Sony wants PSP to download non-PSOne retro games. Legally, that is

Most PSP owners already know how to get their hands on classic games, and it involves methods that Sony doesn’t exactly look kindly upon. For those who are not fans of piracy, however, the PSP may soon become home to non-PSOne classics that can be downloaded legally via the PlayStation Network.

“In general there’s a lot of discussion about [publishers’] back catalogs that will finally find its way to PlayStation Network in the back half of this year,” says PlayStation hardware marketing man John Koller.  “PSOne is included, but everything is on the table…We look for some of those big hits from all of the past games in their history and look for ways we can bring them over. It’s not always easy. There’s obviously technical areas that need to be bridged. But when those are solved, consumers will see a wide variety of retro games and brand new games coming to PSN.”

I’m a big fan of the PSN’s PSOne Classics section, especially when it provides awesome titles like Suikoden and Medievil (needs more Oddworld though). If these retro games will work on the PS3 as well as the PSP, I’ll definitely be interested in seeing what Sony can wrangle.

My guess is that they’ll have The Legend of Zelda and Halo: Combat Evolved on the service by next week!