PC users can access the online marketplace store.playstation.com. Those with an account for the PS3's online store can use their existing login, and downloaded content is transferred to an attached PSP via the PlayStation Network Downloader program available on the site.

Initial offerings include downloadable versions of SCE Studio Liverpool's already-released Wipeout Pure and Gangs of London, at $14.99 and $19.99 respectively, as well as the $9.99 PlayStation Store-exclusive Syphon Filter: Combat Ops multiplayer game and free demos of Slant Six's SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike and Sony Bend's Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow.

SingleTrac's Twisted Metal 2 and Insomniac's Spyro the Dragon, both of which were released for the original PlayStation, are among the many PlayStation Classics available for $5.99, representing the only overlap between the PSP and the PlayStation 3's online stores.

The low-key launch of the online store is surprising, especially since SCEA's John Koller estimated the online marketplace was roughly six to eight months out back in August. However, today's unexpected launch coincides perfectly with comments made by SCEA president Jack Tretton earlier this year.

"I think the advent of a long awaited and quite frankly long overdue ability to deliver a downloadable service for the PSP will help us out a great deal," Tretton noted at SCEA's Gamers Day Event in May. "Hopefully we'll have it out there by the fall."