After the PSP’s launch in 2005, gamers became increasingly down in the mouth about Sony’s first portable attempt. There was a serious lack of quality titles, and some worried that it would become a “port machine.” Times have definitely changed. Two years later, we’re seeing top notch original releases, and sales are up from last year. What changed?
We all know that good games sell systems, and it just may be that it took this long for developers and publishers to catch on to what needed to be done to make a successful PSP title. John Koller, senior marketing manager for the PSP, told IGN in a recent interview that “developers and publishers are now just starting to see what the keys to success are on the PSP.” He thinks that key is “making a unique game under that umbrella and making it creative and have it be something that you can’t play on console.”
Of course, price drops never hurt, and redesigns often fuel sales. Both seem to have worked in Sony’s favor, as Koller says that shipments are up 85% in North America over last April.
“…we really saw an incredible jump in demand — so much so that we really had a worldwide demand bump that was very, very significant and allowed us to increase our total shipments worldwide,” said Koller.
But they’re not stopping there. It looks like some new functionality is on the way. Koller tells IGN that “we’ll probably be talking to you in the next few months about GPS and some of the other exciting things,” and that “we have a number of key announcements that’ll be made in the next few months that’ll be kind of expansionary in what the PSP can do.”
What do you think took so long? Do you think the PSP can continue to succeed?
