Ah, the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. John M Richardson Jr once said “When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” We at Vogster would like to think of ourselves as part of that second camp, The Makers, not to be confused with THE MAKER, the mysterious omniscient entity responsible for the misadventures that plague Rick Ajax and Lori Machete in Unbound Saga for the PSP, available now for download exclusively on the PlayStation Network.
See what I did there? Bridge quotes about the future to a reference to Unbound Saga, which then leads to the topic of digital distribution? Yes, Unbound Saga is available for download only. You can’t walk into Gamezoinks, or wherever else you typically buy your disc-based gaming fix, and walk out with a plastic box full of brawling Unbound goodness. You can, however, buy this game from the comfort of your own home, while still in your bathrobe and bunny slippers. Click-click-clack, simple as that. Super easy, and all you need is an internet connection and a PlayStation Network account. And a PlayStation device to play the game on, of course.
But why would Vogster, or any other publisher for that matter, buck the trend and do something as radical as bypassing brick-and-mortar? What do we have against the good people at Gamezoinks? Nothing at all, I assure you (In fact, we just made that name up.). But the benefits of digital distribution cannot be overlooked. For the consumer, digital download offers unparalleled convenience. If you want it, you can have it NOW, regardless of weather, bus schedules, gas prices, etc. RIGHT NOW. In fact, I just bought the first three seasons of Dexter from the PlayStation Store while writing this. My fingers barely left the keyboard. How convenient is THAT?? It also guarantees availability. It would have stunk to drive all the way to the mall for that set of DVDs only to find they were sold out. Well, the internet is never sold out, and it is open 24-7. How ‘bout them apples?
Digital distribution is good for the developer, too. It is easier to get the product onto the market, cheaper to manufacture and distribute, and it bypasses the growing used- and rental- markets that eat into sales. The traditional model makes it that much harder for smaller companies to compete, even those with amazing new ideas and talent. Wouldn’t you rather have more good games to choose from? Going digital gives developers a viable stage to present their products for the gameplaying market to enjoy.
We certainly haven’t turned our back on the tactile satisfaction of holding something groovy and colorful in your hands. That’s why we’re hard at working producing spiffy Unbound Saga comics and sweet, sweet action statuettes to adorn your desktops and Unbound Saga shrines (Check out our Facebook Fan page some nifty pix.). And as DLC becomes available, you’ll be able to hop into the new content instantly, thanks to the uber-convenience of it all!
So yes, the digital download method is relatively new, and sometimes new can be scary. But you survived the change from 8-bit to HD, from 2D to 3D, from cartridge to CD to DVD to Blu-ray. I think we will not only survive the change from disc to digital, but we’ll all benefit from the process. And if you don’t believe me, here’s a rock-solid offer to try it for yourself: FIVE FREE CODES FOR YOUR OWN COPY OF UNBOUND SAGA! (codes are for North America only — sorry Lost Continent of Atlantis!)
Wait, what? FREE?? You bet, but because downloading digital content to your PSP is so darn easy (signed in from the PlayStation Store, select “Redeem Codes”) , we decided to throw in a little extra challenge just to emphasize how easy the actual process is WITHOUT the silly contest challenge. Here are the codes — all you have to do is guess the missing characters. (And yes, there is a pattern related to this posting…)
Have at it, junior G-men!
2F7I-GRB8-*K64
8H*2-EGBE-6XPT
XACJ-8IBI-M2E*
*F9P-5IB2-HAJ8
JIPD-I*BI-38PA
YOU CAN ALL STOP TRYING.
THEY ARE ALL GONE!
ALL THE CODES HAVE BEEN USED!
just a FYI. you can keep going but its a waste of your time.
@SarshelYam
Agreed, especially since they don’t normally give free PSP codes…
It was “MAKER”
I feel very sad in my stomach
ha ha ha ha ha
I appreciate the good intentions but the codes are always a bad idea. A few people get the code, a bunch of people get pissed off because they are too late. Result? A lot of people upset, a few people happy, not cool.
@Snoozey:
I’d agree, it’s not going to be the one-and-only, in the future. I think for many people there will always be a place for the physical products. But with the cost of digital storage these days, digital distribution is becoming more and more viable.
I still agree that it shouldn’t be the only option, but if they offered digital downloads at 5-10% price cut from retail, I’d definitely be all over it. If they ran sales like Steam did, I’d go just about digital exclusive in a heartbeat, especially if I could re-download my games, etc…
Well I’m going to stick with all my games
I still feel sad that I got nothing, even though I give so much (http://www.pspdemocenter.com/page.php?al=3968&pg=3) FYI I have more now from the ps store. At least I’m ready for the PSP Go.
@emiru69
Yeah, I mean, why can’t they make it free for a limited time or something?
@TuxBobble:
I agree with you, sometimes I find the digital downloads more expensive than the real options.
How dare you slander the good name of Gamezoinks, lol!
@Tjoeb123
That’s a great idea, for a limited time or something. I check the blog several times at day and I still got nothing and I’m sure there is a lot of people is the same situation.
Digital downloads are perfect for handhelds, not so great for consoles. Seriously, who wants to be downloading 25-50GB games? Bite sized PSP games are perfect for downloading though. I’d rather have a bunch of games ready to play in my PSP than have to carry around a bunch of UMD discs.
