Sony Wants To Turn PSN Into Virtual Console
Sony is currently talking with developers about publishing their game libraries on the PlayStation Network for digital download. The goal is to further transform PSN into something more comparable to Nintendo’s Virtual Console, creating a new outlet for purchasing and playing video games from previous console generations.
GOOD.
It’s refreshing to see the industry recognize that there’s a market for older software through new platforms. It’s nice to have the ability to replay a game long since traded or try something that you may have not gotten the chance to play during its original run. Either way, these games would be a bargain at $5-15 a piece.
One of the arguments that I’ve had to acknowledge on the side of software piracy is availability. People will buy a product if it’s made available (for a reasonable price). If a publisher refuses to re-release the product, the consumer is going to find whatever method they can in order to get what they seek.
Let’s say I want Earthbound for the SNES. I never got to play it 15 years ago, but after all the acclaim I’ve heard of it, I think I’m finally ready to give it a chance. I can’t go to the local Target and pick up Earthbound–the cartridge has been out of production for over a decade! I want to give Nintendo my money, but I can’t.
I can still legally buy an Earthbound cart though the second-hand market. Due to its scarcity, I’m forced to pay a dealer over $100 for just the cart, no box or booklet. Looks like some kid wrote his name on the back with a Sharpie. Not a good deal and makes downloading the ROM for free sound all the more appealing.
None of that money goes to Nintendo, either. That fact has been the subject of publishers’ newest gripe: Losing money to the used game market. Not satisfied with making up how much money they’re supposedly losing to piracy, they’re now attacking used game retailers like GameStop. They claim that developers need the money earned through the sales of new games to survive. If people only buy used games, they’re unable to fund their studios and the video game industry could collapse.
The argument wheel goes like this:
Publishers: “We’re losing money from people not buying our games!”
Consumers: “Put out games that we want to buy.”
Publishers: “Uh… We can’t afford to do that because we’re losing so much money!”
Somehow I think that if these companies held up the cost of re-publishing a game in one hand and the amount they claim to be losing to piracy and the second hand market, the latter would be undeniably exaggerated.
That point is most easily illustrated with PlayStation games on the PSP handheld. Converting the original game disc ISO is remarkably easy. So easy that there’s a software that allows you to do it yourself at the push of a button!
With portable gaming on the rise in recent years, it’s much easier to breath new life into old titles. There’s something to be said in how differently a game is received when it’s able to be played anywhere. Myself, I never paid much attention to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the PSone. But now that I can play it on my lunch breaks, I had trouble putting it down.
In the case of Chrono Trigger, I’d fallen in love with it all over again when I was granted the ability to play it on the go. I’d love to be able to play the original Final Fantasy VII, if I could do so on my PSP, and I know there are millions more like me.
Thank goodness that Sony is taking the proactive approach to the situation. Rather than throwing money at lawyers whose only goal is the justify their own jobs, they’re investing in salable product. Either way, they’re sucking money from their consumers. At least this way, everyone wins by it.
