Ode to PSP

Oh PSP games, where art thou?
Thou art be?
Ye used to have many a game on the system
First and third party

Cajun Chicken again, controversial as usual, bit more of an overall point to this one.
Y'know, the PSP hasn't had such a great time in the last year. I mean, when you look at it at a broad horizion, it really hasn't. Sure, the PSP has been selling like hot cakes in Japan in regular intervals, its been selling in EU and US...

But has anyone noticed...for about the most of the previous year, the PSP has had NO games?

Now first of all, people are going to mention the abundance of RPGs soon to get ported from Japan and currently in progress. Well, guess what. I'm going to purposely ignore those, because;

1. I didn't buy my PSP to play RPGs, I hate JRPGs, I bought it for shrunken down console games, many other people with PSPs, the same
2. RPGs hardly use the raw power of the PSP

Again, back to the subject of the PSP having no games. Now, just to clarify  I mean; no notable 'system sellers' for about the last 8 months or so. I myself have about 19 UMD PSP games, I really like the PSP for what it is.

NEVER have I had a handheld with such incredible power, the machine is certainly capable of near PS2 graphics when fully utilised (Daxter, R&C:SM, GoW:CoO, Medievil R, Tekken: DR have all proved this) and its built in media features such as playing video, MP3s and surfing the internet are excellent.

The horizon this year looks (so far) to be a little repeat of the 'GoW:CoO' release, with so far; 'Resistance Retribution' as the only notable game coming to PSP.

I really like my PSP, like all my other consoles, I like to regulary keep the number of games for it growing, I hardly ever sell and trade games (due to the ridiculous exchange rates for games these days) and I snap up the decent PSN downloads.

I recently (FINALLY) bought God of War for the PSP and its another amazing effort thanks to Ready at Dawn much like the perfect feel of Jak 2 in Daxter. This made me think a little bit;
 People can make amazing games for PSP, its been proven, its also been proven, when good, they sell a heck of a lot and I love the fact, that I can lie down chilling out playing a polished retail game much like the PS2 era with earphones for immersion.

Before on N4G I have mentioned the PSP being a bit of a handheld Dreamcast in the control method and input. Sure, people complain about the lack of L2 and R2, but I don't see the problem, I just imagine the PSP as if it was a Dreamcast in my hands. (Try Powerstone Collection and Crazy Taxi: FWs, plays EXACTLY the same) besides, how many PSone games used both anologue sticks and D-Pad to do different jobs except from 'Ape Escape'? The D-Pad buttons could (and can) be mapped to L2 and R2 easily.

 Also, I was once under the illusion that the PS3's PSN would be a gateway to PSone classics to transfer onto the PSP. That was a heck of an illusion, in the EU PSN store we have a sorry collection of PSone games to play on the PS3 and PSP, whilst Japan has loads. For example, I believe they have every Crash Bandicoot and Sypro series for Psone and games even have difficulty just crossing the Pacific with SCEE and SCEA. We (EU) still don't have Crash 2 back again and only have one game to have the full Naughy Dog Crash series on the go, if we choose.

The case that all the classic PSone games haven't arrived on PSN is ridiculous, or the fact they have only started and are between months of the year. I have NO IDEA why these games haven't or why in about 2 years theres only about 12 games or so on PSN and 4 which are notable, the rest are games nobody ever knew existed/cared about.

Sony could of had a perfect strategy if they really utilised it, whenever there wasn't a PSP retail game, release a few classic PSone games through the drought, that way everyone could have games on the PSP all the time and never struggle for games and if they wanted to be extra sneaky, the PS3 could of been the only real gateway to get said PSone games making people consider a PS3 more if they had a PSP also.
 Old PSone games could of been compiled onto 'The Best of/Platinum Anthology' selections on UMD, I'm sure people would of bought all the Crash/Spyro games on specfic UMD anthologies to play on the go.
 The rise of Custom Firmware has more than proved that people want to play more PSone games on PSP, especially when no PSP games are out.

So the PS3 isn't being as stupidly ignored as widely now and if you ask me, by now, this is the time the PSone games on PSN should come. For example, there isn't even a real problem with getting PSone games from another region through PSN. Try this;
 Go to the Japan PSN store, download 'XI demo', play on PS3, it should work perfectly despite region (unlike back on the PSone), transfer XI demo to PSP, this should work without a hitch and you can play the PSone demo of XI on PSP. My theory is that all the other games should work the same.

 So, if Japan can get the PSone games working on the PSone emulator and have many to offer, whats taking SCEE and SCEA so long? Half the work has already been done by SCEJ, the games work, theres no matter of the technicality of the games NOT working on PS3 and PSP, because they do and are region unlocked.

Licensing issues?
 Good point. The rights to Crash and Spyro must surely be difficult seeing the recent swaps and changes of licenses from Activision.
 But what of Medievil 2? Medievil series is first party and belongs to SCE, this should have no problem in being made, we have Medievil (PSone) and Medievil: Resserection on PSP, why not Medievil 2?
 Doesn't that Jap PSN already have MGS as one download on it?

So, whats taking so long, theres many of classic and many still existing companies to negociate with.

I realise that more PSP games will probably be announced through the year, but the case of GoW:CoO being the only notable game being released last year just gives me the chills.
 I don't want the PSP to have a painful, slow, death as it is the most impressive handheld tech to date and much more could still be done with it.

Now, that the PSP is being used more in conjunction with the PS3 with Remote Play and 'Resistance Plus', I can only hope things are going to change shortly or dark days for Western PSP owners are ahead.

[kparks]

i was in best buy the other day and they had two isle of nintendo DS and i could not even find the PSP section after searching for 5min i found like 5 games shove off in the back corner of the store lol WTF

[creamydingle]

I agree with ya blog post. I love my psp and now that they have got the ps store on the psp they really need to get there act into gear and get more downloadable games. I have a 4 gig card in it and only have Killzone liberation and Driver on it would love to see new psp games released on umd and on the ps store at the same time I would rather download then buy the umd. Good blog post Cajan I enjoyed reading it