PSP To Have PS2 Connectivity, No Shovelware Conversions?

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing Sony's confirmation that its forthcoming PSP portable will feature connectivity with the PS2 home console. According to remarks from Sony's Fumiya Takeno: "This feature would allow games to be played on the home systems, with save games being moved to the PSP so that play could be continued on the handheld system - exploiting the fact that the PSP's hardware is broadly similar in specification to the PS2." Although "...it is known that porting code from the PS2 to the PSP is extremely easy", it's also been confirmed that Sony "..is placing a heavy emphasis on the development of new titles for the PSP, rather than the porting of existing PS2 software", meaning the company is likely to be harsh in the approval process regarding 'shovelware' PS2 conversions.

Comments

Innovative Goodness :)

[polyp2000]

The main crux of this statement, for me is the heavy emphasis on developing new titles for PSP. I dont think Sony are ruling out some ports, as what would be the point in having memory cards/game-saves transferable to the PS2.

However, It is about time we saw more original and new games out there. I am of the Sony faithful crowd. But of late most games are NG ports of things that have come and gone before. To a certain extent this can be said for most consoles. Although stuff like monkey-ball shows the GameCube to be a ground for fresh ideas.But i shouldnt forget Socom and EyeToy :) My preference for dark and disturbing games keeps me with PS2.

I think that its a good idea for Sony to push innovation card a bit more because the games/console market is getting saturated with half-assed ports released on all 3 consoles. Two's company, Three's a crowd so to speak! Id certainly like to see more single platform licenses out there. Right now there is little difference in any of the three consoles where new games are concerned. Its mainly brand loyalty that joe average uses to choose a console. Having a killer app/must have game available only on PSP, is the thing that will get those units sold en masse!

Nick

That's spiff.

[josh glaser]

Lets hope they make better use of connectivity then Nintendo seems to be doing. Even in games where connectivity is required for each player, it doesn't seemed used very well...you use the GBA to manage your items! Ooh! I'm sure the PSP/PS2 link will be more successful, as those systems are of comparable power, and the PSP could run ported games. However, you'd have to buy two copies of the same game, which people might not want to do.

Re:That's spiff.

[DeadScreenSky]

But that problem is more because Square-Enix chose not to design an effective interface for such things. You could easily do a minimal transparent item changing interface to pop up in the corners (one for each player) of the screen, for example. You could even just shrink the main screen view for a little bit instead, allowing the game to still be played by others. Sure, it wouldn't be as immediately intuitive as the current interface, but that really doesn't matter in a game that is intended to be played for quite some time. And it would be easier to see what is still going on in the game. A nice quick tutorial should be more than enough, considering how basic the RPG system aspects are anyway. The better control ergonomics alone would make it a great tradeoff.

Re:controller

[chrismcdirty]

With one key difference... the gaming media thinks it's new and exciting! Where Nintendo "hasn't gone" or has done badly, Sony will triumph!

I'd like to see it not get filled up with a bunch of shovelware. That's what they say now, but I'm sure it'll be given rehashes out the wazoo.