Sony to support PSP Minis devs all the way “unlike with the App Store”, free PSP SDK may come in the future

Sony‘s strategy for the PSP Go — and to a certain extent, for older PSPs — seems to target Apple’s App Store directly. In the eyes of Sony Europe‘s head of developer relations, Zeno Colaco, they’re not directly gunning for the App Store at all, but they will be doing things better by giving more support and visibility to developers.

Sony‘s strategy for the PSP Go — and to a certain extent, for older PSPs — seems to target Apple’s App Store directly. In the eyes of Sony Europe‘s head of developer relations, Zeno Colaco, they’re not directly gunning for the App Store at all, but they will be doing things better.

In an interview with Develop, Colaco opined that the App Store doesn’t provide adequate help and visibility to developers — two things that Sony’s own PSP Minis service will have plenty of.

“Unlike with the App Store, weÂ’re looking to support everyone that develops for us, instead of leaving developers out in the wilderness,” said Colaco. “WeÂ’re not immediately interested in giving developers free access and no help.”

“There are dangers in having total open access; like having thousands of applications where probably only thirty are discovered by the consumer,” he added. “Some of the developers working on the App Store and PSP Minis tell us that they prefer our approach because they get more visibility.”

In the same interview, Colaco said that a free SDK model may also be in the cards for PSP Minis developers. One reason that the App Store is awash in apps and games because their SDK itself is free to download, although developers have to pay a US$ 99 fee to enrol in the iPhone developer program.

“Further down the line, we may investigate a totally free model or supported model,” he said. Sony has already reduced the price of the PSP SDK to US$ 1,500. The company has also announced that they will be waiving bandwidth fees for developers interested in the service as well as providing a more streamlined QA and approval process.

Sony’s PSP Minis service is due to launch along with the PSP Go on October 1. So far, 15 titles have been confirmed to be available at launch. A total of 50 titles are expected to become available by the end of the year.

• Sony waiving bandwidth fees for PSP Minis devs, streamlines approval and QA processes
• Sony announces bite-sized Minis games for PSP, free Gran Turismo download for early PSP Go registrants

Via Develop