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Sony Charges Publishers For DLC Bandwidth Usage
tlhIngan writes "Since October 1, 2008, Sony has been billing game publishers for DLC bandwidth usage. The game companies are forced to pay 16 cents per gigabyte downloaded by users (the 'Playstation Network Fee') regardless of whether the content is free or paid. The good news is that free content will only be billed during the initial 60 days it's up, but paid content will require fees forever. (No word on whether free content will mysteriously disappear after 60 days, though.) Given that some popular game demos run over a gigabyte by themselves, it could easily start costing publishers serious money (16 cents each for a few million downloads adds up). So far, it hasn't cut down the content available (or few publishers have started pulling content), but it's too soon to tell. It should be noted that Microsoft isn't charging publishers any money for content on Xbox Live, though some may argue that the 'gold premium content' is the same thing."
Perhaps this is one of the reasons various publishers are pressuring Sony for a PS3 price cut.
Quite true... and since there's not a "gold subscriber" subsidy like there is on Live, I think it's reasonable. It's not unheard of, considering the installed base, to charge for this, but I'm sure since Sony's been taking it on the chin P.R. wise, this will be magnified more than it really needs to be.
:) I wonder if anyone knows the going rates for Live content? I know the absurdly small file size probably nullifies that, as far as live arcade stuff goes, but what about demos? Does MS charge EA for demo space or is it simply rolled into the cost of your yearly gold membership? It's late... I'll google that tomorrow. :)
To each his own.
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
DLC and micro transactions are quickly becoming anoying. Now developers are beginning to simply give you less for more, and charge you later for the things they left out.
The worst is when the content is actually on the actual game disc, but it needs to be unlocked via online purchase.
Its only going to get worse.
And shifting the burden to developers, to put them in a position where the more popular their game is the more money it costs them is not a good position at all.
But the more popular it is, the more copies they will sell as well. Where did that fit into your equation?
You seem to think a developer would be going "dammit, my game is too popular, and the demos that cost my $0.20 are hardly offset by the $60.00 sale price that millions are forking over. Pull the plug on my overly successful game!"
Shifting the burden to content providers is exactly where the rest of the world shifts the burden to in other areas of media, so why is this so alien for game developers too?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Hopefully this will keep publishers from shipping broken/empty games with plans of patching them up later (*cough* UT3 *cough*); and we could go back to actually getting a working game on the disk, not a game in need of a patch and more content.
Think about the math a bit. It's not exactly a deal-breaker to patch a game at $.16 per GB. That's only 16 cents out of their bottom line per game if they had to send a massive 1GB patch down to each user. Still, it's hard to say if this means we'll be less likely to see large, free demos to download on the PS3 in the future. It's probably more likely that publishers will still do this, but just factor this cost into their advertising budgets.
Still, it just doesn't strike me as the wisest of decisions to alienate publishers when your console isn't exactly leading the pack. Publishers might be just slightly less inclined to publish on their platform in the first place, and Sony can't really afford to lose too much ground at the moment.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Maybe I'm too cynical but I find it more likely at this point that they'll just take the money and run. They already have your money after all, why pay for patches?
it doesn't look anymore expensive than paying for hosting else where to serve your files, and it's a damn sight better than expecting us to pay for it. i sense this story is an attempt at the usual /. sony hate nonense
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
You forgot that they've already admitted that they make their entire system difficult and painful to use on purpose believing that it will extend it's life by making it more difficult to use it's full potential quickly.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Most companies make more than one game and usually these games are aimed at the same userbase. Of course a shovelware publisher would probably hope you'd just forget his name so the next time you come across one of his games you won't put it back the moment you see the name but most of the big name publishers and developers have reputations that directly affect their sales. Get a reputation for broken and unpatched games and you'll sell less of them (EA had to downsize over massive losses so don't point at them claiming "it works for them"), get a reputation for polished games and good patching and you get more sales (see Blizzard and Valve).
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Don't worry, they'll just charge you for the patches.
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
..And Microsoft had their "dilemma" about it, and temporarily (meaning they didn't want PSN to be the only place to get this game, even though it sucks) lifted their restriction. The game was $20 to boot. So they recouped any cash they would've lost in "overage" with the upped price, which I believe is the most expensive Arcade title to date. The previous was Braid at 1600 points, IIRC.
:) MS quietly killed the less profitable titles in favor of 800/1200/1600 point titles and no one seemed to notice, simply because it was so gradual. Oddly, I think that fits into the "passing the savings on to the user" model Live adopts. Community games don't really count, because they're a different breed of title, and the old arcade standbys originally came out at 400pts, with some topping 800. It's just my take on it, since I've no proof other than the missing 400pt titles.
What I enjoy is the total lack of 400 point titles anymore.
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
You know, the more I hear about this kind of crap, the more I wonder if Sony is actually trying to ruin the PlayStation brand name. Every move they make seems to contradict common sense when it comes to business, almost as though they're afraid that following standard business tactics will make them seem weak to the consumer and their investors.
At the rate Sony is going, the PS3 will be the end of the line for the company as a console manufacturer, just like the Dreamcast did for Sega. Even though a console is technically great, it won't survive if the marketing strategies are poorly executed.
Just think, all of those great remaining PS3 exclusive franchises might become XBox 360 exclusives well before the predicted 10 year life span of the PS3 ends... complete with sony's own logo on the package!
8==8 Bones 8==8