Gamertell

PSP Minis was a new idea that came out alongside the PSPgo. The concept behind Minis was to provide quick pick-up-and-go games for under $9.99. The success of the games that are available on the iTunes App Store is obviously the influence behind Sony’s new line of Minis. The problem with comparing Minis to games on the App Store boils down to the price for the games. Even though a game such as Fieldrunners can be purchased for $2.99 on the App Store, the price is doubled on the PlayStation Network.

Sony’s director of PlayStation Network operations Eric Lempel recently spoke to Joystiq and revealed that Sony does not set the price for PSP Minis. Pricing is instead left to the developers.

One such developer is Subatomic Studios which created Fieldrunners. During an interview with Gamasutra Subatomic Studios co-founder Sergei Gourski shined some light on why Minis are priced higher than their iPhone and iPod Touch counterparts. One reason for the increased prices are due to the investment needed to acquire PSP development kits. The other reason is because of the fees that need to be paid to the ESRB to secure a rating for the game.

Rumors state the price for an ESRB rating is about $2,500 so developers charge a higher price to make up for that cost. iPhone games, on the other hand, don’t need to get a rating from the ESRB.

Currently there are seven PSP Minis available to purchase that range from $4.99 to $9.99. The service is just starting and could dramatically improve with time just as the PSN (PlayStation network) has. Until then. many gamers find these Minis a little hard to swallow.

Read [Exophase] Also Read [Joystiq]