PSP Game Player to Get Spider-Man, X-Men Comics

Sony is adding a digital reader service allowing owners of its of the PlayStation Portable, to download comics. The service, which will start in December and will include content from Marvel Entertainment’s Spider-Man, X-Men and the Fantastic Four, will be similiar to Amazon’s Kindle.

Enabling the user to be able to read classic and new comics by the page  or by the frame, Sony indicates that PSP owners will be able to access a wide range of media through the digital reader service, but it gave no further details.  The service will initally be available through the PlayStation Stores serving the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Sounds like yet another potential Sony marketing blunder to me. Should this service become popular enough to expand to mainstream book genres, this feature for the PSP would directly compete against Sony’s own line of digital readers. Carrying a price tag comparable to the PSP, why would anyone want to buy a device that will only read books when for the same money they can have a multi-media device, one that reads books, plays movies and games, and functions as an mp3 player? Still, it will be cool to get read the comics directly from a PSP.