Ubi: PSP Still Viable, But Lacks Direction
Posted by x3sphere at June 6, 2008, 1:23 am
If you take a look at a number of the multi-platform game announcements this year, a couple of third-party publishers have strayed away from releasing their titles on the PSP. Ubisoft, for instance, currently has not one PSP title in the pipeline for the rest of this year. Why is this? According to Ubi UK managing director Rob Cooper, it’s not due to the PSP’s price point when compared to the budget-friendly Nintendo DS, but because the handheld lacks a sense of direction.
As a publisher I’ll always say pricing is not the first point of call. I don’t think dropping the price of games is going to sell more product or hardware. It’s direction, a real strategic decision by Sony as to what it wants to do with that product. It’s a great shame that sales are at the level they are, because you’ve got a hardware system that is absolutely beautiful. I suppose it’s almost too technical for the casual person, those that are buying the DS at the moment, who want a few buttons and not a lot more. It’s so simple what [Nintendo] has done.
Where is Assassin’s Creed PSP, Ubi? Your point is clear, but if every third-party publisher stood around for Sony to find a “direction,” there would literally be no games for the platform.
Ubisoft’s Rob Cooper [GI.biz]
Read more: Ubisoft: 12 PSP Titles Planned For 2009 Fiscal Year, SCEE: PSPgo To Drive PSP-3000 Sales, Sony won’t cut PSP price in 2006, June NPD: Yearly Sales Decline By 31 Percent, Economy Likely To Blame, February NPD: Xbox 360 Maintains Steady Lead Over PS3
In other words, yeah we don't wanna waste the resources and man power to make quality releases for PSP which would be somewhat difficult to develope When we can code junk for NDS. Are dev's can crank out a game in 10 minuntes and millions and millions of little kids will buy the stuff no matter how the gameplay is.