Holiday Gift Guide »

PSP development becomes cheaper… will encourage more developers?

Categories: Gaming
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 4:00 PM

black_pspgo_sc006

In a slightly staggered double-hit, Sony has announced the PSP Go (as we know, pictured), and also significant reductions in the cost of developer tools hardware:

Sony Computer Entertainment has boosted its support for software development on PSP by reducing the price of its PSP Development Tools hardware, making it even easier for companies to create more games on the handheld. By slashing prices of the tools necessary to develop PSP software by around 80 per cent, a broader range of developers and publishers can bring even more exciting and eye-catching content to the system, which will mean an increase in the fantastic range of titles available to you.

With the unveiling of the small and light PSPgo, which brings the sterling range of the PSP system’s digital entertainment straight to your hands through PlayStation Network, the drop in development costs will compliment a streamlined process for publishers and developers to take advantage of. So expect a lot more high quality, downloadable exclusive software and interactive entertainment experiences at your fingertips and the whole world in your hands – only available on PSP.

This should be good news, right? Well definitely its a step in the right direction, and I wonder if there is some aim to follow a methodology more like Apple’s whereby the barrier to entry is basically the cost of a Mac, plus $99 – and then you are up and running and able to develop for the iPhone platform. If Sony are coming in at around that level, it should mean that more developers will consider porting/creating games to the PSP.

The PSP Go has the potential to make quite an impact, now that issues of memory and also UMD drives have been addressed – the key (and interesting) thing is going to be seeing whether Sony will be able to capitalise on that initial momentum they’ve generated – I for one wish them the very best of luck in doing so!

[Via: Sony]

About The Author

Ben Robinson

Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.