Sony made a pretty major stride forward by introducing universal IDs. It might seem like a minor feature, but it’s another step towards creating a more unified online service, like the one Xbox Live members have been enjoying for quite a while.

During Sony’s E3 press conference this week, the concept of expanding the PSN universal IDs was mentioned. PSP Fanboy later questioned SCE Worldwide Studios prez Shuhei Yoshida if this meant we might see universal IDs make their way to the PSP. Yoshida responded by simply saying, “That’s the plan.”

If that concept does indeed come to fruition, it would be both incredibly cool and an indirect slap in the face of Microsoft, who has yet to really make the Live Anywhere initiative they touted at E3 two years ago ever go anywhere. Yes, the Zune and Xbox Live Marketplaces both run off the same Live ID and bank of Microsoft points, but they promised quite a lot more, like cross-platform messaging and the ability to monitor your gamerscore from your phone. (Not that you really need to be doing that, as the Penny Arcade strip above shows, but that’s besides the point.)

I’ve got my fingers crossed, as the idea of being able to access my PSN friends list on both my PS3 and PSP, send messages, etc. is an extremely titillating one. I’m actually ashamed it never occurred to me that Sony is in a good position to do a Live Anywhere styled service that would work on the PS3 and PSP.

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