PSPgo barriers off-putting for indies News
PSP News by Robert Purchese
iPhone developers Johnny Two Shoes (The Heist, Banana Dash), Normalware (Bebot) and Firemint (Flight Control) believe the PSPgo cannot go toe-to-toe with the App Store and shouldn't try to.
"I don't think smaller developers are going to buy a dev kit and casually tinker around in the same numbers as they have for iPhone," Robert Murray, Firemint CEO, tells GamesIndustry.biz.
Sony may have cut the price of the PSP dev tools by 80 per cent (to USD 1500), but Apple charges nothing (only a one-off publishing licence fee of USD 99). That's why Murray reckons only "established studios" will have the funds and therefore time to unravel PSPgo and find success.
"You can build iPhone apps just as long as you have a Mac for no additional cost. You don't even need an iPhone or iPod to start out - I think this has given a lot of individuals absolutely no barrier of entry to development," agrees Maxwell Scott-Slade, co-founder of Johnny Two Shoes.
"The cost is also a factor for development time, you don't need months or years to build great iPhone applications."
The App Store surpassed 1bn downloads in nine months, and games are among the top sellers. Success stories are rife and frequent and the market has been proven.
The PSPgo has "approximately zero" owners at the moment, quips Normalware's Russell Black, who is reluctant to jump onboard before numbers are worthwhile.
"If Sony's App Store also let you sell games to people with a regular, existing PSP model, that would be a much more attractive prospect," he says.
"There are nearly 50 million of those out there already. Even if you only sold to a fraction of one percent of those people, it's a significant number of sales. And even if the PSPgo sells great from day one, it's going to take a long time before it starts getting anywhere near those numbers."
But, as Maxwell Scott-Slade highlights, both PSPgo and iPhone offer something different. Sony treads a more "traditional" path of bigger, longer games, while Apple "conquers" the casual side with masses of quick and cheap experiences. Sony has a "great possibility to differentiate itself".
"[Sony] has the muscle to do something special", adds Murray, who thinks the PSPgo-maker ought to "leverage their unique strengths", such as the corporation arms of film and music.
Plus: competition is healthy. "Everything Apple does to grow and widen the market overall helps Sony," says Murray. "Similarly, everything Sony does to grow and widen the market helps Apple."
"In the end," Maxwell Scott-Slade concludes, "the consumer wins for choice and developers win for a more direct access to their audience."
The PSPgo launches in Europe on 1st October and will cost GBP 250.
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Comments: 1-30 of 30 in total
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VandelayIndustries
17/07/09 @ 16:49
+8
"The PSPgo has "approximately zero" owners at the moment, quips Normalware's Russell Black, who is reluctant to jump onboard before numbers are worthwhile."
Isn't there 50 odd million PSPs sold now!? This new scheme will work with the old ones too, right?
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 17/07/09 @ 17:52
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0
So £250 is properly confirmed now? I've still never seen the UK price confirmed anywhere, just shops estimating it for pre-order purposes. Probably is confirmed, I just missed it.
I'm sure Apps wimm be avaialbe to all PSP owners, they couldn't afford to have it PSP Go owners only. I'm a bit surprised the dev tools are still so pricey though, that'll stop it getting as many smaller indie games on. A shame, but since we've not seen how the store will unravel only time will tell if this really hurt it.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 17/07/09 @ 18:18
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WinterSnowblind
17/07/09 @ 18:25
+2
I'm interested in getting a PSP Go, and I hate to turn this into another price discussion.. but £250 is just ridiculous, I can't believe anyone would pay that much for one. I didn't even pay that much for my PS3.
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+1
Price is an intersting question for the PSPgo because at £250 it is much cheaper than the iPhone at aprox. £432 (€500) without contractual obligation.
