After last week's media blitz of new games for the PSP, Ready At Dawn CEO Didier Malenfant gives us his bit of insight on the matter. First, he says he doesn't know what the hell Sony's talking about - this whole "we're having talks with RAD for a new PSP game" thing. He does agree with John Koller on one thing though: the whole digital distribution direction. Because Malenfant thinks it's a good idea after all, and to quote him: "It's not piracy but used games that are killing us."

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Ready At Dawn's president Didier Malenfant recently elaborated on the reasons for the studio's decision to end their development for the Sony PSP. Among other things, the exec discussed his studio's future plans, and how piracy may have affected their decision. More details are available in the full article.

 

Dan Arey, a 17-year game industry veteran and former creative lead for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, will take his rightful place at the helm of Creative Director for Ready At Dawn Studios. The official announcement made today also coincided with the studios' creation of a new intellectual property, already in development.

"Getting someone of Dan's caliber is obviously a huge deal for us," said president and co-founder Didier Malenfant. In any case, the developer who shifted from Electronic Arts, Accolade, Sega of America, Crystal Dynamics, Sony, to Pandemic, and many other studios, was happy to accompany Ru Weerasuriya, VP of Creative Development, in the studio's first attempt at an original IP.

The developers of God of War: Chains of Olympus may also be hinting the near release of the PSP title, since they are already shifting focus to their new IP. In fact, the release via press wire explicitly stated, "Ready At Dawn Studios is currently putting the finishing touches to the most anticipated PSP game of 2007, God of War: Chains of Olympus," and it's got us particularly confused.

Sony Computer Entertainment America, in conjunction with the second anniversary of the PlayStation Portable and the official North America price drop, also announced in an official press release that Daxter and Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror are now added to the PSP "Greatest Hits" collection.

Ready At Dawn's Daxter was a phenomenal hit with the PSP gaming community, and R.A.D is interested in bringing their God of War franchise to the handheld with an even bigger bang. Didier Malenfant, President of Ready At Dawn Studios, said:

Ready At Dawn couldn’t be more pleased with our success bringing Daxter to the PSP platform last year, and now we have another opportunity to blow away expectations of what a developer can accomplish on a portable when Kratos hits the ‘small screen’ in God of War. PSP is an ideal platform for us to work on because we have a high level of freedom to be creative, and we can deliver gameplay experiences that rival ones you'd get from a computer entertainment system.

With the addition of Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and Daxter to the Greatest Hits collection, the titles will now be available in a value-filled price tag of US$ 19.99 each. The "Greatest Hits" program by SCEA will help generate strong consumer interest and drive PSP software sales, as well as the hope of revitalizing demand for the Sony PSP.

Despite his many issues with what he perceives to be the flaws of the PlayStation Portable, Didier Malenfant is one of the staunchest supporters of the Sony's handheld platform. He's stated multiple times before that the PSP is a great platform.

He's even gone as far as to say that Sony's success in gaming, handheld or otherwise, depends largely on their own actions and not Microsoft's or Nintendo's. He noted that because of Sony's negative publicity, Microsoft's been able to hide a few things. He said: "[The Xbox 360] didn't really have any good games until Gears of War came out." (Support the platform, criticize the company. I like that.)

With the background on Didier Malenfant done and over with, on with the news. Gamasutra was able to sit down with mister Malenfant and the developer revealed several interesting bits about something a lot of you have been waiting for: Ready at Dawn's God of War for the PSP.

Something to keep in mind while you wait for God of War PSP: It's not a port. This is because they're one game company and he says that they tend to be obsessive with the current game they're working on.

As for the game engine used for God of War, he says that the engine they're using was "never designed as a PSP engine (it actually also runs on Windows for development purposes) and there’s a lot of features that would absolutely shine on a next-gen platform." The developer noted that their biggest frustration at the moment with the PSP is such:

The biggest frustration right now, in a way, is the limitation on the clock speed. We’d love to run our games at 333Mhz (we do internally just for kicks) because it does make a big difference in how much stuff you can push on the platform.

He adds that it's basically like developing for the PS2, only the bottlenecks are in different places. But what is it about the PSP that he likes the most? He says: "I think the greatest thing about the PSP is that 'sleep' mode which allows you to resume where you left off. Thanks to this, anything is bite-sized automatically, which is very cool."

The biggest requests their getting at the moment? Well it's not God of War-related, but Malenfant's reaction to the request is noteworthy. Apparently, a Daxter port from the PSP to the PlayStation 2 is the number one request their getting. His reaction? He says: "I think everyone here would love to do it, and it actually wouldn’t be that hard because Daxter was never designed as a handheld game, we could even add a few things for the PS2 version."

The big problem? The decision to do that is up to Sony.

For the longest time, people have been wondering if and when God of War will finally make its way to the PlayStation Portable (PSP). Well, as overheard at the recently-concluded Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2007 in San Francisco, the waiting is almost over and the game is indeed on its way.

Now, before we start popping the champagne and exchanging presents, there are several points that we need to point out:

Previously - If you can recall, we at QJ have at one point tried to confirm the existence of a God of War game for the PSP, and we were told by Ready At Dawn's Didier Malenfant that they "haven't announced anything yet but I can tell you that it's really cool and will blow people away. Keep an eye on our website in the coming weeks." That was back in February 8.

