Rebellion CTO Chris Kingsley sat down with GamesIndustry.biz in an interview and he had quite a few positive things to say about the PSP. However, he claims that publishing games on the PSP "wasn't a deliberate choice, it just happened. We were very keen on it as a platform and it took off for us." Earlier during the the week, Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley echoed similar sentiments.

The CTO went on further to say that Sony's handheld has a good few years left in it, thanks to its versatility, but admits that publishers are not as keen as they once were about software on the PSP. Why? It isn't piracy, according to Kingsley, but rather developers want "to work on the flashy, high-end stuff." He cites the PS2 as a "less glamorous platform" that has remained economically viable for publishers because the software matches the right platform -- Kingsley feels the reason why the PSP has been "kicking the arse of pretty much every other system out there" in Japan is precisely because it has the right games. His illation on the PSP is that Sony has "done a great job," with "tens of millions of PSPs ... worldwide." but that its "incredible" success has been overshadowed by the DS.

Indie developers just love downloadable and mobile games, so it makes sense when a new developer forms and ventures into these less risky waters. According to gamesindustry.biz another new developer has expressed interest in creating mobile games and most importantly, wants to work on PSP. OneNine is the name of the new outfit and they are comprised of former employees of Activision, Vicarious Visions, Gameloft, Digital Extremes, and Kush Games.

The company had this to say about their focus, "OneNine is dedicated to making great games for both casual and hardcore markets, on all possible platforms. We are looking to expand into DS and PSP development as well as games for the web.downloadable and Xbox Live Arcade markets." The article did not mention any game specifics in regards to the PSP, so we'll all have to wait to see what OneNine has up their sleeves.

Just in case they need help coming up with a PSP game idea, I'm going to go call OneNine to pitch that geriatric Rascal racer I've always dreamed of.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Game Developer's Association of Australia are teaming up to give PSP gamers more original games. The two companies will work together to foster development teams specifically for the PSP platform.

Zeno Colaco, SCEE's Vice President commented, "SCEE are excited to work closely with the GDAA to kick start this initiative in the region. PSP has rapidly established itself as a global format for today's digital consumer. Our goal with this programme is to nurture new talent and widen the spectrum of content providers with traditional and new products which use the full breath of PSP's powerful functionality."

This seems like a win-win situation for everyone involved: the Australian games scene is certainly ready to boom, and PSP gamers are always eager for original content, regardless of what EA thinks.

[Via IGN]

IGN's Death Jr. 2 blog has been revealing some real gems of info. The latest entry goes into the technical aspects of creating the game. Read the lengthy, but genuinely informative, blog to find out more on what kind of evil magic programming the team had to do to get HDR lighting running in the game. It gets pretty complicated, showing off scary XML code. I was personally fascinated by the images from the developer's tools (PB Viewer and Maya Viewpoint)-- this is the kind of behinds-the-scenes stuff that we don't get enough of. The blog also explains more complicated-sounding things like vertex lighting and light seams. Finally, they reveal some of the special visual effects the game will employ: softening, eggcrate, fisheye, ripple, and vortex.

All this technical mumbo-jumbo's being thrown around to razzle dazzle us, and I have to say it's sort of working. Although the game is going to pretty, the real test will come the game ships this Halloween, when we'll be able to test all of its gameplay.

Publisher Wild Hare Entertainment has joined forces with developer Alten8 to bring their upcoming PSP to the U.S. and Europe.

"With reciprocal content publishing and distribution between our like-minded companies, we can create a strong alliance for a cross-Atlantic partnership, which opens new doors not only for us, but for the developers, which up until now have had no access to mainstream publishing and distribution in Europe or North America," said Paul Andrews, CEO of Alten8 Limited.

You may have heard of Alten8 before. They're the developer who earlier this year caught flack for their mobile phone title, Office Massacre. In order to appease their critics, the developer changed the name to Office Zombies and reworked the plot, as well.

Hopefully in this new venture, the company can stay out of the critic's targets and focus on bringing great games to the PSP.

[Via DCEmu]