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Games Entertainment

Sony Opens PSP Store on the PC 25

Posted by Zonk from the because-mac-users-don't-own-psps dept.
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."
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Sony Opens PSP Store on the PC More

Sony Opens PSP Store on the PC

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  • 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.

    • Re:The Fact they had to defend UMD (Score:4, Insightful)

      by stormguard2099 ( 1177733 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @02:32PM (#21437985)
      or maybe it's obvious to people that something like this could compete with UMD so they decided to go ahead and answer the question in everyone's mind.
    • I agree, I never understood why anybody would be willing to pay for a second copy of a movie just to watch it on the tiny screen that the PSP has.

      It further confused me because the price of the UMD movies wasn't a very good price. I still can't figure out why a person would want to pay for multiple copies of the same movie, when except from a few personal favorites, most people aren't likely to watch a movie more than a couple of times.
    • "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."

      Either that or they know that people are confusing UMD Movies and UMD Games...
    • UMD is not in deep trouble. It's dead.

  • Eliminates need for PS3 to buy PSP content. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Devir ( 671031 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @02:38PM (#21438065) Homepage
    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.

    • I have an 8 gig memory stick for mine. I'm not sure what the overall limit is, but memory sticks currently max out at 8 gb.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Devir ( 671031 )
        I've only ever been able to find 4 gig sticks. It's good news to hear there are 8 gig sticks floating around. Problem being they're still expensive.

        Halfway writing i realized that while expensive, memory sticks are the way to go media wise. UMD is slow, bulky, prone to scratches, case cracking and all sorts of other bad things. It requires moving parts, which eventually break.

        Circuits burn out eventually, but they're still better than the slow to load UMD disks. Besides, i could carry quite a few games with
        • I got mine at Best Buy in August. Yeah, it was expensive, but I was facing a long plane ride followed by a long drive with a five year old. A PSP with 8 gb worth of movies was a godsend.

          I wish I could get more games on sticks...It'd be a lot more convenient.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by sanosuke76 ( 887630 )
      Don't forget battery life. It costs more electricity to spin the disc than to read the memory card, which translates directly into longer battery life for memory stick based titles.

    • 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"

      Assuming most PSP games need 1.8Gb of data. A lot of UMDs are not nearly full, and ones that are may just be duplicating data across the disk (to reduce seeking, which hits the battery, and is slow).

  • Almost There (Score:2, Insightful)

    by lansirill ( 244071 )
    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 happe
  • This is good news for the PSP homebrew scene, just edit the binaries of the games to create your own, and it should work fine on almost any firmware.

  • Pricing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by scubamage ( 727538 ) on Wednesday November 21, 2007 @05:24PM (#21440321)
    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?

    • 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?

      Considering that most of the games that have come out on the PlayStation Network are around $5-$10, while the ones in the store run $30-$60, yeah, they already are, and probably will be a whole bunch c

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