Sony Ceases Sale of PSP Development Kits in Europe

Kris Erickson • Oct 11, 2010 • Comments ()

Another bit of circumstantial evidence to surface this week lends credibility to claims that a PSP 2 device might soon be headed our way. According to an official notice sent to game developers, Sony Europe will no longer be offering the PSP development kit for sale in that territory. These hardware/software packages contain all of the bits that developers need to make their software run on Sony's handheld machine. Unfortunately, the full statement wasn't very revealing, and it read as follows:

"SCEE will no longer be selling the PSP Development Tool (DTP-T2000A) or Testing Tool (DTP-H2500A) past November 15th. Please order in advance if you require these development units. We will advise you when a new model becomes available." Without expressly stating that the PSP dev kits would soon be obsolete due to new hardware, the company further clarified that "Due to the certification on the current development and test tools expiring, we will be stopping selling them on November 15. However, we will continue to provide loan stock for registered and new developers, until a new certified model is available."

It could simply be that stringent European certification standards are to blame for this otherwise suggestive deadline. If the hardware devices really do need to be re-certified for commercial use occasionally, it would explain why we haven't heard any similar news from American developers.