last100 » PSP

Sony PlayStation video store coming to the UK, France, Germany and Spain this November

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:57:26 +0000

While the U.S. version launched all the way back in July 08, it’s been a long wait for users across the pond. Along with announcing a new slimmer version of the PS3 and a bunch of other service enhancements, yesterday Sony revealed that the PlayStation video store will be opening its doors to parts of Europe from November this year.

From gamesindusty.biz:

Film companies Lionsgate, Paramount, MGM, Walt Disney, Fox, Universal and Warner Bros have been signed up by Sony, which will result in the delivery of “hundreds of movies straight to your PS3 and PSP,” Sony’s Andrew House has confirmed at the Gamescom Sony press conference in Cologne. These films will be purchasable using the usual wallet system, and the store will be rolled out in other territories throughout 2010.

While Sony will get there in the end — the company was already playing catchup in the games console delivered online video space even in the U.S. — the hold up is likely to be the usual issue of content licensing. Striking deals in one territory doesn’t guarantee speedy success in another.

In related news, Sony also announced that in the UK, the version of the BBC’s iPlayer TV catchup service for the PlayStation 3 will be promoted through the console’s ‘What’s new’ section being introduced as part of a new firmware update.

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Sony considering PSP game rental and music download services

Steve O'Hear — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:34:36 +0000

It’s looks like Sony may finally be getting serious about its download service for the PlayStation Portable (PSP), with the company considering a subscription-based game rental offering and a la carte music downloads akin to the iTunes Store.

The computer games blog Joystiq reports on a survey being carried out by Sony soliciting consumer apatite for an on-demand gaming service whereby PSP owners would pay a monthly fee to access a set number of titles on a rental basis.

You are now going to see a series of different possible rental download services which could be developed by PlayStation. Each service described will provide access to an extensive existing catalogue of PSP games that can be downloaded.

The service will enable you to download a fixed number of games during your subscription period (the subscription might renew weekly, monthly, or some other period), you will be able to change the games you have chosen for the download once your subscription term renews. At launch there will be an extensive catalogue of games to choose from, with more titles being added to the catalogue each month.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated report from CNET, Sony is said to be in talks with at least some of the major record labels about launching a music download service for the PSP (and possibly, PlayStation 3?). If the company does so, it’s likely that the service will embrace an industry standard format, such as the ubiquitous MP3 or AAC, without the use of DRM. This would be inline with both the music industry trend of abandoning copy-protection technology for a la carte downloads, and recent comments from Sony’s CEO Howard Stringer that moving forward the company plans to take a more open approach:

“If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple,” Stringer told Nikkei Electronics Asia recently. “Sony hasn’t taken open technology very seriously in the past. Its Connect music download service was a failure. It was based on OpenMG, a proprietary digital rights management (DRM) technology. At the time, we thought we would make more money that way than with open technology, because we could manage the customers and their downloads.

“This approach, however, created a problem,” Stringer said. “Customers couldn’t download music from any Web sites except those that contracted with Sony.”

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Rumor: New PlayStation Portable betting on Sony PSP App Store

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:12:56 +0000

New PSP mock-up (credit: 1UP.com)

If reports are to be believed, a new version of Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) will ditch the handheld games console’s UMD disc drive in favor of 8GB or 16GB of internal storage. Games would then need to be purchased as downloads rather than housed on physical media, likely locking the PSP’s future software eco-system to Sony’s equivalent of Apple’s iPhone App Store.

From gaming site 1UP:

… since the UMD is going away, Sony will have over 100 classic and new PSP titles available for download at launch (Gran Turismo Mobile is said to be one of the premier launch titles). As for the hardware itself, the redesign will include a d-pad, analog nub, and face buttons as part of a sliding unit sticking out below the screen (as seen in our mockup above).

Furthermore, 1UP speculates that the new PSP could build on features found in Sony’s Mylo 2 Internet device, a product that hasn’t exactly set the world on fire. “This could provide an 800×480 pixel touch screen for the system, as well as a camera on the system’s backside”, suggest the site.

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PlayTV: Sony cripples portable features of its PS3 DVR

Steve O'Hear — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:14:57 +0000

It looks like we jumped the gun in our praise of PlayTV, Sony’s forthcoming DVR add-on for the PlayStation 3. The feature we liked the best, the ability to transfer recordings onto the PlayStation Portable (PSP) or any device that supports MPEG2 playback, appears to have been dropped at the last minute. Instead, users are restricted to streaming live TV or recordings to a PSP over a local network or the Internet, SlingBox-style. And while this is still a neat feature in itself, it renders the device nearly useless for watching recordings on-the-go since the Remote Play functionality of the PSP requires Wi-Fi access.

