As Sony prepares to unleash a sumptuous 2009 PSP line-up including the likes of MotorStorm and LittleBigPlanet, the company’s senior VP and MD for UK & Ireland, Ray Maguire, admitted the handheld platform has been “under-supported" due to firm’s commitment to PlayStation 3 and poor sales of the UMD format.
Speaking to GI.biz, the executive stated, "It was slightly under-supported, mainly because a lot of the energy was going into stuff we’re doing for PlayStation 3," adding, "There was an added complication in that the UMD model wasn’t brilliant for third parties, either.”
"But I think as the installed base has grown – we’re now at 50 million globally – the PSP has become one of the best-selling formats ever, and I think people are seeing that they need to get back into it. I think we had a bit of a barren year last year, and this year we seem to have a bumper crop."
"I think it’s one of those formats which has just, almost silently, grown and grown and grown. Now people are looking at 3 million installed base in the UK, and seeing it’s a healthy number – that they can sell product against that.”
Maguire observed that the corporation has every reason to feel confident about PSP this year, noting the influx of several key software releases throughout 2009, in addition to the availability of new colour schemes.
"Retailers are looking at it as well, realising that they haven’t supported it as much as maybe they might have done, and they’re also thinking about how we almost reintroduce the PlayStation Portable into the market place, with the confidence that we should have had last year, but didn’t,” he said.
"We do have that confidence this year – many things are happening with the PSP. The online side of it is developing nicely, and there are clearly lots of great games for it this year, but also we’re introducing new colours – so it starts to become much more desirable for a wider range of consumers.
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He also noted that the latest iteration of the handheld – the PSP 3000 – isn’t likely to prove much of a deciding factor in the consumer’s decision to purchase the system: “I think the hardware specs are probably the lower part of the decision-making process now,” said Maguire.
"The hardware does what it says, so that’s great, but people don’t buy hardware for hardware, they buy it to get to content. The content was where we were weak last year, but it’s where we’re strong this year, and the services around it are getting better as well.
"I think people will buy into it because of the overall package, rather than just because it’s got a brighter screen than it had before."
With a stellar line-up for PSP throughout 2009, we expect things to start looking decidedly brighter for the struggling format in the not too distant future. Keep checking back for more details on Sony and its plans for the console as they break.