In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Square Enix's head of operatinal planning Sasaki Michihiro commented on his company's plans for PlayStation Portable, thereby giving the yet clearest hint Square Enix would eventuallly support Sony Computer Entertainment's new handheld platform. At first, Sasaki however voiced criticism by raising the question of whether PSP was a game console or a video walkman. He mentioned that currently he did not understand what Sony intends to do with the platform. That being said, Sasaki continued, his company does intend to support the platform, but still has some questions regarding the business model. So far, Konami, Sega, Namco, Koei, Electronic Arts are among the companies which have announced plans to support the new handheld, referred to by PlayStation mastermind Ken Kutaragi as the "Walkman of the 21st century".

In other handheld-related news, Nintendo's new dual-screen handheld, the DS will receive support from Square Enix and most other large 3rd party publishers as well, according to a list published by Nintendo. Bandai, Capcom, Electronic Arts, Hudson Soft, Koei, Konami, Namco, Sega, Square Enix and Ubi Soft are among the names that can be found on said list.

Overall, both platforms seem to enjoy a rather large interest from developers, as Sony Computer Entertainment America reported at this year's Game Developers Conference that more than 80 companies are working on PSP titles. Nintendo reports having shipped development kits for the DS to more than 100 companies worldwide.

• IT Media
• 1UP