Up to now, the PSP game library has been severely lacking in consistency. Sony’s portable gaming device is home to many fantastic titles, but the extended droughts in between major game releases has been extremely disappointing, especially over the past year. But early into 2009 it appears that Sony is focused on making this the year of the PSP, not just the PS3.
Approaching two full months into 2009, the PSP has already seen quality games like LocoRoco 2, Star Ocean: Second Evolution and Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?, and the near-future outlook looks promising with notable titles like Resistance: Retribution, Patapon 2, Phantasy Star Portable and Dissidia: Final Fantasy in the pipeline. And now the platform’s future looks brighter than ever with Sony today confirming that a number of triple-A franchises — first and third party — are coming to the PSP this year.
From its annual Destination PlayStation conference today, Sony has revealed that all-new editions of LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm, Assassin’s Creed and Rock Band are in development exclusively for PSP (well actually, the new MotorStorm will also be ported over to PS2). Two new Entertainment Pack bundles are also on tap for this year, one including the upcoming Assassin’s Creed game, the other a Hannah Montana pack containing a Lilac PSP. Other tidbits: Dissidia: Final Fantasy is on track to ship during the summer, Ubisoft’s Petz franchise will make its PSP debut this year, and EA Sports’ latest Madden and Tiger Woods titles are being built to be more “PSP-friendly” than ever. Hit up the US PlayStation blog at the link below to read up on all of these PSP developments.
So what do you think? Could the PSP finally be ready to reach its potential?
Destination PlayStation News: LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm, Assassin’s Creed, more coming to PSP [PlayStation.Blog]
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I am thrilled – but still look at this as just getting back to 2007. In 2006 it looked like the PSP was dead, causing devs to jump ship and leading to 2008 (based on 1.5 – 2 year cycles) to be a crap year. 2007 was a good year, and it looks like 2009 will show the benefits.
But I am still just cautiously optimistic … LocoRoco2 is cool, but is hard to recommend to owners of LocoRoco #1 without the ‘it is really cheap’ qualifier because it is so similar. I wonder if Patapon will be the same. The two Star Ocean games are decent but definitely not stellar games or ‘system sellers’ or even in the top 10 RPG’s for the PSP. But sometimes it is enough just to add to the list of solid games in the library.
well, it could be.
I think they should spend more time focusing on the ps3.
Why not both? Sony’s already got a killer PS3 lineup set for the next year. The PSP needs some love too, certainly more than the PS3 does at this point.
I’m actually more excited about the Rock Band game than I was initially. From some first details that have come out it’s basically going to be the spiritual successor to Amplitude Harmonix has been wanting to make for a while now.
I hope they approach it that way (as a spiritual Harmonix successor), because as someone who has played Guitar Hero III on the PC (Mac) with no guitar controller … we really don’t need something that is lame like that.
I also think the PSP is in need of some love. I know you appreciate the PS3<->PSP tie-ins, but for the overwhelming majority of PSP owners who *don’t* have a PS3 … it is just a reminder that the PSP is never going to be #1 priority for Sony, nor are its’ supporters …
Well, if you believe all the rumor rumblings of late, there may be a PSP2 coming out by end of this year, and it’ll be a UMD-free digital download only device. I do believe the next PSP is in development, but a lot of the rumors sound a bit far-fetched to me. I wouldn’t be surprised to seem something announced at E3 though.
Year – I’m hearing about MemStick-based games as well. Seems odd – they are talking up Hannah Montana PSP’s and and big ’09 push and simultaneously we’re getting rumors of a PSP2? Unlike the DSi, I think any announcement about a new PSP would definitely hurt existing sales.
That’s why I don’t buy it. Wouldn’t make any sense to be hyping all these games for the current PSP just to launch a new model that has no UMD backwards compatibility. I also don’t trust any of the sources these PSP 2 rumor leaks are coming from. I mean, the latest round is coming from David Perry who says he talked to a developer working on the device. Could well be true, but sounds fishy to me (which is why I don’t go crazy about posting rumors like most sites do).
However, I could see this big ’09 push being like a last hurrah setting up for a PSP 2 launch sometime next year.
I agree – it would make more sense as a 2010 launch with a 2009 last push on current stuff.
But even then – when folks in the past pushed software that would not be compatible with something coming out the following year the sales suffered … so I would assume that any PSP2 announcement would come with a ‘how your UMD games will still work’ sort of thing.