Playstation Portable, meet the Personal Computer

I’m going to be frank – I’ve wanted one of those Playstation Portables since they were released a couple of years ago. Even though they didn’t have the touch capabilities of the DS, they had a huge advantage over the DS in the graphics and computing capabilities department. Heck, it could play music on its native firmware (with the DS, you’ll need an R4 chip). Not to mention it’s “wow” factor compared to the DS, which seems more “juvenile” in contrast. The only thing holding me back was that I didn’t have a PS3, but a Wii. Looks like that won’t matter anymore (officially, but if you downgraded your firmware, then you always had this option).

The Playstation Network has officially expanded to the PC, making full versions of PSP games and some PSOne games downloadable. Yep, this means you can have one game in the UMD drive, and several others stored in the flash drive (great for trips). However, only two games are available in their full versions at the launch of the Playstation Network on the PC – Siphon Filter: Contract Ops and Wipeout Pure, 67.5mb and 156mb respectively. It’s $10.99 for Siphon Filter and $15.99 for Wipeout Pure, which seems pretty cheap compared to the UMD games available for the PSP (of which I saw ranged from $24.99 to a heftier $39.99).

Didn’t I mention something about PSOne games? I certainly did, dear reader. No worries, if you run out of PSP games to download, there are still a dozen PSOne games available for you – for a price of a measly $6.99, you can configure them to run both on your PS3 or your PSP. Sounds like Microsoft and Sony are bringing the older generation back, just like Nintendo (sorry, had to rub it in).

This does raise a few issues though – will the quality of the games be deplorable, or will they possess the same quality as the UMD disks? Also, as they are stored on the flash memory stick, will there be differences in speeds, or will the PSP be able to compensate? Lastly, will the trend of downloadable games catch on, or will the whole expansion of the Playstation Network be in vain?

All we can do is wait and see. I can see the promises of such technology, although illegally speaking, it was available a lot earlier than it was officially. I must add, however, that it’s great to see Sony embracing such technology as I think it’s a unique way to do things. And with that said, I take my leave, and bid you adieu.