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Ubisoft says PSP is over-specced, over-priced and lacking direction

Handheld in 'no man's land' claims the publisher

Ubisoft says PSP is over-specced, over-priced and lacking direction
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PSP

Sony isn't communicating to publishers the direction it wants to take the PSP and its hardware is too technical. That's according to Ubisoft's UK managing director Rob Cooper. Speaking in an interview with gi.biz, he's said this is the reason PSP isn't selling and why Ubisoft has taken the decision not to release any games on the handheld this year.

"I think that Sony is disappointed with sales and it's unsure as to which way to take it," said Cooper.

"Sony needs to show us a bit more about what its plans are to convince the publisher to invest lots more money into it. Especially when you've got the DS selling at such a tremendous pace."

Turning his focus on the PSP itself, Cooper added: "I suppose it's almost too technical for the casual person, those that are buying the DS at the moment, who want a few buttons and not a lot more. It's so simple what [Nintendo] has done. That's where I think Sony has gone a little bit too complicated, they've over-specced it, the price is too high and they need to go back to the drawing board and start again."

He did at least confirm Ubisoft hasn't completely abandoned the console but is awaiting direction on which way Sony will go with it.

"Certainly, we still see it as a viable format. But we're not developing too many games on it until we get some direction. They've got to decide what they want to do with it, and come out clearly and say, 'This is our strategy, this is our process and this is how publishers can get behind it'.

"At the moment they are in no man's land, they're not sure quite how to tackle the DS competition and who is the PSP consumer. They've got to sort that out first. It's direction, a real strategic decision by Sony as to what it wants to do with that product. It's a great shame that sales are at the level they are, because you've got a hardware system that is absolutely beautiful."

Finally, a leading publisher has spoken honestly on why it isn't fully supporting the PSP. And the reasons it has stated have been problems many of us have speculated on in the past – the PSP is a great piece of hardware but one that's fast becoming too tech-laden for the average punter (or a bit like a blunt Swiss Army knife, as we've previously said) as Sony continues on its 'multimedia mission'.

In fairness, Sony's John Koller has recently been speaking out about Sony's plans for the coming year to widen PSP's demographic, which could be a promising start. But the company has previously talked about its plans for the format, even admitted painfully apparent issues (such as a lack of games), and each time not a lot appears to have been done about it. At least, not in a way that has made significant progress.

For now, though, it looks like until Sony regains focus and direction in its marketing for the PSP, the console won't be seeing a new Prince of Persia or Splinter Cell from Ubisoft any time soon.

And it will clearly be even more damaging for PSP's future's if other third-party publishers feel the same way. Which, from our monitoring of the situation, is exactly what's happening. Look through publishers' release schedules and you'll note a worrying absence of PSP titles.

The situation can obviously resolve itself – the handheld is hardly dead yet – but it's worth keeping in mind how quickly formats get abandoned these days. It's not like the times of Betamax or even the Dreamcast. Commercially, we now live in a far more savage world. Just look at how abruptly HD-DVD was dropped.

Sony therefore needs to tackle this swiftly and comprehensively. We're all watching.

Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.