New Premium Theme Options on PlayStation Store

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Ro Hernandez Digital Distribution Manager, Sony Network Entertainment
7 Author Replies

Bioshock_themePS3_ProofofConcept

The last time I posted it was regarding our special E3 section on the PlayStation Store. This time around I wanted to tell you about a new offering that you’ll see tomorrow. In addition to all the free themes you’ve already been getting and will continue to get on the PlayStation Store now, you’ll have the option to upgrade and purchase premium themes to customize the look of your PS3’s XMB.

We have linked up with a few partners, Smobile & Disruptive Media Publishers, to distribute premium themes from PlayStation Network. They have content offerings that range in type from NCAA College licenses to beauties on the beach to original cartoons and anime. These themes were created specifically for the PS3 and have special backgrounds, XMB icons and, in some cases, sounds. Here is a sample of some of the new Themes:

screen004 UNC-2

We have created a new “Premium Themes” section under Themes & Wallpapers for you to easily access this content. Also, for each theme, there is preview option that allows you to view images of the theme prior to making your decision.

We plan to offer approximately 6-10 new “Premium Themes” a month. So be sure to check back often to browse the newest in premium theme content.

High-Voltage-2

Have a good rest of the week and keep a look out for the new offering dropping tomorrow!

themes

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327 Comments

7 Author Replies

  • lifeRPGs
    October 8, 2008 at 1:03 pm PDT

    Oh wow, that’s great news. Is that only for North America or is it coming to japan and europe too?

  • erickmtrejo007
    October 8, 2008 at 1:04 pm PDT

    Is it free??

    • Ro Hernandez
      October 8, 2008 at 2:11 pm PDT

      Premium theme content will be available for purchase. Prices range from $0.99 – $1.99. We will continue to offer free themes along with the premium content.

  • OLy
    October 8, 2008 at 1:04 pm PDT

    No thanks.

  • Gorvi
    October 8, 2008 at 1:05 pm PDT

    Will there be a charge for these (Premium sorta implies you pay for it)? That’s always something I’ve liked about the PSN themes: they’re free. I doubt I’d personally care enough about themes to actually pay for them, especially with all the great free themes that we already have available, both official and fan made.

  • Juniorlavigne
    October 8, 2008 at 1:06 pm PDT

    Looks ok
    might get it

  • BIG-SLUG
    October 8, 2008 at 1:07 pm PDT

    Pretty cool … keep the PSN rockin’!

  • skynidas
    October 8, 2008 at 1:07 pm PDT

    No thanks

  • craazy
    October 8, 2008 at 1:08 pm PDT

    Is there any advantage to the premium vs the free? I mean do they have animated backgrounds or are the sounds HD quality. I mean what incentive do I have to pay for a theme that I could potentially make myself for free?

  • Cess007
    October 8, 2008 at 1:08 pm PDT

    And how much they’ll cost? Not that i’m thinking of buying them, but a low price might be helpful.

  • Elsa43
    October 8, 2008 at 1:08 pm PDT

    Once purchased, is it possible to store these themes on an external USB drive when not being used?

    I’m becoming more and more reluctant to purchase DLC simply because of lack of room on my 60GB PS3 unit. I realize I can upgrade the HDD, and that is something I’ll do eventually, but in the interim, it would be helpful if more content that we purchased could be temporarily stored on an external flash drive or USB HDD. When I get betas, I find I have to delete almost all of the games I have purchased and I know I only have 5 times that I can re-download them. Qore in particular tends to be a heavy download and is retained until the dl offering becomes valid, but this is often months and months later.

    Honestly… more content is going to have to be locally stored if you want us to continue purchasing. I have the money to spend on DLC, just no room. You need to fix the DRM issues to allow storage on an external device without opening yourselves to piracy.

    • Ro Hernandez
      October 8, 2008 at 2:15 pm PDT

      Will be unable to move it to external memory device. However, you\’ll always be able to access it through your Download List. So it\’s not going anywhere.

  • arki24885
    October 8, 2008 at 1:08 pm PDT

    U¬¬ I am sure taht my PS3 don´t like those themes

  • WestSiide
    October 8, 2008 at 1:09 pm PDT

    PASS

  • lpsquall
    October 8, 2008 at 1:09 pm PDT

    Thanks Sony for allowing us to create our own Themes, giving us free themes, and now allowing us to purchase premium themes. How can anyone argue with this?

