"Sound Novels" headed to PSP
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ May 26th 2005 at 4:42PM }
What's a sound novel, you ask? Exactly that. It's a story told through
text, images, and most importantly, sound. The first sound novel will be released in Japan (7/28) and will feature a
collection of 50 ghost stories. Jitsuwa Kaidan: Shin Mimi Bukuro is a popular franchise that has spread from books to
comics and movies, so it's a suitable test subject for this new PSP media. This first sound novel is also set include a
live-action video of Shin Mimi Bukuro.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sadie @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Brilliant. I thought of this idea recently while I listened to an audiobook that happened to be heavy on effects and was well-produced. It was a very good mystery that Peter Coyote read. Sound novels. Great idea.
Bob @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Nihon-go ga hanasemasen!!!! Baka!
John Opager @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Excellent idea! I guess it's too much to wish for to get the Japanese version here...
I wonder if it's a UMD video or UMD game. If it's video us USA-version PSP owners will be out of luck, right?
And Bob (#2), moshi nihongo wo hanasanai nara, benkyou wo suru no hou ga ii yo. :)
Dmitri @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Lol. Am I the only one who thinks this is just another retarded idea by Sony just to get the bookworms playing the PSP? *tisk tisk*
Sadie @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
The bookworms?! Dmitri, your underachievement is showing.
Eric Pobirs @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
This makes me wonder how well the PSP could do as a pure audiobook player. The screen would be completely off most of the time, saving a fair bit of power but the big obstacle is media. Using modern codecs you can get an immense amount of spoken word material in a small space. You could easily put a combination Stephen King/cinderblock opus on a smallish Memory Stick but a lot of publishers will resist letting people have direct access to the file even with Memory Stick's DRM provisions. So we'd see novels on UMD and have to draw a lot more power. The question would how much highly compressed but good quality spoken word material can we load into memory at a time. The software would be minimal, less than a mugabyte, so we'd have about 30 MB free for buffering. If that gets us at least 15 minutes between periods of UMD drive access, we might be able to get a decent listening period out of one battery charge. If the files from Audible.com are any indicator we can probably get a lot more than 15 minutes. This would be much more interesting to me than using the PSP as a music player.
Gam3rFreak @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
I have to agree with Sadie. This is an BRILLIANT idea. Besides, I love ghost stories. Really looking forward for this!!!!
and can some1 translate those japanese goons(i.e. #2 and #3)
paintist @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
I reaaaaally want to see some good software for the PSP released that will allow ebooks (pdf, txt, chm) to be transfered and used painlessly on the PSP. Currently we have to do some hack by porting images of the ebooks as jpgs and that isn't quite sound.
Hug-me @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
A sample from the book - "Then he walked down the long, dark, narrow street, sensing someone was behind him. Panicking, he started to walk faster, it was still there, tasting his fear it drew nearer. After looking of his shoulder, he stumbled onto the ground.........."
Damn PSP, have to recharge the battery
Scarecrow @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
I think this is a great idea. I know I am in the minority, but I have used my PSP more and more for a media device, (video, audio) instead of a gaming device since I got it. This type of inovation fits well into Sonys plan for a Walkman of the 21st century.
OtakuCODE @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
This isn't even a slightly new phenomena. Titles like this have been coming out in Japan for years. Unless I am remembering incorrectly, there was a Silent Hill Novel game for the GBA before SH3 came out for the PS2. I've always wished that they'd bring these things out over here in America, but there would be no point. People say "I don't read" as if they're bragging. They can't read anything longer than a blog blurb, so they certainly won't be paying money to experience a book on a handheld device when they could be playing Warioware.
(Disclaimer: All comments are based on personal experience and are made in reference to a representative statistical sampling of the population of the USA. Yes, there are exceptions, statistics allows for that. Markets are not built on exceptions because companies can't just make profits any more, thanks to billionaire high-risk investors they have to make 50% more profit than they made the year before or their stock will get dumped.)
Sadie @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
OtakuCODE: That doesn't explain why millions of books are sold every day in America and why American authors (a few who I know personally) make huge advances and royalties for the novels they write. Let alone, the top-notch institutions of higher learning that exist in America where the student population reads constantly. Even the American graphic novels that many Americans gobble up. Or are you just another anti-American dumbass venting his spleen? Honestly, I don't know what it is with some of you jokers. Get past the cliches, and America has the finest artists anywhere in the world, and the population at large is peppered with brilliant people who crave knowledge. Those of you who want to paint Americans in broad strokes are naive and misinformed. End of rant.
Rocketboy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Sadie...someone push your hot-button? You're a sheltered fool if you think that Joe Average is a reader.