A few days ago I had some time and wanted to play with my PSP. But no game did interest me at that time, so I decided to check out the PSP Web site for some demo’s. The first thing I thought when I saw the new download center they introduced a while ago, was: wow!

The download center is very user centered and simple to use. It acts like a Web shop, and that was the main thing what was changed: paid downloads will be introduced soon. Nice games, music, videos and photos all available to download now for free, but soon also some where has tom be paid for.

I think thats a good way to go in the gaming industry. As far as I know this is the only download shop for a handheld game devices. I hope the downloads will not be very expensive, then I think I want to pay for those games via the Internet. Not a UMD anymore, only a file on my Flashcard. Luckily you can re-download games, in the case you delete it or something.

What I liked of the web shop, was the interface techniques. The AJAX interface was so developed that the back-button in my browser worked, very nice usability technique. The techniques not viewable for unregistered visitors -like the download applet- also work nicely.

So, what’s next?

The way Sony improved on this, I like. But other handheld devices can also have such thing in the near future. For a PDA you could think in terms like e-books, but also applications for download. In the near future I think -that can be 2007 but also ‘08 or ‘09- many more download stores like this will appear. Since web developers have more abilities (e.g. latest Adobe Flash), the technique for usable, accessible and not at least safety of download shops will grow tremendously the next years.

Do you also have some future predictions about download web shops?