This. This is what we want. Well, not Okami specifically, just the idea of it, where we can walk into a store, pick up a game and know it spans the divide between three PlayStation consoles.
We don't want mere re-releases. Or simple remakes. We want Sony to make good on its retreat from the realm of backwards compatibility and open up the PlayStation 2's immense library to a world of new consumers, many of whom may have missed out on some of the last decade's best games.
What we want (and have illustrated here) isn't an NGP game. Or a PS3 game. It's a PlayStation game, one that's able to do two things: leverage the power of Sony's upcoming NGP handheld and the convenience of the PlayStation Network to not only bring back the classics, but let us take them wherever we want, whenever we want.
Open up this box and you would, were our dreams coming true, find a code. Sure, you could also buy it online, but box art is sexier. And that code will allow a user to redeem a digital copy of an old PlayStation 2 game. That copy, once purchased, is then tied to the user's PlayStation network account, and allows it to be transported between devices.
If you want to download it on your PlayStation 3 and play it there, go ahead. If you want to download it on your NGP and play it there, go ahead. And, more importantly, if you want to download it on one and transfer it to the other, including your current save game progress so your game can literally follow you out the door, well, go ahead and do that too.
When Sony removed backwards compatibility from PlayStation 3 consoles in 2007, it was only a matter of time before that feature returned as a commercial venture. With the power of the NGP and the capabilities of the PlayStation Network, now is as good a time as any to make that move!
And that's just talking about PS2 games. Old stuff. There's no reason we couldn't, or shouldn't, be able to do the same thing with certain new (albeit low-fi) PlayStation 3 games. At the bare minimum surely many PlayStation Network titles would be able to run on Sony's new handheld.