Shard said:
Well, as somebody who follows the console downloadable scene very closely I do understand that games don't magically fall out of the sky or anything. However, I am seeing, or rather not seeing, things that make the PSN Situation much better. That thing is content announcements, to drag the XBLA back into this, hardly a day goes by where I am not seeing a new game announced, in one way or another, for future release on that service. Also, WiiWare has had a bunch of new games announced, though that may have been out of necessity. That really hasn't happened with the PSN, I think there have been at most five newly announced games, and that is being generous. The future of the PSN can not be secured when even the idea of future content does not exist.
That's a big problem with the PSN downloadable games right now. Every Thursday morning, I'm thinking, "Wonder what's going up on PSN this week?" but by evening I'm often disappointed. Since the new year began, there have only been
seven new games (and one of them, Jet Moto 3, has vanished from the store). That's including the PS1 classics and EyeToy games. That's not even one game a week!
I know Shard has mentioned this a few times in other threads, and gofreak mentioned it on page 1:
Where are the downloadable games from the big-name third party publishers? Apart from Sony, the only major third party publishers that have any representation are Capcom, Namco, and...uh...er...well, I suppose Konami might count for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS1 classic), although as I understand it Sony "published" the PSN release of that. Oh, and Midway licensed a few classic games to Sony Online Entertainment last year. And that about wraps it up.
Activision just announced a new Vigilante 8 game for XBLA. Why isn't it on PSN?
Q Entertainment has several great games (Lumines, Every Extend, Rez) on XBLA. Many of these games are well known in their PS2/PSP incarnations. Why aren't they on PSN?
I know EA has a few downloadable PS1 games out in Europe...but nothing at all in North America! Why doesn't EA have any downloadable PSN games announced?
Where are THQ, Sierra, Ubisoft, Sega, and Atari? They all have multiple releases on XBLA. Why, then, are these companies
completely ignoring PSN as a source of downloadable games? This is a
major failing on Sony's part.
Sony really needs to work on courting third parties and convincing them to bring their biggest and best games to PSN. They don't have to give up on XBLA or WiiWare, just release their games on PSN
also.
Finally, as far as "quality vs. quantity" goes: I appreciate the fact that Sony's trying to get the best quality experiences on PSN, and they've certainly got some wonderful games up there. But the paucity of content is worrying. Open it up a little more, try to get at least 1-2 games up there each and every week (preferably more), and most of all,
let the consumer decide what is "quality" and what isn't. I find it hard to believe that they're busting at the seams with all this unreleased content and are just holding back to ensure that it won't crash the system and whatnot. I don't know what Microsoft is putting in the Kool-Aid to get all those companies on board with XBLA and ignore PSN altogether, but Sony needs to get some of that formula for themselves.