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Planet Moon Blazes Trail Onto PSP For Smaller Developers?
Thanks to GameSpot for its interview with Aaron Loeb of developers Planet Moon Studios, the quirky developer that "was founded in 1997 by the Shiny Entertainment team that created MDK", has gone on to make console/PC titles Giants: Citizen Kabuto and Armed & Dangerous, and is now "devoting itself to the [Sony] PSP exclusively." Loeb justifies this arguably risky move to the "unproven terrain of PSP development" by suggesting: "The PSP will enable a developer like us to make cutting edge games quickly, alleviating the challenge all small developers currently face", and argues the kind of games that will be successful on the PSP are "Games that focus on opportunity game play. Games that are really fun to play right away. You get them immediately, they're cool, you play them for 15 minutes and you've got a very satisfying experience."
Surely what they're saying is true for all handhelds though? Besides, when time is as valuble as it will be in 15 minute increments, loading times are going to need to be tweaked an awful lot.
Boo.
The PSP seems to be a Ps2 in portable form: How in the hell are games going to be EASY to make, then? I don't recall the Ps2 being easy to develop for, and with the heavy emphasis on power in the PsP, I'd say the development costs will become dangerously close to console titles. And with Sony stating recently that the PSP is meant to be played inside the home, I question ANYTHING that has to do with the PSP. I don't think even Sony knows what they're doing: They're making a portable system, which looks like it'll cost a lot, and have very low battery life, and they're claiming it's supposed to be used inside the home, and that, and I quote Ken Kutaragi, "No one would go out and play video games," I really don't think Sony knows what they're in for. The fact that all the PSP demos at E3 were basically video demos, and the fact that they were all being piped from PCs, makes the demonstrations of the power of the PSP seem to be a big fat lie. We've yet to see anything run on the actual PSP hardware, and I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that the PSP's power is closer to that of the N64 and PSOne than the Ps2. Even so, the design of the PSP is begging for high development costs, and I don't see HOW it'll be easy to develop for.
Not to mention the fact that people are drooling over the PSP, despite this. The scary thing is, the PSP could probably be released with a battery life of one hour, a price of $300, and still become more popular than the GBA. That's how alienated gamers are, today. I really hope that the PSP flops, not just because I'm a Nintendo fanboy, but because the industry will be in deep trouble if Sony can get their feet wet in the handheld portion, as well.