PSP2 NGP games sold in shops and via PSN
"We cannot neglect casual gaming on mobile devices."
PSP2 Next Generation Portable games will be sold both in shops and over the internet from the PlayStation Network, Sony has confirmed.
"We have learnt a great deal from our previous experiences and as such will be distributing games both at retail and via the PlayStation Network," president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Andrew House wrote on the EU PlayStation blog.
"We want to give consumers the choice as to how they access the great content available on NGP.
"For the first time on a PlayStation platform, we will be offering a choice of connectivity options – including 3G network support, providing a completely connected experience, fully integrated with PlayStation Network, allowing you to enjoy true social gaming, entertainment on demand and anytime, anywhere communication with your PSN Friends."
Presumably NGP will do a lot of business with PlayStation Store, but it also uses what's called a "new game medium", what Sony calls a small flash memory based card dedicated for NGP software titles.
The card, which takes advantage of the flash memory feature, can store the full software titles plus add-on game content or the game save data directly on to the card.
Meanwhile, Sony announced the PS Suite, an initiative to offer PlayStation quality games on Android devices.
"Casual gaming on multi-purpose mobile devices is a growing market that we simply cannot neglect," House said. "With that in mind, PS Suite is a new initiative to offer PlayStation quality games on Android based portable devices, be it mobile phones, smartphones or tablet PCs.
"By offering a fantastic selection of legacy PlayStation games (PS one classics), alongside content made specifically for PS Suite, we believe that we will be offering the PlayStation experience to a wider base of users."
House said Sony will offer a license program called PlayStation Certified to hardware manufacturers so they can provide devices that optimise gaming.
"We want to give consumers the freedom to choose between various devices when they wish to enjoy a certain piece of PlayStation content," House explained.
"We also realise that PlayStation content should be provided through a secure and unique means, that is both reliable and user friendly. Therefore we also plan to open PlayStation Store to download content on the Android based portable devices. This is a significant move for us and one that we firmly believe will make PlayStation content more accessible than ever before."
