Sony Opens PSP Store on the PC

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Sony has opened up a new downloads store for the PlayStation Portable. Store.playstation.com interfaces with your existing PSN network id, and will allow purchase and download of games, trailers, and demos to your Sony handheld. The company is already clarifying that this 'won't kill the UMD format', and that this is just an alternative method to obtain content. Darren Carins, head of online marketing for SCEE, was quoted as saying "The UMD business is still good for us and our publishers. It's still a burgeoning market, and we're still selling a large number of PSPs on a weekly basis, so there are a large number of new people coming into the market. I don't think that this would give us any cause for concern over UMD, I think they sit very well together. When you talk about the more casual games, pick-up-and-play games, you would definitely want to put them through the Store rather than have disc production, in to retail, and so on."

Eliminates need for PS3 to buy PSP content.

[Devir]

What t hey're doing is not a kill to UMD. It's to allow people to purchase, d/l and store PSP content on the PC instead of forcing consumers to invest in a PS3.

In all it is a good marketing move to foster more consumer trust and allow some consumer choice.

In the future more PSOne games will be available for the PSP download service. Some are very large (FF7-9) and would require considerable space for permanant storage.

UMD disks hold 1.8 gigs of data. The MEmory Stick the PSP uses holds 4 gigs max at $50-80 per card. It's simply not cost effective to replace UMD with these "yet". It you could d/l PSP games directly to the memory stick you could fit 2-3 games. Even at a discounted price, we're breaking even, or exceeding cost of the UMD.

THe benefit though, is you have fast game read times, fast write, and a smaller footprint than the UMD disks. A basic cary case could now hold 10-20 memory sticks each holding roughly 2 games giving you the capacity to store roughly 40 games in a small cary case, versus the 4 UMD disks current travel cases can carry. Added benefit is your save games can be stored directly on the memory stick with the game.

Ok after some thought, eliminating UMD altogether is a good idea "if" they lower memory stick prices considerably.

Faster load times, bigger storage capacity (4 gigs vs UMD 1.8) directly writable, not affected by scratches, smaller... it's just all good.

Either way you read it, demise of UMD, boost to memory stick, elimination for the need of a PS3... It's a good move on Sony's part. Pipe dream, but maybe they're becoming more consumer friendly.

Re:Almost There

[DaTFooLCaSS]

Why Worry about a brick? Pandoras Battery Solves it all!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/23/pandoras-battery-hack-promises-to-unbrick-all-bricked-psps/ [engadget.com]

Re:Eliminates need for PS3 to buy PSP content.

[sanosuke76]

Don't forget battery life. It costs more electricity to spin the disc than to read the memory card, which translates directly into longer battery life for memory stick based titles.