Developers working on PlayStation Portable titles will have to ensure that their games don"t over-tax the battery on the device or risk falling foul of Sony"s technical guidelines, according to sources working on games for the system. Draft guidelines sent to developers, which will eventually evolve into the technical requirements checklist (TRC) for the system, are alleged to include a demand that games should not exceed a certain level of power consumption.
This apparent response to concerns over the battery life of the system - which is quoted as around 10 hours for music and two hours for movie playback - places the problem firmly in the developers" court. Sony apparently intends to include a "battery emulator" as part of the PSP development tool set, which will evaluate the projected battery use of a game over an extended period of play. Titles are likely to be judged based on how many hours of play a single battery charge can provide.