Sony mulling downloadable PS2 content; how about DSD content

Yuri · Joined: 28 Aug 2007 Posts: 162

According to this article, Sony is contemplating releasing downloadable PS2 games for PS3. The main thing that appears to be holding them back is the fact that of course not all PS3 models are PS2-compatible currently.

I was wondering why they're not releasing SACD content for download. After all, all PS3 models, even the ones that cannot read SACD discs (because they lack the circuitry for dealing with the copy protection) can handle DSD. Of course they may have to add some software to enable playing such content from HDD. Perhaps they even need to modify some standards to allow multichannel to be contained in such files, considering DSD Disc format currently does not support 5.1, only stereo.

Even more straightforward might be to release music in high-resolution/multi-channel PCM. Like the wipEout HD soundtrack for instance, but then stand-alone instead of embedded in a game.

There is already a lot of content (well over 5,000 SACDs) that could easily be published and sold this way. Admittedly, a large part of that is classical which may not fit very well with the target group that is PS3 owners, but a lot more content could be expected to become available because this scheme would drastically change the whole economics of high-res multichannel music.

Brandon B · Joined: 14 Oct 2007 Posts: 392

If they started using classical tracks in games, and then sold them as "Theme from Bloodshower V!", etc. I bet they could move them to the gamer crowd. Laughing

Yuri · Joined: 28 Aug 2007 Posts: 162

There's another interesting article in Kotaku this week about Sony's plans to expand PSN into an all-encompassing network for a wide range of Sony products. The slide shows a BD player, eReader, Walkman and laptop besides a PS3 and PSP, plus music and (e)books in addition to games and movies.

http://kotaku.com/5408411/sony-aims-to-create-all+encompassing-online-service-out-of-psn

This week's announcement of downloadable (Japanese Manga) comics for PSP also fits into this picture.

Surely with a proprietary platform and infrastructure it must be feasible to offer high-resolution music in a secure way? And with such an addressable market -- 33 million PSN users thus far, and that's just the PlayStation owners -- this must look like an attractive business?