Are we witnessing the PSP renaissance?

PSP Banzai!
Inserito originariamente da Abriael

Right now the buzz is all about the PS3 Slim and it's direct competitor, the Xbox 360 Elite. On the opposite end of the console war, where portables clash, things have been very slow for a long time. There's very little to argue about it. While quite a lot less powerful, the DS has eaten alive the PSP so far, especially thanks to a much more varied software library. It's true that 80% of that library is absolute crap, while maybe only the 40% of the software line-up of the PSP is made of unsightly shovel ware, but 20% of a LOT, in this case, might be better than 60% of a much smaller number. This not even considering that many, many portable users seem to love the unsightly shovel ware anyway...

Looking at the Japanese news portals, though, something has been moving as of late. While the Nintendo DS is still there strongly, even thanks to the last Dragon Quest, the tag "PSP" has been appearing more and more, as basically every Japanese developer is scrambling to release new games in time for the launch of the PSPgo, or just after it. You may have noticed it by reading this blog too, as I reported the announcements that I thought more interesting. Just a fraction of the total.
While everyone in the west is talking about the clash of the "big consoles", in Japan the holiday season will be extremely PSP-heavy.

The list of titles is so rich that it's almost mind boggling: Gran Turismo, Lunar: Armony of Silver Star, R-Type Tactics 2, Valkyria Chronicles 2, Persona 3 Portable, Phantasy Star Online 2, Full metal Alchemist, Macross Ultimate Frontier, Hexyz Force and a slew of others, leading towards that big 2010 release that will be Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker.
PSP owners in Japan are in for quite a few months of Joy, whether they are planning to buy the new (and a bit overpriced PSPGo) or they intend to stick with the old model.

That's actually the best part of it all. We don't really know how much the Go will sell, due to the quite steep price point, but it's arrival fueled a big intake of new games, that will in turn fuel sales of the console (both the new model and the old for the ones that don't want to spend too much) and close the gap considerably with the Nintendo competitor.

Of course there are a few question marks. How many of those games will make it to the west? And will the western developers feel the same urge to develop and release new games for the PSP? Chinatown Wars and Assassin Creed are two quite big ones, but will there be more?

While I have to say that I love my DS as much as my PSP (mostly due to the games, since the graphics are normally a bit lacking, and I'm not really picky about the control scheme), the portable competition has been stagnating in the last couple years, so it will be very interesting to see if, like the arrival of the PS3 slim, the PSPgo and the many games it'll bring along, will revive the market and force Nintendo to shift up in their offering and quality as well.

While I personally think it'll be very, very difficult for the PSP to "beat" the Nintendo DS, the gap in the game library is now being closed, and I'm thinking that, counting the upcoming releases, the PSP might really strengthen it's niche as a better choice for "core" gamers (but of course, the best choice is always the same, having both :P).

We'll have to see if this will truly be the PSP renaissance or just a substantial increase in quality. One thing is for sure, adding this to the PS3 vs Xbox 360 shake-up, it's really good to be a gamer, nowadays...