Play It boss criticises major PSP publishers

[wraggster]

Via mcv

The managing director of value publisher Play It has said that the majority of big publishers are “getting it wrong” on PSP.Mark Cale told MCV that labels which built their reputation on home consoles don’t understand what is needed to keep the PSP audience entertained.

“The reason so many games have failed on PSP is that big publishers are prioritising lavish, full 3D productions ahead of gameplay,” said Cale. “But this type of game will never be as big as it is on home console, because handheld users are seeking a more addictive, distracting experience.”

Cale highlighted Capcom’s Ultimate Ghosts’N’Goblins as a perfect fit for the machine. “Capcom kept the core gameplay of a vintage classic and tidied up the graphics for a modern system,” he said. “Unsurprisingly, gamers became hooked.”

[Emeriastone]

Agreed. Look at homebrew games. A majority of the successful ones are simple, focused on gameplay and entertainment.

[mesosade]

what we need is the most super fast 2d shooter ever! clocking the psp to 333mhz with a level editor and stuff giving unlitmited value and multiplayer! umm sort of metalslug and burnout combined?

[DraconumPB]

One of my absolute FAVORITE homebrew releases is Super Mario Mini. Why?

Small Size
Level editor + ability to swap out all graphics/sound
Easy to create levels
Easy to install, works on pretty much any firmware
Simple and fun
Addictive and difficult sometimes (depending on the levels; i.e. Chocobo Complete v1.2 is HARD as hell but incredibly fun and addictive! You have to start over from the beginning every time you run out of lives, but you want to try again and again to get farther each time...)

I just tried out Callisto.. which is SUPER polished (not only for homebrew but for 2d shooters in general) but the filesize is 43 MB (about 10-20 times the size of the average SMM mod) and IMO it's just not as fun. But it's still a great game. And Iris, for example... incredible technical quality, possibly the best in homebrew 3D to date. But it's really not all that fun in the long term.. you wouldn't play it over and over for example where you may play SMM over and over until you've beaten all the inreasingly tough levels.

I think this dude has it spot on. Besides, alot of the visual quality is lost when you're playing outside or whatever... and as you can see, the PSP has MUCH better quality graphics than the DS but the DS is still outselling the PSP like crazy. (Personally the DS's graphics quality is almost too bad for me to stand most of the time, but then again, it's alot cheaper and there's definately alot of fun games I'd like to try for it if I had one.)

[S34MU5]

mmmmmmmmmm level creators

[kando]

one example of a complete waste of psp shelf space is pacman world 3.....its a prime example of what the author of the article above is saying.

[mr_nick666]

I think this dude has it spot on. Besides, alot of the visual quality is lost when you're playing outside or whatever... and as you can see, the PSP has MUCH better quality graphics than the DS but the DS is still outselling the PSP like crazy. (Personally the DS's graphics quality is almost too bad for me to stand most of the time, but then again, it's alot cheaper and there's definately alot of fun games I'd like to try for it if I had one.)

/\ /\ Spot on DraconumPB Im a fan of Super Mario War myself but its a very similar principle.. Take all the retro emulators as an example - I love playing PSPsim and PSpectrum on my PSP because back then games were about gameplay My PSP playtime is split 85% homebrew 15% UMD

[Junior]

Agreed. Look at homebrew games. A majority of the successful ones are simple, focused on gameplay and entertainment.

What a whopping surprise! None of them have the resources to come up with something huge - what do you expect?

I for one am extremely happy I'm getting Grand Theft Auto, a decent full length Metal Gear, Roleplaying games and so on instead of countless mini games or arcade games alone.

Sure, they're great fun too, but when do these marketing people finally get into their head that ALL kinds of games are needed to make a platform successful? The PSP cannot live on GTA or big huge ports alone, but it cannot live on arcade games with so called 'focus on gameplay' alone either.

[jwilds73]

Give me RPG Maker for the PSP or what would be really the best is an RPG Maker for the PS3 that would export games to the PSP. I love RPG's or fun fast games like Tony Hawk. Nothing beats running around trying new lines and trick combos. Or mowing down a bunch of people on a sidewalk in GTA. It's a great tension release.

[jinqui242]

I love homebrew, but you can only play Stroke of Link or old SNES games so many times. I need meaty games like Syphon Filter Dark Mirror. Thank god Silent Hill and MGS are coming. And maybe a good 3D RPG (not another Legend of Heroes!).