Sony demonstrates PSP Game Sharing

Sony has demonstrated how the "Game Sharing" feature of the PlayStation Portable can be used to download a selection of small games to another PSP system and store data in RAM, but has yet to demonstrate single-UMD multiplayer functionality or other features to rival Nintendo's "DS Download Play" component, while this website can reveal that European developers were joking that "no one really knows how it works" as recently as last week.

The Game Sharing feature has been put to use in PSP title Namco Museum. In this example, one player selects the transmit function from an in-game menu, while the other selects "Game Sharing" from the PSP's main menu. When the systems recognise one another, a short download begins and the second player can then choose to play any of seven arcade classics stored in RAM.

The use of RAM to store the games rather than on the Memory Stick Duo means that players cannot continue with the games after the PSP has been shut down or sent back to the "Home" menu - from which players usually access media functions and launch software from UMD.

For now at least, however, Sony has not demonstrated multiplayer games running on multiple systems using a single UMD - something that would rival Nintendo's efforts in this area. The DS can not only use is Download Play function for single-cartridge multiplayer for up to four players in some cases, but Nintendo has also spoken of how it will allow players to download demos in the future.

Meanwhile, representatives of Sony's WipEout Pure development team showing off the game to journalists in London last week admitted, "There is Game Sharing, but no one really knows how it works," implying that it could be a little while yet before we see games capable of supporting multiplayer on a single game disc.

Other, that is, than Ape Academy, for the sake of the pedants, which in a few cases actually features multiplayer mini-games that you can play with two or even four players using the same PSP console.