SCEA: No announcements for US market

Following Sony's recent Leipzig GC announcements, SCEA has indicated that they are still evaluating the services for the North American market.

In Leipzig, SCEE announced a voice chat, video chat, and instant messaging service named Go! Messenger. While it will continue to expand the capabilities of the PSP via firmware upgrades, SCEA has not made any announcements for this type of service in the US.

The PSP satellite navigation peripheral, named Go! Explore, is currently available in Japan and select countries in Europe. Before considering the product for a North American launch, an SCEA spokesperson told GamesIndustry.biz "[We] want to ensure there is the appropriate level of software that would be applicable and bring value to the consumers in North America."

While it had no announcements regarding GPS capabilities for the PSP in the US, SCEA's spokesperson said that the company "will continue to explore appropriate and compelling software that would allow us to bring this feature to PSP in our market."

SCEE also unveiled PlayTV, a TV tuner and PVR accessory. At this time, SCEA has no announcements for similar PS3 DVR capabilities in North America either.

Finally, SCEE announced a partnership with British Sky Broadcasting to bring video downloads to the PSP in the UK and Ireland. SCEA is "evaluating similar types of partnerships in North America" but has no announcement at this time.

"We understand and respect the consumer interest in this type of service, and we will continue to explore downloadable content options for our territory," SCEA's Dave Karraker told GamesIndustry.biz.