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Sony Opens PSP Store on the PC
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Sony has opened up a new downloads store for the PlayStation Portable. Store.playstation.com interfaces with your existing PSN network id, and will allow purchase and download of games, trailers, and demos to your Sony handheld. The company is already clarifying that this 'won't kill the UMD format', and that this is just an alternative method to obtain content. Darren Carins, head of online marketing for SCEE, was quoted as saying "The UMD business is still good for us and our publishers. It's still a burgeoning market, and we're still selling a large number of PSPs on a weekly basis, so there are a large number of new people coming into the market. I don't think that this would give us any cause for concern over UMD, I think they sit very well together. When you talk about the more casual games, pick-up-and-play games, you would definitely want to put them through the Store rather than have disc production, in to retail, and so on."
signals to me that the format is in deep trouble. If they didn't feel this move could be interpreted as being a negative for UMD, they wouldn't have defended it.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
What t hey're doing is not a kill to UMD. It's to allow people to purchase, d/l and store PSP content on the PC instead of forcing consumers to invest in a PS3.
In all it is a good marketing move to foster more consumer trust and allow some consumer choice.
In the future more PSOne games will be available for the PSP download service. Some are very large (FF7-9) and would require considerable space for permanant storage.
UMD disks hold 1.8 gigs of data. The MEmory Stick the PSP uses holds 4 gigs max at $50-80 per card. It's simply not cost effective to replace UMD with these "yet". It you could d/l PSP games directly to the memory stick you could fit 2-3 games. Even at a discounted price, we're breaking even, or exceeding cost of the UMD.
THe benefit though, is you have fast game read times, fast write, and a smaller footprint than the UMD disks. A basic cary case could now hold 10-20 memory sticks each holding roughly 2 games giving you the capacity to store roughly 40 games in a small cary case, versus the 4 UMD disks current travel cases can carry. Added benefit is your save games can be stored directly on the memory stick with the game.
Ok after some thought, eliminating UMD altogether is a good idea "if" they lower memory stick prices considerably.
Faster load times, bigger storage capacity (4 gigs vs UMD 1.8) directly writable, not affected by scratches, smaller... it's just all good.
Either way you read it, demise of UMD, boost to memory stick, elimination for the need of a PS3... It's a good move on Sony's part. Pipe dream, but maybe they're becoming more consumer friendly.
Well, it took them long enough to make the store available to people without a PS3, but I'm glad they're finally offering this content without the $400-600 access point. I was very, very excited when I heard about being able to play PS1 games on the PSP around a year ago, less excited when I found out you needed a PS3, and completely disappointed when I saw the title selection.
I would be thrilled if they would put a reasonably complete selection of old PS1 titles up on this store. I doubt it will ever happen, but I would gladly spend $5 to download an old PS1 game I enjoyed rather than have to balance my ability to play old games on my PSP without (any new) risk with the ability to play the new games and once again risking a a brick. A boy can dream, right?
Oh, I don't mind a logo screen that takes a few seconds, especially if I can press a button to skip it or if it's there while something else is loading, but waiting for a publisher's logo to load just so I can be advertised to isn't what I want.
So, since you don't have to pay for packaging, a physical disc, or any manuals, inserts, or other crap, or any of the other stuff that goes with it (like royalties for artists, production costs for any of the above, silk printing), the games bought online are going to be a whole bunch cheaper, right? ...Right?