Sony has introduced the first titles for its PlayStation downloads service and the company is expecting to add additional titles later this month as well. Each game so far is priced at $5.99. For the time being these are only playable on the PSP, however.
The much talked about PlayStation download service has finally made its debut. By logging on to the PlayStation Store, PS3 owners can now choose from an initial five PS1 games, each $5.99: Cool Boarders, Crash Bandicoot, Hot Shots Golf 2, Syphon Filter, and Tekken 2.
Currently, in order to play these games you will also need a PlayStation Portable. After downloading a PS1 game, you can then hook up your PSP to your PS3 and transfer the game (assuming you have enough space on your memory stick). The largest game so far is Tekken 2, coming in at a hefty 535MB. It should be noted that the multiplayer functionality in these titles will not work, because the old code has not been modified to support Wi-Fi.
Sony said that a second batch of PlayStation titles is already being planned for release later this month, and additional first and third-party titles will be added "on an ongoing basis."
"Downloadable PlayStation emulated games on the PSP is just the beginning, but it underscores our vision for leveraging the wide breadth of content that's available from the PlayStation brand, and delivers value to gamers well beyond the initial purchase of their PS3 and PSP," said Peter Dille, senior vice-president product marketing of SCEA. "We built every system with a hard disk drive and offer every customer free access to the PlayStation Store so they can experience the full extent of the PlayStation library. We'll offer additional PlayStation games to the PlayStation Store on a regular basis."
Sony has previously told us that the PlayStation downloads will also be playable directly on the PS3 itself, so that is something we can probably expect in the near future. Moreover, this service is not meant to replace the PSP downloads site, so if you do not own a PS3, eventually you should be able to download PS1 titles directly to the PSP or from a PC and then transfer them over to the PSP.
via GameDaily