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May 22nd, 2009, 17:11 GMT · By

The PlayStation Portable Might Be Getting Rental Service

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Rental distributor?
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Trying to inject some new life into the PlayStation handheld, Sony is apparently thinking about introducing a rental-like service for the device.

Customers would be able to join a service, pay a fee, and download a fixed number of games that can be played for the period of the subscription. Once that period ends, the games will be disabled and the customer will be required to pay a fee again to be able to renew his/her subscription and choose new games to play around with on his/her PlayStation Portable.

All of the above comes via a survey that has been discovered by Joystiq. The question featured refers to a service that “will enable you to download a fixed number of games during your subscription period.”

The survey also says that “At launch there will be an extensive catalogue of games to choose from, with more being added to the service each month.” At the moment, Sony is apparently still in the brainstorming phase, as it seeks to see what gamers would think of such a service, while determining more concrete elements, like the price that could be slapped on the rental service, the duration of the various subscription plans and the number of videogames that might be added on release.

Sony really needs to do something about the PlayStation Portable, which is lagging behind its rival, the Nintendo DS, when it comes to sales. The most recent talk has been about a PlayStation Portable Go!, a system that would be released during fall, without a UMD drive and with the possibility of getting all the content a player would ever need via digital distribution. If the device is real, then more information about it will surely arrive at the E3 trade show.

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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: ELOH on 02 Jul 2009, 20:39 UTC reply to this comment

I hate playing games on my PSP... less because of the PSP and more because I like the gaming experience provided my PS3 and 360. I often use it when I am traveling for music and would do so for movies if could rent and download quickly online. So the idea above is good. The only problem I see is the IPOD or IPHONE. Everything a PSP can do, save playing games which is lackluster on PSP, is already available on the IPHONE/IPOD. Infact the only reason I use the PSP for this stuff is because the IPHONE is not on Verizon. ATT being the only thing that is preventing the IPHONE from taking over the world. In my opinion Sony needs to come out with an IPHONE killer (tall order). Everything - music, movies, pics, email, phone, IM, apps, games, internet surfing, blogging - should all be done via one device. That is all I, as an individual, want to carry around. No extra devices. Ok maybe a laptop but only for like dev work, and media editing and recording.

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