Analyst: Blame Sony Japan for PSP slump
Das Gamer has posted a thought-provoking piece on the current (gloomy) state of PSP outside of Japan, where game releases on the platform can be heard grinding slowly to a halt. The site spoke with games industry analyst extraordinaire Michael Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan, for his thoughts on the root cause(s) of the situation.
Pachter says that the platform's troubles began early on. "PSP struggled to have marquee titles at the beginning, and it's costing it in the long run." The recently announced "PSP Brite" will do little to help things, in his opinion. "Constant tech tweaks and upgrades might work for telephones, but they're not what gamers want," he said, adding "It creates confusion, and leaves many users with older models feeling inadequate."
The real problem according to Pachter, however, is general mismanagement of the platform out of Sony Japan, who he says is, "Instructing the US to play catch-up with Microsoft on Xbox Live, step up its online game with Home, offer movie downloads and push the Blu-ray home theater initiative just to begin with. Something had to give. The company has been spreading itself too thin." That "something," according to Pachter, is the PSP. It's a great piece of hardware, sure, but without key software titles – the lack of which at E3, apart from Resistance: Retribution, was staggering – it will continue to run on fumes. But for how long?
[Via PSP Fanboy]
