Sony seeks to rally developer support behind "PSP Mini" games

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Cutting as many strings attached to Sony's bite-sized PSP gaming initiative as possible

Sony's latest hardware revision for the PlayStation Portable sees the new PSPgo eschew the UMD drive which typified previous editions of the handheld in favor of built-in flash storage, supporting direct download software. The console giant stressed that the PSPgo was meant to complement rather than replace current PSP-3000 hardware, being geared toward a casual gaming crowd more interested in downloading bite-sized gaming titles online for quick play.

Last week's Gamescom announcement of "PSP Mini" games for PSP hardware confirmed the development initiative of lower-priced games with a relatively low filesize for download through the PlayStation Network. PSP Mini titles will have a maximum filesize of 100MB, and can be released on PSN at any time the developers see fit so they're not limited to the Thursday PlayStation Store updates. Clever sleuthing of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's licensing website reveals additional PSP Mini software details and incentives for developers.

Most attractive to potential developers is the lack of any minimum sale threshold which needs to be surpassed before Sony will cough up royalties, unlike with Nintendo's WiiWare program. If your title is approved through the QA process (which Sony hopes will be "transparent, trackable and predictible"... oh, and relatively short), you'll hopefully be on track to revenue from the outset. Additionally, Sony confirms the bandwidth charges currently incurred for PSN DLC/demo downloads (at 16 cents/GB) will not apply for PSP Mini titles.

The price of admission for budding developers remains the $1718 USD PSP Development Tool kit, relatively pricey despite its official price drop back in early June. Meanwhile, pricing for the PSP Mini games themselves is not yet set in stone.

Source:
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