PS1 downloads for PSP this year

August 21st, 2006, 20:56 Posted By: wraggster

News Via CVG

Sony US head honcho Kaz Hirai has said the company hopes to get its download service (including a library of PS1 games) for the PSP up and running before the end of the year, that the PlayStation 3 will be online from launch day one, and has also given a rather lukewarm vote of confidence to the PSP's much-maligned UMD format.

In an interview with GameSpot, Hirai said, when questioned about the vaunted PSP Connect download service: "We are still hard at work on the download service for PSP. And again, we want to make sure that what we're offering is something that we can be happy with as opposed to something that's just put together for the sake of getting something out there as quickly as possible." He was less vague about the accompanying PS1 games download service, though: "The plan is to bring that this year, as close to launch as possible, as we start embarking on our online initiative. Again, the sooner we can bring that, those titles out to the market, the better. Obviously, we certainly are not going to have 1,200 titles come out at once. You also need to realize that some of the games just don't translate well onto a PSP environment, games that require the use of the two analogue sticks, for example."

Talking about the PlayStation 3, Hirai said: "The plan is to take the console online on November 17th as we launch and I also assume as we launch in Japan on November 11th." But when tackled about the growing trend among PSP owners towards downloading entertainment content to Memory Sticks, rather than buying UMDs, Hirai flannelled somewhat: "We see the UMD as really being a delivery medium of entertainment content. And as is the case with PlayStation 3, some things lend themselves better to a delivery medium through online to the memory stick. Other content lends itself better to a pre-recorded medium in the form of a UMD disk. If there are advantages, or for the motion picture companies to take advantage of UMD to deliver their content or music companies to deliver their content on UMDs, that's great. But at the same time, if they perceive another delivery medium, at the end of the day that's all going to help in increasing the installed base of the PlayStation Portable."

It's hardly a ringing endorsement of the world's most proprietary format though. Hirai also carefully reiterated that Sony has no plans to either redesign the PSP or to drop its price, pointing out that the handheld has sold 20 million units worldwide in its first 18 months on the market, 5.2 million of which were shifted in the US alone.

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