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:
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.
Have a good rest of the week and keep a look out for the new offering dropping tomorrow!
For got to mention, that is one badass Bioshock theme though.
it’s an option but not neccessary.
i dont think i will buy a premium theme from PSN since there are a lot of free themes out there.
Will there be anyway to “sample” the themes before purchase? I know it’s only $1-2, but I’d hate to be stuck with a theme that doesn’t “feel” right or is too bright/white, etc.
$0.99 seems like a fair price for a premium theme but it’d have to be one hell of a theme to make me want to purchase it. In other words, every little thing that can be customized should be customized. That’d make it worth it.
Who is the red-headed chick in one of those themes?
WHAT! i cant believe we have to pay for these :( the psp we didnt….. Why now?? Whats the point?? we could get a theme for free easily for our psps by making them. Now that you guys make them we have to pay… No thanks. Im not criticizing, just a lil unhappy for the cool things that i have to pay for if i want to get them..
Most of you posters on here are completely moronic. It is very simple if you don’t want it don’t buy it. Nobody is forcing you to, or cheating you in any way. You guys realize that not everything has to be free. What is next, you guy s gonna start demanding Sony give you games for free as well? How many different themes do you use anyway? There is nothing wrong with offering premium themes along with the free ones we already get. I think if some people want them that is fine.
Themes were better free. You guys didn’t need to follow Microsoft with this move. =/
Unless you guys are just the portal fro this other company to deliver their themes.
Let me say, I understand you guys will still offer free themes but why charge for themes at all?
Specially as much as $1.99 or .99, that’s a little much.
@ou814me
your missing the point everyone does have a right to say what they feel about this…
yea .99 to 1.99 is nothing but its stupid for sony to do this… theres not point for this at all .. we can get free themes any ps3 and psp sites we go too…. we can make are own themes…..
and on top of that everyone is starting to see a change for the PSN service… we are slowly starting to pay for stuff we might like to have but dont see the point in throwing down money for it… like qore… and now themes…. i can see this now happening for the ps3… its slowly going to corner us till we almost have to pay…. i just hope online for ALL ps3 games will be free…. i can understand for MMOs but for anything else it better stay free
Oh… OH NICE!!! I hope the LittleBigPlanet Theme is one of the first to take advantage of this. PLEASE?!?
What!? $1.99 and $0.99 for premium themes are hella cheap! 1 or 2 measly dollar bills! Come on people! If ya’ll known better, Disruptive Media Publishers has been making themes on the 360 and charging cheap prices for them and they are really nice looking. They even have a website where you can check the themes out before buying them if in doubt. If they stay on track with producing quality themes, then my little 1 or 2 dollars will be handed to them.
will some have have moveing back ground like the fish wallpaper on my laptop that will be cool
I don’t understand, PS Store is going to charge for premium themes now..ok get that…But are there still going to make and be, free themes to download, not just the ones that are free already?? Is this so?
hope i get a answer
What’s premium about them other than the price?
I’ll check out these new premium themes, but I’m not entirely sure if it’ll be worth it…
Paying money for something that we would normally get for free seems kinda cruel, BUT I will try it out, and if I like it then I’ll most likely continue purchasing them…
It does seem like a nice way to spend those tedious $2-$3 left after purchasing a big title from the Playstation Store!
AAAH!!!
WTF?!!?
now the PS3 takes one step closer to the 360 and paying for everything like themes and avatars and stuff for apartments in HOME and extra stickers in LBP..all pointlessly “premium” items..
what’s next? paying for a “premium” online service with “premium” servers?
i don’t like where this is going…
i know, i know, if i don’t like it, i don’t have to buy it..
but i’ve been here since the beginning kids, and it’s sad to see things are slipping towards us all having to pay like on the 360 to play online..
call me crazy now, but we’ll see..
the winds of change are a blowin’…
@268
Oh please, these themes are optional. There are still developers who are making free PS3 themes available on updates (10 bucks that we will see themes that are free tomorrow)
And paying stuff for HOME, what did you expect? It typical of a Virtual World to have things in it that are bought with real money, Second Life does it, but you don’t see the whole community up in arms about that now do you? If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Its as simple as that. Home was from the start, a place for Sony to make money.
If your ‘premium’ online service with ‘premium’ servers comes to pass (Which I laughed at) I still wouldn’t give a damn because the current PS3 games I play online right now run perfectly fine.
