Sony's New Development Strategy For the PSP

An anonymous reader writes "Sony is finally responding to the threat posed by the iPhone, and has started aggressively courting developers around the world to work on digitally distributed games for PSP in a bid to grow the amount of software offered on its handheld. And, Develop has revealed, the firm is planning to introduce a streamlined content pipeline for the platform — which includes abolishing concept approval — plus cheaper devkits, shorter quality assurance processes, and very low price points for new games. It hasn't totally abolished the barriers around the platform for homebrew and indie devs, but it's a start."

Comments

Sony's New Strategy

[Reason58]

Make games that are fun.

How about...

[cptnapalm]

Focus on improving the PSP's abilities rather than spend all their time trying to cripple the functionality other people have given to it?

Not enough

[Itchyeyes]

I'm glad to see that Sony's trying to court developers, but it just seems like too little too late for the PSP. The PSP is just too dated as a platform to hold much appeal to me at this point. The PSP Go managed to ditch some of the legacy problems of the PSP that were holding it back, but missed a lot of obvious updates the platform could have used (2nd analog stick, capacitive touchscreen, flash based physical media, longer battery life), and it came at the cost of a ridiculous price increase.

Sony could have the greatest gaming lineup ever, but I'm still not sure it would be enough to get me to shell out $250 for a portable device that's largely redundant with several devices I already own (and this is coming from a fairly hardcore gamer who didn't bat an eye at purchasing 3 home consoles and an HD4870).

Re:Not enough

[Gravatron]

stuff like the second stick, touchscreen, etc weren't going to happen. That sort of stuff could come in the form of the PSP2, which I can't help but think the PSP GO is a testbed for.

Re:Not enough

[Jim Hall]

I'm glad to see that Sony's trying to court developers, but it just seems like too little too late for the PSP. The PSP is just too dated as a platform to hold much appeal to me at this point. The PSP Go managed to ditch some of the legacy problems of the PSP that were holding it back, but missed a lot of obvious updates the platform could have used (2nd analog stick, capacitive touchscreen, flash based physical media, longer battery life), and it came at the cost of a ridiculous price increase.

I own a PSP (1001) and I can say that the decision to not have a second analog stick was a good idea. Holding a personal game system just isn't the same as holding a standard console controller. With a controller, you're able to grab the whole device at once, fully in both hands, leaving both your thumbs free to run the analog sticks.

With a mobile game device like the PSP (or DS), you are holding it essentially, from the edge. With one analog stick, you can hold the system with your right hand and run the analog control nub with your left hand. This actually works well, even when you need to tap the action buttons - like in a platformer (Daxter, for example.)

To be honest, stuff like the second stick, touchscreen, etc aren't going to happen.

On your other points:

Flash-based media. Yes, it would have been really cool to distribute all games on MemStick Duo or some such, back when the PSP was first released. But the UMD can hold 1.8GB of data. Now think back to when the PSP was new - how many 2GB flash drives did you see, and how expensive were they? For any that you found at the time, they were massively expensive. Sony would never have been able to sell games on MS Duo then. Sure, they can do it now - which is why you are seeing Sony change to move more PSP games to digital download.

Longer battery life The main reason the PSP's battery doesn't last as long as the DS or GBA is because it uses spinning media (UMD). I have a bunch of games for PSP - some on UMD, some as digital download. The system runs much longer when I'm playing a digital download game (like Hot Shot Golf: OT ... playing it again now) than when I am playing a UMD-based game. You'll see longer battery life get advertised as more games are pushed to digital download.

My own wishlist:

Support WPA2 in the wireless stack. A few months ago, I moved my home wireless AP to use WPA2, then realized my PSP couldn't get on the network. Had to change the AP to use WPA again.

Give me a better browser. The browser in the PSP looks and feels a lot like the browser in the PS3 - so points given for consistency. But both are pretty crappy browsers. Some sites don't render properly at all on the PSP. My local news station just did a site redesign, and now I can't view the local weather forecast. Which is (was) my PSP homepage. I'd love to see a stripped-down Gecko browser in there. Or Opera. Something better than what I have now.

