SCEE: PSP Digital Distribution Opens Way For 'Less Hardcore Games'

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's vice president of Publisher and Developer relations Zeno Colaço says that the PSP's new digital distribution capabilities will "ignite" development for the platform, allowing more opportunities for studios to create "less hardcore games" and release downloadable content. Released yesterday, the PSP Firmware 5.00 update enables users to connect directly to the PlayStation Store, purchasing and downloading content without having to later transfer the data through a PlayStation 3 or PC. "Publishers are definitely exploring more opportunities in terms of the types of games they can release on PSP, even in terms of more female-oriented games, puzzlers and less hardcore games," says Colaço in an interview with UK mobile games site Pocket Gamer. "The opportunity we're providing with digital distribution will ignite those thoughts." He adds that the recent update also opens the way for developers and publishers to provide smaller, online-exclusive games as well as downloadable content for UMD titles. Says Colaço, "Customization is a big part of what consumers want these days, so we want to empower developers to be able to add such features and deliver them however they want to."