Sony Computer Entertainment America’s director of PSN Operations, Eric Lempel, recently stated that the PlayStation Network is no longer playing “catch up” to Xbox Live, and currently offers items and services that do not exist on XBL.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of ‘catch up’ [with XBL] any more. In some cases, I think we’ve got more, and we’ve got some other things they don’t have,” Lempel said, speaking to Industry Gamers.
“In terms of strengths, of course we’re still free, and we’re giving you a lot for free. It’s not just free online gaming, but we’ve got PlayStation Home, which is a massive community and application that’s totally free to use.
“I think there’s a lot we’re doing that in some cases they’re not doing, and I don’t see a lot of things they’re doing that we’re not,” adding.
Lempel then went on to clarify that Sony does not want future PSP software and games to be transformed into something like the App Store, which is used for the iTouch and iPhone.
“Right now our free catalogue consists of demos, wallpapers, themes and videos about games. I don’t think we want to degrade the experience you get from a PSP. Because [iPhone] is not a gaming-centric device, I think a user picks it up and says, ‘This is kind of dumb, but I don’t care because I know this device wasn’t intended for games.’
“I want to make sure we uphold the quality of games on PSN; that doesn’t mean they can’t be shorter or quirky but we don’t want to see a bunch of little things that don’t quite make sense or provide a good experience because I think that takes away from what the device is intended for.”
Finally, Lempel added that Sony currently has no plans to offer a PS3 Games-on-Demand service, similar to the one that Microsoft announced at this year’s E3. This is due in large part to the enormous amount of space PS3 games typically require.
[Source]
