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Developers discuss Sony's restrictions on PSP Minis

Is Sony worried about competing with itself?

Developers discuss Sony's restrictions on PSP Minis
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PSP
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It was a surprise, to say the least, when Sony casually dropped the bombshell that multiplayer, download content and game updates wouldn't be made available in its new range of bite-sized iPhone competitors, PSP Minis.

Sony is doing its best to avoid comparisons to the iPhone and App Store, despite Minis being a clear reaction to the massive proliferation of handheld Apple gaming, though it's certainly no bad thing for players that Cupertino is finally getting some competition.

It's this reason that makes Sony's decision to cripple Minis on a technical standpoint so difficult to understand. The lack of a touchscreen and accelerometer on the PSP are a very fair trade off against the physical buttons and processing power, but a shackle on connectivity tips the balance back in Apple's favour.

Yet, the game development community isn't as concerned about the prospect of not being able to update their game further down the line, as we found out when we asked around about the padlock on connectivity.

"As far as updates go, I think it is probably a wise move to disable them and make the buying experience for the customer more assured. It is not so important to have updates on a console since you can thoroughly test and assure the game experience up front knowing that the hardware is identical," one big name developer told us, though (as with all the companies we contacted) he wishes to remain anonymous in the shadow of an impending deal with the electronics giant.

Quality control
And another designer, from the Far East, agrees. "I think that Sony is doing this for the following reasons: server maintenance fees," he offers. "Updates should be free and they don't want to pay for the bandwidth. And quality control; [Sony] doesn't want beta products, but final products on the platform."

Indeed, the App Store does have a reputation for barely working games being released to recover some of the development costs before users realize their app is barely functional, with the software team revisiting it further down the line to bring it up to scratch. There is talk of patching being an option, for unforeseen bugs, but if the option for full and regular updates is removed, perhaps Sony will spur the development community to put their products through more rigorous testing before release.

So updates as we know them on the iPhone perhaps aren't the tech support for gamers that we think they are, so much as an escape route for poorly constructed code. If Sony has learned from Apple in this respect, in could be a harsh decision made to build the Minis on a foundation of solid design and high expectations.

The official answer on the subject reads more like a weak justification, however, stating that the lack of a multiplayer feature is a considered choice made for the sake of the gamers, who won't have to wait as long for Sony to approve developer submissions. The stop on rampant updates might benefit both gamer and developer, but it's hard to understand how a purely single-player experience is going to help encourage great games and a strong customer base.

The multiplayer question
"Yes, it will harm the PSP Minis platform to some degree," another developer believes. "The danger for Sony by limiting multiplayer is that the same game on iPhone may provide a more extensive experience than on the PSP.

"It could also be that it's just too expensive for Sony to do thorough testing on multiplayer games. Since Minis are meant to be casual slices of fun, they may assume that multiplayer is more for hardcore. It could just be that they haven't had time to really sort out the libraries or something. If they don't have a full memory protected operating system then maybe the concern is security and possible viruses introduced by PSP Minis submissions."

Again, however, it seems the developers are looking toward the future and hoping that Sony are putting these restrictions in place to lend the overall Minis platform a high quality visage, that could easily be reduced by a game publisher without the structure in place to keep their games reliably connected, as this developer explains:

"Sony doesn't want to give end users a potential bad experience due to a publisher being unable to maintain multiplayer servers," he says, adding, "There will be pros and cons to this philosophy, though."

What would the gamer prefer? The possibility of some poorly made multiplayers alongside some good ones, or scrapping the option all together in the hope of keeping standards high across the board? To be honest, most of us would like a bit of multiplayer, but the other side of the argument isn't quite as clear cut as first thought.

DLC TBC
Which leaves download content. Here, the PSP is pretty much on a level footing with the iPhone, which only recently had the feature unlocked by the 3.0 software update, and has yet to gain much traction on the App Store. But Apple might not be the real competition in this respect.

"An audience that doesn't expect updates and free content for their $0.99 game is a blessing for the developers," we're told. "Also, remember those features aren't barred from PSP PSN in general, only from Minis that are intended to be sold at low price points. I understand this as [Sony's] way of preventing the price erosion that has had a negative impact on the iPhone as a gaming platform for high production value titles."

If a Mini were to be a feature rich experience with upgrades and new, downloadable content, Sony could be essentially going into competition with its premium – and even boxed retail – PSP games by offering a very similar feature set. This in turn could cause developers to begin slashing the cost – and therefore production values – of full-price PSP games, so it seems Sony has a delicate balancing act when it comes to just how much fun a Mini can be allowed to offer.

"They may need to protect their higher priced games and give them something that differentiates them," offers another developer, clearly thinking along the same lines.

And all the developers we spoke to are still keeping a very close eye on Minis (with some already having games in development) and all assure us they'll still be considering developing for the bite-sized platform – restrictions or not.

"As long as you can sell good numbers on the platform then developers will develop for it," one of our contributors concludes. "At this stage, no one knows how well games will sell."

With October just around the corner, it'll be interesting to see how the PSP's potential rebirth evolves. Pocket Gamer will be there, so get your PSP charged and ready.

Spanner Spencer
Spanner Spencer
Yes. Spanner's his real name, and he's already heard that joke you just thought of. Although Spanner's not very good, he's quite fast, and that seems to be enough to keep him in a regular supply of free games and away from the depressing world of real work.