Sony announce PlayStation Store, PlayStation framework for Android | Hacker News Reader

Sony announce PlayStation Store, PlayStation framework for Android

engadget.com

19 pointsajg197713 comments

> Sony just dropped a bomb on the Japanese stage

"Someone set up us the bomb"

"We get signal... main screen turn on"

Hello gentlemen, all your games are belong to us.

I think smartphones are currently too limited for gaming. You can create some touchscreen/accelerometer based games, but still I think a resistant D-Pad and two buttons should be mandatory for phones, or maybe if Android would add support for attaching a real(preferably smaller) controller... that would be an improvement.

I don't think hardware speed is an issue for mobile gaming anymore though.

The billions of dollars smartphone game developers make disagree with you. I can't find exact numbers but a quick Google session reveals that total console game sales ($11-12 billion) are not far ahead of mobile game sales (a significant portion of total mobile app sales, estimated to be around $5 billion).

Given the rate smartphone sales and smartphone app sales grow, I don't think it will take a long time until mobile game sales with overtake console game sales.

I didn't imply they are not making money, I didn't even touch the financial side of this, I just said that the lack of "proper" game controllers is a limiting factor, which should be addressed.

> Given the rate smartphone sales and smartphone app sales grow, I don't think it will take a long time until mobile game sales with overtake console game sales.

I don't think we will see that anytime soon, you won't get big screen experience from mobile phones that you can get from playing on your favorite console on a Full HD screen.

I take it you haven't seen the PlayStation Phone, http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/26/sony-ericsson-xperia-play...

I have seen that that's what I am talking about, it will be fun to play games on that phone because it has a nice controller, however not all Android 2.1+ Phones come with that, that is why I don't think this will be a hit until they manage to solve this problem on all phones.

This is a solved problem, although I'm sure there's lots of space for improvement. Google for "android bluetooth game controller". It does mean you're carrying two devices around, but you can go for the PSPhone if that bothers you.

Sony says the next-generation PlayStation Portable will be compatible with games developed for PlayStation Suite right off the bat.

Also, I think these PlayStation Suite games require proper buttons, either virtual on-screen or real. So, these games could also be played on PS3 as well. Sony looked at what MS did with Wp7+Xbox and took it one step further.

So, I hope, games developed for PS suite could run on PS3+PSP2+PSPhones!

Good for Sony, but not so good for Android as it's becoming even more fragmented.

Eh, you say "fragmentation", I hear "choice".

You assume that every addition doesn’t disturb the others. If Android gaming can cluster around the Playstation brand (assuming it’ll be available on non-Sony hardware) then this could start clearing up the market.

By that logic, iOS is fragmented because there are over 200,000 apps available, most of which duplicate functionality available in other apps.

Too little, too late.

Nah, I don't think so, if only because it's still really really early in the mobile revolution. But this is really big for Android devices (that support the spec...) for three other reasons:

1) It gives them a huge library of premium titles. There are a lot of really good PSP titles which blow most iOS games out of the water.

2) It gives Android a premium, curated, and branded app store.

3) It should vastly cut down on device compatibility issues for developers. There's still going to be multiple devices (and resolutions), but at least you know a "PlayStation Certified" device will meet a certain minimum requirement.

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