• Posted February 12th, 2009 at 11:18 EDT by Steven Williamson

Sony plans to turn around the fortunes of the PlayStation Portable this year by launching "of a host of significant PlayStation IPs on the PSP platform."

Despite the handheld selling approximately 40 millions units worldwide to date, software sales have been less than impressive, with sales in the U.K. dropping by 27% in 2008 compared to 2007's figures. However, Sony has a number of unannounced PSP titles up its sleeve this year, which it believes can broaden the appeal of the platform.

Sony UK product manager, Claire Backhouse, told MCV: “This year we are also launching a host of significant PlayStation IPs on the PSP platform, the first being Resistance Retribution, which will help drive sales.”

"It’s these core IPs that we believe will help broaden the appeal of PSP in the UK, and when coupled with the existing functionality such as Go!View and Go!Cam, will make PSP a very attractive proposition,” added Backhouse.

She claims that Sony has been focusing heavily on software development and that these new titles will "re-invigorate the current user base, as well as attracting a whole new audience."

Despite this, 2009 is currently looking decidedly gloomy for PSP releases, with only a handful of decent looking titles on the way, Patapon 2 and Resistance Retribution among them.

In regards to Sony’s unannounced projects, we firmly expect to hear about a handheld version of LittleBigPlanet heading our way towards the end of the year, but it remains to be seen what other games can revive the PSP's fortunes.

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