Q: would it cost less money to maintain a ds or psp also
A: The PSP is flashy and a superior technical choice, it has a much better 3-D graphics engine, but the controls are so horrible that compared to consoles you can't take any of the PSP's 3-D games seriously anyway (no good analog controls, no secondary analog joystick). It has some really nice MP3 and video capabilities that compare favorably to a video iPod (if you don't mind that Sony won't let you use the full resolution for your own MP4s -- it's reserved only for their UMDs), but you would have to use these capabilities all the time to make it worthwhile (plus you can get a Cyclo DS Evolution card for the DS for this sort of thing). The PSP is internally incredibly fragile; one good drop and things get disconnected inside the unit and it's bricked for good, where the DS Lite can take a bit more of a bang. On the other hand, externally the PSP is really tough, it's very hard to break the case, where the DS Lite's case is horribly fragile (ask anyone who has kids that broke their super-brittle hinges and had to install a Shock! case--I have 3 re-cased DSs at home, and 2 shock-bricked PSPs). At least with the DS you can bring the thing back to life if you're handy with a screwdriver. This brings me to the games and playability. The DS has far superior games, and lots of titles available. Cartridges are better than scratchable UMDs (and do look into the Cyclo DS Evolution as a good way to keep your carts at home). Don't even get me started on the proprietary UMD format. PSP games look great, but the lack of a touchscreen or microphone means you really won't see anything new in a PSP title. Little touches like being able to close the DS to pause a game and protect the screen are better than the PSP's clunky yank-the-switch pause mechanism. Also the backward compatibility of the DS lite to older GBA games is a great plus. Using wireless connectivity, the PSP browser is flashy too but impossible to use with any speed, the DS browser (though unfortunately it costs extra $$) is simpler but the stylus can't be beat. Also most DS games you can play with other people who don't have the cartridge (game sharing), where I can barely think of 3 out of 100 PSP titles that do the same thing. What is so hard about writing games with game sharing capability? Often people having exposure to the game over wireless free play, they'll go buy the title rather than feeling like they're forced to buy the title for wireless play. Stick with the DS. In the long run it's doing a great job eating the PSP's lunch.