Talking to Edge during the Gamescom 2010 event, SCEE president Andrew House has discussed the past performance of the PSP, and how the company plans to improve the situation in future.

"What is now a key emphasis for us is focusing on a younger audience who are the prime audience for a dedicated gaming device with deeper, more immersive content: they may have less disposable income, but they've got more time to play," House explains.

Pay less to play more

He particularly points to the importance of pricing, notably the impact of the budget sub-£10 Essentials game range in terms of driving interest in the console.

"The first couple of months since launch has been a phenomenal success on two fronts," he says.

"Not just in actual sales, but the uptake there has been on overall PSP software which has seen a knock-on effect. I would argue that we're starting to see what we originally intended - that it's helping to breath life into sales of the hardware as well.

More generally, House says that the overall consistency and flow of PSP titles could have been better. Yet he though 2009 had seen its strongest releases to-date.

No details were provided, but he also said Sony was working to ensure that digital downloads via the PlayStation Store would be more flexibly priced in future.

[source: Edge Online]