PlayStation Japan has announced that they will be adding downloadable Manga to the PlayStation Store. While there’s no mention of what manga will be available as well as pricing, this is great news indeed. Although of course, this is only for Japan – but lets hope Sony decides to expand into other regions. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem for Sony to bring this feature to other territories, though localization could prove to be a hurdle for Sony, especially in Europe.
There are lots of comic book companies in Japan that will certainly be more than willing to support these downloadable Mangas. Sunsoft for one is in such a deal already, making Manga comics available for the Wii and DS, and even providing the option to have English subtitles. A choice we’d all like to have if ever it pushes through. Being a manga fan myself, I’m excited to see what Sony has to offer.
Yeah… but what about PDFs or CBRs (digital comic book format)? They have the technology to put it on the PSP, it’s ridiculous they haven’t offered a pdf or cbr reader for download from their store. Most people have their own digital books or comics and that would be a great add-on for anyone who does.
That would be a real boost into making the PSP more of a portable media device.
I completely agree – a PDF/CBR reader would be really useful. I speculate that the manga episodes will be similar to Qore for the PS3 – you will have to download and install it like a game to protect copyright. I doubt they will be raw photo files.