Free online is free online. If there happens to be extra services that aren’t essential to play online doesn’t matter. They can charge for whatever they want, but as long as online is free, I’m happy.
it seems like whenever sony tries to charge for anything now, people come from all corners of the earth to bash them. way to go guys! if they are half decent themes then you have my money Sony.
peace,
Lh
Guys you can still make ur own themes and there still are free themes. The premium themes are licensed themes like NFL,NBA,Def Jam Records, for examples. Not game themes ppl read the post and stop being little babies.
Bah. I won’t pay for a theme. I hope they will simply be “timed premium”, lol. I mean, that you’ll be able, after let’s say 6 months, to have them free (I don’t suppose it’s gonna be like that though).
As long as we can still also have the free ones, it’s perfectly fine with me. =D
Just download the bootleg theme the day after the official ones drop. =O
I have always enjoyed the themes.I don’t mind having themes about the latest game but theme based on Movies, TV shows, Sports teams are a must. Themes should allow you to express yourself more. Hobby theme showing cooking, cheerleading, model making, Karate etc would help with this greatly. I don’t know if animated themes are even possible. But I would definitely pay for one.
All one has to do to see the various ideas possible for theme is look towards WinAmp’s skin site. Themes that mimic Operating systems like Windows or Apple. Popular Science fiction themes based on Star Trek, The matrix, or fantasies like Lord of the Rings. I have to say I’m really excited about this. And can’t wait for the future will bring to themes and the Playstation 3. The best console on the planet.
Pay for “Themes” what next pay for service? I mean I can whip up a better theme than most that come out of the store. Sorry but I can(check my WARHAWK theme http://www.ps3-themes.net/gaming-games-themes/warhawk-8-ps3-theme.htm ). What I want to know is; are they premium because they change the sound and have thousands of background images? Huh? Sorry to kinda rain on your parade but seriously do you think this is going to generate thousands in revenue? I don’t. I think most will pass on this one. Sorry nice concept but probably better to have kept it that.
@275…
thats pretty damn good.
nice work mate ;)
What a load of rubbish… sorry I have to admit. I can easily customize it on PC. I’m not paying for PS3 themes….. no way. Why are they now charging us with all these things? I would rather pay every year like the 360. Screw this… what’s next… pay for online subscription to the so called Sony online magazines…. oh god hell no.
I AM SO AGAINST THIS THING……..EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
Sony isn’t getting any smarter.
HK store already have this kind of thing. I won’t pay for a theme.
Ok this just proves that xbox 360 is more reliable and better. I’m not getting anything out of my PS3.. seriously… the news only gets more depressing. Delays, charging for everything now on the store from Qore to now this? All I am doing now is waiting what else will be charged. Ok I understand you have to charge for games, PSP games etc etc. But themes? what the hell?
Am I the ONLY person who gets the feeling that nearly every response that supports the “premium” pay-theme scenario is in some way involved in the process and/or stands to profit in some way from them? Go back and read all six pages … every person who calls out people who are complaining about this spews the same rhetoric/sales pitch that the post author does. And, as much as I love Sony … I feel truly sorry for anybody involved in such a pathetic facade.
Well, can’t say I’m too happy about this development. I just hope these premium themes are limited to themes over and above what we normally get for free, produced only by these content partners. I don’t want this to end up like that OTHER CONSOLE where they nickel and dime you for themes to your favorite games and the only ones they offer for free are the crappy promotional (read advertisements) themes. Game related themes should always remain free.
That being said, I will be getting that golden retriever theme <3
@280
Oh get over yourself hijaker77, the only thing bad about this is that it’s making the ps3 more like the xbox360. The XBLM charges for many more things than the PSN. The existence of Qore hasn’t affected the amount of demos and other stuff we get every week. And not too long ago we got a new F@H client with Life with PS. I seriously fail to see how this makes the 360 anymore reliable since M$ has been charging for themes since like, forever. And not just themes of swimsuit models, themes and gamerpics for pretty much every single game out there. Compare this with the playstation that has been giving a weekly dose of game themes for free.
Better question, will there be XMB?…Jokes
Im with the others, why not. We have free themes Sony gives us, We can download thousands of Free Themes and we can make our own Free Themes.
They now have paid ones too. Its not like their forcing you to pay for them
Well at least the free themes are still available.