Now they just need to get their good will trade in program started so I can trade in all my UMDs for digital redeem codes. Make it happen, Sony.
Digital downloads may be the future, but with broadband penetration being so low in the US, Digital Distribution being “the standard” is long ways off. Heck, even a large portion of Americans that do have broadband have to be concerned about download caps put in place by corporate-owned ISP’s. That’s like telling a consumer: hey, I know you like to shop, but you’re only allowed in the store “x” number of times before your limit is up.
Download only is fine by me for the lower priced titles, as in under $20. But future or not, good game or not, any dev that sends out a $40-60 game as ‘download only’ will certainly miss out on having me as a customer.
@emiru69
“I check the blog several times at day and I still got nothing.” What does that mean?
@TuxBobble:
Not me, even if it was cheaper I still rather have a hard copy. What if in the future PSN went down and they lost all our data on what we bought and downloaded? Or if we fried our HDD’s? You always need to look at the worst case scenario and so as long as you have a working PS3 and a hard copy of your favorite games, then you’re good to go. :D Though I’m not saying I’m against Digital Download 100%, I just always want an option of buying a hard copy of my game, that’s all :o).
Sorry to double up here…
@56 That’s a great idea and point about making the downloads somewhat less costly than the retail disc.
Digital distribution saves the publisher money on storage medium, case, manual and cover printing, shipping, and more. Why not pass some of that savings on to the consumer?
Those $10-$20 I don’t care for much. The satisfaction I get from having my hard copy > than spending more money on games.
darn always alittle to late
Aww missed it again would’ve been great to get it because i have a big test tomorrow but oh well at least i can get fat of fat princess woot best psn game ever cant wait to buy that awesome game
@ Snoozey
I’m with you. I paid a premium to get my copy of Patapon 2 on UMD. I don’t mind paying $10 or less for DD software but the having the physical media makes me feel more secure in the security of my purchase. I’d gladly pay more for it, if they’d only give us a choice.
“Seriously, who wants to be downloading 25-50GB games?”
And who’s doing that? As far as I know, there aren’t any downloadable 20-50GB games out there.
I miss John D :(
Anyway I logged on too late. I probably would have got a code.
Great use of the quote at the top. I like that- it’s very witty yet has a touch of nostalgia for the more common phrases.
Is there going to be a playstation home blog post?
Yet again I dont get a code…Ive tried multiple times but im never fast enough
I think the time when this info was posted on all content needs to be shown helps alot to know how long it takes for a person to post the first comment. still wish I could have gotten one of those codes. I find it easier to use the psn store on the ps3.
would like to see the psn blog’s main page force all browsers to reload the entire page instead of using their own browser cache and not load any new content recently added. it can be done in php.
@ Snoozey:
“What if in the future PSN went down and they lost all our data on what we bought and downloaded? Or if we fried our HDD’s?”
That’s an awfully nutty thing to say, but pretty standard among hardcopy die-hards. Haven’t you people ever heard of backups? You can make them quickly, cheaply, and easily… and it’ll only get quicker, cheaper, and easier in the future.
And you’ve probably noticed by now that PS3 games, Blu-ray or not, get frequent software updates. If you were the sole survivor of some terrible nuclear holocaust that wiped out the PSN servers, but you still managed to find an unopened PS3 and games, you wouldn’t be able to download the patches for those games… or play them at all, if you needed to download PS3 firmware updates that were no longer available. Why worry about this at all?
Gosh, maybe I should just stop using Gmail and go back to handwritten letters because terrorists could infiltrate Google headquarters and blow up the servers…
@triple_lei
Backups? Why should I invest additionally into external HDD’s or anything of that sort when I can keep a hard copy of the game to begin with? Hmm..
Seeing as to how unreliable Sony is at times, I rather have my hard copy and not put my trust in their servers at all.
Maybe you should. I keep backup’s of my emails and print them out to have “hard copies.” You never know.
@Tjoeb123
Sorry maybe I did not use the right words. What I was trying to say was even though I check several times at day the blog I did not arrive on time. I think that your idea of using time with the codes would have a better results. It’s not the fact of not getting the code is not having any idea if they still working or not, at least not until someone said something in the blog (thanks ChaseHammerJ)
You can infinitely backup your downloaded games. You can’t backup your hardcopies cheaply or even legally.
And I like not having to worry about my games getting dirty, scratched, shattered, lost, or stolen. Not being reckless helps, but it’s still easier with downloads!
WOW that was completely pointless…………pointless but fun wooooohooooo
“Digital distribution is good for the developer, too. It is easier to get the product onto the market, cheaper to manufacture and distribute”
That’s kinda funny…
Yes it certainly is better and cheaper for the developer, but somehow it’s hardly ever better or cheaper for the consumer!
“and it bypasses the growing used- and rental- markets that eat into sales”
Yeah, and how exactly is that good for the consumer? In this digital download only world utopia people are just supposed to keep buying and buying and buying, until they have a library of a thousand games they have no interest in ever playing again, right? Sounds like a great idea, NOT.
Hah! That woulda been a good one…. NEXT TIME! :)