Al Warmington on Sony's latest move to beat Apple
Sony’s big E3 announcement was the new PSP Go, which comes without a UMD drive but backed up by promises of a major PSP Store revamp. There have been whispers of non-gaming software being welcomed into the PSP Store for the first time and now SCEE’s head of developer relations, Zeno Colaço, has confirmed a new development ‘pipeline’ which will see all kinds of new content making its way to the handheld PlayStation.
“We’re introducing new initiatives for the PSP which take it beyond traditional gaming, but still includes elements from gaming, and also includes new developers,” Colaço told Develop in a behind-closed-doors interview at E3.
These initiatives include the significant reduction of the price of the PSP Software Development Kit, which developers need to create games for the handheld. But it is also opening up a brand new area of the PlayStation Store, which will have a much more relaxed stance on what’s allowed in and how much it should cost, paving the way for non-gaming apps for the first time on a handheld console.
Sony has also been courting new developers, including some who have worked with the Apple iPhone and on casual games, to ensure that there’s plenty of content to get PSP Goers going.
However, it’s still a bit of a mystery as to what this new content will be like; it has been described as “instant gratification, snackable content” by one developer. It’s clearly open to non-gaming apps, if the devs so choose, so we may yet see Twitter and Facebooks clients on the PSP. We could certainly do with some better internet radio apps too.
We’ll have to wait for the launch of the PSP Go in October to find out what’s up the PSP Store’s sleeve, but if it’s a success, Sony may just be able to turn the tables back on Apple.
Link: PlayStation (via Develop)
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