Opinion: Sony's Worst PSN Enemy? PS1 Conversion Sloth!
Now, this isn't a new subject, but it's one that is worth returning to - what on Earth is Sony doing with bringing PlayStation 1 games to the PS3's PlayStation Store in the West? As can be seen from the Wikipedia list, there's still a terribly sparse collection of PS1 re-releases - with only a couple of non-Sony titles available, and no regular schedule.
This has been particularly bothering me because I noticed SiliconEra has covered the latest Japanese batch of PS1 releases on PSN, posted at the end of July, and look - 14 new games, including Armored Core, King's Field, Wild Arms, the Jumping Flash sequel Robbit Mon Dieu, and more. That's 14 in one month - from a whole host of different publishers.
The month before that? There were 19 PlayStation 1 games on the Japanese PSN, including SNK titles such as Metal Slug and The King of Fighters '99, the awesomely abstract Sony title Depth, XI/Devil Dice, and others. And they have a nice monthly groove down for making a big chunk of titles available - not as cool as weekly, but it's a good start.
Anyhow, as the Japanese have spotted, having the PSN-downloadable games playable on both the PSP and PS3 for one low price ($5.99) is tremendously good for consumers. Plus, it's a really easy way for third-party companies to monetize their back catalog, because practically all they have to do is hand over the original game - emulation does the rest.
So sure, I can understand that licensed titles might be a bit trickier, but Sony - what is going on here? The only explanation I can see is that SCEJ is organized and has personnel in place to license and put out the material, and SCEA and SCEE aren't. And why? From what I've heard off the record and seen on the record, not having a central office/organization for its online endeavors has hurt Sony significantly. There are multiple overlapping offices working on various elements of Sony's online network and software, from SOE through Sony Santa Monica to Foster City and beyond.
In some ways, collaboration is tremendous, but I think a great example of how Sony's structure is leading to oddness is Sony Online licensing 6 Midway titles for PSN. Uh, why not just get Midway to do them itself, like it does for XBLA? My view is that it's because jurisdiction was unclear, and the outward-facing nature of the PlayStation Network just wasn't there in January 2007. And it'd better be there soon, and Sony had better be talking to third-party publishers about PS1 downloadable games right now, otherwise a major digital distribution advantage is rapidly being lost.
Comments
SCEA/SCEE seem really hellbent on making sure that the US and Euro PSN stores remain clunky, slow, and poorly updated messes. Their lack of updates is really disheartening, especially with as much potential as the service has (like you pointed out, look at the JPN PS1 list as an example). Shame they seem completely incapable of pulling their stuff together.
The Japanese store is a bit whack as well, though. Want to play the Hot Shots Golf 5 demo? Too bad, it's been removed. You'll have to sign up for an account at the Taiwan PSN store to snag it now. In their infinite wisdom, SCEJ decided that since the game was out now, a demo wasn't required. Oooooooohhhh kaaaaaay....
At least they allow you to sign up for accounts on any store you want to, but I have a feeling that that's more of an unintended oversight than a neat little feature. Who knows how long it'll be before they decide to patch that up all in the name of improving their service.
I really, really hope that the surprise release of Symphony of the Night means positive things for the future of the the service and that it wasn't just a one-off fluke...but if the last few months are any indication, the only ones who have their act together and know what time it is are the folks working on the firmware updates.
Posted by: RosuhiMSX | July 30, 2007 2:49 PM