On the other hand an iPod Touch is only £150, which makes me wonder why the iPhone is so much more expensive than the Touch, given the extra parts it carries cannot justify the huge price difference. Anyway, I intended to say that at £250 the PSPgo might not be a bad price, but got lost in the detail as usual... I think that the slighly more expensive entry price for developing software for the PSP may work in its advantage once the store fills up, because any iPhone/Touch owner (or even XBLA user) knows, you really do have to wade through the crap to find the 1% worth looking at! |
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donnie080208
17/07/09 @ 19:55
-4
i dont think the psp go will be sucessful as it neither has the image of iphone or the cheapness of the DS.although sony seem to be getting decent support from 2/3rd partys now building up to launch.imo the psp on merits is the best handheld but sony allways seems to commit commercial suicide.
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-2
£250?!!!
Is Sony serious?! People struggled to buy the original 'PSPbig' at £180, let alone £250 for this new one! What planet are Sony on??? Don't even get me started on the 'app store'. It had better support the existing PSPbig user base, otherwise it will be a complete and utter flop - at least for the first 5 years of the PSP Go's life, anyway. As for the DevKits. I completely agree, Sony should not be making a profit out of them and they should be completely software-based and emulated on a PC. That would also be a coup for them over Apple, who insist on Macs as dev platforms, I believe (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Doesn't Sony realise that a WHOLE WORLD of homebrews/tech demos/open-source software/games is JUST beyond their grasp right now, because of their OWN doing, and if they just be a bit more flexible and 'friendly' to everyone, they might find that all those rewards are easier to reach...Just like the good old days of the first PlayStation console. |
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+7
'The PSPgo has "approximately zero" owners at the moment, quips Normalware's Russell Black, who is reluctant to jump onboard before numbers are worthwhile. "If Sony's App Store also let you sell games to people with a regular, existing PSP model, that would be a much more attractive prospect," he says.'
Has there ever been any suggestion that the App store would be Go only? None that I'm aware of, and it would be a monumentally stupid decision to do it like that. It's not as if the Go has any exclusive widgetry over the standard PSP models to exclude them either. So he's talking out of his arse.
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most recently on 18/07/09 @ 08:19
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-2
Blimey, first time I'd heard the price.
I have a psporiginal, and admittedly won't be jumping in any time soon irrespective of price...but I would never pay more than 130 for this. Also, nothing if it has the type of screen blur I get on my current psp. Finally, app prices on iphone are so competative, I can't see me buying anything causual for more than a fiver, and more often than not less than a quid! I really can't see this being a big success after the initial early adopters have bought in. |
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-1
The way I see it, Sony are most likely going to do with the Go what Apple did with the iPhone. Sell it at a luxury price for the first month or two to snare in early adopters, then slice a big chunk off to go after a broader market. Remember the PSP is still using the traditional razors and razorblades model, so the real money still is going to come from software not hardware sales.
The reality is that the GO is just a new form-factor for PSP, a platform Sony is desperate to re-launch in order to see if they can replicate the success they've had in Japan with the machine over the last couple of years. From a business standpoint you cannot ignore the fact that Monster Hunter shifted 3.5 million units over there - those are Nintendo numbers! I can see the logic of the Sony execs being to use the Go as a kind of unreachable carrot for most people, they want to make the hardware and software desirable again so they deliberately launch a high-price version in conjunction with a whole raft of big titles that they know will appeal to a wide audience. Its an attention-grabbing exercise. The fact of the matter is that Sony have never had problems selling the original PSP hardware, 50million units is pretty damn good, so whether the Go's launch is a success or failure in the short-term is immaterial - there's still a huge potential audience out there for the software. And as I just noted, that's where the money is. The App-store idea and this new low-cost development entry point again is a big help for both Go and traditional PSP, its certainly going to help the sales of memory sticks too. |
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VandelayIndustries
18/07/09 @ 11:33
-1
I thought they stated in the E3 conference that the price of PSPgo would match the launch price of the first one, making it £180?
Anyway, assuming that their App Store works with all PSP's, $1500 for a dev kit seems a reasonable investment if you're serious about making games, and you could always use the iPhone/XNA as a dry run to try out your ideas first. |
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steviepunk
18/07/09 @ 11:36
+3
"The PSPgo has "approximately zero" owners at the moment, quips Normalware's Russell Black, who is reluctant to jump onboard before numbers are worthwhile."
Even ignoring the fact that existing PSP2 will be able to access everything the PSP Go can.... what kind of stupid statement is that to make? The PSP Go is not out yet, so of course there are 'approximately zero' users (for that matter, no one will be developing for the PS4, Xbox720 or Wii2 since those consoles have 'approximately zero' users as well..) |
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smoothn00dle
18/07/09 @ 13:05
+4
Iphone developer make so little money but they talk so loud.. May be Steven Jobs should hire them as marketing team.. not design games but just talk about it..
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-4
GBP 250?! Wow. I mean, wow.
Considering it has a smaller screen, no UMD drive and, in my opinion, inferior looks compared to the Slim'n'Lite, I would have thought Sony to give this the same price as its predecessor, and lower the price of the S&L (somewhat). Zoinks. That's more than half a PS3. I'll just stick to S&L for now, then.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 18/07/09 @ 18:48
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+4
As many have already mentioned, there has been no indication from SCE that the App store would be PSPgo only, and no reason why SCE would divide the market. The fact that the PSN Store is available on all PSP consoles and that full games are already available to all PSP owners via said store is pretty solid proof that it will continue to be available to all owners.
-So thats already 50 mil possible consumers for new smaller apps. Also, given the terrible wheat/chaff ratio of the iphone app store, maybe the higher dev cost will be good for the consumer… |
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Uncle_Spanks
19/07/09 @ 00:54
0
250 quid should not be the final price and probably won't be. It just makes no sense at that price.
I mean just listen to you guys and the thoughts of anyone else who see it, the general public will not stand for it. |
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smoothn00dle
19/07/09 @ 04:05
+2
I just remember the rest what I have to say:
Another iphone developer talk about other platform, why? Because they want a new platform where they can at least make enough money to just cover their accommodation cost.. I pit u, iphone developers.... |
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+1
"You can build iPhone apps just as long as you have a Mac"
Yeah, if I had a Mac, I would have jumped in already. But now that I have to get both an iPhone AND an iMac, it's not likely to happen. Which is a great shame - I see some great potential even just developing playthings for my 14 month old son. I still have a homebrew ready PSP 1k though, so at least I can do something with that. |
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seasidebaz
20/07/09 @ 08:08
-3
The PSPgo has "approximately zero" owners at the moment, quips Normalware's Russell Black, who is reluctant to jump onboard before numbers are worthwhile.
Everyone keeps quoting this yet not realising that the PSPgo REALLY DOES have approximately 0 owners at the moment. In fact, it's got about the same ownership figures as NATAL. How many units do you expect an unreleased machine to sell? Also, GAME currently have the PSPgo listed for £225 as a preorder, I'd expect it to be about that price. |
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+3
Right, so let's assume you're one of the 80% of the world that uses a Windows PC.
To program for PSP you need to pay $1500 for a PSP dev kit. To program for iPhone you need to pay $1500 for a MacBook Pro. The real issue surely is that Sony require you to have a game development track record before allowing you to become a registered PSP developer? While I'm at it, I'm sure Sony said the PSP Store would work on existing PSPs as they can just upgrade the firmware to support it, so there's an existing customer base of "50 million". How this nonsense has become a story on a reputable games news site is beyond me... |
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WinterSnowblind
20/07/09 @ 18:39
0
@seasidebaz
It's actually £230, but even so, how could you expect it to be that price? The Wii is £170, the DSi £150, 360 60gb £160, PS3 £280 and iTouch £150. Also take into account that most of those prices are bundles that come with two games! The pricing for the Go is totally unreasonable. |
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+1
I think its a good thing that the dev kit is a 'proper' price. As it is a 'proper' games console, althourgh some good indie games out there the majority are crap with just someone in there bed room who has a idea the result is the itunes app store where have to sift thourgh loads mini bits of rubbish with the occasional gem.
As for the pspgo price, well just buy a psp 3000 and put a 16gb card in it. It has a great screen (which is also larger than the pspgo one) and the microphone etc the only thing the Go has over it is bluetooth, which no developer will make a requirement for there games as negates 50 million psp owners. |
Comments: 1-30 of 30 in total
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