With PlayStation 2 backward compatibility a thing of the past for PlayStation 3 owners, dreams of downloadable last-gen games may seem dashed. Or maybe not. Sony says it's "interested" in offering downloadable PS2 software.
How interested? "Absolutely interested" according to John Koller, director of hardware marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America. He tells GamePro that the company is "still sorting through" the possibility of offering PlayStation 2 games via the PlayStation Store, as it currently does for PSone releases.
Obviously, there are some "technical hurdles" involved, like the ability to emulate PS2 software without the legacy hardware included in early PS3 models. "Nothing's imminent on that," Koller says "but it's something we are interested in as well."
As for matching the Xbox 360's NXE feature set, specifically streaming Netflix movies, Koller and company sound less interested.
"We've concentrated most of our efforts on our download service, both rentals and downloads of movies and TV shows," he says. "Our efforts will continue to be there, because our customers want to own the content."
Shame then, because it certainly sounded like Netflix was interested in bringing its content to the PlayStation 3 at one point.
"There are certainly some positives for the Xbox 360," he explains. "But there's also some confusion. It goes further into the argument of "owning the content."
I don't know. I think many of us have given up on the notion of "owning" anything these days when it comes to digital distribution. I certainly don't feel like I need to own that copy of Hot Tamale I recently streamed.