Edge Online: Third Parties Abandoning PSP

PSP Yearly Software Releases

It’s a good idea to start off with the most general information. As it stands, it’s also the most alarming information:

2005 and 2006 look like a normal, strong trajectory for a new hardware platform. While releases on the system started off fairly slow as developers came to grips with the hardware, the growing installed base also grew the amount of software. As a result, 2006 saw over double the number of games as 2005.

By 2007, it would be reasonable to expect healthy growth in the number of releases yet again. Yet somehow, this is not the case; 2007 actually drops off in releases by a significant 17 percent.

Alone that would be pretty bad, but then 2008 creeps in. It’s important to recall several things about 2008; as noted on the previous page, the counting method differed here, which could lead to slight inconsistencies in the data. And of course, we've taken into account games that haven’t shipped yet and might be pushed back, but have no way of knowing about games that haven’t been announced yet that could see stealth releases—PlayStation Store games, for example.

Even taking this into account, the drop-off is so statistically significant that there’s no way to write it off. 2008 managed only slightly more releases than the PSP’s launch year, which was only ten months long. That’s a staggering 40 percent decrease compared to an already depressed 2007.

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Plenty more info & analysis at the link.

How many more times is this story going to be recycled?

FishFingers wrote:How many more times is this story going to be recycled?

I hadn't heard it before.

Pity. The PSP deserved better. I'd love to see a new game the calibre of Silent Hill Origins for the PSP. Don't expect it to happen anymore though.

The article mentions piracy as the main reason for the drop in software sales. I don't think this is the case - it's probably just a small minority who is tech-savvy enough to get a PSP with an older firmware version and get pirated games to work.

Dandy Kong wrote:The article mentions piracy as the main reason for the drop in software sales. I don't think this is the case - it's probably just a small minority who is tech-savvy enough to get a PSP with an older firmware version and get pirated games to work.

No, it's a huge issue. If my brother can do it with some net research then anyone can, he hasn't bought a game in yonks, even though he insists he will after he "tries" them. I think a lot of the PSPs out there must be running on custom firmwares.

Furthermore, despite publishers having a market of over 30 million PSPs, a lot of people are be using them more for their media functionality (ie. watching downloaded videos) than gaming.

I used to watch movies off my PSP. THEN....the iphone came along and i did everything i wanted to do on the PSP on that instead and it was a lot less bulkier in my pocket plus txt msging FTMW!! = dead and buried psp. It's still a great piece of kit.

Pirating games is easier on PSP than it was on PlayStation. Just think about that.

Its a shame the PSP software market has gone down the pan as its played home to some of the best handheld games in recent times (Locoroco, Patapon, WipEout) as well as being home to some of the best RPGs of the current gen (well, SRPGs anyway)

Sadly though one cannot help but compare the console to the Dreamcast in everything it does. Its 1st party titles have been mostly great, it has shown innovation in a lot of areas as well as introducing a lot of new technology (WiFi, DLC) to the console market as a whole.

But it is just far too easy to hack, run ROMs and just pirate all your games on, just like the DC.

You only need to go into your local game store to see this. Or go to the preorder page on GAME to see the pitiful release schedule. It wouldn't be so bad if the games that were getting released were quality but most of them are licensed rubbish converted from the PS2.

Still at least there's still Loco Roco 2, Patapon 2 and Resistence to come. And there are a few good games I still need to pick up from the back catalogue.

Anyway for now I'll just keep using it to watch TV on

FishFingers wrote:Pirating games is easier on PSP than it was on PlayStation. Just think about that.

Ignoring you is easier on Grcade than it was on Gamesradar. Just think about that.

new*allusion wrote:

Dandy Kong wrote:The article mentions piracy as the main reason for the drop in software sales. I don't think this is the case - it's probably just a small minority who is tech-savvy enough to get a PSP with an older firmware version and get pirated games to work.

No, it's a huge issue. If my brother can do it with some net research then anyone can, he hasn't bought a game in yonks, even though he insists he will after he "tries" them. I think a lot of the PSPs out there must be running on custom firmwares.

I agree entirely. Piracy on the PSP is a massive, massive problem - one look at any torrent site will confirm this. It's now out of control - some torrents are so huge (in the GBs) as they bundle together many titles in a mega download. I've never gone for this, and won't ever, as I just don't want to arse about with my PSP's OS and I really can't be bothered with all the faffing required to change the firmware, etc, but - let's face it - many thousands can be bothered and are now happily pirating away.

It's a shame. A shame because, maybe for the first time, I can start to appreciate how such activity genuinely damages an industry. I just think Sony should never have included USB connectivity. Letting your PSP talk to your PC is killing the format.

This is a shame for the PSP, I've only had mine since around May time but not since the original Gameboy have I played on a handheld console as much as this, I just love it, not even listened to music on it, nor watched any videos, just played games such as OutRun, fantastic.

Cal wrote:I agree entirely. Piracy on the PSP is a massive, massive problem - one look at any torrent site will confirm this. It's now out of control - some torrents are so huge (in the GBs) as they bundle together many titles in a mega download. I've never gone for this, and won't ever, as I just don't want to **** about with my PSP's OS and I really can't be bothered with all the faffing required to change the firmware, etc, but - let's face it - many thousands can be bothered and are now happily pirating away.

