Sony Bigs Up PSP, Perry Challenges Sony To Deny Successor News

The tiring debate surrounding a possible successor to the PSP, whether it's PSP2 or PSP-4000, took a further twist overnight as Sony's head of marketing went on the defence and Acclaim's David Perry continued his campaign to out the PSP2.

Speaking to the MTV Multiplayer blog, Sony's John Koller expressed his concerns over the sheer lack of PSP titles last year, but maintained that the hardware giant has spent the last 18 months actively touting the handheld's strengths to third-party publishers.

"We had a few big games like "God of War" and "Crisis Core," but we knew going in that there were going to be some quantity issues and we wanted to ensure that 2009 and 2010 would see a tremendous resurgence. This has been about a year-and-a-half roadshow project in talking to the publishers and making sure they understand how best to create games for the PSP.

Outlining the fact that every first-party PSP title shows a "positive growth margin", Koller went on the warpath against publishers' perceived notion regarding the DS.

Koller urged PSP developers to make titles shorter in length and look towards franchises such as Iron-Man and Transformers, but don't just port them.  Pointing towards the benefits of PS3-PSP connectivity, Koller outlined that "... of PSP owners, 30% own a PS3" and maintaining that such loyalty was good grounds for additional success.  Why take one bottle into the shower, when you can have two?

"If you look at it just from a strict unit sales metric, PSP games outsell the DS counterpart," Koller explained. "But the DS games require much less development investment, because the graphics aren't as good, the gameplay isn't as deep. In general it's just not created for a more sophisticated, mature gamer, but usually [someone who is] under 12."

However despite the renewed push for the PSP led by the confirmation of LittleBigPlanet, Assassin's Creed, Rock Band and a possible God of War sequel, it seems not everybody's convinced.  Following Sony's absolute denial surrounding David Perry original comments regarding the PSP2, Acclaim's boss continued the crusade to out the successor via his Twitter page, imploring Koller to "state that PSP 2 WILL have UMD."