14 DAY TRIAL // Sony has been quietly saying that 2009 would be the “year of the PlayStation Portable,” announcing that its handheld platform, which has suffered from a limited number of titles released for it in 2008, would be one of the most important for the company.
There are rumors that a new version of the console, with support for downloadable games and enhanced social services, is in the works, and many of Sony's well-known titles are coming to the PSP.
We already know that the device will get a version of LittleBigPlanet, which is created by the guys at Media Molecule, focused on playing platformer levels created on the PlayStation 3. There is a version of Motorstorm being ported on the handheld and Rock Band Unplugged is also coming to the system. But according to Sony, this is just a little taste of what's to come, as about 60% of the lineup for 2009 will only be announced as summer approaches.
John Koller, who is the director of hardware marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America, told GameSpot that “The many announcements we made on the software side for PSP were inclusive of that tremendous sales growth that we've seen on PSP. But they were also representative of the fact that we went out and talked to publishers about what sells best on PSP and how to craft their business model accordingly. Many of them had taken a bit of a scattershot approach and done a lot of ports and titles that just weren't going to sell very well on PSP.”
The big reveals are set to come at the E3 trade show and should make the PlayStation Portable really attractive to both hardcore gamers and more casual players. There are no clues as to what games might be announced but versions of big hits, like Killzone 2 or Final Fantasy XIII, might be in the cards.