When you first unwrapped you PlayStation 3 the last thing you thought about was the consoles online network. You were too busy drooling over the trailer of Killzone 2, wishing Konami would release more on Metal Gear Solid 4 and saving your next months wages for one Blu-Ray movie.

Now however, PlayStaion 3’s online support has started to gain momentum. Every Tuesday, you can now expect to see more game ad-ons, PSP games and demos (well…sometimes), PS3 demos and more importantly (well, to us anyway) PSone classics. PlayStation Network (or PSN as it’s now known) is starting to become a major selling point for the Blu-Ray equipped console. 50GB capacity discs, super high quality DVD’s, PSone Classics, Metal Gear, Killzone…it’s starting to look a lot better for Sony, that’s for sure.

psn bag

PSone Classics did it for us but what made PSN for you?

Sony’s Selective Backwards Compatibility

We all remember that great E3 when the 360, PS3 and Wii (or ‘Revolution’ as it was referred to then), were first announced (possibly our greatest E3 ever). One of Sony’s body shots was PS3’s ability to plays existing PS2 games. This was exciting news as not only could you quickly trade in your PS2 for some tasty PS3 credit, but you could also keep those classics such as Metal Gear Solid 3, Devil May Cry 3, Okami and many more.

BUT…after the consoles launch, it was suddenly announced that PS3’s compatibility would only be fully supported in Japan. Only launch (60GB) PS3 consoles would be the only BC PS3’s in the UK and US.

ps3 slimline

If you own one of these, chances are you’re as inpatient as we are to see a PS2 game box cover hit PSN!

Put all of this together and you start to understand what Sony are getting at. However, it is kinda funny that it took them a while to get there, though (originally releasing PS3’s with PS2 Backwards compatibility). Sony now have a superb opportunity to make money on existing PS2 games…but are we ticked off? Well, yes and no. We are still a bit miffed that rare PS3’s play such games straight out of the box but on the other hand, we think it’s kinda cool to simply go online, select a PS2 game and be playing it in an hour or so!

C’mon  SONY!

Sony officially announced that plans for PS2 games on PSN are “in the works”. So now we have to play the waiting game and keep checking PSN to find out. Will Sony market such début releases months in advance, or will you suddenly see a game or two appear out of nowhere?

psn

If ‘PS2 Games appear in that menu, we’re going to wet our pants…deliberately!

Unfortunately it isn’t exactly an easy task making PS2 games PSN-ready. Such games will need to be re-coded, which will mean developers taking time away from (or taking certain studios from) current next-gen titles already in development. Add to this, the fact that many studios that produced or developed such classic PS2 titles, may not even exist any more.  So, now you have copyrights to deal with! (an obstacle with much of the PS2’s library, anyway).

This may help us all understand why such games are taking so long but it’s in no way an excuse for Sony to push PS2-PSN games to the ‘to do list’. PS2 games on PSN will not only make Sony some serious money, but it will be a much welcomed addition to PSN by just about every PS3 owner (even those lucky 60GB ones).

Until we hear an official announcement, it’s going to be weekly PlayStation Blog visits and PSN sign-ins.