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Sony May Use Downloads To Fight Piracy
Gamaustra reports that Sony may be planning to use game downloads to deter piracy in Asia. From the article: "According to the article, Yasuda is quoted as saying that the 2006 plan of SCE Asia is to construct a PlayStation 3 infrastructure on which software makers can distribute software digitally ... selected developers will get prototype funding from KIPA, and additional post-prototype funding from SCEJ, as well as free technical support and PlayStation 3 development kit rentals. Further online reports have indicated that digital downloads of game material, as currently available for the Xbox 360, should be relatively simple with the PlayStation 3, though details of the PS3's online service are still closely veiled." Kotaku, meanwhile, reports that some Korean developers don't like this idea.
I wonder what the rental houses will say about Sony securing their customers safely away from them?
No wonder they are offended. Oh well, sony getting public relations wrong. Gee, that is a new one.
What I find odd is that no mention is made of how the bloody hell you are going to download games on a machine with no HD. Oh yeah there will an add on but that makes it hardly a tool to deter pirating is it now. Have the game for free OR get a small discount on the game + buy an expensive addon. Now that is an easy choice. I got a great new idea to deter PC pirating. How about you have to upgrade to vista and an ALL new DRM PC and if you do that we knock 10% of the game price.
There is a far simpler move to combat piracy. It involves 3 steps. First game length related to price. Full price == baldur gate type length. 8 hour play time == $4.95... canadian. Second, don't fuck with paying consumers, there is no point copy protection, only paying customers are affected. Finally, make it worth buy the fucking game. I am old but I remember the days when games game with full manuals with listed not just the keys but also had background info. Make it worth opening that box and getting that magic feeling of holding a new game. Who ever invented PDF manual on CD should be shot.
It has been a long time since I was really excited about a new game. Perhaps I am getting to old to game or perhaps recent games just are to meh.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Technology has not yet rendered the competition for resources unnecessary.
Quite aside from the comments made already about the IP bullshit, DRM, and lack of an HDD. What about the logistics of actually downloading?
:P
Currently, games come on DVDs, either single or dual-layered. That's 4.7 or 9 GB. The PS3 is expected to utilize Blu-Ray technology and up the data capacity of data storage many times over.
However, the current pathetic state of home "broadband" in North America is a pitiful 324 kB/s to 5 mB/s for the very lucky few. That's sufficient for surfing the web or fragging online, but it sure as hell ain't going to support Joe Gamer using Comcast in rural America. I'm not willing to sit and download a game for 5 hours or more. I'd rather go to the store and have a physical copy of the game than tie up the console downloading Final Fantasy XIII.
And even if I was willing to let it download (overnight, say), what would my ISP do when it saw me downloading files that large? It would assume I'm pirating movies or games. Now, I agree with those who might contend that last statement is a bit overreaching, but I had to end this somehow.
The description of the terms given to the Korean developers sound like the terms that music artists have to put up with. First Sony and KIPA will front part of the development costs, then once published the "profit" (i.e. money in sales minus anything sony wants to charge them for)goes to pay back Sony's part of thier investment. Of course, if the accounting is anything like it is in the movie/music business, no game will make a profit, and then KIPA will claim the game quality was "low" and demand it's money back from the developer too.