Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has been asking PSP users what it thinks about, you know, a possible comic book store. The store would be accessible from the PSP, and users would be able to download ‘em to their portable device. This here video, highlighted by some of Joystiq’s spies, shows what the store could look like.
Sony seems most concerned with how it’d price the comics—a la carte, or subscription-based? (My votehttp://www.crunchgear.com/wp-admin/post-new.php is for a la carte; I’m not “into” comics enough to want to subscribe to any type of service, but I wouldn’t be allergic to paying for a big like Killing Joke every once in a while.
In any event, keep in mind that this is SCEE’s doing, and could end up being a Europe-only venture. (Look how much stuff the Japanese PSP has that we don’t.)
That is all.
If they want to seriously compete with free, p2p distributed comics they should include lots of free content, like easy access to the world of excellent webcomics. This should be a no-brainer – the authors benefit from a new distribution medium and Sony gets a bigger draw for their new service.
The device is easily capable of viewing comics – in terms of features the PSP is practically on par with Apple’s iPhone, it lacks only cellular broadband and an open SDK… and a touchscreen I suppose, but you can go a long way with just buttons and an easy interface.