Sony Hopes Digital Distribution Will Help the PSP

The recently released firmware update 5.0 for the PlayStation Portable from Sony is supposed to unleash a new wave of creativity related to the hardware platform. This is what Sony is saying through Zeno Colaco, vice president of the Publisher and Developer division at Sony Europe.

 

He stated that “Publishers are definitely exploring more opportunities in terms of the types of games they can release on PSP, even in terms of more female-oriented games, puzzlers and less hardcore games. The opportunity we're providing with digital distribution will ignite those thoughts”.

 

With the latest update, users of the Sony made handheld can now directly connect to the PlayStation Store and download a host of content, from videos to videogames. Until now, such content used to be routed through a PC or a PlayStation 3 to the PSP.

 

Sony is thinking that this new possibility will allow more small developers to create games for the platform. There were a lot of voices in the development community saying that developing for the PSP was a tough process, compounded by the fact that games had to be delivered via UMD. The fact that games can now be delivered without the need for physical medium means that indie creators will be able to get their products quicker to players.

Colaco added that “Customization is a big part of what consumers want these days, so we want to empower developers to be able to add such features and deliver them however they want to”. Sony is also planning to roll out a new version of its handheld, called the PSP-3000, with a bigger screen and battery, in the following months and the firmware coupled with the fresh hardware will probably lead to a resurgence of the console which is now trailing behind its rival, the Nintendo DS.