PSP to Get Classic Game Download Service

Krishna Dagli writes to mention an Ars Technica story about a classic game download service for the PSP. It's supposed to work with the PS3 as well, and will at this point mostly consist of old PS1 titles. From the article: "According to Kawanishi, the new service will work either through a PC with a broadband connection, or through the PlayStation 3 itself. The user will be able to download games designed for the original PlayStation 1, which according to the Sony head works well. 'As for emulation power there is no problem,' he said, although he added that some changes have to be made to the games because the PSP only has a single analog stick and fewer control buttons than the PS1. He did not mention which titles would be made available, but he mentioned how Amazon had a list of "all books," indicating that Sony probably wants to put a large number of games on the service."

Re:Sony Innovation

[zarthrag]

I don't know why Sony keeps getting such a hard rap. I haven't seen any of the other game makers providing innovations like being able to download old games.

Nin-ten-do, they're developing this console called the Wii....perhaps you've heard of it?

Re:Sony Innovation

[Manmademan]

i know this was a joke, but Valkyrie profile was just re-released last month on PSP and is quite good. It's also getting a sequel on Ps2 in a couple of weeks.

Very interesting interview

[antifoidulus]

I read the original Japanese interview*(well kinda sorta, I'm not going to pretend my Japanese is good enough to grasp 100% of it, but I did get the gist of what he was saying). He goes on and on about whether or not the network will be able to handle all the data and states that they are compressing cd audio and whatnot to get the file size down. However, he didn't seem to address the fact that people's memory sticks are at most 1 gig. Are they going to be able to squeeze all that content onto a memory stick?

At any rate, the emulator was only a small part of the interview. Most of it focuses on the interaction between the PS3 and PSP. He went so far as to say that the PS3 will be like a home server and the PSP will be like a PDA/cell phone. He even said that users would store their movies on the ps3 and then could download the ones they want onto the psp. He also dismissed PC emulation but started talking about cell phones again.

In fact, he talked a lot about cell phones and how he envisions the future of portable media. So much in fact the interviewer asked him if he thought it would be possible to combine psp and cell phone technology and his answer was that "I think that is one possibility"(again rough translation). So I guess we won't be surprised if a few years down the road we see a psphone.

120 MB of game and the rest compresses nicely

[tepples]

they are compressing cd audio and whatnot to get the file size down. However, he didn't seem to address the fact that people's memory sticks are at most 1 gig. Are they going to be able to squeeze all that content onto a memory stick?

A lot of games for PlayStation used either Red Book CD audio, which compresses by about 11:1 when converted to a 128 kbps ATRAC stream (where the sound effects cover up any lingering artifacts), or XA ADPCM audio (especially in Capcom games), which compresses by about 3:1, or VAG audio (especially in Konami's Dance Dance Revolution series), which also compresses by about 3:1. These games had 120 MB or less of data and the rest was streaming music.

Re:and the sound you hear are the crickets....

[be-fan]

1) Total. The DS has sold 22m units, the PSP has shipped 20m units. Hence the 10% off bit.

2) The "shipped" vs "sold" distinction is one I've heard before, and one that reaks if idiocy. Do you know how expensive it is to keep unsold inventory around? There are entire classes management folks take on how to avoid standing inventory. Moreover, its not like Walmart will order more PSPs (causing the shipped count to increase), before it sells the ones it has. Thus, the number of units shipped should be very close to the number of units sold.