More on new voice-over-IP phone calls for Sony PSP

Following on from our my rather breathless coverage of yesterday’s announcement by BT that it would be bringing voice-over-IP calls and messaging to Sony’s PlayStation Portable, we thought it good to look a little deeper at the announcement.

BT has confirmed that the UK will be the first country to receive the new service, with other European countries to follow. The deal between Sony Europe and BT is due to last for four years, which is fairly lengthy considering the PSPs faltering sales numbers. It seems likely that the BT service will use Sony’s new PSP Go!Cam (shown right), which is out in the UK tomorrow (25th May) priced £34.99 (around $75), for video calls. BT intends to integrate the PSP service with its existing BT Broadband video and voice systems.

But we’re left wondering who is actually going to use their PSP to make calls? It’s not like it’s hard to pick up a nice mobile phone (many of which can play games rather well), and a huge minutes & messaging bundle for a reasonable monthly outlay.

In terms of being a funky thing to be able to do with your handheld console, then we think voip on PSP is pretty cool. But in terms of whether another non-gaming feature is really what the PSP needs, we’re not so sure. Fans have been screaming out for new, original games for the console — and the lack of software is blamed by many as the key reason why PSP hardware sales have been slowed since launch. Judging by the reactions in some online forums, this new voip service has simply left many wondering whether Sony will ever get the PSP’s games library back on track. And to be honest, we count ourselves among them.

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