Ubisoft Boss Speaks Out About Sony PSP
A leading UK publisher has (finally) spoken out about the lacklustre management and direction of Sony’s – is it a games console, an MP3 player or a media station? - PSP.
Ubisoft’s UK managing director Rob Cooper spoke his concerns about the format in a recent interview where he explained why he felt the PSP wasn’t doing the business and why he’s made the decision to not release anything on the console this year.
“I think that Sony is disappointed with sales and it’s unsure as to which way to take it,” said Cooper.
“Sony needs to show us a bit more about what its plans are to convince the publisher to invest lots more money into it. Especially when you’ve got the DS selling at such a tremendous pace.”
He went on: “I suppose it’s almost too technical for the casual person, those that are buying the DS at the moment, who want a few buttons and not a lot more. It’s so simple what [Nintendo] has done. That’s where I think Sony has gone a little bit too complicated, they’ve over-specced it, the price is too high and they need to go back to the drawing board and start again.”
He hasn’t quite completely written off the idea of abandoning the console completely but is waiting for Sony to give him some direction.
“Certainly, we still see it as a viable format. But we’re not developing too many games on it until we get some direction. They’ve got to decide what they want to do with it, and come out clearly and say, ‘This is our strategy, this is our process and this is how publishers can get behind it,” he said.
“At the moment they are in no man’s land, they’re not sure quite how to tackle the DS competition and who is the PSP consumer. They’ve got to sort that out first. It’s direction, a real strategic decision by Sony as to what it wants to do with that product. It’s a great shame that sales are at the level they are, because you’ve got a hardware system that is absolutely beautiful.”
It’s good to see that publishers want the format to succeed but as everyone knows, the Nintendo DS is taking over the world. The PSP is far too tech-driven for the average Joe to get into – the reason for the Game Boy’s success all those years ago was simplicity. You need a degree in computing to get a PSP online, watch films and do anything but play good games.
If you take a look at publishers release schedules the PSP barley features at all. Interest is dwindling and if Sony doesn’t get with the program it’ll go the way of the Dodo.
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