Despite a recent wave of pretty negative news on the PSP front, which was punctuated by the departure of one of the system’s best developers, Rebellion’s Chris Kingsley sees things a bit differently.  Rebellion is responsible for a number of PSP titles including Gun: Showdown and Bond:From Russia With Love.

Speaking with Gamesindustry.biz, Kingsley explained his take on why the PSP seems to be tripping up at the moment.  In regards to developers, “Well, you know what people are like, they all like to work on the flashy, high-end stuff.” He adds, “But there’s still very good business to be done on the less glamorous platforms - look at PlayStation 2, it’s still selling bucket-loads of consoles and bucket-loads of games, though they’ve got to be the right games for the right platform.”

He also echoes a personal belief of mine as to why the PSP doesn’t look like it’s doing as well as it really is, “It’s funny…I guess the PSP has also been a bit in the shadow of the DS, but the PSP is incredibly successful…but I guess that the DS has been a super-amazing platform.”

“I think the PSP is a great little platform, it’ll be interesting to see what will come out next. I think it’s got a good few years left in it still,” Kingsly notes, and I would tend to agree with that statement as well.  With Japanese sales of the PSP climbing at a staggering rate I think it’s just a matter of time (and a price drop) before the same thing happens on western shores.  Games like Patapon and Locoroco are the perfect showcases for the system.  They’re not terribly taxing on the hardware but they still look amazing and have the freshest gameplay you’re likely to find on a handheld.

I do, however, think it’s going to be harder than ever to take the spotlight away from the Nintendo DS.  The DS has such a ridiculous install base at this point that every single IP in the known universe is likely to see a DS iteration before it’s all said and done.