Japan's Nikkei BP recently had an interview with Izumi Kawanish, a corporate executive of Sony Computer Entertainment. In that interview titled "PSP will become a Virtual PS3" he shared some ideas in regard to unifying the PlayStation Portable and the PlayStation 3.

Talk first went towards the PSOne emulator planned for the PSP. In response Kawanishi said it is technically possible to emulate PSOne games on the PSP (knew that one already) and things are still in the internal testing stages and progress has been steady. The one problem there will be for some games is the control set up. Most PSOne games made use of 2 analog sticks and the 4 shoulder buttons while the PSP only has one stick and 2 shoulder buttons.

In a somewhat related note this isn't the first time Sony's tried digital distribution. In Japan they experimented with downloadable PS2 games which would be saved onto the PS2 hard drive. The project never went into full effect, however, due to the lack of broadband access at that time. Fast foward a few years to the present and things are a bit different. "Now, fiber optic is already spreading," noted Kawanishi. "We felt that there was now an environment where true e-Distribution could be realized, so we made an announcement again in March."

"Games for PS3, PSP, PS1 and so-forth will be distributed via the network. While popular series are a separate matter, it's becoming hard to tell what's inside the package of recent games. So, we're thinking of distributing demo versions. In the case of PS1 games, we believe that if we make a library of all games available, similar to what Amazon does for books, there will be many users who want to give the classic titles a try." he also said Sony may let gamers download and play PSOne game via emulation on the PC and, possibly in the future, on cel phones.

Now then, the PSP to PS3 connectivity. "It's possible to have distribution of video imagery from the PS3 to PSP," said Kawanishi. "In other words, images that are rendered on the PS3 will be sent to the PSP via wireless LAN. If the PS3 is something like a home server that's placed in the center of your home, the PSP is an information terminal that you carry with you." According to Nikkei he was referring to 3D images rendered by the PS3 and viewed on the PSP.

"The PSP started off clearly with the position of a portable game machine," continued Kawanishi. "However, looking long term, there's the thought that it ought to become a portable network device. At that time, if there's demand for an information terminal, it is possible to take it in that direction." If things go as planned the PSP has a long life ahead of it yet. This could be very interesting indeed.