PSP Go refused by game retailer as Blockbuster fiddles
By Thomas Ricker 
posted September 16th 2009 8:21AM
posted September 16th 2009 8:21AM
Do you run a brick-and-mortar store that primarily sells media? Yeah? Then lean in real close, we've got a little trend that you may have overlooked. The physical media you carry -- be it films, music, or games -- is going digital and moving on-line for direct-to-consumer downloads. Still, Dutch gaming-house Nedgame has a statement on its website saying it will not be selling the UMD-less PSP Go. It lists six reasons framed in a way that makes them sound like they're fighting for the rights of the consumer. However, as a seller of gaming media that boasts two new store openings on its home page, the primary beef likely stems from the shop's inability to sell physical media to the download-only PSP Go. Maybe a search on the tag Blockbuster could help with expansion planning?[Via GamesIndustry.biz]
UMD holds 1.8GB. FF7 would fit there easily. You have no idea what you're babbling about. And most people don't have internet access fast enough to make all your 10GB (LOL!) PSP games realistic, which is why Sony is doing PSP Minis (under 100MB).
Um, UMD gives devs more space to work with than downloads would.
For starters, FF7 DOES fit one one UMD. The downloadable version takes less than 1.8 GB
Sony said downloadable games will target in between 600 and 800 MB on average, you know why? Cause the average PSP owner only has a 1 GB memory stick. And MOST developers will target that to maximize sales. While trying to leave room for more than 1 game, and movies/music/photos. People don't want to have to buy a new memory stick for each game.
So instead of being limited to 1.8 GB (and even then, there are multi-UMD games) games are now limited by the average owner's memory capacity.
And PSP2 could easily switch to Bluray-UMD for all we know, and that'd be like 7.5 GB.
To nxp3, are you sure you didnt download it. It seems strange that someone would spend time to "hack" your account, and then only use it to download $2 worth of stuff. Very strange
Its lame. Definately. But its not so lame. Its just because its sony and people are used to make money from the game software.. But what about the ipod touch? Its been selling pretty good, and yet the stores DONT sell games! And most stores dont sell music either. And so what? Stores are still selling it! Not fighint with apple because they cant sell games! This is just life. Its evolution. If you dont want to evolve you will be phased out.
What they should do is.... sell the typical new bad ass games that sell for $40 for $20-$25. That way we are not paying for umd hardware, packaging, distribution and store revenue
I welcome this trend. This is the trend which multiple technologies are going towards, not just gaming. You could even say gaming has been slow on this front, seeing as how movies and music have took off the same way.
The PSP is a special case why I don't feel sorry for shops. The PSP was intended to be like this from day 1, the market just wasn't ready for it yet. The only reason UMD exists was for shops! And guess what the number one complaint has been since the PSP released: the UMD drive. Everyone wished it wasn't there and that games would just be bought from the PSN store.
And digital download titles have really proven themselves the past couple of years, especially from Sony's service in my opinion because they've really been pushing indie-titles and smaller game-releases. Sony releasing a console for digitally downloadable titles only, is in itself a testament of Sony wanting to push PSN and downloadable gaming.
Look, for big budget titles on home-consoles priced €60 I DO want a physical disc, but small games that you can play and forget about.. why should I care? Especially when it open up possibilities for developers by lowering the entrance-risk and just be more creative! Look at the games that are coming out for the iPhone, every week a bunch of new excellent, creatively made titles get reviewed on Area5's CO-OP show by small developers that wouldn't have been successful in the old market. It's business models like this that give small studios an opportunities!
Go (pun not intended) Sony, stick it to them! I've held out on the PSP so far, but they might just have a customer here.
"The only reason UMD exists was for shops! "
PSP was NOT intended to be like this. And I hope to the gaming God Shabranigdu that PSP2 isn't either
UMD exists because per megabyte, it's something like a thousand times cheaper to produce than DS's cards and even moreso for GBA carts. UMD exists to do the same thing the move to CD/DVD did for consoles, but to handhelds.
There were launch titles that were larger than the largest memory stick you could buy then.
I understand your point, but I think server-costs are even less and there's no risk on unsold stock. Besides, another big complaint about the PSP, and in this case it's software, was that it was getting console-ports i.e. games not meant for the system. I'm guessing the majority of those games that were bigger than the Memorysticks that were available then were basically ports. The best (or at least most memorable to me) games were almost all downloadable. A lot of the current downloadable games aren't that heavy on memory any more while memorycards got a lot cheaper and bigger.
Anyway, I just think that looking at the current situation of the market this is a good thing. The Apple Appstore is doing really well, also for gaming. PSN and Live are getting really successful with their online-stores and also gathering development-support from big publishers, casual gaming is on a rise and having quicker easy-to-step-into games that fit into a busy lifestyle is a welcome change in my opinion.
It might not be for everyone, but honestly I'm really interested in this and I do think there's a market for this.
Sony should offer a DownloadStation to every retailers, so people who don't have internet could still come see the retailers and buy the games over there.
Or if the young crowd doesn't have a credit card they could go see a retailer and pay in cash to the retailer, maybe add a 5$ transaction fee, and then use the DownloadStation to get their new games without a credit card!
Yeah, there is also that problem. What about kids that dont own a credit card? I mean I put myself in the parent´s position and I would NEVER give my 8 year old my credit card to buy games. Maybe there is a nice little profit to be made off psn cards?
Well, they make 1 very good point:
No more bargains, or competition between stores... So you can't go search around for a cheaper one.. And my whole collection consists of searching and trying to buy the cheapest one (at that time), otherwise I wouldn't have over 40 PS3 games since I got my PS3 (20-december-2008), I would propably have only 1 or 2 games.. AND let's not forget with disks you can play the game anytime you want, because with a digital download your HDD will soon run out of space and you must delete games, so if you ever want to play those games again you first have to start downloading them again (which for a lot of people can take a very long time)..
I think a big thing for me is when I buy a UMD, the game is actually MINE. Let's say I buy a game off of PSN and then for whatever reason (censorship, trademark dispute, complaints, whatever) Sony decides to pull the plug. Even if I get a refund on my Wallet or whatever it's called, it was mine to play and Sony can "turn it off" in an instant. Other companies have done it. What if I didn't have high speed internet and enough cards to hold all my games? I either have to buy enough cards in order to hold my games (which virtually adds cost to the games) or find somewhere to redownload them. Or I buy a game when the GO comes out, download it, beat it, and replace it with something else. 3 years down the road, it turns out I want to play that first game again, but it didn't sell too well, so Sony decides not to carry it anymore. It's mine, I paid for it...? Everybody thinks when you buy software online, you have access to it whenever you want, but if the license holder shuts it down, they don't have to keep it available.
What are you people babbling about? If you want physical games, start a movement to get devs to make games on MSMicro/memory card format.. The PSPgo is NOT a system incapable of playing games on physical media... If games were on MS Micro, you skip the slow load times & have mere flexibility with the physical media's Storage space. Game Devs could then opt to use bigger MS cards for bigger games, smaller cards for smaller games and game trade-ins would still exist. Plus, with the PSPgo, those that wanted to could still go download only. Everyone happy. Stop bashing the Go & look at the potential it has to Satisfy both words of the gaming community.
-Landon