Will Digital Distribution Save The PSP?
Can the new ability to download games directly from the PlayStation Store onto your PSP inspire more game developers to produce titles for the system? Zeno Coaço, vice president of publisher and developer relations for SCEE seems to think so, anyway. "It gives publishers and developers much more scope in relation to the types of games they can release," he said. "If they want to make a massive game, then they can do that, as before, as a boxed product on UMD. But if they want to do a smaller game just released online, or add downloadable content such as new characters to a UMD game, they can do that, too."
I honestly think that this could inspire some more developers to pursue the PSP. Look at how well the titles are selling on Xbox LIVE or Wii Ware or the Virtual Console. Digital distribution means lower production costs (I have no idea how much it costs to manufacture UMD's, but I imagine it's probably more expensive thatn DVD's...), which could persuade some companies to port over some of their titles. Stuff like Puzzle Quest could totally have been a downloadable title. And who wouldn't want to play some of those retro XBLA titles on the go? Especially since the PSP has built-in WiFi for multiplayer!
"I have to be careful what I say but publishers are definitely exploring more opportunities in terms of the types of games they can release on PSP, even in terms of more female-oriented games, puzzlers and less hardcore games," Colaço explained. "The opportunity we're providing with digital distribution will ignite those thoughts."
By branching the PlayStation Store out onto the PSP (finally, for those who don't have PC's at home!), I'm looking forward to seeing exactly what they can come up with. I just have to get myself a bigger memory card!
SCEE: Digital Distribution To "Ignite" PSP Development [gamesindustry.biz]
Wootini
Posted to Video Games on 17 October 2008
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