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]