Support plain SD instead of MS Duo. Is that what the other memory slot is in the PSP Go? Not sure what this would mean to Sony and copy protection - I suspect that's a key reason they put MS Duo in the PSP.

Dear Sony

[sqlrob]

I already buy few PSP games. Are you trying to make me completely stop? Digital distribution is a guaranteed way to do it.

Re:Dear Sony

[Duradin]

I was going to pick up Patapon 2, on an impulse buy, one of the last times I was at a GameStop. Then, I decided I should check the used games, hmm, no copies of it, so then I checked the box. Download only. If anyone hadn't guessed, I still don't have Patapon 2.

I'd have to buy a new stick of (non-standard) memory to fit it on as well as the game and then there'd be no loaning or trading of it. I'd put up with those restrictions for a under $10 game. For example, I have Zenonia for my iPod. I won't be buying Patapon 2 for $20 plus the cost of a new memory stick.

My collection of UMD games (why yes, I'm one of those oddballs that actually buys games) also makes the new PSP pointless for me. For me, Sony is basically saying that since I've been a paying customer that has bought into their system they don't want me as a customer anymore because of pirates who don't buy things anyways.

Re:Dear Sony

[Jim Hall]

I already buy few PSP games. Are you trying to make me completely stop? Digital distribution is a guaranteed way to do it.

Actually, I prefer digital distribution. But maybe that's because I also have a PS3, so I buy PSP games from PlayStation Network, then push them to my PSP to play there. With the PS3, I don't really care how long it takes to download the game. I hear you can do the same with your PC.

But yeah, for digital distribution direct to the PSP over wireless ... I can see why this would be a pain.

New developments

[Wowsers]

It's not the games that need developing, it's the PSP itself. An optical drive that you can't write your own discs, a proprietary memory standard (to boost Sony sales), and build quality that does not belong in their once famed quality of the 1980's - preferring style over everything else. Oh, and each new version goes up in price.

I'd really love to have a PSP*, but locking me into an awful, overpriced memory standard is a deal breaker. Well, not quite, it has "SONY" written on it, THAT'S the deal breaker.

* Used a friends device

Re:"shorter quality assurance processes"

[Itchyeyes]

Sony's QA for the platform is not the same thing as a developer's internal QA. Generally platform holders have additional QA guidelines that they require developers to meet in order to publish on their platform. For example, Microsoft requires all games on the 360 to run at 720p resolution and have 1000pts worth of achievements. The platform holders QA process can be a double edged sword. It can keep especially poor quality games off the platform, however it can also discourage smaller indie developers, who might not have the time and resources to deal with a lengthy and costly external QA process, from even attempting to publish a game on the platform. This is why you see so much more indie development on open platforms (like the PC) or semi-open platforms (like the iPhone) than you do on closed platforms like the PSP.

By shortening it's QA process Sony clearly is hoping that it will attract many of the indie developers that are publishing in so much abundance on the iPhone.

Sold, yes; used, maybe?

[dazedNconfuzed]

Selling the hardware is not the end of the marketing story. Sure, Sony may have sold 50,000,000 PSPs, but how many are actually being used? how many games are sold on average? standard deviation?

I have a PSP. Great gizmo. Thing is ... I don't use it. I want to, but I don't. I keep looking at what games are for sale with the intent to buy some but ... they're boring, clearly second-tier products. I bought it as a credit card "reward", and played thru Daxter which came with it. But when it comes to shelling out real money for available games, well, maybe not. At least port the hot legacy games to it, names like Grand Theft Auto (the original), Max Payne, and others. Get some modern games on there that don't really require heavy-duty processing like Portal. Give me a choice of games that aren't "off-PS2". Doesn't help that the battery discharges/dies with disuse, that it doesn't charge thru USB (at least without fiddling with menus), and text entry is just downright stupid. Even with those quirks I really do like it - I just can't find anything I want to run on it.

So yeah, 50M PSPs have been sold. Thing is, console manufacturers expect to offset the hardware costs with big software sales, and I'm not sure enough of those PSPs aren't just sitting around discharging & collecting dust.

Re:"shorter quality assurance processes"

[Kayden]

XNA?

