Sony PSP to become huge online comic store

PSP set to become the ultimate comic book store later this year?
PSP set to become the ultimate comic book store later this year?

A new PSP promo video from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe suggests that the company is set to massively improve the comic-book offering on the PlayStation Portable.

It's a geek dream we've had for years – thousands of the latest and our favourite comic books released in an online, instantly accessible way on a decent portable reading device. Namely, the PSP.

So let's put those incessant rumours of a touchscreen, OLED, all-singing, all-dancing PSP2 to one side for a day or two and applaud Sony for giving its customers what they want.

SCEE recently issued this PSP video trailer, promising "instant access to thousands of comics" which you would be able to organise by favourite genre, series, writers and so on.

Reading by Auto Flow

It also touts a new reading 'mechanic' called Auto-Flow, by which you can flip from panel to the next with ease.

In terms of ease-of-use it looks superb, although as with anything introducing a new way of consuming your favourite content – it will all depend on the amount of content available and the pricing strategy (an area where Sony has underperformed a little too often of late, in many gamers' opinions!).

Payments strategy is still under discussion internally at Sony, with the company asking customers if they would prefer one-off payments per virtual comic book or an all-you-can-eat subscription style affair.

For more on this you can head over to the official PSP website.

Adam Hartley