Online breakthroughs and Infrastructure Mode are setting up new communities and changing the way you play on PSP.
PSP has always supported online gameplay via Infrastructure Mode, enabling you to challenge friends over Wireless connections either at home or Wireless hotspots. Since the start of 2007, there have been some incredible advances in the potential of online and Infrastructure Mode features on PSP. Many game developers are now not only pushing the envelope but rewriting its contents.
Community is at the core of these recent games, meshing play and your achievements with online leaderboards and forums. EA's Burnout Dominator is a clear example of the direction being taken. burnout.ea.com features league tables for every track and variation, a system for keeping tabs on your rivals, and forums.
Taking Infrastructure Mode in another direction, online elements are at the very heart of Konami's Marvel Trading Card Game. The concept takes a traditional TCG online, letting you battle and trade cards with friends from all around the world. marveltcgonline.com is the hub of this activity - a font of information, tournament news and helpful management tools.
On the horizon, there's WipEout Pulse, which at launch will be supported by a website that will offer additional tracks, ships and music for download. Future content plans range from sharing ghosts that you can race against to designing your own ship liveries online and then transferring them to your PSP.
It is this ability to continually expand the gameplay and content that is rapidly becoming one of the most important features of PSP. It enables developers to explore beyond the boundaries of their original release and tailor content in response to feedback.
A good example is Killzone: Liberation, which received an update at the end of May - a free download that added multiplayer Infrastructure Mode to the original game along with new chapters in the offline story. To support the new, online features My Killzone at Killzone.com gives you access to bonus content, a forum to discuss and arrange games with friends, and an updatable profile.
How you play is evolving and thanks to the functionality of PSP the games will continue to develop in proactive ways, even after they've been released.
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