Atari Shuns PSP, Says Download Games Possible

Kris Erickson • Dec 9, 2008 • Comments ()

When Atari issued a list of its upcoming game releases for spring 2009, many were surprised that it did not contain a single PSP title. Ever since Sony boss Phil Harrison left his old company for Atari, it has been speculated that the publisher would designate resources to creating games for Sony hardware. That does not seem to be the case, at least initially. Alone in the Dark did get a flashy port to the PS3 in the form of Inferno, but so far Atari has no plans to release any titles on the PSP handheld. Does Phil Harrison know something that we dont? (An unannounced PSP successor in the works, perhaps?) Or is he simply using savvy business sense to target the most profitable hardware systems with new releases. The PSP has experienced dismal software sales, after all, and 2008 looks to be the worst year yet.

This week, however, Harrison sought to quelch rumors about his new company's intentions. Atari PSP releases are on the way, he claims, but not on UMD. The publisher wil focus on downloadable titles available throught he wireless Playstation Store. At a press event in London, Harrison tried to placate journalists asking abut the lack of PSP titles:

"We have published on PSP and I'm sure we will continue to publish on PSP; we didn't have any announcements to make today. There is no doubt that PSP is a very vibrant platform from a hardware perspective and I think Sony has recently made some good moves into opening up online distribution for software on PSP, so I'm looking to explore that."

Harrison's words to little to satisfy PSP owners who have been suffering a drought of quality game releases. After all, Atari has announced two new exclusive titles for the Nintendo DS: Dragon Ball Origins and female-targeted The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity.