Firemint are taking a cautious approach with the new contender in the handheld market, the PSPgo, as a game development platform. Sony's latest gaming gadget is set to take on the iPhone and Nintendo dsi, although it seems Sony may find it tough getting independent developers on board for it.
In an article featured at Gameindustry.biz, Firemint CEO, Rob Murray, talks about the differences in the games expected for the PSPgo compared to what's on the iPhone, and expresses some concerns on the barrier of entry for development on the PSPgo.
While the cost of development on the iPhone has attracted a huge amount of developers with a one-off $99 USD publishing requirement, PSPgo development will require a purchase of a $1,500 USD license kit. From Gameindustry.biz...
(Robert Murray) The big lesson Sony can take from the App Store and apply to its PSPgo digital distribution model is making things easy for both developers and customers...The shorter the path between developer and consumer, the faster the market can grow and innovate
It makes sense that they're
It makes sense that they're approaching Sony's new hand-held the way they are.
When I think of a psp I expect games that are similar in scope and design as the PS2 era. When I think iPhone I expect more casual games like flight control and bejewelled. So expectations of both the depth and budget of a psp game is higher.
Adding to that is the PSPs track record. The first iteration ultimately failed to create a large enough niche for itself and the Nintendo DS ended up dominating the hand-held market. Sony has to come up with some pretty solid and compelling selling points in order to make non-sony developers go back to their system and spend the possible millions to develop a quality title on it.
Readign this article made me
Readign this article made me think of something...
"The shorter the path between developer and consumer, the faster the market can grow and innovate"
Are we seeing the beginning of the end of game publishers? iphone apps store, a sony equivlent, XBLA, steam, etc. etc.
Will developers need a publisher to bridge the gape between them and the customer in the future?
Realistically. You need
Realistically. You need publishers for a number of important reasons. And most of the time they are not the devil. :)
They provide the millions of dollars of funding for larger projects like mostly anything seen on the PS3 / XBOX 360 that comes in hard-disk format.
They fund large scale MMOs like World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online and Age of Conan.
They take care of extensive legales, copyrights , expensive marketing and they publish/distribute the game in hard format.
We are moving into an age where smaller projects that are distributed online can be feasible without help from a big publishing name. But even the smallest of projects can cost a few million to produce, and that money has to come from somewhere. :)
Agreed
Publishers are needed to fund the big bucks required for marketing and development and they're very much well onboard with digital distribution, so they aren't going anywhere. Besides, someone's gotta take the losses from all the titles that don't break even..