It's been a while since my last update, and since then, I've fallen blissfully in love with the virtues of Rock Band on PS3, but I haven't fallen in love with the scheduling for downloadable content. During a week of lackluster stuff, it's not a big deal, but sitting out "Interstate Love Song" for two days really sucked. Anyway, this week I'm making a forecast for things I'd like to see happen across the PlayStation line in 2008. Whether you're an Xbot with a PSP and an old PS2, an ardent PS3 early adopter, or a PS2 owner who's waiting to make the leap, I hope you'll agree that some of these things won't just be good for Sony, they'll be good for gamers as a whole.

Where Do Elderly 800 lb. Gorillas Sleep?

Let's start with PS2. It's not out to pasture by any means. Indeed, as famous game designers and creative minds begin to gather around the concept of the "one console platform," an industry friend recently pointed out over beer that the PS2 pretty much was just that. Even if the DS shatters the market penetration of the PS2, it's tough to overestimate the importance of this platform on making gaming a more mainstream activity. There's not much else for the system to prove; it still does killer numbers for software which shouldn't surprise anyone, considering the price of PS3 and 360 right now. Even so, I've still got my opinions on what I'd like to see in '08.

Drop the damn price, already. Look, Sony, you've proven your point. You can still sell these things at $129.99. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. It's never stayed at the same price for this long in the history of the console. It's time for a $99.99 PS2 and one last good ol' cash-in. If that revised slimline with internal AC launches Stateside this year, it'd be a good time to go for it. At a hundred bucks and a library spanning over seven years, how can you go wrong?

Dear PS2, we love you and all, but seriously, drop the price.

Forwards-compatible peripherals. The compatibility issues surrounding Rock Band and Guitar Hero III's respective peripherals on PS3 may never see an easy solution, but Harmonix has one great idea: forwards-compatible products. Whether it's a happy accident due to overproducing peripherals for a low PS3 install base or completely intentional from the get-go, PS2 owners with copies of Rock Band can use those instruments on the PS3, should they take the plunge this year. Harmonix has, in a weird way, given Sony a potentially unexpected boost.

PSP ports are a necessary evil. Even if PSP Slim is doing well, software sales for PSP have been soft. Is it piracy? Is it the used market? There are a lot of theories. Six months ago, I cited Rockstar as the developer who kicked off the trend, and said that PSP softness in the European market was a big reason for the push. Looks like it might not just be Europe at this point; just yesterday, Silent Hill Origins was announced for PS2, a port of Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters is on the way in a few weeks, and David Jaffe himself is all over PlayStation.blog with Twisted Metal: Head-On PS2 content. Whether we like it or not, PSP ports are going to be common in 2008, I think, as developers try to recover the cost of producing expensive flops.

If you only own a PS2, however, this is all pretty awesome for you. You'll get great PSP games formatted for PS2, and if you buy Rock Band, you can roll over your instruments to the PS3 later on. Not bad for a "last-gen" system. If you're a PS2-only owner, what are you looking forward to playing in 2008?