Sony seeks to rally developer support behind "PSP Mini" games

Leo Chan - Monday, August 24, 2009 11:38am (PST) 0 Favourite (0)

Cutting as many strings attached to Sony's bite-sized PSP gaming initiative as possible

Sony's latest hardware revision for the PlayStation Portable sees the new PSPgo eschew the UMD drive which typified previous editions of the handheld in favor of built-in flash storage, supporting direct download software. The console giant stressed that the PSPgo was meant to complement rather than replace current PSP-3000 hardware, being geared toward a casual gaming crowd more interested in downloading bite-sized gaming titles online for quick play.

Last week's Gamescom announcement of "PSP Mini" games for PSP hardware confirmed the development initiative of lower-priced games with a relatively low filesize for download through the PlayStation Network. PSP Mini titles will have a maximum filesize of 100MB, and can be released on PSN at any time the developers see fit so they're not limited to the Thursday PlayStation Store updates. Clever sleuthing of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's licensing website reveals additional PSP Mini software details and incentives for developers.

Most attractive to potential developers is the lack of any minimum sale threshold which needs to be surpassed before Sony will cough up royalties, unlike with Nintendo's WiiWare program. If your title is approved through the QA process (which Sony hopes will be "transparent, trackable and predictible"... oh, and relatively short), you'll hopefully be on track to revenue from the outset. Additionally, Sony confirms the bandwidth charges currently incurred for PSN DLC/demo downloads (at 16 cents/GB) will not apply for PSP Mini titles.

The price of admission for budding developers remains the $1718 USD PSP Development Tool kit, relatively pricey despite its official price drop back in early June. Meanwhile, pricing for the PSP Mini games themselves is not yet set in stone.

Sony seeks to rally developer support behind

Source: Pocket Gamer

Sections: Console Games, Sony Consoles, Handheld Games

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0 thumbs!

jdj1976 Aug 24, 09

hehe sure 100 Megs sonar or later they will start putting bigger games up until it replaces the psp because unless it gets hacked (which it will) there wont be much pirating which im happy for them but

If you buy a game and a friend likes it he has to buy it too no lending and in this model they cut of resellers like GameStop and game crazy

So once you buy the game is yours till the Pspgo dies out

granted im not much of a reseller usually I just sell games I hate and I mean really hate but there are people who can get to have more games by reselling and then getting used games and Sony is completely screwing them up

so sony hope all goes well but im keeping my 2 psp 2000
0 thumbs!

Nagare Aug 25, 09

Cutting off resellers is a large intent of the gaming industry. They minimize profits to the developers/publishers because they no longer get a cut after the first sale and stores like GameStop offer trade in for new titles like Infamous for Prototype deals.

However, I won't be letting go of my 1000 because I like discs. Unless the costs are significantly less, I prefer the retail versions.
0 thumbs!

Red 9 Aug 25, 09

Which is why they aren't discontinuing the original PSPs. That's why they said they want to complement the PSP-3000 rather than replace it: so they can give the customer that option should they so happen to prefer it. Which is the whole idea, kind of like the PS3 Slim.