PSP Minis Just Can't Compare To iPhone Games

Sony's plan to directly compete with Apple in the casual game department may not have been as well planned out as we once thought.  According to Gamasutra, PSP Minis will lack some of the features that make iPhone games so great to "accelerate the approval process."

"When you look at it from a testing perspective, you have to do more QA. [Allowing those features] would defeat the purpose of having a dedicated service for smaller content," he told Gamasutra after a GDC session. "It increases the barriers."

So what does this mean for PSP gamers?  Well, their Minis won't have any online functionality, which means no online multiplayer, no downloadable content, and no software updates.  So what if there are a few bugs?  Can't fix them.  What about new content?  Can't have it.  Sony has stated that some games will feature multiplayer via pass and play, however. The lack of any online functionality is actually a huge limitation because the iPhone's online functionality is one of the main things that makes the platform great for gaming. This doesn't necessarily mean that fewer developers are going to be interested in supplying their games to Sony's platform.  It is still another means of income, and the platform definitely has its own upsides, but it seems odd that Sony took this route to speed up the approval process.

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