in on the install action, albeit with optional not mandatory ones. This week sees the release of Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite for Sony’s handheld. The game has a ‘Data Install’ option on its game menu. The game explains, “Use this ‘Data Install’ option to shorten loading times. A portion of the game will be saved as ‘Install Data’ on your Memory Stick Duo. The game will then load data from both the Install Data and the UMD.” Once complete, you will find that 578MB of your Memory Stick has been consumed.
Evidently it is not like installing a digital copy as you will still require the UMD to play the game, presumably as an anti-piracy measure. We would hope that as well as speeding up loading times within the game it will also lead to at least a small improvement in battery life as the PSP will be spending less time reading off of the UMD though that is pure conjecture.
This is another incremental improvement for UMD-based PSP gaming, the last one being that the PSP-2000 and 3000 use some of their extra RAM to cache UMD accesses to improve performance. Will this become a common feature on new UMD releases? We do not know but anything with the potential to improve our gaming experiences is welcome.
It is strange that this has happened so long into the PSP’s life and come at a time that may be the twilight for the UMD with PSPgo a little over four months away. Perhaps it is only really practical now that prices for the Memory Stick Pro Duos used by the PSP are sufficiently cheap? Perhaps it is an example of Sony ensuring that the UMD is still well supported as it hedges its bets against the digital-only PSPgo experiment not going well? Perhaps the Monster Hunter devs are just the first to think of doing it for the PSP?
Me and my ‘3000 would welcome this appearing as an option on more upcoming games. Though I do wonder whether sales of new UMD titles are soon to fall off the proverbial cliff as the advent of the PSPgo should see all new titles being available as digital-only releases and let us face it, arguments for UMD are quickly going to diminish. The three months leading up to Christmas sure are going to be interesting for the PSP.
Source: Arstechnica.com
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
mark w. | 23/06/2009 07:24
Member
597 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
I think it would be a great option on some exeisting titles also like midnight club 3 dub edition because this game has a lot of long loading times during gameplay.
nofi | 23/06/2009 07:35
Wants a custom tag.
3870 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Yeah, I don’t have a problem with this – wish you could just install the whole game on there, but I guess that’ll come with the Go.
BryOnRye | 23/06/2009 08:02
Member
774 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
It makes sense, if you’ve got the space and it does in fact save on loading times there’s no real down side. And as you say it should help with battery life.
I wonder if the games on the PSPgo will still have loading screens?
cc_star | 23/06/2009 08:50
Team TSA: Writer
5866 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
PSN titles on the PS3 titles have an initial loading screens, even Gunstar Heroes which is only a 39meg download, so I can’t seethem disapearing altogether on the PSP.
iBirch | 23/06/2009 08:50
Member
229 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Yeah, sounds good. Nice feature think it’s a little late but ah well.
jimmy-google | 23/06/2009 09:13
Member
1281 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
For multiplayer psp games I think i will always be going for the download option as I can put it onto severl psps at once to play but if its just single player then i’ll be going for a umd. Generally they’re cheaper than the digital version and I prefer having a hard copy.
The only reason i’d got digital at the moment is to avoid buy several copies for me, my girlfriend and my brothers to play multiplayer.
yobrenoops | 23/06/2009 09:24
Member
420 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
On a side issue, can a PSP3000 take a 16GB Memory Stick Duo? I’m getting one next week and would like to know?
Watchful | 23/06/2009 09:52
Team TSA: Writer
2037 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Yes. Got one in mine. To clarify, mine’s a Sony Pro Duo.
TheDeathAvenger | 23/06/2009 15:11
Member
1562 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Any PSP model can. My 1000 has a 16GB pro duo.
hannes_truce | 23/06/2009 09:33
Member
2808 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Time to go buy myself a new memory stick then, only got a 2gig at the mo… first time i’ll have spent money on my psp for years…
DarthSharkey | 23/06/2009 09:45
Member
1038 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
I ended up buying a 8gb pro duo from play when FF7 came out so I’m all for the install of umd data on the HDD as long as it’s not mandatory.
Person678 | 23/06/2009 10:41
BOOM! Headshot!
1649 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
Good. Load times on the PSP are ungodly.
Frenzalo | 23/06/2009 11:21
Member
3 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
The information install option was on Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (which Unite is essentially an expanded version of) as well as Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce. If I remember correctly it shortens the load time between areas by half or more which helps the games pace when you’re chasing a flying monster. Also I believe they suggest using your ac adapter with the mode because it eats battery juice like no one’s business.
I for one love PS3 game installs and wholeheartedly welcome psp installs.
artefx | 23/06/2009 11:34
Member
902 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Whilst they may start to offer data installs on new psp titles I can’t really see them removing the umd from the equation altogether in the old PSP’s. Simply put it opens the way for very easy piracy. The Xbox allows hdd installs for all the data on a dvd but still requires the disc to be in the drive as a security measure. It proves you actually own the thing and didn’t just pop down to Blockbuster, rent it, copy it and then send it back.