Home Gaming Playstation 3 Commits Suicide – Using Online Noose

Playstation 3 Commits Suicide – Using Online Noose

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playstation-network-logo.jpg.jpeg

Yes, I know that the title may be a little harsh but it’s not that far from the truth.

What Sony has just recently brought in to PSN is a new fee that charges publishers according to how much their content is downloaded.

What happens is that they are now charged 16 US Cents per gigabyte of their content that is downloaded. It’s all great to offer a free online service like PSN, and I am glad that they are trying to do it, but the fact that running an online service isn’t cheap has finally caught up to Sony it seems.

You see, 16 cents may not sound like much, but it actually all adds up to quite a lot if your content is very popular. For example, if you release a 500MB demo and it gets downloaded seven million times on PSN, your company will have to fork out R3,311,000 to Sony. This becomes a big problem, and for a few reasons. Why release a great big impressive 1080p demo if it means that you are going to be charged heavily for it? Publishers are left with the options to either cut down their demo’s greatly, pay the fee’s that Sony have now put in place, or just, and most importantly, only release the demo’s on Xbox Live for free.

This is a huge problem and I am struggling to see how Sony thinks that this is going to be a good idea. Is it really that bad for Sony to charge a small fee for gamers to subscribe to every year?

We at lazygamer.co.za could promise all our readers a free game every month, and it will give us a huge edge over our competition, but it doesn’t make any business sense and will ultimately lead to us disappointing our readers or going out of business.

Sony need to change their strategy. In my opinion the PS3 is beginning to shine brighter than ever and 2009 looks like it could belong to it, if only even for the exclusives. The truth is that we will have to see how publishers are going to react to the fee, because if it all goes pear-shaped, PS3 users may have to start getting used to losing out on many demo’s and living with gimped content.

If you own a PS3 and you are connected to PSN, tell us what you think.

Source: Examiner

Last Updated: March 23, 2009

12 Comments

  1. Geoff

    March 23, 2009 at 13:41

    This policy has been in effect since October 2008, and hasn’t had much effect on the content available on the PSN…yet. I can see developer and publisher sentiment changing though – especially given the current economic climate.

    what I do expect – as already seems to be the case – is that publishers will be less inclined to release paid-for DLC on the PSN.

    Perhaps this is the reason why Fallout 3 DLC isn’t appearing on the PSN – Unlike with Rockstar, Microsoft haven’t paid for any DLC exclusivity.

    Reply

  2. Banana Hammock

    March 23, 2009 at 13:51

    Doesn’t seem like a well thought out strategy, but as Geoff said, it’s been going since October and the PSN content is as good as ever.

    Reply

  3. ZombieGamerZA

    March 23, 2009 at 14:02

    Ahh BOO HOO! They stil make laods of $$$
    In the console wars I have made up my mind. Although Wii is nr one with sales the PS3 which is considered to be last has sold 20 million units. Now in my eyes that is last of the 3 but by no means a loser!.
    I love all 3….Each one has a special place in my heart and my lounge

    This heading is a bit anti Sony… ant meant to draw attention.
    Sony has by no means committed suicide. The worst that will happen to Sony is that they will come last of the 3 consoles. The will still have sold millions and still remain to have loyal to the PS brand. They will stil be here for the next round with the PS4

    I own a wii to play with my Fiancé, Own a xbox 360 because of some exclusives as well as Xbox live. And then the PS3 for blu ray and all the high def exclusives..I love the ps3 but see the good in the others too. My fav will always be PS…

    I am slightly off but I believe the PS3 has sold some 50 000 odd units in SA alone ?
    Yes I know the Xbox and wii has sold more…

    Technically the PS3 has the most highly rated games compared to all the other consoles.. and that is a fact

    Reply

  4. LazySAGamer

    March 23, 2009 at 14:06

    I think the bigger issue is the smaller developers like Jonothan Blow (Braid) or Southpeak Games who can’t afford millions on a demo that may or may not help the sales.

    Reply

  5. Banana Hammock

    March 23, 2009 at 14:25

    I don’t think they should put out demos at all, every demo i’ve played has made me think badly of the game. Only after i played the actual game did i realise that the Demo was just rubbish.

    But trailers should not be charged.

    If Sony want to charge the devs 16c per gig then as a consumer i’ll gladly pay an extra R2 for a PSN game, they can just pass the cost onto me it’s fine. But i won’t be happy to pay even R2 for a trailer or demo.

    Reply

  6. Darthdad

    March 23, 2009 at 14:26

    So in other words it’s better for the end user to pay for the content(Xbox Live) than for Sony to charge the devs a nominal fee for advertising there game on there network.
    Ah ok I get it now. :whistle:

    Reply

  7. Banana Hammock

    March 23, 2009 at 14:46

    Well it’s not a nominal fee. If you put out a demo (which cost you money to make) and it’s 1Gig, and it get’s downloaded 2 million times (10% of PSN users), that will cost the dev $320,000.

    Or they could just charge me an extra 16c.

    Reply

  8. ZombieGamerZA

    March 23, 2009 at 15:02

    Point taken… however they generate money from these games so they should expect to pay to have them on PSN just like normal developers pay for the disks and cases of games

    Reply

  9. easy

    March 23, 2009 at 15:03

    can you actually confirm that this pricing model also includes demo’s?
    because i some how don’t think demo’s would be included.

    anyway, R3m for 7 million demo’s weighing in at 500mb will easily be recouped come sales from the release copy.

    again with the o.t.t. headlines. have you guys worked at The News of the World or something?

    Reply

  10. witwolfyza

    March 23, 2009 at 16:57

    wont be long then they wil subscribers pay per click aswel.. Or pay per use. That wil be funny, pay R2 to play PS everyday

    Reply

  11. Ace-ZA

    March 24, 2009 at 05:17

    There are definitely not 20 million psn users… While there may be 20 million accounts that just means there are multiple accounts on one ps3. I would put the number closer to 10 million.

    I still can’t belive ppl think this is a big deal… Do we even know how much sony and microsoft take from the actual price? This is just one way for sony to be able to offer a free psn and i thank them for that… I seriously doubt this would stop anyone from releasing a game – maybe stop them releasing a demo but still demo’s can kill sales so its not the end of the world.

    Didn’t microsoft force some content to be 10 dollars when the developers wanted to put it out for free? Wasn’t it gears of war? Now that to me is serious news because it actually effects the customers!

    Reply

  12. LazySAGamer

    March 24, 2009 at 05:46

    Yes Microsoft does generally force the fact that DLC is not free on Xbox Live.. this has been debated quite often actually.

    However this story relates to the developer charge by Sony and as you rightly say this can lead to a developer not releasing a demo on the PSN.

    That is all 😉

    Reply

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