Sony Computer Entertainment continues to expect great things from the PlayStation Network, relying on their gaming network services to help the division return to profitablity. The PSN launched after Xbox Live, but PSN Operations director Eric Lempel believes their service is finally pulling ahead of Microsoft's popular online platform:
"I don't think there's a lot of 'catch up' [with XBL] anymore. In some cases, I think we've got more, and we've got some other things they don't have. In terms of strengths, of course we're still free, and we're giving you a lot for free. It's not just free online gaming, but we've got PlayStation Home, which is a massive community and application that's totally free to use."From my perspective, we have our own strategy and we've always been building our roadmap and saying here's what comes next; I think you've seen PSN has evolved tremendously since we've launched."
That said, Sony does not yet have plans to introduce HD streaming video for the PSN. Lempel cites quality concerns, selection of newer releases, as well as the need to keep things free on PSN as main reasons for their hesitation to embrace up to 1080p streaming video.
Sony will continue to bank on gaming for the PSN's success, and in this regard Lempel is pleased with the headway the company has made since the service launched. Around 45 percent of the catalogue of digital download titles are exclusive to PSN, and Lempel believes this is a result of developers leveraging the HD capabilities of the PS3. Lempel concedes that Sony won't be able to offer back-catalogue PS3 games for download through PSN, due to the sheer size of some of the titles which (in Sony's view) necessitated the Blu-ray media format.
The PSN graces the PlayStation Portable platform as well, and here Lempel exols the virtues of reducing the price of the PSP development tools. With regards to the new PSP Go which exclusively supports digital download titles, the goal is to make select PSP titles available online for download over the PSN day and date with their UMD retail releases.
When pressed with comparisons to Apple's iPhone and its increasing popularity with gamers thanks to the App Store, Lempel believes iPhone users tend to be more forgiving with the free (and almost free) titles available for the platform. SCE doesn't see the iPhone as a serious "gaming-centric device", and they expect the device's users to feel the same way. Shorter, quirkier games are not discouraged for the PSN, but Sony is hoping to they won't take away from the console gaming focus of the PSP platforms.
While we can't expect the PSN store to look much like the Apple App Store's game catalogue anytime soon, the PSP Go was designed to better accomodate the "casual" gaming demographic through PSN downloads. It will be interesting to see how the PSN-exclusive software lineup evolves.
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