One of the biggest disappointments of E3 last week was that Sony failed to announce a PSP2. John Koller of SCEA has been speaking to Joystiq and appears to be suggesting the PSP2 is still some way off.
“There is absolutely a 10-year life cycle for PSP, and probably more,” he said. “We’ve talked about ‘We’ll be in the PSP business as long as we’re in the PlayStation business’, because we absolutely believe in handheld.”
“I think it’s a long term opportunity and we will stay in it. Now in terms of where we are in the current life cycle, I think we’re just kind of hitting our stride. We just announced that we hit 60 million units worldwide, which is a very good number for PSP, we’ve got a lot of good development support.”
Sony seem very focused on their 10-year life cycles though that doesn’t mean there will be a 10 year gap between consoles. The PS2 has been on the market 10 years now but the PS3 is already 3 and a half years old. The PSP turns 6 in Japan this Christmas. If Sony keep to their word it we would likely see a PSP2 release around Christmas 2011 in Japan, probably 2012 elsewhere.
“We always say a platform will turn off when the development spicket turns off. We’ve got 70 games coming this year, we’ve got 70-80 coming next year – it’s just a very healthy platform.
“I don’t think we’d be spending investment to the tune that we are without full belief that this is a go-forward platform.”
Clearly Sony are putting some money behind the PSP but I think many would question whether the platform was “very healthy”. There has been a distinct lack of third party games over the past couple of years and Sony simply haven’t been able to provide enough games to make up the short fall. This year’s releases of Peace Walker, God of War, Kingdom Hearts and 3rd Birthday won’t be enough to prevent calls for the release of a PSP2.
Source: Joystiq
Mikiyaru
Game Set Match. Nintendo.
BrendanCalls
Those 4 words sum up the PSP better than anything ever said about it
silverx75
Agreed.
woodsy321
gimme some 3d ds lovin! psp2 what ? blah!
Raider197
I wouldn’t say the PSP is healthy at all. Besides the games listed at the end of the article (excluding Peace Walker), there’s nothing that interests me on PSP for the foreseeable future.
The PSPgo was probably the last handheld I’ll ever buy, they have trouble holding my interest.
daveydaver34
Agree with you there. I bought a PSP 2 months after launch and I own all of 3 games that I played more than twice. The PSP is full of potential, but a new iteration is needed to do since the current one is just too flawed to grab my interest. Plus who wants to buy a PSP version of a PS3?
daveydaver34
game*
hol
Trouble with the PSP is at first, the price of the games, up £30 was a little ludicrous when for a little more you can pick up PS3 titles. Then, Sony dropped the ball with the Go, overpriced and with the pricing on the PSN being uncompetitive compared to web pricing for full games, people felt ripped off. Ok, there are some great mini’s and at great prices too, just think that a psp2 won’t set the gaming world alight, iPhone and the DSi/3DS are going to be hard to catch up with? :(
Nauraph
I’m looking forward to 3rd Birthday and still deciding if I should buy Peace Walker or not.
I must admit that my PSP is gathering some dust over the last couple of months, I don’t think it’s dieing though, far from it. :p
TSBonyman
Well, the PS2 hasn’t quite died yet even thought the PS3 has been out over three years now. So i guess what he’s really saying is that we can expect the PSP to still be in circulation three or four years after the PSP2 is released….which logicly means… PSP2 imminent!
PoorPaddy89
Sounds logical.
BrendanCalls
Oh Sony. He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.
Accept defeat, invest time effort and cash in winning the next gen of handhelds
iAvernus
I honestly just bought a PSP a few months ago…and it’s already gathering dust. I only play it when I have a long travel ahead of me. I thought I would have enjoyed it more.
Armonster9000
Screw it, I’m getting the 3DS
galgor
Face, meet palm.
Richteabiscuit
3DS for me, I was thinking that PSP phone thats always rumoured and their was a TSA article not that long ago about it. But that’ll cost loads, and the reports say the 3DS is awesome!
Armonster9000
Snake eater looks amazing. That alone would sell it for me.