PlayStation Network Operations director Eric Lempel has told IndustryGamers that the chances of being able to download full scale games via is unlikely any time soon because the games are simply too big.

"It's not something we have planned, just because the size of the games is massive," Lempel said. "With we can put up to 50 gigs on a dual-layer disc, while [Xbox 360] is still on a 9-gig media. So technically it's possible, but I think the issue would be, 'Do you want to download 40 gigs and keep that on your hard drive?' I think there's great opportunity there in the future, and it's something we'll always look at, but for the time being it's not a direction we're going in."

Of course there's already a decent number of full games available via the PSN Store, only title WarHawk, the most recent Ratchet and Clank game and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation to name but three. However it seems likely that the availability of future games in this manor will remain decided on a game by game basis rather than becoming the norm via a dedicated service.

Microsoft announced at the recent E3 show that they'd decided to abandon their current Originals download service in favour of a new one that would include full titles rather than only last generation games. A move it would appear has no intention of copying.

By Paul Newcombe