PSP Apps Rumored to Make an Appearance
During the Sony Conference at E3 2009, Kaz Hirai announced that PS3 and PSP development kits would be undergoing massive price drops in order to encourage greater participation from the development community. The PSP units experienced the biggest drop, going from $10,000 per development kit to just $2,000, signaling that Sony is ready to take over handheld gaming. But they may very well be attempting something far more ambitious that would put them toe to toe with Apple.
PlayStation Network has grown massively since its introduction in 2006, and, according to Destructoid, Sony may use the service’s sleek, user-friendly store to carve out its own share of the apps market. PlayStation Apps are something that have been sorely missing from the PlayStation Portable, especially as the iPhone has evolved and grown over the years. Adopting apps onto the platform would put the PSP in direct competition with the iPhone, and give it a large advantage over the Nintendo DS.
Sources state that Sony is aiming for a price range of two to six dollars, and will also allow for developers to release apps free of charge. 2D and non-gaming apps are also encouraged, with a generous size limitation of 100MB. The apps lineup is rumored to make an appearance at Gamescon in August, with a PlayStation Store update coming afterwards to support the new software when it releases later this year.
[Source]
11 Responses to “PSP Apps Rumored to Make an Appearance”
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June 15th, 2009 at 5:26 AM
this would be awesome and would solidify my decision to get the psp go
June 15th, 2009 at 5:46 AM
@Trexman – You don’t need to get a PSP Go – all this will work on the older PSPs too.
$2000 is still missing the point though. What I want is an Android powered PSP phone!
June 15th, 2009 at 6:24 AM
I would like to have an android phone, but I would also like to be able to keep a simple and cheap (harder to break and damage) cell phone and a PSP with apps to do different things. They better release that GPS app before people make their own though.
They should really release a SDK for apps for free though. Think about it though… What if we can get a blu-tooth keyboard working with the PSP. Imagine a chrome browser working within the PSP, and messaging with a keyboard, I mean this would be just freakin awesome.
June 15th, 2009 at 9:08 AM
That would be awesome but it needs to run withing the XMB OS instead of running like a real time app!
June 15th, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Hope its true. It would/will? be awesome
June 15th, 2009 at 11:58 AM
Sounds like Sony is also wanting to head off or bring in the HomeBrew croud by making it cheaper to build applications for the PSP and not hack the OS to do it. So those Homebrew applications that fit into the Sony mantra will most likely find their way to the PS App Store. Sony has realized that they want to get ahead of the game seeing as how the Homebrew crowd has only grown larger with the old PSP OS…
Question would be is would these applications also be working on the PSP Phat/Slim/3000?
June 15th, 2009 at 12:00 PM
I want a GO now.
June 15th, 2009 at 1:44 PM
apps are a great idea
June 15th, 2009 at 5:07 PM
Looks like I have no good reason to not GO out and buy it.
June 15th, 2009 at 5:21 PM
I just hope they get Dark Alex and some of the other Homebrew folks to make apps. Outside of the ability to put your UMD’s on your memory stick, the rest of the homebrew (minus things like MAME) would be great. At 2K the dev kit has gotten down to something reasonable for most, not as cheap as XNA, but not outrageous. Yes having a high point of entry keeps crap off mostly, and keeps major publishers happy that they aren’t competing with small one guy shops, but it doesn’t do anything to generate interest.
Come on, scribblenaughts is going to be a big hit for DS, but there is no reason that it couldn’t have been a PSP game (other than the writing on the screen business). Hopefully this will bring us a lot of new innovative things, not just crappy ports of old games.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:27 PM
[...] rumor was circulating that an Application store, one similar to the iPhone, was coming to the new PSPgo. And now, the rumor has been confirmed by [...]