Eades: Still room for hardcore handheld

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 11 January, 2011

But, will be hard for Sony to beat Apple.

There's still plenty of room for a Sony-created hardcore-focused handheld, which may or may not be the PSP2, despite Apple's dominance of the market.

That's according to Andrew Eades, co-founder and executive director of Buzz! and Blue Toad Murder Files developer Relentless Software.

Last month Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter said the PSP2 will be "dead on arrival". "We are approaching saturation on the handheld market," he said. "We're starting to see DS sales crack. The ubiquity of the iPod touch is cutting into the handheld market. I think the PSP is dead on arrival, I think the PSP2 is dead on arrival."

But, according to Eades, the PSP2, which may or may not exist, has a shot at being successful when it eventually hits store shelves.

"My personal point of view is that yes, there clearly is room for a hardcore handheld gaming device," Eades told Eurogamer sister site GamesIndustry.biz.

"Do I think that that's the mass-market portable system? No I don't, I think that's an iPhone or an Android or an iPad, those are clearly aimed at a more mass-market audience. That doesn't mean that there's not a place for that. I don't know whether I agree with any analysts about it, it's up to Sony how they address the market they want to address.

"Who knows what the specs of the next generation of handhelds will be? They'll be comparable in some ways and not in others. The inputs will be comparable in some ways and not in others. The important thing is where they're aimed. If something's aimed at the core gamer then the core gamer will love it, because it'll be an amazingly powerful games machine that they can carry around with them, if it's aimed at a mass market audience then it will need mass market features.

"I think that's a harder win for Sony. Sony's excellent at making games machines and consumer electronics, but to beat Apple or Android right now, I think that's a hard thing to do. But you can't dominate a sector forever. There will come a time when even things like iPhones don't look so hot. I can't predict that. What I can do is make sure we focus on creating the best games we can for our audience on whatever platform they have."

While Eades "can't confirm or deny the existence of PSP2", he did mention that if it exists and finds a family audience, Relentless will take a look.

"So if we find that PSP2 has a really good family audience who enjoy social games like the ones that Relentless makes, then we'll make games for it," he said.

The much rumoured PSP2 is said to have touch controls on the reverse of the unit and enough horsepower to reproduce visuals on par with those seen in early PlayStation 3 games.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • J0rdan_KZ #1 1 year ago

    I really hope that within 5 years time Sony and Nintendo are back to being dominant in the handheld space. The iPod Touch/iPhone and iPads of this world will never give 'real' gaming experiences until physical buttons are put on the device. Simple as. I just wish the general public understood this...

  • altitude2k #2 1 year ago

    I believe Sony could have a winner on their hands with the PSP2 if they simply accept that they're not going sell it by the bucketload like the 3DS.

    If they don't worry about massive sales they won't fill the thing with shovelware by the way of so-called "casual" titles, and it won't dilute what will make the product brilliant - the likes of Killzone, Uncharted, GT and LBP.

    The PSP series has it's niche, and it's not the "casual" gamer.

  • ryandsimmons #3 1 year ago

    Sony do not need to "beat" Apple. They can still make a good profit with a smaller market share.

    Edit: Personally I hope they market it as an "elite" handheld console. Price it higher, but fill it with big games, basically make it a PS3 console in your pocket, rather than another handheld with casual games.
    Edited by ryandsimmons at 11/01/11 @ 09:21

  • RodHull #4 1 year ago

    This may be the case for western markets, but take a trip on the excellent subway services in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo and you'll see PSPs galore, with very few iDevices to be seen.

  • J0rdan_KZ #5 1 year ago

    @TheDellBingo

    I had a go of Infinity Blade on my friends iPhone. Yes, it's super pretty for a hand held game, but the gameplay appeared to be ultimately very shallow... :-/

  • telboy007 #6 1 year ago

    Mirrors edge on the ipad is a 2d side scrolly thing with clumsy controls, infinity blade is a short repetitive but fun slash em up. Neither are a Golden Sun : Dark Dawn or Monster Hunter Freedom Unite.

  • Dizzy #7 1 year ago

    Well he is wrong.

    "This may be the case for western markets, but take a trip on the excellent subway services in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo and you'll see PSPs galore, with very few iDevices to be seen. "

    Errr... the iPad is selling like crazy in HK. It also is very cheap there.
    Edited by Dizzy at 11/01/11 @ 10:03

  • Weezer #8 1 year ago

    I love how Apple becomes an evil entity the moment it makes a device people actually want to own and use.

  • RodHull #9 1 year ago

    @Dizzy

    I wasn't quoting sales figures, I was just saying what I've seen. Haven't been for two months admittedly, but I'd be surprised if the situations changed much.

  • ndbsolar #10 1 year ago

    @Dizzy

    It seems you have never been to Hong Kong, Singapore or Tokyo. I can assure you, the PSP is the dominant force on public transport over there...

  • telboy007 #11 1 year ago

    "If you'd really class the controls in the iPad version of Mirror's Edge as "clumsy", I'd wager that you've never played it "

    I don't class making swiping jestures in different directions an accurate means of controlling a game, personal preference though I do admit.

  • Dizzy #12 1 year ago

    "It seems you have never been to Hong Kong, Singapore or Tokyo. I can assure you, the PSP is the dominant force on public transport over there... "

    Lol.

    I probably went to HK when you were wearing diapers.

    My wife is Japanese and I was in HK 2 months ago BTW.

    And no.. PSP is not the dominant mobile system on Japanese tubes... mobile phones are.
    Edited by Dizzy at 11/01/11 @ 11:59

  • msimplay #13 1 year ago

    Not that general public doesn't understand they just don't care because gaming isn't important to general public so even an odd bodd experience with touch only controls will suffice.

  • DrStrangelove #14 1 year ago

    Nearly as powerful as a PS3? Does it have a large HDTV screen to make any use of that? Or does it have 3D?

    If it's 2D, how could it possibly be an elite handheld compared to Nintendo's 3DS? It would look like previous-gen in comparison.

  • UncleLou #15 1 year ago

    The iPod Touch/iPhone and iPads of this world will never give 'real' gaming experiences until physical buttons are put on the device. Simple as. I just wish the general public understood this...

    Well, I've been playing games since around 1980, and the iDevices very much gives me a "real" gaming experience. Not for every genre, no, but neither do consoles with pads, nor keyboard and mouse. I am also not quite sure why you want the "general public" (whoever that is supposed to be) to understand this. Bit like if I wished the "general public" would buy Stalker instead of the latest CoDBlOps, I guess?

  • arcam #16 1 year ago

    Can someone define a real gaming experience please?

  • Weezer #17 1 year ago

    Sitting with friends playing a great boardgame like Condottierre or Settlers of Catan and getting drunk together.

  • Dizzy #18 1 year ago

    Weezer is right. Now that is gaming!

  • arcam #19 1 year ago

    Something I've never done :(

    Should have made friends with more geeks in school. My own geekery didn't really make itself known until about age 20.

  • telboy007 #20 1 year ago

    "@telboy007

    But they were accurate, were they not?"

    You have to rely on the iPad interpreting your finger swipe to be the exact finger swipe you meant, that is never going to work 100%. With a controller you do what you need to do and if you get it wrong its your fault. Not because the iPad thinks you mean something else.

    Thats all I'm getting at by saying not accurate.