Sony has announced that its free PhyreEngine will hit the PSP this spring, the cross-platform middleware tool having previously proved popular with studios working on PSN titles for PlayStation 3.

PhyreEngine should help developers take advantage of the PSP's strengths when working on games for the system. The engine was initially created by Sony London back in 2008 and used in the successful development of titles such as flOw, Shatter, and GripShift.

Sony Computer Entertainment is expected to demonstrate PhyreEngine on PSP at its booth at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week, a template based demo Tunnel Shooter the title chosen to show off its wares.

"We're very happy to see the continued popularity of PhyreEngine with the global game developer community," offered senior VP of SCEI's technology platform, Teiji Yutaka, in a statement.

"PhyreEngine for PSP was developed in response to requests from the game developer community, and we hope that the release of the PSP version demonstrates our commitment and support for game developers on all our platforms."

Keen to ensure PhyreEngine aids developers considering working on PSP, Sony also claims it will "deploy various measures" to reinforce development on the system, expanding the platform to offer "interactive entertainment experiences" not available on its rivals.