Sony points to mistakes and piracy as reasons for poor PSP software sales

In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Sony’s Peter Dille has revealed his thoughts on the PSP and why software sales for the platform have been so poor.

It’s a common misconception that the PSP itself has struggled. In fact, it’s sold in excess of 50 million units since its release, which begs the question why there have been so few blockbuster titles for the portable format.

Dille accepted that mistakes had been made on Sony’s part with regards to the positioning of the unit as a PS2 equivalent. “Consumers don't want ports on a portable system; they want a different game,” he said, adding: “That was something that we didn't do a good enough job of explaining (to developers) at the outset.”

Dille says that steps have been taken to correct this oversight, with Sony having spent the last 18 months “helping them understand what types of games make sense” for the platform.

Another issue Dille raised was the matter of PSP piracy: “I'm convinced and we're convinced that piracy has taken out a big chunk of our software sales on PSP” he said, citing the recent example of Resistance: Retribution as a title that suffered from “sickening” levels of illegal downloading from BitTorrent sites.

Dille proposes a multi-pronged attack on the issues, which would involve Sony flexing their legal muscle as well as educating gamers. “I think gamers, if they understood if this meant that a platform would go away, can we convince gamers to pay for their content?”