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PSOne on PSP's Missing Potential
Written by Philip Jones on Monday, March 19, 2007
We're not quite ready to completely write off Sony's PS3-enabled 'PSOne on PSP' initiative, but it's clear that the service is severely lacking. Philip Jones has theory about what might be going on at Sony-land...
You might have noticed that recently, the people who brought us the PSP have recently spurted out into the world the black slab that is the PS3. Now I could go on with the usual anti-Sony banter that accompanies 99% of all current reporting on practically anything related to the black behemoth. Or I could make an attempt at being positive about the prospects of the machine's relationship with the PSP. Hmmm... This could be difficult.
You see, here at Modojo, you could say we were quite excited about the prospect of being to download PSone games onto our PSP's via the PS3 network store. Just think! Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo etc. All in your sweaty palms, running off a memory stick nestling deep within the belly of your portable friend. We talked about what games we'd like to see appear available to download, drool emanating from our slack-jawed mouths while we daydreamed about playing our favorite games anywhere.
So, what happened to the glorious dream? Along came the launch of the PS3 and the opening of the store. Behold the great titles! Cool Boarders, Crash Bandicoot, Hot Shots Golf 2, Syphon Filter, and Tekken 2! Excuse me? Way to launch the service guys. While by no means a selection of awful games, you can't help but think that they're just a bit.... meh. Tekken 2 for instance, is probably the game in the series I played the most, so yeah it's a classic but most people are going to look at it and say "durrr why would I buy this when i can get Dark Resurrection?"
Likewise with Hot Shots Golf 2 and Syphon Filter having both received PSP updates. Since the initial launch we've seen a few new titles appear, Jet Moto and Rally Cross, a pair of reasonable racing titles. The other newcomers Wipeout and Medievil though, also have shiny new PSP versions! Only the addition of Jumping Flash, a personal favorite from back in the day, gives me any real joy deep in my loins.
They seem to have gotten the idea all wrong! Shouldn't a service like this be used to give us a portable experience that we didn't have before? What's going on! Where are the classics? It's been a good four months since launch, which I know, isn't a great deal of time but look how many games Nintendo have cranked out onto their Virtual Console service within the same timeframe. The lack of titles wouldn't appear to have anything to do with the complexity of getting the games running on the PSP, as the hacked PSP-based emulators have proven, any chump can get their old PSOne games running on their PSP. I just don't fancy going down that route myself, not exactly fancying the idea of a bricked PSP.
What's holding them back then? I have a theory, I reckon... It's those pesky men in suits. There's no doubt complication over rights and payments but the main issue I believe is quite simple. Say for instance they did happen to release Final Fantasy VII over the service, could you imagine the impact it would cause on sales of newly developed RPG's for the PSP? A release of Gran Turismo could kill the need for anyone to buy another racing game ever! You're going to find the large publishers, Square Enix, Konami, Capcom etc. are going to be keeping a firm grasp over their key franchises, making sure they don't interfere with prospective future income.