“With regards to PlayTV, you can not transfer content to your PSP, PC, or memory sticks” a Sony spokeswoman tells The Register.

See also: Video: Sony’s PS3 DVR, PlayTV

Why Sony has limited PlayTV to streaming only, the company isn’t saying. Although it’s likely more evidence of Sony’s content business overriding its technology business in a misguided effort to fight piracy. Whatever the reason, it’s sure to impact sales since it defeats one of the device’s major selling points.

PlayTV will be launched in the UK on 19 September for £70 ($130/€87).

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No PlayStation 3 video store in the UK until sometime next year

Steve O'Hear — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:24:44 +0000

Sony’s launch of its online video store for the PlayStation Network feels like playing catch-up as it is. But for those PS3 owners in the UK or anywhere in Europe, the wait will continue.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe head honcho, David Reeves, has confirmed that the PS3 video store won’t be available to European gamers until sometime next year, reports The Register. While Reeves wasn’t specific, he told attendees at a conference in Santa Monica earlier this week that video downloads through Sony’s online gaming service “will not come to the PAL markets this year”.

The problem is an all too familiar one: the company has to work through country-specific licensing deals with each major studio before any launch dates can be announced.

As we’ve noted in the past, there are many challenges that any company faces to deliver a European-wide online movie service. Not least are the disparate licensing agreements that exist across different countries in Europe, along with the staggered release ‘windows’ imposed by Hollywood which govern when and how new titles can be distributed in the various different formats.

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Sony to open its PS3 and PSP video download service tonight (updated)

Daniel Langendorf — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:28:59 +0000

It’s all the rage: movie and TV show on-demand download services via the Web. Now we can add Sony to the ever-expanding list.

Sony unveiled its own movie/TV show on-demand download service for its PlayStation line of products today at the E3 Media and Business Summit. Sony made a point to note that the service will feature more than Sony-produced content, including movies and TV shows from Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, and Funimation.

The U.S-only service, found through the PlayStation Network, will be live this evening. It’s been long-rumored that Sony was going to open an online video download service.

Standard-definition and high-definition rentals and purchases are available. Standard rentals start at $2.99, with high definition rentals at $5.99. TV shows can be purchased at $1.99 an episode, while movies can be purchased from $9.99 to $14.99.

As with any online video download service, downloads can take anywhere from an hour or more to complete. Sony rentals and purchases will be ready to play, however, after about a minute or two using progressive downloading.

A nice feature of the Sony movie and TV download service is that the content is also portable, meaning it can be legally transferred to a PlayStation Portable via the PlayStation 3 and a USB connection or the computer.

A few more details from the press release:

Disney content: Disney is offering rental only (anything to do with Apple’s Steve jobs, Disney’s majority shareholder?)
DRM: “Sony has also adopted Marlin Digital Rights Management technology, an open industry standard for protecting and managing digital content.”
Rental window: “Consumers who rent a movie from the video delivery service have 14 days to watch the content. Once content playback is started, consumers have a full 24 hours to enjoy their rental”.

Sony now joins everybody else with its own flavor of video download service. Microsoft announced yesterday its partnership with Netflix, which will not be available until later this year; and other online download players include Apple and the AppleTV, Netflix and Roku, Vudu, and the TiVo-Amazon Unbox partnership. Microsoft also has the Xbox 360 Live Video Marketplace.

Photo credit: Playstation blog via Flickr

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Sony’s PS3 DVR PlayTV launch date and price confirmed

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:17:42 +0000

Piece by piece, Sony’s PS3 has the potential to be one of the best, if not the best, media centers on the market.

Ability to stream content from a Windows PC (or Mac) to a television? Check.

DivX support? Check.

Blu-ray player? Check.

USB device support? Check.

Portable integration? Check (via the PSP).

DVR functionality? Announced.

Movie download store? Coming soon.

It’s just that most consumers don’t know it.

Perhaps that will change this September, in Europe at least, when the PS3’s DVR add-on finally goes on sale. Priced at 100 Euros (£80/$160), the PlayTV features twin tuners for DVB-T digital TV, so that users can watch one show while recording another, as well as pause live TV — pretty standard for any modern DVR. Recorded content is stored on the PS3’s internal hard drive, which, at as little as 40GB, could soon fill up. Let’s hope PlayTV will also support external USB drives.

A really nice touch is that recordings can be streamed across the Internet to a synced up PSP, giving PlayTV some SlingBox-like functionality.

All good so far.

There remains, however, one potential deal breaker: It’s not clear if PlayTV can record shows while the PS3 is being used to play games. If that’s the case, then the PS3 could remain confined to being just another games console after all.

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