While we’re all thrilled to see Google throw a new coat of paint onto the Linux kernel, there are, in fact, other things going on Out There, like, say, the quickly evolving PSP. Yesterday’s exotic rumor suggested that Sony is working on a full-fledged PSP2, a system with Xbox1-level graphics. Today I spy an interview with a Sony so-and-so that attempts to explain the company’s rationale for the PSP Go, how PSN compares to XBL these days, and so forth.
The highlights (kids today only have attention spans for highlights):
• Again, the PSP Go isn’t meant to replace the PSP-3000; not everyone in the world has access to broadband, and some people just like having physical media.
• The plan is to have every game from here on out available digitally (via the PSN or store-bought download cards… not every 16-year-old can use his father’s credit card to buy stuff online).
• Yes, Sony wants to bring as many PSOne games to the PSN as it can.
• A PS3 download service is a little harder to pull off than the Xbox 360 download service for the simple reason that PS3 games come on Blu-ray discs while Xbox 360 games are DVD-like. It’s harder to download, and store, 50GB than it is to download and store 9GB.
• Sony thinks PSN isn’t as “behind” XBL as it was, say, two years ago.
• There’s no plans yet for HD video/movie streaming on the PS3
Fix the lame browser included with the PS3 first then we can continue talking about Sony becoming a real contender.
Sony is adrift and lost. They produce great hardware but seem to have lost sight of the overall customer experience.
PSP Go is a huge misstep for Sony, so it doesn’t surprise me rumors are flying of another followup. They are probably the source of leaks for these rumors.
PlayStation 3 and PSP are the ultimate gaming system. Where else can you get free online play that works perfectly the easier interface ever made and the best graphics unrivaled exclusives perfect hardware and software quality. Blu-ray support for real HD lovers. A store full of must have content PlayStation Home and free usb charger with every ps3 and remote play with psp for just $399.99 we truly are getting the best treatment Sony rules all also we got full linux support. Also we get a hard drive with every console. We are just perfect. our internet browser is great.
I love this.
The way this actually does relate to Chrome is it shows how far behind Sony is in software.
Chrome OS is just HTML 5 on a Unix core. It’s the very least you can do. This has been part of the Mac for years, part of the iPhone since day one, and is part of the Palm Pre and other modern smart phones. Almost all of the software you need to implement this is free and open source. Google and Palm both use Apple’s browser engine, for example.
Every Sony product that is a computer should have an HTML 5 browser. There’s just no excuse. WebKit is like 5 MB of open source code and it enables you to run the whole Web.