In an interview with Develop, Sony revealed its strategy for development on the PlayStation Portable, and it's going to look a lot like an iPhone, with lots of easily downloadable, cheap and "snackable" apps and games. The company is making development of downloadable PSP games easier by streamlining distribution, and encouraging developers by abolishing concept approval, providing cheaper devkits, shorter quality assurance processes, and low price points for new games. All of these new games and applications will be available on a specially branded section of the PlayStation Store available to both PSP and PSP Go owners.
“We’re introducing new initiatives for the PSP which take it beyond traditional gaming, but still includes elements from gaming, and also includes new developers.” said Zeno Colaço, SCEE's head of developer relations.
Fifty studios are already hard at work on the new-school PSP applications and games, with more to be added in the future. While Sony isn't following the iTunes model to the letter -- it won't be giving away development kits -- the company has recently slashed prices of its SDK by 80%, which lowers the entry bar significantly for smaller teams.
"It is still a professional environment," Colaço said, "you still need a development kit and you still need to have investment and a team. But it can be a small team. We don’t see any of the restrictions on the disc-based space being in this space."
Do you think Sony's adoption of an iPhone-like app store for the PSP and PSP Go is ultimately a good thing or a bad thing? Do you care about small games and utilities on the PSP, or are you more about full-scale gaming on your little tiny screen? What kind of games or programs would you like to see? Personally, I think opening up the development process to more people will create a whole lot of crappy content -- it always does -- but buried within all that crap, you'll find some diamonds that otherwise wouldn't exist, so lets hope the gaming community and/or Sony will come up with a filtering system to separate the wheat from the chaff!
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oogle
snookgum123 I have to agree with you about hating the wii but seriously the only reason you think the xbox360 is ten thousand times worse then the ps3 is for one simple reason you havent ever bought or really tried one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so stop liveing with your mom, get a job a place to stay and grt your self the best gaming console there is.
woopa2121
I agree with logan_anderson. Looks like sony doesnt know how hard it is to play shooters without a second analog stick.
K_BIT
I have to agree with Stephen with this. Allowing more people to develop games for a system is all but guaranteed to increase the crap-to-gem ratio for games available on the PSP. With that in mind, if I were to make a suggestion to Sony, I'd ask them to have a ratings system for their content, like what iTunes has and what the Xbox Live Marketplace will soon have.
Also, there's definitely room on the system to have a second analog stick and the start/select buttons on the PSP Go. Why Sony failed to take advantage of it is beyond me.
M6000
Man sony sure is desprate to make people mistake the PSP for the Iphone I think sony needs to stop trying to be like the Iphone and start being like them selves. I mean a handheld that is like the PS2 that would would be great
slimmer
Sony is becoming a huge fail as far as gaming goes, the go should be no more than $130 (DS lite price) and they should put a second analog stick on a psp and have a cheaper PS3 with out the Bum Ray...I could go on and on but O'well thats the Sony Gaming dept now.
g4ismediocre
I don't understand, if this is going to be available on the current PSP then why buy a PSP GO? Sure you don't have to carry game cases around but what else? I'm going to have to see more to be interested. But cheaper games isn't a bad idea, just like Stardust or Echocrome.
Rawk101
I completely agree with the guy below me. All the new PSP Go is, is a PSP that can slide open and close...whoop di doo. wat a thril that is...
Apple has already been thru that "phase" if u want to call it and has voice control features, touch screen, etc. its more worth the money to get an Apple product than getting a sony product.
mcp3
Sony became retarded since the PS3 came out, they dont know how to reach out to the consumer no more with their products. The way they market the PS3 nad PSPNO i mean GO is confusing. Im not buying one for any reason, I dont see the point. All Sony is going to do is do something F---ed up by like having the PSP Go do something that matters that the regular sensable PSP cant do, when that happens all im going to do is HACK my regular PSP and tell Sony to shove it up their asses.
IM NOT PAYING ALMOST $300(INCLUDING CALIFORNIA SALES TAX) FOR A FREAKIN PSP.
r0b321
Its a start for Sony. Unfortunately its a late start - Apple has made good strides over Sony. Its one thing to capture the casual game market which Apple has done in a short amount of time but Nintendo is king in this area. The problem though even with lowering the dev kit price is the project cycle time plus going through Sony's hoops, ie, PR and any other marketing crap. Look at the PS3 console - i'm sure many dev companies can say its a painful headache to deal with Sony when a game is in the works.
StrongestSaiyan
The shorter approval system or removal in some instances definitely increases the chances of getting some real junk. That said, there could be some really creative new ideas out there. However, the games I care about for the PSP are full-scale but miniature. I really don't care about the bunches of puzzle games we'll see, and I'd rather spend more on a fully fleshed out game than a little on something that was sold cheap because it is cheap.
Blue_Vortex
sony why don't you realize we just want a second analog stick, is it that hard to understand.
To be honest the iphone has really shown that you can have really nice looking 3D games so why even bother with a psp go? I mean I might as well stick with my old DS (yes this handheld actually does have hardcore games with nice visuals)
slimmer
That doesn't look like an iPhone at all and this site blows (takes forever for post to come up)
slimmer
The PSP GO will cost $250.00 ???? joke ???
marvindaustin
I gettin a psp go for christmas or most likely a week after release
GrandRapidsGreatest1
Whats the price for one of these badboys!
xX_PEIN_Xx
I think this will be good as long as they don't try to replicate the Iphone's app store. Remember the Iphone uses 3G so its connected to the internet wherever you go with it but the Go needs still needs to be connected to a wireless network. So a lot of apps on the apple store won't really be as useful on the Go. It would be best for Sony to stick to Casual arcade type games and only a few utilities.
mrgrim357
if you are acustom to playing ps3 online you have to admit downloadble games
on psn are cool games. Games such as superstardust hd - ragg doll kung fu -
astro tripper - zen pinball - flower are realy fun titles for cheap. This is what i want for psp. Not iphone style apps on Psp Go, just more games from producers like pom pom. I mean heck i paid 5 dollars for astro tripper and it is more fun than a 65 dollar game. That said im am eager to see what small devs can do
shmaron
Just because sony is opening the doors to smaller developers, doesn't mean they are closing the doors on the more professional scaled ones. You're still going to get your Crisis Core Level games, you're just getting a bunch of smaller, handheld arcade games as well. I think the PSP Go is one step forward to having an all-in-one system. Just a phone servise to it and you could have the next big hit on the cell phone market. I can't wait for that day.
N8R
I'm just not interested in the PSP. I've messed with them and what not, I can't say I don't like them, they just have yet to capture my interest.
comm22
i think this might have potential. as long as they have good stuff and not a bunch of shovelware crap it could be okay.
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