Is the PSP dead? Signs suggest a mid-life crisis for Sony’s handheld

As our loyal readers know, every month here at PVG we keep a running list of the most promising upcoming games on both the PSP and DS. For the first time this month, the unexpected happened: there are absolutely no upcoming games worth getting excited about for the PSP in April. For the record, fanatical PSP owners in North America have a poker sim and a somewhat promising arcade compilation from SNK to look forward to this month (but nothing else!). Granted, the release of blockbuster games God of War and Final Fantasy: Crisis Core last month may help to explain the drought, as publishers are unwilling to go up against — or fall under the shadow of — those two monolithic franchises. However, looking down the pipeline, there are a few potential surprises, but otherwise very little to get genuinely excited about. So, what does this current situation mean? Are we simply in the midst of mid-life doldrums, or does this actually signify the beginning of the end for Sony’s impressive handheld? Instead of the usual rundown of hotly-anticipated games, we have compiled a list of signs that we may be entering the twilight years of the PSP’s existence.

A lack of highly-anticipated games

What PSP games are you most looking forward to as we slowly approach the 2008 holiday season? If you find yourself scratching your head with difficulty trying to come up with a single title, you can understand why this is worrying. Some of our favorite games around the office happen to be the kind of under-appreciated gems that continue to populate the PSP catalogue, so there will be plenty of titles for us to play (and review) this coming year. However, it is less certain whether Joe gamer is as excited as we are about upcoming cult hits like R-Type Command from Atlus, or Atari’s quirky ninja platformer, N+.

Murmurs of a hardware revision/update

There have been unsubstantiated but steady rumors that Sony is considering the release of a new hardware revision, a Sony-Ericsson branded gaming phone, or an entirely brand new handheld. We are not sure what improvements Sony might make in order to breathe new life into the current PSP platform (it already has GPS, for goodness sake) but certainly the prospect of a PSP 2 might make developers reluctant to pour resources into a costly PSP title. If Sony has something new in the works that they are not telling us about, it would help to explain the reaction of developers such as Ready at Dawn, who recently stated that they will not be working on another PSP game any time soon.

Touching is good

Nintendo has a winner on its hands with the DS, and their handheld has handily won in every possible category during the current round of portable console wars. That said, Nintendo’s success in no way diminishes the very real gains made by Sony in the handheld gaming market, which have been significant (it is estimated that Sony has sold 32 million PSP systems worldwide, to Nintendo’s 68 million). With the addition of a third contender, Apple, the field is now dominated by machines that make touch input the primary interface for playing games. That means that important third-party developers are more likely to invest in touch-screen gameplay mechanics for future titles, leaving Sony’s current console out in the cold as we move toward a touchy-feely world.

Very few original IPs

This has been a problem since day one, as third party developers have struggled to find the perfect fit for the PSP. Sony has perhaps fared the best at creating original content for their handheld, as the excellent Pursuit Force franchise has proven. In the coming months, however, the number of anticipated original titles has dwindled. It seems as if the preferred formula for most companies has been to take a successful franchise and then come up with some way to port it over to the PSP. It is telling that the two games fans are most excited about looking ahead in 2008 are Final Fantasy: Dissidia and Kingdom Hearts, both sequels spun off of more popular console titles.

Final Fantasy: Dissidia is one of the hottest upcoming games for the PSP, but is it a system seller?

Based on the anecdotal evidence presented above, it may seem like the best the PSP has to offer is actually already behind us. All is not doom and gloom for Sony fans, however. First of all, there are a number of ways that Sony could breathe new life into the current system, either by taking a different marketing approach aimed at different demographics, developing some strong first-party titles that take advantage of the exciting new GPS and camera peripherals, or by lowering the price and beefing up the downloadable content available from the Playstation Store. On the other hand, Sony may be happy with the results they have received so far, and may be getting ready to slowly phase out the current hardware in favor of a different, next-generation handheld. If the number of big game announcements begins to dwindle in 2008, we can expect to hear rumors of new hardware as early as holiday 2009. Of course this is just idle speculation, but remember that you heard it here first, folks!