Sony reveals the SingStar Viewer

By Robert Purchese Published 15 December, 2009

Browse SingStore/community without disc.

Sony's unveiled a new SingStar Viewer application that lets anyone browse the SingStore and MySingStarOnline community, the point being that you will not need a SingStar disc to do so.

Sony no doubt hopes buyers ignorant to SingStar's charms will be won over as they watch amateur singers belt out Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with their friends.

The SingStar Viewer, once installed, will live under the Games menu on the XMB.

Pop over to the European PlayStation blog for a video of the viewer in action.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • GoldLightan #1 2 years ago

    The wonders of modern technology.

  • Toothball #2 2 years ago

    It's moderately surprising they they've not come out with an engine only download for Singstar, leaving people to then download whatever tracks they feel the need to. They could also do to allow disc exports in a Rock Band style, since they keep releasing new ones. Swapping discs around at a drunken Singstar party rapidly becomes a chore when you keep having to explain why you need to do it to your non-gaming friends. Lips is guilty of the same thing though.

  • callum9999 #3 2 years ago

    It will be because of copyright. You could either buy one copy of the game then share the tracks with 10 other people, or buy them, import them, and then sell the disc meaning you've paid very little for the songs.

  • Arwin #4 2 years ago

    Yes, definitely a copyright matter. Songs on disc are licenced as such, and cannot be used otherwise. Simple solution: buy only one Singstar disc, and buy all your additional songs online. If that means there are some songs you can't play because they were licenced exclusively to disc and they're not in the store (say, Abba), then you know that:

    a) Abba's copyright holders have not been willing to make an agreement for online download of their songs and you should treat them as non-existing, and just use any of the other 1000+ songs (depending on your language preferences) instead

    b) acknowledge the copyright limitation and be happy that you can at least still sing to Abba, even if this means having to swap a disc occasionally (at least it doesn't require you to reboot the game, eh?)

  • Psiloc #5 2 years ago

    Toothball's suggestion would still work, assuming the user is OK with only being able to get their hands on the DLC songs.

  • Psiloc #6 2 years ago

    callum9999
    "It will be because of copyright. You could either buy one copy of the game then share the tracks with 10 other people, or buy them, import them, and then sell the disc meaning you've paid very little for the songs."

    I know that some games on the store are locked to one PSN account and can't be shared at all, even between different users of the same PS3. Could they/do they do this with DLC? If so they could certainly also do it with these 'rips'.

    Edit: Ahh, Arwin's post. I still stand by the fact I think there's a market for people who would be happy with just the DLC tracks.
    Edited by 1 at 15/12/09 @ 16:08

  • YobRenoops #7 2 years ago

    The big problem, if I remember correctly, with the licensing is the fact that a) Videos are included and b) Your licensing the right to upload and record your own performance. Hence the MAJOR headaches in getting stuff up there.

  • YobRenoops #8 2 years ago

    @Arwin

    A level-headed Singstar licensing comment? On the Internet? Can this be true? Welcome to the battle I've been fighting for the last two years...

  • Mkwone #9 2 years ago

    One possible way to solve the disc changing issue is to have say a 24 hour import feature so you can download the songs from the disc but for parties you don't need to keep changing.

    That way people still need to own the discs but it doesn't get in the way of copyright stuff.

    I hearby copyright this idea

    PM me for payment sony :)

  • kangarootoo #10 2 years ago

    Rock Band and Guitar Hero get around this by levying a small charge for importing discs to the HDD AND including a one use code with each disc. The charge I guess covers licensing, and the code stops the disc getting passed around (or at least means the disc can't be imported by whoever gets it next).

    I guess the issue SS has is that they have lots of discs (so the charge could mount up), and issuing codes for discs that are already "in the wild" is probably not possible.

  • oreillymj #11 2 years ago

    The suggestion was made on the Sony Singstar forums, that you could import your PS2 Singstar songs into the PS3 game, but that the import would "expire" after say 24hrs and require validation by just re-inserting the disk.

    That would allow you to play the game without requiring you to insert discs all the time. Of course the validation would have to be strong enough to weed out cloned discs, but it wouldn't be impossible.

    Of course, Sony might just like to re-sell you the same songs again.

  • kangarootoo #12 2 years ago

    @Mkwone

    That is a good idea. Perhaps the addition of a titchy fee to enable the 24 hour import would cover licensing issues (not unlike the 99p you can pay to make Spotify ad free for 24 hours). I doubt most people would mind spending £2 to make a SS party run more smoothly.

    Edit: ah, was just about to update saying that repeated exporting would become a pain. But this "after say 24hrs and require validation by just re-inserting the disk" fixes that hiccup.
    Edited by 1 at 15/12/09 @ 16:44

  • YobRenoops #13 2 years ago

    These are all great ideas but I think the video part and recording performances for upload is the real sticking issue. The PS2 tracks at least we're only licensed for disk-based performance with video, whereas download music/video + performance rights is much thornier. I think this is what takes most of the time for Singstar songs (over say RB and GH etc.)

  • Toothball #14 2 years ago

    Oh I'm sure there are plenty of licensing issues, I just think they should be doing something to overcome them. It's my understanding that you often can't buy the disc content on the store. If nothing else that option should be there from the start.

    Or perhaps I've just been spoiled by Rock Band?
    Edited by 1 at 15/12/09 @ 17:23

  • kangarootoo #15 2 years ago

    @mr_writer

    Oh sure, my somewhat idealistic solution does not include the bit where huge numbers of phone calls needs to be made to make sure everyone is cool with their cut of the one-off charge pie.