The forthcoming PlayStation Portable will allow developers to create games that can be played both on the move and on a home PS2 or PSX console, Sony has confirmed - but the emphasis will be on new titles, not on ports of existing games.
According to Gamesindustry.biz Sony's corporate executive officer in charge of marketing, Fumiya Takeno, said that the PSP would feature connectivity with the PS2 and PSX home consoles.
This feature would allow games to be played on the home systems, with save games being moved to the PSP so that play could be continued on the handheld system - exploiting the fact that the PSP's hardware is broadly similar in specification to the PS2.
In order to use this system, developers will have to write compatible games for both the PS2 and PSP, and it's unclear whether Sony is proposing that these titles should be sold separately or in a single package.
However, it is known that porting code from the PS2 to the PSP is extremely easy, and in fact developers working on PSP titles in the UK have told us that moving their games and engines to the handheld system from the PS2 has turned out to be a surprisingly simple task - even without full specification development kits.
According always to Gamesindustry, Sony is placing a heavy emphasis on the development of new titles for the PSP, rather than the porting of existing PS2 software. It's previously been rumoured that Sony will be strictly vetting all PS2 ports on the system in the first six months to a year of its launch, in an attempt to avoid it being labelled as a shovelware PS2 port system by consumers and the media.