I read about P-Kara over a year ago but really never thought it would actually become a reality. P-Kara (think Portable-Karaoke) launched in Japan and no one in the US noticed…well, I noticed and I’m going to shout it from the hills. Eh maybe not, it’s cold outside.

Anyway, the cool idea behind P-Kara (which is basically just another karaoke game in the same vein as Karaoke Revolution) is that Sony allows users to either purchase Karaoke songs for the game via download or allow users to actually stream the audio directly to their system as they play. This is the only game that I know of, on any platform, that streams audio over the internet as an integral part of the gameplay.

The subscription structure of the title is pretty interesting. There’s a “Free” and “Gold” member system. “Free” accounts can play the 20 songs included in the UMD and download music separate for $ .90 each. “Gold” accounts allow the users to stream as many of the 3000 songs directly to their device. Apparently So-Net (Sony’s IP in Japan) is adding 10 songs per week.

While I’m far from a Karaoke fan, I am a big fan of new and innovative way of delivering content. This is definitely unique. The one draw back is definitely the $60 price tag in Japan but that does include the USB headset.

Info from PSP-vault.com
Image from PSPGadgetz