Develop '09: PSP signs over 50 devs for new digital content
Concept approval no longer required
Speaking to Develop, Sony has been discussing its intentions for a digital download future in greater detail, explaining how it intends to cater for the new consumer and draft in the devs to support the PSP's new online game shelf.
"We’re introducing new initiatives for the PSP which take it beyond traditional gaming, but still includes elements from gaming, and also includes new developers," SCEE's head of developer relations Zeno Colaço cryptically explicates.
Essentially, he seems to be alluding to a PSP app store, though naturally he'd have the soles of his feet burned with CD-ROM lasers for employing such a 'fruity' nomenclature within earshot of Sony management.
The gaming giant appears to be close to launching a splinter outlet of the PlayStation Store for developers to offer smaller, cheaper, more casual titles via digital download, which we'd already heard back-fence mumblings about.
There are now over 50 devs signed up and hard at the code mill, including many new to the PSP, from emerging markets such as India. To help things along, Sony's totalitarian content approval system has been shed, along with 80 per cent of the PSP's SDK costs.
"It is still a professional environment, you still need a development kit and you still need to have investment and a team," Colaço continues. "But it can be a small team. We don’t see any of the restrictions on the disc-based space being in this space."
Er, indeed.
