Euro Developer Says PSP Needs Sony Support

Kris Erickson • Jan 28, 2009 • Comments ()

PSP hardware continues to sell in impressive numbers -- even outside of Japan -- but developers are skittish about making games for the system. In the United States, there have not been any major third-party announcements for the PSP made for 2009, a very worrying state of affairs. The situation in Europe is just as dire, with most major publishers (Such as Atari) dropping development for the handheld altogether.

Other than the obvious effects of piracy, what other factors are preventing development studios from approaching the PSP as a viable platform? How can a console that is selling so well have so few games in development? To help answer this question, Gamesindustry.biz spoke to Laurent Benadiba, programmer from Smack Down Games. Smack Down is responsible for the Asterix DS movie licensed game, as well as a TV-licensed version of Survivor for the Wii. The company had some interesting PSP ideas in development, but they were unable to make them a commercial reality.

Benadiba believes that the PSP is a fantastic platform, but that it lacks a coherent business vision on the part of Sony:

"I still believe there's potential, but it's like self-confidence - if you trust yourself, maybe others will trust you. If you don't trust yourself, nobody will trust you,” Benadiba said.

"I think that's what's happened with the PSP - Sony released the product, but they never put enough of a push behind it. Games, ads, better shelf placement - trying to make an effort. I think it was also released at a time when they were still very focused on the PlayStation 3, trying to get it out of the door, that they slightly forgot about it."

Benadiba says that his team was working on an open-ended zombie action game called ZTA, as well as a big-budget racing title, both of which were canned due to doubts about their commercial success.