SCEE appears to be prototyping a new addition to the PSP PlayStation Store. According to our tipster, Sony is planning a service that allows digital comics to be downloaded directly to PSP. Recipients of a survey were asked to watch the above video and help determine a pricing scheme: subscription versus a la carte prices.
PSP has been home to a number of interesting digital comics, most notably the Metal Gear Solid comics. These interactive comics were enhanced with slight animation, music and sound effects. The PlayStation Store currently has one digital comic available for download: The Cryptics, for $2.99.
I'd be interested in comics on PSP if only I had access to the PS Store, and if it came to North America.
A big problem with scrolling around images on the PSP is the slow refresh rate. I think they showed some of that in the video, but it seems like it would be to annoying to have to wait 2-3 seconds every time you moved the page.
They actually offered pretty good pricing schemes in the survey, too. You could download comics for $0.99 an issue, graphic novels at $4.99 an issue, and manga for around the same cost. You'd save dollars off of retail, and carry the comics wherever you went. Pretty cool. :-)
infact id have to dissagree. I think this is a sign that sony DO get it. The psp is all about on the go entertainment, being gaming on the go, music on the go, movies on the go etc. I (and im sure many others too) find a comic store very appealing, and it fits the mantra of the system very nicely. And lets be honest, Its not like its at the expense of games anyway, its not like that big wod of new psp games wasnt announced recently, and its not like theyre writing all these novels, the game devs havnt been pulled off their projects to write graphic novels for crying out loud!
Having a couple of graphic novels on my psp for train and bus journeys is nothing short of appealing.
I agree entirely. I scanned up some of my comics and have some that I downloaded off the internet as .jpegs too. I can't tell you how many times I've read the Doom Comic. But if I had a store where I could pick up, say, Batman or maybe Blame, I would be very pleased. Its the best entertainment for when you are REALLY on the go. (You don't have to go save your game, just read the number at the top of the page.)
I think the media features on the PSP are certainly neat. However I have an mp3 player that does all of this for me already, and I think the PSP as a multimedia device is really unwieldy.
And yes there have been a slew of games announced for the PSP, but they're either all rehashes, or already on the ps3. Which, don't get me wrong, I don't have a ps3 so that's awesome I can finally play little big planet and am chomping at the bit to play the persona remake. The point is this is not original IP specifically designed with the platform's strengths in mind.
And this IS at the expense of games! This has been going on for a loooong time! You are in an abusive relationship! The ps3 is an awesome multimedia device, but remember when the remote play feature was announced? That was in a dearth of good ps3 games. Folding at home? It seems like Sony lives on another planet where if they inject enough non-gaming related uses into their video game systems, they think they can somehow sell more units. Personally I'm waiting for the feature to be able to cook a slice of ham in the blu ray drive.
This is the kind of stuff an industry leader should be doing to keep their customers happy, what Sony needs to be doing is the exact opposite of this, they NEED to sell more ps3s, and less so with the PSP (I think the PSP is doing great), but still true with the psp. Don't get me wrong, all these features certainly are nice, but how about instead, spend all that money used on R&D of these things to start funding a team that could make some awesome games? That would sell more PSP's than a comic book reader.
But truly, how is this a diversion? I mean the store is already there. The ability to view images in the PSP is already there. So tell me how this diverts the attention of Sony away from games? Sony is not about games. They are about enabling companies to promote, produce and sell on their platform. It's not a console any more. None of the current gen systems are "game consoles" any more. Whether you like it or not, the name of the game today is diversity and downloadable content and if you can't see that, you're living in 2005.
and since Joystiq used to not allow more than 3 links per comment and dont want to find it whether it still does or not, here are the other 2 screens of the survey
There some free comics and fan made on the net, i have watched some but it have to be special resolution so text can be redeable and need to be arranged in order because the psp dumbly arrange it by the date last edited i think.
But to fix that i use PSPhoto, is great for moving comic pages in order.
The MGS Digital Graphic novel was very easy to read. I actually can't imagine it being hard, the video above had zoom and panel options. Looked rather natural to me.
I remember reading on Kotaku that manga will also be added for this special comic reader. Do any of you remember reading manga from Seven Sea Entertainment (or gomanga)
Hmm.. I did this survey, didn't 'Daniel and Zack' sign a contract saying that they would be legally attacked if they told anyone at all about this, never mind a popular news group?
and I was then looking towards making it a youtube like site... problem is nobody saw this as a big deal... I couldn't get solid support from anyone to help me witht it, except for it being my senior project: can be found at comiccrowd [dot] com > view test comic
I had big plans, I thought comicspace.com would hire me to build something like this (as they were looking for a software engineer) but never hear back from them until I really pressed them on it.
I went to comiccrowd and i saw that test comic its pretty good i like that better then what zudaonline does. wondering if we can talk about using that I want to create a site using that if you interested contact me @ jaybcorreia[@]yahoo[dot]com and i'll give u a detailed description of my intentions.
Me too, I want to see if Sony can get manga from Viz, Bandai, Del-Rey, Yen Press and other manga publishers. I want to see OEL manga (manga that are not made in Japan) in there also. I was able to read several mangas through my PSP, and I think it's cool they do it.
I think flash comics could work better because the psp support flash and it load quickly than comics in JPG format. I use the psp in stickdeath and the animations runs smoothly.
They should make both with and without sounds (not complete dialogue), but then again..how many things Sony has promised us for the psp and then nothing?
