The porn industry is said to be the hidden hand behind the success of the VHS home video format over the superior Betamax - and it could do the same for Sony's PlayStation 2.

According to Games Business, Vivid Interactive - it's the world's largest purveyor of adult movies, we're told - plans to launch a series of interactive titles specifically for the new platform, courtesy, in part, of its built-in DVD playback functionality.

Actually, Vivid's titles seem, if you will, a little flaccid. The two titles - Interactive Mind Teazzer and Body Parts - are "are puzzle titles in which, upon matching various heads, torsos and legs, users unlock an erotic video striptease". Which is probably all the 'interactivity' the average hairy-palmed Men Only reader can cope with.

Sony is unlikely to be too pleased with the matter - digital smut hardly sits happily alongside the Japanese giant's clean-as-a-whistle corporate image - but there's not a lot it can do. Vivid's titles are really just cleverly constructed DVDs, so don't rely on Sony technology - the PlayStation is simply a well-branded playback device.

That said, "Sony doesn't officially condone [our work], but they're realistic about the adult-entertainment market and are not going out of their way to drive away or obstruct it," Vivid president David James told Games Business.

"The fact that the coding allows you to play our titles on the PlayStation 2 is a bonus from out perspective because it opens our products up to their market. There's nothing Sony can do to stop us."

Or Microsoft, for that matter - Vivid plans to market its interactive DVDs as X-box titles too. ®

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Related Link

Games Business' article is posted on DVD Future