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Loose Threads: Which third-party licenses does the PSP need?

All of them and more judging by your responses

Loose Threads: Which third-party licenses does the PSP need?
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Besides being excellent games, what do Wipeout Pulse, LocoRoco, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Patapon and Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow all have in common? Give up? The answer is that they are all first-party titles, and Sony should be commended for bringing such a varied bounty of top quality certified grade A titles to the PSP.

Sadly, the PSP's third party situation is not quite so rosy and while (reasonably) early titles like GTA: Vice City Stories, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, and even left field games like Sid Meier's Pirates!, proved that third-party developers could get fantastic results out of the hardware, the DS's dominance throughout the majority of 2007 sent some publishers screaming for the hills at the mere mention of the PSP.

The effects of that are starting to be sorely felt now. Even so, the PSP has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence since the end of 2007 and throughout this year, so hopefully things will be different this time next year. The question is, if the PSP is to launch a fresh third-party attack, which games should be running the front line?

Last week, we put the question to you lot and your answers literally made our thumbs ache with anticipation.

First to the discussion (as ever) was danskmacabre with a few very specific requests:

"Baldur's Gate (I'd buy it just for that). A Space combat/trading sim, maybe something like Privateer or Freelancer."

Talk about old skool! It seems our readers have impeccable taste, though a port/remake of Baldur's Gate would surely struggle to entice a new audience and please fans of the 1998 original at the same time. Hunter_Alien had some more contemporary suggestions:

"Well it would definitely need some new IPs. A serious beat-em-up a la Devil May Cry or God of War, but a new one and not just a console spin off. At the same time, I agree, Capcom should start supporting the PSP with Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Mega Man and of course bring us more Monster Hunter games. "Namco Bandai should bring a sequel to Tekken Dark Resurrection (not Tekken 6, another exclusive one) and Soul Calibur (a port of the Dreamcast version could help the establishment of the PSP as a cult machine). "Konami should bring another Metal Gear Solid game. Portable Ops sold well, and so did Portable Ops+, so I don't see why they couldn't make another one. Now Square Enix is already bringing Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Final Fantasy: Dissidia. The only IP I would like to see is Dragon Quest; a port of Dragon Quest 8 or a brand new game. "From a western developer I would want to see a real FPS, something like Call of Duty: Road to Victory but better. Maybe a Quake game, or the long announced but never released Painkiller."

Good lord, you don't ask for much do you! Considering how successful Tekken: Dark Resurrection and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops were, we'd say that sequels are reasonably likely. Normally we'd say that PSP versions of Resident Evil and Devil May Cry are highly doubtful, but given Capcom's recent success with the Monster Hunter franchise, who knows.

Picking up the thread, SetsFireToPoshHammer returned to one of the PSP's weaknesses:

"Not sure I want an FPS on the PSP, they just don't seem to work. Just to contradict myself however, if we could get a bumper UMD of old school FPS games like Doom, Quake, Hexen, and Duke Nukem (where there's much less fiddly up and down aiming) I'd probably buy it. "In fact, some value bumper discs in general would be great. How about one with the first two Oddworld games, or the first three Tekken/Wipeout games? Mind you, I suppose we have the PSP Store for that sort of thing. "A good action RPG that isn't from the Final Fantasy universe would be great, it's a shame Oblivion was canned."

Some value discs would go down well no doubt, but they aren't the sort of highly visible third-party releases that could save the PSP from what is commonly known as 'doing a Nintendo'. Closing the discussion (as ever) Accelorata Jengold went out on a limb:

"Ditto on Oblivion, I'm gutted that didn't happen. It's a game that requires such a time investment that it really suits being chipped away at on bus journeys over the course of a year. Actually that sounds strange but it would suit me. "Wouldn't say no to DMC or Resident Evil either and I'd love to see the Team ICO guys come up with something for the handheld (though it isn't really a third-party developer). "Another GTA would be great but it would have to be a big budget release with something new to offer rather than a slap dash port (not that either of the PSP GTA games have been bad). Could the PSP make for a good test bed for the first GTA MMO? I think so."

Though it's doubtful that Rockstar would ever take such a huge risk, a GTA MMO (which is pretty much an inevitability for home consoles) would be exactly the sort of title that would shift units, and it would surely be brilliant too. Ah well, it's nice to dream.

And so, after such a lengthy discussion, we only have space for next week's topic:

Which handheld console is the best of all time?

More details in the forum. And if you're fed up of reading comments from the same posters every week (fantastic though they are) get in there and get your opinions across. We promise to welcome you with open arms (and maybe even feature you in a future Loose Threads).

Happy posting and remember to click 'Track It!' to be sure not to miss next week's edition.