Sony's Lempel: 'You're not going to see trophies on the PSP'

With Sony's Trophy system coming up on its one-year anniversary this month, we were eager to learn how Sony could enhance the service, leveraging the PlayStation brand and distancing itself from the Xbox 360's Achievements system. So, during E3 last week, we asked Eric Lempel – Director of PlayStation Network Operations – when Trophies would make their way to the PSP, newly invigorated by the PSP Go announcement. Lempel said, bluntly, "You're not going to see Trophies on the PSP."

Now, before you curse his name, hear him out, okay? Lempel explains that "there are a few reasons" you won't see Trophies on PSP and, chief amongst them is "keeping it secure." See ... the PSP has been hacked. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. Lempel says that "if people can artificially inflate their rankings and amounts of Trophies" via the PSP on a shared PlayStation-wide Trophy system then it "kills the whole [Trophy] system," PS3 included. So "keeping it secure, keeping it fair" is the best solution – but that means no Trophies on PSP.

And, since the PSP has that same promised 10-year life cycle (as evidenced most recently by the PSP Go) it'll be some time before we get an entirely new (and ostensibly secure) PSP platform upon which a functioning Trophy system might be grafted. See you in 2015!