Sony sketches downloads-as-standard PSP timeframe
Insists UMD not dead yet
Despite promising earlier this week that downloadable PlayStation Portable (PSP) games will become more commonplace in 2009, Sony executive John Koller has hinted that digital game downloads as standard are still several years away.
Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Koller - Director of Hardware Marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America – said that digital game distribution may not become standardised on the PSP for another three to five years, several online reports state.
“It’s a very fine balance because retail does so much for us that digital maybe can't”, he said. “So different models are floating around and we haven't made a firm decision on that.”
Koller added that, ultimately, consumer preference – rather than technological barriers – will be what decides when games are available to download games as standard on the PSP.
Crucially, he didn’t say that UMD would die as a result. Sony’s still committed to hedging its bets over UMD and digital downloads in the short-term.
Koller’s already promised that gamers will see a “good rise” in the amount of PSP content available through the PlayStation Network in the latter half of this year, but that retail sales – namely UMD – remain of “extreme significance”. ®
COMMENTS
Timeframe is ludicrous
This is an utterly ludicrous timescale that Sony is discussing here. The PSP is already 3+ years into it's life. And yet according to Sony's man it'll be 3-5 years before digital distribution comes of age on it? That's forever in the gaming industry, not to mention the fact that it's already standard in Japan.
Are we in the US so fracking stone age that we can't have the same as the Japanese gamers? Or is it that Sony US is populated by techno-phobic dweebs who would be more comfortable balancing a checkbook than playing a handheld game?
are they serious?
The only way UMD can stay alive is if they used the Blu Ray technology to get 10gb of space on a UMD disk, with read/write function. If they ever did that, MS Duo would be at the 128gb or even 256gb stage by then.
UMD has always been a dead format, I remember buying 4 movies for £10 back in 2006, brand new, the guy who sold them to me said that I was the first person to buy any.... ANY! and this was around april 06 and the PSP came out in the UK back in september 05!?! The guy was giving them away in bundles to people buying the PSP.
Sony are shooting themselves in the foot, once again
