Movie downloads to PS3, PSP not far away

Mike Bantick
Monday, 16 July 2007 06:42

Your IT - Entertainment

At the E3 Media and Business Summit, Sony rolled out a slimmed down PSP.  This started tongues wagging about what else could happen with the PSP, well it seems that movie downloads are just over the horizon.

In an interview with Gamasutra this weekend past, senior VP of marketing for PlayStation Peter Dille dropped a few hints about online video content for PS3 and PSP.

"I think what might convince (people who haven’t picked up a PSP) would be the advent of a service that allows them to put content onto the PSP in an easier fashion," said Dille. "There’s been a lot of speculation about when we’ll offer our video download service on PSP or PS3, and I think that could be more of a killer application to get people off the fence."

No specific announcements were forthcoming, Sony seem to be more wary of producing too many details too early now. From the article; "We didn’t have any announcements about that at the show, but what I can tell you is we’re working on it, we see that it’s critical, not just for PSP but also for PS3, and it’s something we know is super important to get right."

"We won’t have a second chance to make a first impression," Dille confessed, "If we launch it and it’s not right, we’re going to get creamed. So we want to make sure we get the consumer experience right, get the right content, and we’re working really hard on it. And I don’t think we’re talking about years, I think this is something we could get behind really soon."

A download service like this is will further distinguish the PSP from its handheld rival (well in perception at least) the Nintendo DS.  Although we don’t see the similar Microsoft Xbox Live Marketplace service in this country (Australia) it will be interesting to compare with whatever Sony proposes.  Having the PSP involved distinguishes Sony from Microsoft in this regard also.

It could be a winner for Sony, we wait with interest on further details.