And you know things are bad for publisher support on PSP when this happens:
Tony Hawk may be taking a bit of a break, but it seems Activision has other plans for the Call of Duty series as they will be making COD5 available for six different platforms (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, Nintendo DS and PS2) when released later this year.
http://darkzero.co.uk/game-news/call-of-duty-5-set-for-six-platforms/
PSP isn't even listed. Sega use to bring PSP versions of their games (like Virtua Tennis, Outrun, Super Monkey Ball Adventure, etc.), but skipped a PSP version of Sega Superstars Tennis (when it could have been very easy porting it from PS2/Wii to PSP). Oh course Activision use to always bring PSP versions of games. Piracy just really hurt it in the west, which is why outside of Japanese developed games, just not many publishers are supporting PSP and why the release list is small.
[quote name='SynGamer']First things first, Sony needs to drop the price of the games to $29.99. No way i should pay $40 for a game that looks and likely plays better on the PS3/360, etc. [/quote]Sony's own games are usually $30 now, but third parties choose to price their games at $40.
Second, they need more exclusives.
How can they get more exclusives when software sales are low, development is just as expensive as PS2 (which is more than DS), and some developers feel if you are thinking of making a PSP game, you might as well just make a game for a console. Sony themselves devotes some development towards PSP games themselves; however, SCE themselves cannot cover tons of exclusives for PSP and PS3 at the same time (because both are in need of a decent number of exclusives). It's like most of their devs (the size of them), cannot develop on both PSP and PS3 at the same time, so usually a game goes PS3 (like for Gran Turismo, where the creator himself pretty much said that as to why there's no PSP GT game right now). Many third parties aren't going to crank out exclusives when their previous PSP exclusives didn't sell and had to port them to PS2.
They also need new franchises. People are getting tired of the same games over and over it seems (for the PSP crowd at least). Patapon and LocoRoco were both a breathe of fresh air.
Unfortunately, those games did not sell well at all. Games like GoD of War: CoO, R&C: Size Matters, Daxter, etc. were their better selling games, when they were apart of an existing franchise.
Something like Ico or Shadow of the Colossus would be a system seller i think. Dark Cloud 3 would be a great game for the system.
Team ICO's focus is on PS3. And while their games are unique, they aren't system sellers in reality (kind of niche, where it's the hardcore who love them). Dark Cloud 3 is more likely on PS3; however, Level 5 has already made a PSP game (which was brand new too, known as Jeanne D'Arc), but performed pretty badly in Japan and U.S. (and it was very good too, which is a shame).
Devil May Cry, Call of Duty 4, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed...they need both oldies but goodies and newer titles that are popular.
Other popular series like Rainbow Six, Ghost Reacon, and other series on consoles that had a portable version, performed pretty bad. I mean, why buy a PSP version of these games when many of them just aren't made to work on PSP right (and really more of a console oriented game, especially CoD4). I do think DMC would be great to have on PSP, but after many Capcom's PSP games underperformed (except for Monster Hunter) and the focus being on DMC for consoles (would you rather have DMC on PS3/360 or PSP overall, that's a decision many devs actually have to face), it's why it didn't happen (and the RE developers are still working on RE5).
I'm not trying to bash PSP in anyway because I love PSP. However, I will admit that many publishers just don't care to support it anymore when their games just aren't selling on PSP. Many publishers are all about the $$$. And even if DS doesn't have the highest tie ratio, DS games costs like 1/3 to make, so selling less isn't really an issue.
