LittleBigPlanet and MotorStorm Coming to PSP

So, you thought the PSP was dead, eh? Or at least living on borrowed time? Not so, says Sony, especially if its recently announced 2009 lineup is any indication. According to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Sony’s Little Handheld That Could will be chugging along uphill in 2009, as some of the most popular titles on its PlayStation 3 big brother get shrunken down for new PSP releases.

“There are a lot of big claims in the gaming industry but we’re confident when we say that 2009 is going to be an exciting year for PSP,” said Mark Hardy, European Marketing Director, SCEE. “Our fans have demanded big PSP titles and this year, we’re going to deliver again and again. With Resistance: Retribution, already on its way to stores, PSP gamers are going to get one big franchise after another.”

According to the release issue this afternoon, two of those “big franchises” are none other than LittleBigPlanet and MotorStorm. Short of the announcement itself, not much was said about LBP’s upcoming PSP debut, other than that the game would “allow players to create their own levels and share them with the community.” And while details on the upcoming MotorStorm PSP release were also scarce, there was a little more info giving on that franchise’s handheld debut. The game, titled MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, takes the racing franchise out of the dirt tracks of the original game and the jungle setting of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and puts gamers in the cold, extreme conditions of an Arctic tundra.

Though no release date was given for either game, short of being listed for 2009, it’s probably a safe bet to assume from the announced details that MotorStorm is probably a little further along in development.