Sony's Koller ignores holiday 2008, promises better 2009
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Sep 25th 2008 at 9:22AM }
"I think going into next year we're going to see significant growth. We're counseling retail to be ready for it. We have a number of very strong franchise games on the docket that will be launching next year," John Koller responded to Edge's troubling report on the decline of PSP software. "We haven't gone public with those, and many third-parties have not yet either because they're concentrating on holiday, but we have a number of very strong titles coming."While we understand that many of these unannounced titles may be far off from now, we're a bit saddened to see Sony (and their third party partners) remain so secretive about the upcoming 2009 lineup. Right now, it appears Sony is abandoning holiday 2008 altogether. How will they drum up support for the handheld this Christmas season, when they've shown no guarantees of what will be available in the coming months? Sony -- it's time to stop playing the same ol' game of secrecy. Now, when your customers are losing faith in your system, is when you should bypass the typical product marketing schedule -- and you give us something to get excited about.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David Black @ Sep 25th 2008 10:02AM
Maybe we will hear about some of these at TGS?
SparkyJ23 @ Sep 25th 2008 10:06AM
You can counsel retail as much as you want you'll STILL get no phucking shelf space, And if your not in the shops guess what - you wont sell any product. Get off your backside and stop putting out 1 good game a year dumbass
drdre74 @ Sep 25th 2008 10:14AM
Yeah I've pretty much given up on PSP its starting to turn more and more into and paper weight for me. Only a hand full of games even worth buying. They do one good game a year pretty much. All the games for the PSP that would be cool end up on PSN or XBOX Live
Mike McCrary @ Sep 25th 2008 10:51AM
You know what would be a good way to move units? Pretend that this FF7 remake for the PS3 is actually happening. So sell the remake on a BD for the standard 59.99, but ALSO for free, include the original FF7 on UMD in the box, along with a voucher for 10 dollars off the purchase of a new PSP system or something.
I know you can already play FF7 via remote play if you have the original discs, or on ROMS if you have a hacked system, but this would be a lot easier. Maybe even have it so that you can share save files between the remake and the UMD so that wherever you are in the remake, you can pick up on-the-go with the original.
David Black @ Sep 25th 2008 3:10PM
Good idea Mike. Sony needs to think outside the box for PSP software solutions. One of the ideas that has been floated was to have a plug-in UMD reader for the PS3 so that any PSP game could be played on a PSP as well. The saved game functionality that you mentioned would come into play here as well. I think this would help clear the shelves of some existing software and possibly drive the third-party developers to consider new software as it could be "PSP exclusive" but actually be playable on PS3.
David Black @ Sep 25th 2008 3:12PM
Edit: Sorry, I meant any PSP game could then be played on a PS3 obviously.
bobo @ Sep 25th 2008 11:18AM
Agree. Sad to see the potential of the PSP frittered away like this for years. One of hte only bright spots on the PSP's horizon is that it's doing well in Japan, which might mean that software support for North Americans won't entirely dry up. Homebrew is the another thing keeping the PSP interesting these days.
Doesn't matter for me much anyway - once the Pandora open source handheld is released, I'll pretty much forget about the PSP entirely.
Saigon @ Sep 25th 2008 11:32AM
This is sad and pathetic. Way to give up Sony.
RushX @ Sep 25th 2008 4:42PM
“You cannot have ports. We used God of War: Chains of Olympus this year as an example of that, as well as Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, and Midnight Club, which is going to be launching in the next few weeks. Those three games are titles that have very strong brand names on console but are coming over with unique gameplay on the PSP.”
Jesus Christ, it took them 4 years to figure that out? And 9 months to fix it? No wonder the PSP is in the crapper. I just cannot believe this shit.
richard priest @ Sep 25th 2008 12:55PM
maybe koller secretly works for nintendo.
TM @ Sep 25th 2008 12:55PM
what a way to show love to your handheld.....secrecy
aj @ Sep 25th 2008 5:41PM
Maybe it's a market thing. You know, they can't release bad news and scare off customers, investors, and developers, but at the same time they have no idea what good news even is. What would be the "killer app" that would launch the PSP into orbit? Monster Hunter did it in Japan, in NA.....not so much, it seems. So they have to do something, but they don't know what will work, and as such, they don't know what to say to keep people from just abandoning the whole thing.
atastysammich @ Sep 25th 2008 1:04PM
2009 will be better if and only if somebody mentions something about Phantasy Star Portable.
(But I'd settle for Jumping Flash! 2 on the Playstation Store.)
lorddshadow @ Sep 25th 2008 5:16PM
Monster Hunter Portable 2ndG localized?
atastysammich @ Sep 25th 2008 5:32PM
No deal.
