The PSP has certainly had its fair share of terrible games in the past (Family Guy and The Con come to mind), and it was something that held the system back in the eyes of the general public. The software seems to have turned a corner, and it’s mainly because Sony is leading the charge with excellent portable versions of their first party offerings. The surprising thing is that the developers of these games aren’t the same ones that handle the console versions, which means Sony is likely keeping a close eye on development and guiding its progress.

Sony’s first party games for the PSP have really begun to hit their stride. Daxter was universally regarded as a by-the-books but well put-together platformer; Syphon Filter was the stealth title on the system until Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops came out, and God of War: Chains of Olympus could have passed for a PS2 sequel if the polygon count was slightly higher. The better the games are, the better they perform at retail. The system is cleaning up in Japan, even outselling the mighty DS for the last few months. Of course, the system’s multimedia capabilities and Monster Hunter are to thank for this as well.

In fact the SOCOM games performed so admirably, with the second iteration logging insane numbers online according to EGM, that Sony has given the PS3 version (SOCOM: Confrontation) to Slant Six Games instead of series originator Zipper Interactive. Ready At Dawn Studios (Daxter and God of War: CoO) has made enough of a name for themselves that they’ve moved on to other projects, like porting Okami to the Wii. These titles show that Sony seems to have a knack for finding talented unknown or newly formed studios to develop games for them, and the company has been getting nothing but fantastic results.

It’s possible that Sony has been guiding the development of these games, similar to how Nintendo did with Retro Studios during the development of Metroid Prime. Even if that’s the case, they’re doing themselves a favor in the long run. The better trained these young development companies are the better the results are going to be. Slant Six is now on SOCOM, what’s to stop them from putting Ready At Dawn on a new God of War someday? After seeing what they did with Chains of Olympus, it might not be such a bad move.

Sony’s on the right track with the PSP – the better the games get, the better the system’s reputation will get in turn. As long as the small developers keep producing quality handheld versions of large Playstation franchises, both the system and the developers will continue to gain steam.