Sony confirmed and announced it’s new PSP-3000 model at Leipzig 2008 earlier this month which offers improvements including a brighter screen and a built-in microphone. One thing that has become quite troubling over the years, however, is the number of must-have PSP titles compared to the Nintendo DS. Even though the PSP continues to show strong hardware sales, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Patcher thinks the new hardware changes are signs of a much larger problem.
Speaking with Das Gamer Patcher said:
“Sony over-engineered the PSP, and as a result, it’s become a no-man’s land. You can’t make a title of Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 quality for it, but you can sell way more copies of simpler, less far-reaching games on the DS instead. It’s more expensive to develop for the system too: As a developer, you can make a $50,000 title for the iPhone, or pay $1 million for a PSP outing – which do you think goes over better?”
Patcher believes the PSP was introduced before the public was truly ready to embrace its power. In addition to that, Patcher thinks Sony is trying to juggle too many gaming platforms at one time and the PSP is suffering because of that.
“Blame Japan, who’s instructing the US to play catch-up with Microsoft on Xbox Live, step up its online game with Home, offer movie downloads and push the Blu-ray home theater initiative just to begin with. Something had to give. The company has been spreading itself too thin.”
Patcher may not be too far off in his statements. There hasn’t been any blockbuster PSP titles since God of War: Chains of Olympus and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII were released Spring 2008 (and those games had brand recognition to push software sales). It’s very rare for an original and unique PSP game to come along and gain notoriety in America without the aid of established franchises and PS3 ports. Can Sony live up to its 10-year life cycle for the PSP? At this rate, it’s not looking too good.
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