PlayStation Suite Could Support Other Platforms

Sony's NGP portable (interface shown here) will also be PlayStation Suite compliant, meaning you'll be able to play PSS games on it.

Sony Computer Entertainment announced PlayStation Suite at Thursday's PlayStation Meeting. PlayStation Suite is an initiative that will see PlayStation branded games appear on Android mobile devices, beginning later this year with first generation PlayStation titles running through emulation. Sony is also creating a hardware neutral development environment for creating brand new PSS games and content, and will kick off a logo licensing program called PlayStation Certified for hardware.

In a roundtable interview session with the local media following PlayStation Meeting (Impress Watch posted a transcript), SCE CEO Kaz Hirai said that the appeal of PSS initiative is that it brings PlayStation to the "Android world."

As Sony hopes to make use of the millions of Android compatible sets throughout the world, they're not doing such things as selecting partners and the like. "We have a completely open stance," said Hirai. "With carriers and with hand set makers."

Sony's openness with PSS appears to extend even beyond Android. "There are a variety of OSes," said Hirai. "But we're focusing first on Android. There's also Windows, iOS and so forth, but we don't have the resources to make it compatible with everything from the start."

Even within the Android world, Sony is focusing on one particular area first: smartphones. Tablets will come next, according to Hirai. Everything seems to depend on user adoption. "We're not ruling out PSS even on products like Sony Internet TV Powered by Google (Google TV) if adoption rate increases, or if it will help push adoption greatly."

PlayStation Suite software will in general work on any Android device, said Hirai. However, in general, there's no guarantee about response time and key positioning. That's where the PlayStation Certified licensing program comes into play. PlayStation Certified is an assurance that the device will run PlayStation spec software well.

Sony will have a review process in place for PlayStation Suite software, similar to the review process it has had in place for its past consoles. Through this, Sony hopes to establish an ecosystem that runs on Sony certified hardware, differentiating PlayStation Suite from the anything-goes PC world.

Software creators will likely have to pay royalties to Sony. This is something that Hirai says is currently under investigation. The model will be revenue sharing -- that is, Sony will get a cut of profits. Sony has not yet started discussions about this area, discussions that Hirai said would have to involve the carriers.