Following on the heels of yesterday's news about Intranet mode play included in 989 Sports' PSP games, which would allow both local and online wireless gameplay, Sony has now confirmed that two more launch titles will feature network play. Twisted Metal: Head-On and ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails will each feature this extra connectivity feature to allow gamers to go online at WiFi HotSpots and via their home wireless LAN networks.

Out of SCE America's eight titles to be released through the PSP launch period, this makes five games to make use of both the Intranet and Ad-Hoc modes for full PSP wireless multiplayer gaming. World Tour Soccer will unfortunately not carry the mode this year, and Ape Escape: On The Loose will be local-only wireless play for its extra multiplayer modes. SCE's WipEout Pure will have its wealth of downloadable content, but it cannot be played online - you will only be able to race nearby gamers (luckily, the PSP's WipEout is generating so much buzz that everybody and her brother will likely own this game.)

We have talked to the majority of Third Party publishers with PSP launch plans, and none expect to feature anything outside of local-only wireless multiplayer. It is unknown if the European versions of any of these SCE games will carry over the same HotSpot features for its PSP launch later this Spring (we'll scab a lift for our Euro friends when we find out such bloomin' details.)

Below is a breakdown and set of links for all of the upcoming North American games to use Intranet mode for net multiplayer gaming.

Gretzky NHL	989 Sports / Page44 Studios	2 players LAN/HotSpot
NBA	989 Sports / 989 Sports	2 players LAN/HotSpot
MLB	989 Sports / 989 Sports	2 players LAN/HotSpot
ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails	SCEA / Climax	4 players LAN/HotSpot
Twisted Metal: Head-On	SCEA / Incog Inc.	6 players LAN/HotSpot

Every one of SCEA's eight games will still feature local wireless play for gaming friends and passer-by PSP players, and this is still the preferred mode of play for Sony Computer Entertainment on these titles. Beyond the fact that playing games with the crowd of competitors around you has its own unique thrill, SCE has not yet had the time to focus on developing online play to cater towards the specific benefits and challenges of an net-capable handheld machine. Microphones, for instance, are not available for if and when PSP online games use voice chat, and the PSP's keypad is not ideal for text chatting. Also, lobbies, stat tracking and other online features are all possible on a WiFi portable as with a online console game, but because a handheld is played differently (and because a HotSpot connection is not always as reliable when you're not sitting down), it will take developers time and experience to balance out netplay features so that they're specific to handheld online multiplayer.

Preferred or not, the PSP's online Intranet mode has been a feature that both gamers and developers have been eager to make use of. In the case of these five SCEA games with online PSP play, they're coming from cutting-edge development teams who have all had online titles in the past -- Incog, Climax, and 989 Sports. Experience in doing console online (and, in fact, the technology behind those games, as each will use techniques and some founding technologies from the PS2 franchises to support PSP online play) has allowed the teams to get this feature into the games in time for launch. It is unknown what kind of a ramp we're looking at in efforts towards including Intranet mode in addition to Ad-Hoc wireless play in PSP games -- the mode is cool, and SCEA has a good deal of infrastructure from its PS2 efforts, but HotSpots (especially free ones) are still sometimes a sparse commodity, and Sony still wants to make sure that PSP games using the feature make the most of it instead of just having online play thrown in. Standard local multiplayer and single player game design will remain the key focus for upcoming titles, and it will be up to each individual production team and approved game concept as to whether Intranet mode is a key feature.

Sony Computer Entertainment still has plans to make the most of the PSP's WiFi features (both over the net and locally). The company has not yet announced its official plans for online gaming via PlayStation Portable or given expectations on when we will be seeing a push from the head company for more Intranet mode usage in First- and Third-Party products. However, even as a bonus feature, HotSpot net play is a big boon for this first set of games, and gives us a taste of what SCE will be cooking up as it continues to makes use of the PSP's advanced features. We'll have more on these games and whatever else SCE has to hook PSP'ers up with as it develops.