  • Thwip
    October 8, 2008 at 1:09 pm PDT

    You do some of you not actually read the blog post before typing your comments…its so annoying.

    YES…it is a premium service that you have to pay for; and if the content interests me I will be happy to do so.

    Thanx!

  • darkiewonder
    October 8, 2008 at 1:09 pm PDT

    How much?

  • PyroJack
    October 8, 2008 at 1:09 pm PDT

    Ummm…. No.

  • CTG
    October 8, 2008 at 1:09 pm PDT

    As long as they’re reasonably priced, I’m game.

    One thing I’ve noticed about free and fan-made themes is that a lot of them don’t seem as if they’re made for functionality.

    For example, many themes have extremely busy backgrounds, which prevent you from seeing icons and icon text clearly. Others have bright colored backgrounds with white icon text, again making it hard to see said text.

    Since I don’t have the time to create my own themes, I’m willing to pay a reasonable fee for something that will bring quality and functionality.

  • Dr-MoHD
    October 8, 2008 at 1:10 pm PDT

    Free of course

  • WalterKovacs
    October 8, 2008 at 1:10 pm PDT

    Could you tell us a bit about the people behind the creation of the new premium themes?

  • JustVashu
    October 8, 2008 at 1:10 pm PDT

    I pass. this was actually what I like about the ps3. Only things that deserved to be paid for are charged. Themes and background pictures should be free. I hope you get more support from the other users but count me out.

  • Xoonaka
    October 8, 2008 at 1:10 pm PDT

    Free Themes are what makes PS3 great… I seriously hope if these cost, their cost is pitifully low. The only way I’ll purchase one of these is as an impulse buy while grabbing something else… so these can become the Snickers of the PSN.

    PS – What about custom / MORE profile pictures? The lack of profile pictures is really disappointing, I’d love to be able to use custom images (even if friends only can see them)

  • Darkclg
    October 8, 2008 at 1:10 pm PDT

    no creo que a muchos les guste la idea de comprar themes existiendo tantos gratis en internet y muy buenos

  • skynidas
    October 8, 2008 at 1:11 pm PDT

    Wow it seems like people is not liking this post: 2.19/5

  • XkillshotX
    October 8, 2008 at 1:12 pm PDT

    This has me worried about the possibility of PSN going to a fee for everything situation.

  • Dark_Vincent
    October 8, 2008 at 1:13 pm PDT

    We have free times, custom themes and now premium themes. Plenty of options for all kinds of users and wallets

  • Aaron
    October 8, 2008 at 1:13 pm PDT

    AWESOME!!:):)

  • WestSiide
    October 8, 2008 at 1:13 pm PDT

    Im assuming they’ll be like $0.99 or something. I could be wrong. Anything more than that would be absurd.

  • Ajora
    October 8, 2008 at 1:14 pm PDT

    I hope they are not too much…if they are I’ll pass them like I pass an Xbox 360 everytime I see it in a store.

  • JBruno
    October 8, 2008 at 1:14 pm PDT

    PSN is looking more and more as Live… in the bad aspects too, in this case.

  • TTP
    October 8, 2008 at 1:16 pm PDT

    Uh? Terrible idea. At least make them free for users above a given Level.

  • scorpio
    October 8, 2008 at 1:16 pm PDT

    If it’s well priced then it will be a great option.

    I also find most of these free themes are horrible because when the wallpaper is too busy you can’t make out your xmb items.

  • Cody_L
    October 8, 2008 at 1:17 pm PDT

    I’m with CTG and Thwip. If the price is reasonable and the Theme is to my liking, I’m game.

  • Ranma
    October 8, 2008 at 1:17 pm PDT

    Playstation themes = free.
    Competition’s themes = not free.

    Why in the world are you moving in this direction Sony? This is a step backwards, not forwards. This will only encourage developers to create “premium” themes. Why give away something for free when you can charge for it?

  • ftwrthtx
    October 8, 2008 at 1:18 pm PDT

    What exactly is the pricing range for ‘Premium Themes’?

