Sega West president Mike Hayes has told CVG that the firm is "extremely optimistic" that Sony NGP (PSP2) will be a sales success.
The firm was one of a handful of major developers/publishers to show their software running on NGP at Sony's Tokyo launch last week.
Sega's Toshihiro Nagoshi showed off Yakuza 4 being played in real time at the event - and revealed that his team has been able to use PS3 shaders and effects on NGP.
Sony NGP's predecessor, PSP, was initially a huge success in the US and Europe after launching in both territories in 2005. But the combination of Nintendo DS's record-breaking sales, the failure of the UMD format and rampant piracy soon had a detrimental effect as sales dried up.
However, Hayes told CVG that Sega games had enjoyed good profitability on PSP, leaving the firm with little reason to doubt Sony's ability to rule at retail with NGP.
"I would disagree on the point that PSP failed," he said. "For those of us that embraced the portable platform from the beginning we had a very successful and profitable run."
UK publisher and developer Codemasters has told CVG that it expects the price of Sony NGP (PSP2) to be in line with Nintendo's 3DS in the UK.
Comments
10 comments so far...
Barca Azul on 31 Jan '11 said:
I dont think PSP failed either, but Sony left it to die for 3 years and it was too late to bring it back to life.
Also changing funcionality on Models really annoyed those who spent over the odds on the first model! Skype being a prime example and TV out!
I may wait a year or so for a slim version with added funcionality to come out before I get one. I dont want to be bent over again for being an early adopter this time!
fps_d0minat0r on 31 Jan '11 said:
i agree, there were like no titles, then out of nowhere came gran turismo, LBP, resistance retribution, peace walker, ghost of sparta. these titles should have been there at the beginning and i can see they have learnt from their mistake looking at the NGP games.
psp was like iphone except on a smaller scale. 99% of software was shovelware. iphone can keep up that trend and be used as a beta platform, the games which are sucessful will eventually make way to the NGP with better graphics.
Balladeer on 31 Jan '11 said:
The only people who think the PSP "failed" are the rabid Nintendo fanboys. The PSP did exceedingly well - its number one opponent just did better.
l1nc on 31 Jan '11 said:
The psp was awesome it was just a shame it was better when it had homebrew running on it. faster load times, kool apps/emulators and Being able to play resident evil 2 or final fantasy 7,8 or 9 on the go was amazing. Sony need to learn from mistakes and employ the hackers.
richard99 on 31 Jan '11 said:
PSP was a long way off failure but it wasn't a runaway success in the way DS was and it had the potential to be if Sony had done things differently.
The controls weren't great, UMD failed and in the years I had one there was a real lack of support from the best devs and franchises, including Sony's own. NGP looks like it's dealt with two of those issues and going off what's been announced possibly the third as well. I'm optimistic about the NGP too, I still want to hear about price and battery life though.
MattyR95 on 31 Jan '11 said:
We've already heard of battery life, 4-6 hours.
stealth on 31 Jan '11 said:
more valkyria here we come
MrPirtniw on 31 Jan '11 said:
Yay! Sonic games!
Balladeer on 31 Jan '11 said:
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If anyone thinks this image is tasteless or offensive please PM me and I will get rid of it. Thank you.
StokedUp on 31 Jan '11 said:
It definitely seems from what we've seen so far that it deserves to be successful. But i just hope that the PSP hasn't damaged any chance it had of being a massive success. Even though i liked the PSP, alot of people didnt and so i just hope those people dont try and associate the PSP with this new Sony handheld. Thats another reason it need a brand new name rather than PSP2, this console needs to start from fresh.