Re: OT: PSN may start featuring $40 game downloads

Jonah Falcon <jonahnynla@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://playstation.joystiq.com/2009/02/20/analyst-sony-might-launch-40-downloadable-games-line/

Sort of like Steam.

So, you save $20 by downloading the game in stead of buying a hardcopy in
the store.

What a horrible idea.

At least with Steam, there is an option to burn the games you buy to CD or
DVD I believe. But the PS3 has no such hardware. And at least with
Steam, all you need is a PC with enough hardware to run the game. If you
buy a new PC, for instance, you simply install Steam on it, log in, and
redownload your games. No problem. So, what happens when the PS4 rolls
out in 2012 or so, what becomes of these games you bought on the PS3? Can
you transfer or redownload them on the PS4? (assuming you use the same
account, and the PS4 is PS3 compatible of course!)

The discounted price has to be lower than $40. For $40 or less, I can buy
most PS3 titles from Gamestop used - AND - I'll get a disc, case and
documentation. If Sony is serious about this, the price better be $30
initially, then drop to $20 or even $15 once the title becomes a Greatest
Hit.

The article mentions this has also been done with PSP software, but as I
understand that works is that you can transfer the file to the memory card
for your PSP - meaning you should also be able to legitimately make a backup
copy. Right now, there is no supported way to do the same thing with your
PS3 hard drive.

Finally, if a PS3 game runs around 15-20GB (bigger than a DVD, right?) how
long do you think it's going to take to download something like that from
PSN? My connection to PSN, for some reason, is pretty crummy. It took me
about 10 minutes to download a 25MB file for HOME. At that rate, it would
just over 5 and a half days - going 24/7 - to download a 20GB game.
Fortunately I don't have metering on my connection but many other folks
aren't so lucky.

Will downloaded games still need to "install" themselves? Like say I
download DMC, will it still want tocopy about 5GB of files over to another
part of my hard drive? Will this cause the game to run even slower, as
Halo3 does if you copy it to the 360's hard drive? And what of the hard
drive itself? 80GB won't even be large enough for 4 downloaded games.
Wiping out a small PSN title isn't a big deal as you can just download it
again in a few minutes. But wiping out 10-20GB of PS3 game...that's no
small download. Yes, you can buy and upgrade the PS3's hard drive
yourself, but many folks don't know this, or are deathly afraid of trying
this for fear of breaking something. And even though the procedure is
supported by Sony, you have to admit they could have made it a bit more
user friendly, yeah?

The more I think about this, the more horrible it becomes. Did anyone at
Sony actually spend more than 5 minutes thinking through the user
experience here, because it seems to me, the only one benefitting here is
Sony's revenues.

--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.
.

Relevant Pages

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