Sony PSP Minis hobbled

Sony is purposely limiting PSP minis in a way that could hobble them compared to their rivals on the iPhone, the company revealed in a Game Developers Conference presentation on Thursday. The small games will have a sped-up approval process compared to regular PSP games but are banned from using any networking features and can't have downloadable content. They also won't be allowed to support third-party peripherals, according to the company.

The decision is unusual as the company in its presentation and before has openly compared the upcoming PSP minis to games for Apple's platform, where the small sizes and prices of most games were the inspiration for Sony's effort. iPhone and iPod touch games both support local network and Internet features, including downloading extra content from within the game, and can support third-party peripherals even if they require custom support.

Both the small downloadable games and the imminent PSP Go handheld are known to be at least part responses to the rise of Apple handhelds as gaming platforms. While Sony has had downloadable PSP games for some time, its insistence on putting these through a full approval process and pushing development of physical UMD games has meant far fewer (albeit more refined) and much more expensive titles that often hover at $30 or $40 when new versus the normally sub-$10 price points in the App Store. [via Joystiq]

By Electronista Staff