It's a shame. A shame because, maybe for the first time, I can start to appreciate how such activity genuinely damages an industry. I just think Sony should never have included USB connectivity. Letting your PSP talk to your PC is killing the format.

I don't buy it, and I especially refute the idea that the addition of a USB port is in any way a weakness.

The problems are varied and many - UMD for both movies and games was a dead duck before it even hit the water, Sony's support of the PSN/PsOne game transfer system was nothing short of a joke, lacking nearly every single title that should be up there, and while Nintendo found the exact sweet spot for their intended DS user in the form of Brain Training et al, the PSP has never really made up its mind over who it's going after. For portable video, it's passable, yet fiddly, with too many restrictions on format. Too big for an MP3 player. Too delicate to throw in the back of a bag while you're out and about.

I'd defend the custom firmware scene vehemently, because it's just about the only thing that makes the PSP do what it should have been doing all along - It's just been done outside of Sony's influence. Ripping full games to memory stick, reducing the hideous noise and load on battery time brought on by UMDs? Done. A catalogue of retro titles in PsOne EBOOTS and other emulation? Done. For God's sake, scene firmware even unlocked basic things like charging your battery via USB months before Sony bothered to implement it officially.

Piracy is that negative force which comes about when control over the potential of a console is wrestled out of the manufacturer's hands, and into the owner's. The PSP isn't the first, last, or only system to be hit by this - it's just the one that's feeling it the most; it's the one where the perceived advantages of illegal modification are simply too great not to pursue.

Personally, I find the lack of innovative and varied titles to be the PSP's big problem in Europe especially. We don't get half the number of titles the Japanese get, which is a shame because a lot of them would be different enough to draw in a larger number of players - as the DS has shown with its bizarre catalog of games.

And if developers would only take the same chances with the PSP as with the DS, we'd have a far greater number of interesting games to play - instead of too many identikit ports and the like drowning out the better games.

Also, porting games like the GTAs, Silent Hill, Lumines, and Ratchet & Clank to PS2 was one of the worst ideas anybody ever had. The last thing the PSP needed was to have what few exclusives it had offered up elsewhere, on a system many people already owned.

I like the PSP. Just not enough on it to satisfy me. Disgaea and Metal Gear Acid 1 and 2 are great portable titles that appeal to me massively.

Piracy is to blame, it's hit the PSP like no other console since the days of casette tapes, it's just so bloody easy, no special hardware or knowledge required, just stick the files on a memory stick and run them - Voila custom OS and free games!

It's such a shame, the console had so much potential, I imported at Jap launch and for me it's just never delivered.

Shadow wrote:Piracy is to blame, it's hit the PSP like no other console since the days of casette tapes, it's just so bloody easy, no special hardware or knowledge required, just stick the files on a memory stick and run them - Voila custom OS and free games!

It's such a shame, the console had so much potential, I imported at Jap launch and for me it's just never delivered.

The DS is way easier to play pirated games with the R4, CYCLOS evolution etc.... and it hasnt declined that much.

melatonin wrote:I don't buy it, and I especially refute the idea that the addition of a USB port is in any way a weakness.

It's not a weakness in the sense you mean, but it is a gateway for pirates and it is used as such.

melatonin wrote:Piracy is that negative force which comes about when control over the potential of a console is wrestled out of the manufacturer's hands, and into the owner's. The PSP isn't the first, last, or only system to be hit by this - it's just the one that's feeling it the most; it's the one where the perceived advantages of illegal modification are simply too great not to pursue.

And it's those temptations which are going to kill off the format. I happen to agree with almost every aspect of your argument, as it happens - I stand in awe of the myriad ways much cleverer (and much younger) people than I can take the machine apart, fashion software and work out how all this stuff ticks, before providing step-by-step instructions as to how to turn it into a very different machine to the one Sony sells it as, but none of this negates the fact it is all harming the platform. In the end, this is a self-defeating practice. As the developers, scared off by rampant piracy and a pretty unreliable return on their investment, desert the platform so it will slowly sink.

It's a shame. I don't know what the answer here is, Melatonin, but I can see the nature of the problem clearly enough.

Poor marketing hasn't helped. The machine itself has still sold more than the Gamecube and Xbox did so it's hardly a failure. The problem is that people don't buy it for the games.

I think the Sony franchises have been brilliant. Syphon Filter and WipEout were reinvented on the format and add to that good incarnations of Ratchet & Clank, God Of War, SOCOM, Daxter and Killzone. Add to that the excellent original titles like Patapon and Loco Roco.

I think if they have a decent digital store to distribute games on a regular basis then the PSP could see an upturn in it's 3rd party support.

Cyburn2 wrote:

Shadow wrote:Piracy is to blame, it's hit the PSP like no other console since the days of casette tapes, it's just so bloody easy, no special hardware or knowledge required, just stick the files on a memory stick and run them - Voila custom OS and free games!

It's such a shame, the console had so much potential, I imported at Jap launch and for me it's just never delivered.

The DS is way easier to play pirated games with the R4, CYCLOS evolution etc.... and it hasnt declined that much.

No it isn't, it requires going out/online and finding the necessary hardware and then paying money for it, all the PSP needs is a memory card and a USB cable, which every PSP owner will already have.

I can't believe you even made that suggestion.