Sony, THIS is the Problem

I always find it interesting when two Sony articles show up on the same day that actually show why Sony is having a difficult moment. I suspect that in the next year or so it might clear up, but they're going to have to get a bit less stupid in the mean time.

In the same day that a PSP firmware update actually enables the full CPU power of the PSP, Sony complains that developers aren't making full use of the platform. Hmmm, perhaps you're constantly throwing up artificial roadblocks which prevent them from actually playing with the hardware to learn its capabilities?

Oh, that would be stupid. Developers might get annoyed with you and not risk anything for a company that doesn't help them get work done...

Hmmm... Seems like someone wants to pee in the pool and play in it.

Joystiq - Sony Tells PSP Devs to get Creative, Attract Customers

"I think that rather than focusing on the gameplay side of it, we should be focusing on how to fully utilize what I think is quite a sophisticated piece of kit," he said. According to CVG, Buckley later cited MP3 playback, wireless and online functionality as ways developers could capitalize on the PSP's potential

Maybe it's a problem of perception. Games like Crush and Loco Roco show great creativity from a design perspective. The once-exclusive Lumines (now also a PS2 and Xbox Live Arcade title) was designed byTetsuya Mizuguchi with the portable specifically in mind. But we think Buckley is implying that the PSP lacks that killer app that could only be made on the PSP.

Joystiq - PSP firmware 3.50 enables full 333MHz clockspeed

It may not be the long-rumored PSP redesign, but if you've got a PSP, it underwent a secret upgrade last month when you installed firmware 3.50. Sure, Remote Play is nice, but what you'd really like is a PSP that's instantly 25% faster. We're not talking about fancy new UMD drives, or faster processors; it's the same old PSP but Sony's uncapped the existing processor from 266MHz to 333MHz.

Sony has confirmed to Shacknews that developers working on games currently in development (your existing games aren't going to run faster) now have access to the full CPU speed of the post-3.50 PSP. The clock speed was believed to have been limited previously to conserve battery power, leading to obvious speculation that this change would be made possible by a newly redesigned PSP, replete with increased battery life. If that's the case, what about these new 333MHz games running on our old battery-addicted PSPs?