Despite losing millions and after 2 years of dismall results, Sony still believes it can take on the Apple iPhone with their new PlayStation Portable (PSP) gaming device.
This is despite the fact that they have less than 10% of the market in Australia for hand held gaming devices. Last week Sony Computer Entertainment in Australia launched its “minis” offering, a section on the PlayStation Store that sells downloadable casual games for PSP. The move that is set to hurt retailers is designed to try and bolster sales of their new “PSPgo,” a smaller version of the PSP console.
“Minis is yet another part of our concerted effort to expand content options on PlayStation Store as the demand for digital content will increase with the launch of PSPgo,” said Eric Lempel, director of PlayStation Network and Strategic Planning, in an offical Sony press release.
“Minis will give developers the opportunity to create and share a variety of new and original content that in some cases, are only available on PSP.” he added.
According to Games Industry News, developers are not keen to spend money developing for a platform that has limited penertration. “What Sony sell in PSP’s in a year Apple sell in a month with their iPhone and iPod touch devices. Apple have an excellent application store and a big global market. It makes no sense to develop for Sony devices” said one leading games developer.
As part of their recent announcements Sony introduced new digital reader feature on the PSP. Aimed at the Apple smartphone the new digital reader will debut in the United States in December along with a new “Digital Comics” service from Marvel Comics, IDW Publishing, and iVerse Media.
