CEO Of Climax Concerned About PSP

Karl Jeffery, the CEO of Climax, is worried that Sony isn’t doing enough to support the PSP in the face of strong Nintendo DS sales.

Having recently released a new ATV Offroad Fury for the PSP, Karl Jeffery is worried. “To be honest and frank about it we worry about the future of the PSP,” said Jeffery.

“In terms of sales of the actual units, it’s not doing so great. The DS is going gangbusters, the sales volumes are going up exponentially. But the PSP worrys us, because we’re sitting here thinking about what Sony is going to do to get the platform back on track and we’re not hearing much from them.”

Nintendo has recently announced that seven million DS systems have been sold in Europe alone, with six games breaking one million sales in the region.

Suggesting ideas like a downloadable games model and making better use of the wi-fi capability of the system, Jeffery seems to think imitation of success may be a good way to go. “Personally, I love it as a platform to develop for, it’s very powerful and it’s a great machine. But it’s a big bit of kit to lug around and the battery life’s not great. Perhaps they could bring out a ‘PSP Lite’ or something along those lines,” he said.

When asked if publishers may abandon the format, Jeffery replied: “That’s my instinct, yes. Maybe Sony has got something planned, but at the moment it’s very worrying. It’s probably the platform we’re most worried about.”

Source: GamesIndustry.biz