At GDC 2007 - PSP Fanboy's Andrew Yoon has mentioned that "One of Joystiq's bloggers was in a chat with a Sony executive" and that the unnamed executive suddenly ended up confirming God of War for the PSP when the title was mentioned. When asked if he was saying that the game has received the green light, he apparently replied, "Yes. It's already confirmed. There was that instruction manual incident." (For those not familiar with the "incident", check the image included in this article. Image courtesy of PSP Fanboy.)

When the executive was asked AGAIN if the game is now official, he replied in the affirmative.

All of that is good news, but we are yet to get a name to attach to the Sony executive who said that God of War is coming to the PSP, AND we are also yet to see a report about this incident on Joystiq's website. So, we're really crossing our fingers here, and things seem to be headed in a pleasant direction, but until we get some names, some more reports, and maybe a press release or two, you might want to hang on to that champagne a little bit longer.

"It doesn't depend on Nintendo or Microsoft - it depends on them." That's what Ready At Dawn Studios president Didier Malenfant told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview. Although for the most part he had been pointing out that the PSP was a great platform to work on, he also stressed the fact that the console giant's success will be determined by it's own actions.

He explained the many difficulties in entering the next-generation console market, the huge amount of money needed and how the transition of technology and equipment will be trying and slow at best. He said, "Next-gen involves a lot of money, it's a big investment, and it's going to be a difficult time of transition whether you're Microsoft or Sony."

Malenfant did admit that Sony's image dropped some notches recently, but he elaborates that most number one companies also suffer image degradation. "You can see that with Microsoft with operating systems - after a while, you become the favourite target, " he further explained.

Furthermore, he pointed out that the competition has been gaining blessings from Sony's negative publicity. Microsoft, for one, has been able to hide most of the fact that the Xbox 360 isn't selling much either. He later added, "[The Xbox 360] didn't really have any good games until Gears of War came out."

Ready At Dawn Studios produced a PSP-exclusive title, Daxter, some time ago and is now working with Sony on a new PSP game. Malenfant said that if the studio goes into next-gen development, it won't exactly be aiming for the PS3. "It all depends on the prospect. It could be PS3 or 360 or both," he claimed.

Didier Malenfant, co-founder of game studio Ready At Dawn (RAD) got interviewed by the folks from GamesIndustry recently and a lot was revealed regarding RAD's new project, the studio's plans to develop for next-gen consoles, and his take on where the PSP is at the moment.

When asked if the PSP platform has lived up to his expectations, Malenfant emphatically says yes. He says that the PSP is "a great platform" and that they've had a lot of fun with it. At the moment he says that they're very much happy with the way Daxter (their previous title) has done, and they reassure that they're still investing in the platform. Malenfant declares, "We're a single game company and for now that game is on PSP."

Get the rest of the article after the Jump!

UPDATE: By Chris Coker.

You may have noticed that we've updated this article title from "Ready At Dawn Hints That God Of War Is Headed To PSP" to what you see currently. The reason is simple, we just want to make it absolutely clear that we haven't received any sort of official word that God of War is in fact headed to PSP. All we've got in response to our query was the following response: "We haven't announced anything yet but I can tell you that it's really cool and will blow people away. Keep an eye on our website in the coming weeks." In other words, let's not get too carried away with excitement, whatever RAD's got cooking, you can bet it's going to be something special, Kratos be damned.

Original Article:

We have just received word from Ready at Dawn's CEO, Didier Malenfant, concerning the rumors that smash hit God of War is making its way to the PSP, and it has got me jumping out of my shoes already. Whether the game is God of War or another title for the PSP has yet to be fully determined, but with David Jaffe and Ready at Dawn promising great titles, I'm pretty confident in God of War ending up on my PSP shortly.

When asked by QJ whether or not God of War will be headed to the PSP, Mr. Malenfant replied, "We haven't announced anything yet but I can tell you that it's really cool and will blow people away. Keep an eye on our website in the coming weeks."

Most of us are probably aware of the previously sparked rumors of God of War appearing on the PSP, but this new one specifically mentions God of War rather than an unknown title. Several months ago, David Jaffe, the man behind God of War on the PS2, announced that he's working on an emotional game for the Playstation Portable.

So, will this PS2 blockbuster make its way onto a platform that seems to lack such games, or is it just another one of those dead rumors that we like to pull out of nowhere? Stay tuned to QJ as we continue to cover this rumor's development until David Jaffe's game is finally announced (cross your fingers for God of War!).

Jak and Daxter, the franchise originally developed for PS2, was one of the streaming video games with almost no load times. Many consider Jak and Daxter right up there with Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie in the platforming genre. Its Daxter engine continued its impressive showing when it appeared on the PSP as Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters.

Ready at Dawn president and co-founder Didier Malenfant announced the company is licensing the engine that powered Daxter to other companies. "The engine could be used to do a wide variety of third and first person games," said Malenfant, "and it would actually produce quite awesome racing games too." But no, the company isn't junking the engine it built. Ready at Dawn said its upcoming title will run on it.