PSP World

PSP-PS3 Increased Future Integration Planned

The PS3 will be still relevant a decade from now. So says Dave Karraker, Sony America's senior director of corporate communications. In an interview with our friends at Kill Zone Unit, Karraker said, "We have always been a technology-driven company, focusing on building systems that stand the test of time and don’t get abandoned after just five years. We have taken some grief over that recently, with people saying we “over-engineered” the PS3. But, ten years down the road, when the PS3 is still relevant, people will look back and say that we made the right decision to include so much forward-looking technology in the box."

This is significant as the consoles generally last around six years, and considering the PS2's record, there may well be some truth in Karraker's words.

Karraker also made some loose non-committal statements regarding future XMB features such as messaging, and the inclusion of rumble to the SIXAXIS. Although not a firm commitment, it's still promising.

"We are currently in discussions with Immersion on how we can incorporate their technologies into our products. No word on when that will happen.....We are still just scratching the surface of what we hope to do with the XMB and the PlayStation Network. Rest assured we are listening very carefully to gamers and are investigating ways to implement the features they really want. I think you saw this most recently with the implementation of background downloading from the PlayStation Store."

There was discussion on the future of the PSP including PS3 and PSP integration. Considering the trend in device convergence it is more than likely Sony will want to increase the level of current integration between the two devices.

"We just announced the price drop on PSP which saw a really good bump in sales. We have also announced that we are looking to launch the entertainment download service this year, in addition to God of War coming to the platform. Thanks to Remote Play and the direct wi-fi connection, PS3/PSP integration is something developers can take advantage of right now. I would think as we start looking at this next generation of software you will see more and more game makers taking advantage of it."

Please visit www.killzoneunit.com for the full interview.