  • leetfoo
    October 8, 2008 at 1:18 pm PDT

    What a sad day in PSN history.

    I’d just laugh myself silly at such a stupid idea if it wasn’t for the fact that consumers have actually gotten this stupid. Even with our economy down the tubes, I’m sure fanboys will scrounge up a few dollars to happily burn on worthless junk.

  • Neil
    October 8, 2008 at 1:19 pm PDT

    I understand that creating themes takes time and in the case for developers money, so I support this just as long as you keep the theme creator free and available to the public.

    As an aside, if you want people to purchase themes you should give them an incentive to do so such as having the backgrounds animate on these purchasable themes. MS’s themes will do this and you got keep up with the Joneses after all.

  • Krispow
    October 8, 2008 at 1:19 pm PDT

    I also have to say PASS on paid-for theme content. There are already many websites that offer user-created premium-quality theme content on nearly every subject you can imagine. In addition, users such as m0dus regularly create theme content that is beyond amazing — m0dus releases easily surpass anything released thus far through the PSN network.

    For interested parties, I heartily recommend checking out the Official PS3 Custom Theme Thread at:
    http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=206386

    Enjoy!

  • drdre74
    October 8, 2008 at 1:20 pm PDT

    the incentive to download and buy these is going to be that more than likely the free themes will become less and few until they are rarely put out so people will buy them.

  • vandam
    October 8, 2008 at 1:22 pm PDT

    Buy a theme no thanks I can make my own for free and we all know you can’t beat free.. Ask PSN….

  • Blazingluke
    October 8, 2008 at 1:22 pm PDT

    Seems like a pretty ridiculous idea…I don’t think it’ll work extraordinarily well.

    Some people will buy it though, and considering the amount of time and effort it takes to make a theme, profit! I’m not in the market though…

  • JustVashu
    October 8, 2008 at 1:23 pm PDT

    I think it would be less of a problem If buying with international credit card was something other than impossible. Same thing with the psn cards. They are more valuable in latin america yet they are nowhere to be found.

  • C-h-a-o-s
    October 8, 2008 at 1:23 pm PDT

    A saying comes to mind after reading this post….

    Don’t buy the cow when you can get the milk for free.

    This is nice and all but what a waste of money it would be when there so many sites offering the same quality of themes for free.

  • Daver
    October 8, 2008 at 1:23 pm PDT

    Thats a weird ”add”. Anyway if one interest me, ill buy it but im not looking forward to it lol

    Will we be able to change our name on PSN in a near future?

  • womfalcs3
    October 8, 2008 at 1:23 pm PDT

    I’ll stick to the free ones.

  • C-h-a-o-s
    October 8, 2008 at 1:24 pm PDT

    Oh and for the people saying it wont work, it has alreay been implemented in other region(s). They test the waters to see if people bite… come on now.

  • COOL__JOSH
    October 8, 2008 at 1:26 pm PDT

    It sounds like a good idea but im not going to pay for a theme when i can get one for free off some website.

  • EvoAnubis
    October 8, 2008 at 1:26 pm PDT

    Purchase…………themes?

    AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

    You have got to be kidding me. Pay for themes? With so many on PSN for free and the dozens of websites handing them out for free, why the hell would I PAY FOR A THEME?

    Thanks for the chuckles.

  • Jezer29
    October 8, 2008 at 1:27 pm PDT

    @10.. You can reDownload purchased content as many time as you want.. Its that you can only do that on 5 different systems..

    From a business stand point I can see why Sony’s doing this.. They’re still going to provide free ones.. But most likely these Premium ones are (and by the examples) look waaaaaaay better than any I’ve seen before..

    What I want to know is HOW MUCH??? It all depends on what kind of theme it is.. Does it have sound? Does it switch wallpapers?? Things like that? is what people look for.. Well I do..

  • Spazbiohaz
    October 8, 2008 at 1:28 pm PDT

    This is a Horrible idea, we loved that they were free. Now that is gone. Time to make my own.

  • JustVashu
    October 8, 2008 at 1:29 pm PDT

    @47, i’m pretty sure it’s just five times no matter what. Can someone please confirm?

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