Re:Tell Us You Were Being Sarcastic

[Toonol]

It's kind of interesting, how you can look through a thread, and notice certain characteristics that show that various anonymous cowards are in fact the same person. The interspaced post/replay, doublespaced format, the "50 million PSPs sold worldwide" phrase, matches up with several different AC posts in this thread.

And that's fine; no rule that you can't post passionately many times. It just made me wonder, is there software that will take text samples, and calculate a similarity index to other text samples? We all have quirks, like whether we double space after a period, or the nature of the mistakes we repeatedly make (like the apostrophe in "1980's music").

Re:"shorter quality assurance processes"

[SuiteSisterMary]

Community Games has it's own set of standards. Also, the QA is partly farmed out to other Community members; anything uploaded gets rated by a bunch of other users before it's eligable to go out on Live Marketplace or anything. for example.

Release popular gams via digital download

[Jim Hall]

> Make games that are fun.

As a gamer, I'm behind this as a general idea, no matter the platform. I'd also like to suggest the following to Sony:

Release (at least) the top 50% of your PSP game catalog as PSP digital downloads. Go through your PSP games sales records, look at which games sold best, and sell those games. Also, look at the review scores for your PSP games, sell anything that scored 7.5/10 or higher.

Just put them on PlayStation Network so we can buy them. Make it easy for us to give you our money.

Here's why that's important: PSP owners who already own the game may feel a little ripped off, since digital downloads are probably going to be cheaper than the UMD version of the game, because you aren't paying for physical media distribution. However, PSP owners who already own the game are not the primary target of this move. Instead, the target is all the people who haven't bought the game, and/or the people who may buy a PSP Go.

Those are the people that would be most interested in buying games via digital download. The PSP Go doesn't even have a UMD drive, anyway.

And it would help all the current PSP owners (like me!) who may not have bought that game (or missed it) when it came out and might like to play it.

It doesn't address new games, but it helps build up the available library of games.

Re:You're Talking Points Are Two Years Old

[Toonol]

Wow, are you a fucking idiot.

I'm pretty confident that any objective reader of our posts will not think I'm the idiot.

Let me guess...you didn't bother to check the amount of both games and exclusive games at the same point in the PS2 and PS3's lifespans before running your mouth off? No you didn't. Of course not.

I know the numbers. Remember... at this point in its lifespan, the PS2 was clearly and substantially a far better selling console than its competitors; at the same point in the PS3's lifespan, it is clearly the least selling console. I haven't said one word about the quality of the games on any console, only the market penetration. The PS3 has a shot at perhaps catching up to the 360, and it hasn't a prayer of catching the Wii. It obviously will never dominate the market like the PS2 did.

"The capability of the consoles is pretty much the same"

QED. You are a total fucking moron.

I think you are perhaps too emotionally invested in a console? Look at the games on the 360 or PS3. They are, generally, of equal quality. Graphics are similar, gameplay is similar. The consoles are close enough in raw power that the talents of the developer and style of the artists is far more important than the console. They are more similar in power, I think, than the PS2 and X-Box were last gen. You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise. I've seen fanboys comparing subtleties of reflections, and counting particles, trying to show how much better the 360/PS3 is than the inverse... completely missing the point that having to do so means the differences are irrelevant.

Of course, the Wii has significantly lower graphics capability, and significantly outsold the others, so the point is a bit moot.

Let me guess...you use to be a Dreamcast fanboy...

Well, I am a Dreamcast FAN. Just like I am a PS2 FAN. Hell, I'm a fan of all the consoles. PS3 is a great console, no doubt a better piece of engineering than a 360. However, Sony management ruined any chance at them dominating the gaming industry this gen. No need to lie to yourself and pretend they'll pull out a sudden victory on year four or five.

Re:Sony deserves to be crushed

[tkrotchko]

They never did the obvious to make UMD successful... give UMD movies away when you bought the DVD. Yes, they would've taken a loss at first, but they would have built up a market for the things. Instead they charged *more* for a UMD movie than the DVD counterpart. So the rational thing to do was to buy the DVD, rip it and put it on a memory stick and watch it.