Don @ Sep 25th 2008 4:42PM
Koller & all the SCEA/SCEE talking heads are to Sony what former Iraqi press minister Tariq Aziz was during the first Gulf War-- he'd keep going on about how Saddam was winning when we all *knew* it wasn't true. Even he knew, he was just trying to keep his job (& his life)... these non-Japan Sony people are all just as full of crap, trying to spin.
biffpow @ Sep 25th 2008 2:25PM
Absurd remarks form Sony. "Trust us, we've got good secret things behind the curtain! Buy more systems!"
There are so many things they've done wrong with this system and so many opportunities they've blown--this coming holiday season is just one more item to add to that list. Judging by the way Sony US has managed the PSP, it's like they'd been selling cotton balls for 100 years, then someone decided they ought to get into video games. Love the system, hate the corporation.
andwhyisit @ Sep 26th 2008 9:33AM
Nah! The cotton bud team got reassigned to the psp. Unfortunately Sony US has been struggling due to a lack of cotton bud income. Though Sony Japan has both a PSP and cotton bud team, so they are doing better.
bryansurvive @ Sep 25th 2008 2:35PM
why hide the games. just promote early. we all like good news. if your game sucks i wanna know way before, cus i wont even look at the cover if i never heard of it. maybe their is no secret and sony is finally looking at psp for help.
TM @ Sep 25th 2008 2:55PM
if microsoft had their own psp-like hanheld I wonder if they would use it like sony has not
Warner Young @ Sep 25th 2008 3:46PM
Most likely they just don't want to announce titles before TGS. Otherwise, it kind of wastes a lot of the moolah they spend on the show. At least, I hope that's the reason.
Eric @ Sep 25th 2008 4:10PM
I have sat on the sideline too long with this PSP. I am tired of nothing showing up.
I had a DS, sold it for my PSP - and now wish I hadn't.
Well, I give up - gonna sell mine while its still worth a little bit.
lorddshadow @ Sep 25th 2008 5:18PM
wait a minute! just wait until TGS. if nothing worthwhile happens, feel free to do it. but if we got awesome games, imagine how bad you would feel. just wait a little while longer.
::..God of War..:: @ Sep 25th 2008 5:23PM
ppl who are bored with psp get CFW not for free games but for the apps
antgarcia62 @ Sep 25th 2008 5:48PM
Come ON!!! I'm freakin tired of these assurance messages. If not any games this Christmas, at LEAST give us a TOTALLY REVAMPED fimware update (remove "Internet Search" to start). Oh for God's sake, maybe a PSP 4000 with a super revision.
Or maybe show off some future spring titles before the New Year. I'm holding on to my pants for "Resistance:Retribution" this spring. The only game I'll probably be getting this year for Christmas will be "CoD: Roads to Victory".
For now, my PSP will just be a giant iPod.
anarkhy @ Sep 25th 2008 9:43PM
LOL. Sony gave up on psp way before their customers... :D
ecco6t9 @ Sep 25th 2008 11:22PM
I'm confused Sony.
Where are all these ports at? I mean I haven't see too many PS1/PS2 Classics that would make excellent PSP games come out.
Where's my Dark Cloud?
Where's my Final Fantasy 7?
Where's Grandia?
Where's Lunar?
Where's GTA 3?
Where's Silpheed?
Fact is ports do work when you port the right games that people always wanted to take anywhere with them.
Nintendo sold many many GBA games that were SNES classics and no one complained! Sony please take a page out of Nintendo's book and port games worth a damn and do not encourage lame spin offs.
blueflash @ Sep 25th 2008 11:22PM
to all the haters, why don't you all shut the f*** up. drop your psps and pick up a new console, they have the iphone, the google thing is coming out, and of course a ds. if your gonna sulk and complain, don't buy any of the new good games coming out. i think i'm not the only one who is tired of reading these b****-ass comments from you all...all this negativity is only contributing to the breakdown of the psp community...sony f**** up big time, but it's not like they aren't trying....but if your patience has had enough then maybe it's time for a change for you guys....as for myself i'm looking forward to a hell of alot of games coming out this fall-winter and especially 2009, even without knowing these *secret* software releases...i'll wait eat my crow by spring 2009 but i know that ain't happening....
Billy Añonuevo @ Sep 26th 2008 10:28AM
Quick, Sony, we need new games to look forward to. This backlog of old games that I wanna try out isn't gonna get any bigger if there's barely anything coming out these days.
Jacksons @ Sep 27th 2008 12:35AM
I don't use it as much as I used to, especially since picking up a PS3, but I still like it. It's still my favorite device when I have to be gone for a few days. I'm looking forward to Resistance, but other than that? Not a whole lot right now.
WhiteShield @ Sep 28th 2008 1:47PM
secrecy only works for so long. starcraft 2 is perhaps the most secretive game i have ever come across, you would have to kill a blizzard employe to find out information about it that isn't known! they have to at least give us a solid title we DONT know about to whet our appatite
K64 @ Sep 28th 2008 3:57PM
True, my PSP is, right now, a big Ipod, but sheech. I need it to be fixed so I can play Dissidia sooner or later.
Dang Sony, 3rd party people are getting the credit right now, not U.