Halbrick isn't just working on Raskulls for Xbox Live Arcade. The Australian developer has also set its sights on the PSP and its new PSP Minis initiative. Despite what you and I may think of the expensive, mostly rubbish service, Halfbrick's Phil Larsen believes the service is impressive, and wants a slice of the action.

"Sony is really impressing everyone right now with the positioning of the PS3 and PSP," explains Larsen. "The gamers are noticing it, and as developers we certainly want to make sure our games have good support. Sony is stepping up to the plate and saying they are open for business, so we want to start off by giving our PSP Minis a try. We have developed several original games which will be perfect for PSP Minis, and two are ready for release - Echoes on November 19th, and Blast Off on November 24th."

Halfbrick has developed games for Xbox Live's Indie Channel, and so I asked if the studio felt other XNA developers would jump on the PSP: "PSP minis is being driven by Sony in every way, and that includes submission and certification through official channels. Anyone who has a creator account can review Indie Games, and it’s largely driven by community developers and hobbyists.

"If those developers want to work with Sony directly and adhere to their guidelines when it comes to game submissions we could see a few titles crossing over. Sony wants to find a middle ground between affordable casual gaming not unlike iPhone and XNA, but they are also after highly polished products. A number of great iPhone games are becoming Minis, and we’re happy that our games have the chops to become available on the PlayStation Network."

Hit the link for more.

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Electrium

I just bought a PSP a few weeks ago, and I love it. But not for PSP Minis. I'm just not that kind of gamer - I hate iPhone gaming too, so of course this isn't for me.

I have to agree with this guy, about PSP vs iPhone, but I'll take it one step further - they're not even in a freakin' competition. It's like comparing microwave sales to clock sales...both have a certain common feature (display time), but they aren't the same device for the same purpose. I don't think anyone is going to buy a PSP instead of an iPhone/iPod touch, or vice versa.

Ganjookie

I just checked out the minis a few hours ago and was not really impressed. I'd like to pick up one of the minis mentioned above, but they are not yet available on the PSN network.

TheLegendaryMan

Why do i get the feeling that people will start attacking PSP minis just because it is mentioned here.

elysse

Okay.. Minis is *an* answer, but certainly not *the* answer, and I say this as a happy psp owner. It's *an* answer just like "bacon" is *an* answer.

Ganjookie

bacon is a freaking awesome answer though!

Sexualchocolate

bacon is teh best answer.


I love my psp and my ps3, they've both been impressing me since i first bought them.

Paul Rodenburg

I don't think i'd want to game on an iphone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyeemtS1jII

makesfive

As much as I love my PSP, there just aren't enough good titles out for it. Which is sad, considering how old the PSP is. Minis are not the solution. To me they seem like an attempt to distract people from the fact that there aren't that many games being developed for the PSP, let alone good ones.

ikiryou

Unless the iPhone suddenly grows a D-pad, a thumbstick, shoulder and face buttons, I don't see it ever being taken seriously as competition for the PSP. Or the DS for that matter.

I'm not quite getting the concept of Minis. Are they designed for the most casual audience imaginable? Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the casual gaming crowd been accused of causing bad economy for the gaming industry, since they (normally) aren't seen as good return customers? Why cater to them in that case?

DiscoJer

While I don't think the PSP lacks good games (Metacritic lists 79 rated over 80, and I personally own 45 UMD games + 2 games bought from PSN which is more than I own for any other system other than the 2600), clearly publishers aren't supporting it very well anymore. Western ones, anyway.

So yeah, that is part of the whole minis thing, increasing publisher support by opening it up more to smaller developers.

I mean, look, obviously it would be great if the PSP were getting a stready of AAA titles. But it's not. And it's not going to. The few recent big titles it got were basically because Sony paid for them (Assassin's Creed most notably) and the end result wasn't that great (or so I've read). But anyway, they just don't sell.

So going with a different strategy is actually smart on Sony's part.

The trouble is, only Sony of Europe seems to actually have embraced the Minis program. There's basically twice the number available there as in NA, even though many are rated by the ESRB already. So there is some sort of holdup, and it seems like it's on SCEA's end.

MrSlippery

I'll admit. I wasn't wowed by littlebigplanet, but I tried the demo for PSP and I found it pretty fun.

As long as the option to create and download levels is still there, I don't give a flying fuck about multiplayer.

jonphillips287s

The PS3 has been doing really well recently!