Will the quantity of free themes created / released remain the same?
Also, I would only pay if there was good reason. From what I can tell, they look the same as many others.
Now, if there is some dynamic or animated content contained within, they may be worth cost. If not however; it would be very vexatious to learn that resources are focused toward financial gain, rather than the development of something innovative.
I must say thanks regardless. I do appreciate your effort to please the public, but you must realize, we can create our own.
Unless these themes are remarkably different, you’re bound to find consumer complaints.
If there is a theme Im interested in enough to buy then i certainly would. Maybe one day Ill be able to get a cool Carolina Panther or Superman theme.
well, i personally think following the M$ route of things and charging for stuff like this should be outlawed. I for one wont be picking these up, partly because im in the UK and partly because i dont like paying for things that should be free.
I can understand that these are licensed, but if this trend continues i can see the amount of themes downloaded reducing quite a lot.
We are being given more choices for when we want to change the themes for our PS3s. What is the problem with that?
We will still have SCEA made themes (free). No one said that this service would be removed. The Premium themes are from an outside source that SCEA has to pay. I see no problem with the charges of .99 and $1.99 in order to cover what SCEA is paying to aquire them for us.
Remember, the free themes will still be made and we will still be able to download them free of charge. Why can’t some people understand that?
To me, it looks like either people did not understand the blog due to a possible language barrier, or they never bothered to read the whole thing and the subsequent replies by Ro Hernandez.
Can we make and sell our own themes ? (that is not copyright ones but our own unique designs)
With the potential money, I could buy more games from your site :))), or retire early :P
I will nevr pay for themes. Unless, Sony offers some variations on the default “Wave” themes. I love dynamic backgrounds and would never pay for these static themes.
Wow. Yes. Just what we all needed. Instead of spending my money on a good PSN game, I’m going to waste it on a theme! This is a godawful idea. I hope it tanks.
why not?
i think it’s a great idea, i’ll pay for anything that I think is worth the price.
just because PSN is free doesn’t mean Sony and it’s partners have to give away the farm. They have to make money. By them making money off something that others will gladly pay for, it keeps PSN free, can’t you naysayers see that, or did you miss Economics class in high school?
These people kill me. They are the same ones that will buy ringtones for their cell phone, now that is the biggest ripoff in DLC ever!
@ryles,
I’ve taken plenty of economics classes … and the problem here is that the model that Sony has provided since day one is not only FREE, but FREE TO CREATE YOUR OWN.
If they are suddenly introducing a “pay” format, companies that have only previously spent x amount of time developing FREE product will now be encouraged to make money off of their time and effort.
It’s very close to a “bait and switch” tactic.
If X amount of companies are now going to make $1.99 a pop off of themes, there’s no reason for larger game companies to WANT to join that crowd. Look at XBLA. How many free game-related contents are there? Close to NONE.
correction …there’s no reason for larger game companies to NOT WANT to join that crowd…
As long as the free themes and wallpapers continue, I have no problem with this. Microsoft is already extorting enough money from me for their themes.
I’m sorry, this was one of the things I always rubbed in the faces of my 360 playing friends. As they pay money for their themes, Sony gives us some awesome themes for free, and we can make our own. Now the Really good themes will be pay-to-use and we’ll get the rather poor themes for free that have no new sound, one background, and the icons are just a different color. I must say this is a low down move and I don’t think it was well thought out. You won’t be getting my money for a theme that if I took the time I could just make myself.
I can’t believe so many people are complaining. Do you think Sony gets licenses for free for this stuff? So I guess you expect Sony to pay for NCAA licenses and then give us the stuff for free? That’s not going to happen. If you don’t want to pay, create your own, or download the 10,000+ that are all over the internet.
quit complaining about this small crap. Lord, I’ve never seen so many people complain.
I just love how people are jumping to conclusions like, “Oh, Sony will just start releasing premium themes and only release a few crappy free themes.” Grow a brain people. You are not required to download themes from Sony. I have about 60 themes on my PS3. I only downloaded one of them from Sony. The others I got from around the internet. It’s not that hard. If you want a “premium” theme but don’t want to pay for it, CREATE IT YOURSELF….if you know how to read.
This awesome!!! Thanks a lot. I’ve been really wanting sounds in my XMB. I’m gonna download one if I find one that I like when I get home from work.
1)qoore with premium demos 2)premium themes—>3)Premium PSN