Developers Are Unhappy with PSN's Return

[allistairp]

Developers Are Unhappy with PSN's Return

Developers are voicing concerns about PlayStation Network's plans, as users anticipate the service's full return.

After a month-long outage, Sony announced the PlayStation Store [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110212-Sony-Memo-Reveals-Schedule-for-PlayStation-Store-Revival"]will return May 24[/a] with a twice-per-week publishing schedule. As part of the [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110095-Sonys-PSN-Apology-Includes-Free-Games"] "Welcome Back appreciation program,"[/a] PSN is offering two free games to users. These two things might have consumers' best interests in mind, but developers are unhappy with how this might affect their profits.

"Everyone now gets games for free (including our Dead Nation and Super Stardust HD), so people might just play the free games for a while," said Ilari Kuittinen, CEO of Outland developer Housemarque. "By the time they are ready to buy something, Outland is maybe old news."

However, Kuittinen said his biggest concern is whether some PSN users will return to the Network and store at all after the recent security scare.

A developer of a "high profile new PSN game," who chose to remain anonymous, told Edge that the accelerated publishing schedule will not work in developers' favor: "As a developer, I feel very sorry for those teams that did try to release their titles during the PSN outage window. Beyond that, I feel sorry for those that are attempting to launch games in the days following the outage, as there will likely be such a backlog of traffic that it may be hard to be noticed in the flurry of 'get everything back up and running'."

PSN's rush to get back on schedule and the "Welcome Back" program may please consumers ([a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110144-Sony-Defends-Welcome-Back-Reward-Choices"]"may"[/a] being the key word), but developers' main concern is how to make a profit on a platform that hasn't existed for over a month.

During the outage, Q-Games, developers of the PixelJunk games,[a href="http://twitter.com/#!/PixelJunkNews/status/66034304551092224"] posted[/a] on its Twitter account: "The PSN outage is starving us and our fans! Support us by considering a PixelJunk shirt at ThinkGeek."

Perhaps the post was tongue-in-cheek, but, nevertheless, it is reflective of the uphill battle other PSN developers face as they unleash their belated releases upon the masses, later this month.

Source: [a href="http://www.next-gen.biz/news/developers-concerned-at-psn-release-schedule"] Edge[/a]


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[Snake Plissken]

News flash: This isn't really news. Of course developers aren't happy about it. There were two possible outcomes of this situation:

A) The developers would be happy with Sony.

B) The developers would be unhappy with Sony.

Why on earth would anyone expect that the developers would be happy after 3 weeks of the PSN being down, and another week of the store being down?

 

[MrMisfit]

There's just no pleasing some people. If comsumers want to buy something, they will. The timing of release doesn't matter as much as this guy thinks.

 

[googleback]

that's actually an interesting point... oh well. I bought Outland and its fantastic!

but, its a genius move for sony. now they've probably quadrupled the player base of the InFamous franchise weeks before the sequel hits. their second installment is going to fly off the shelves. making good of a bad situation.

A CONSPIRACY IS AFOOT! ALL THIS JUST TO SELL YOUR GAME SONY!? ARE YOU INSANE!? WHAT NEXT!? WHERE DOES IT END!?

 

[GonzoGamer]

What a bunch of "over-entitled whiners!" They should just be happy that they're getting free games.
I'm being facetious by the way.

If I was one of these developers, I would be thinking of ways to delay launch for another month. Find one tiny pixel out of place and demand another month of testing. From the sound of it, Bethesda needs to do that with their latest dlc anyway.

Now I'm off to buy a Pixel Junk tshirt. Those guys are one of the few really consistently great developers out there right now. It sucks that they're hurtin because of this. They should bundle Monsters, Eden, and the Shooters onto a BR disc for retail.

 

[beema]

Hang on, so is Sony passing the buck on to the developers of the free games? Meaning, instead of eating the cost themselves, they are not letting the developers get a "sale" off the free game? That's... kind of fucked up. Or am I misreading this?

 

[mjc0961]

Dammit devs, don't be so hard on Sony! They deserve your support, and other hippie nonsense regular users have had to endure.

Sony announced the PlayStation Store [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110212-Sony-Memo-Reveals-Schedule-for-PlayStation-Store-Revival"]will return May 24[/a]

No they didn't. Read what you linked to: That was an internal memo, not an official announcement.

Remember folks: online-only is the future because some guys say so.

For you, sir:

Spoiler: om nom nom

All the games they're offering are either in house or published by Sony. Not quite sure what the story is with Super Stardust and Infamous, but LittleBigPlanet, Dead Nation and Wipeout HD cannot have the buck passed on, as Sony made all of them.

Wrong. Media Molecule made LittleBigPlanet and Housemarque made Dead Nation. Time for you to learn the difference between a developer and publisher.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

it made me want to throw up, we lose card information, and sony are worried that we're going to play the two games they're going to give us? Microsoft are bad enough, but that's disgusting

 

[gimmly22]

The developers should have counted on this happening. Sony needs to regain trust and keep their consumer base.

Sony is using the old, "Not happy with the meal, it's on the house," tactic.

 

[ace_of_something]

I can't imagine any way that Sony would be able to make the developers happy at this point. Maybe if they force everyone to buy their games?

Okay this is new

never seen it go all vertical on me.

 

[lord.jeff]

Hang on, so is Sony passing the buck on to the developers of the free games? Meaning, instead of eating the cost themselves, they are not letting the developers get a "sale" off the free game? That's... kind of fucked up. Or am I misreading this?

You are misreading, this is about other developers worrying about losing sales because everyone would rather just get the free games in place of there's.

 

[Jumplion]

I understand their grievances, every day counts and when you're losing those days, you lose those precious sales. It's especially hard on the indie developers out there. Still, I don't think it's as bad as they may make it out to be, as people who were interested in the game would have bought it regardless of when they could.

Man, this makes me want to get Outland, I've heard excellent things about it. I'll probably buy up a prepaid PSN card if I do end up getting it.

 

[JDKJ]

Hang on, so is Sony passing the buck on to the developers of the free games? Meaning, instead of eating the cost themselves, they are not letting the developers get a "sale" off the free game? That's... kind of fucked up. Or am I misreading this?

You're misreading it. The games are "free" because Sony's eating the cost of providing them.

 

[MajorDolphin]

This is a problem with the gaming industry. Developers and Publishers view us as cows ready for milking and they're already too dependent on the casual gamer and the disposable game cycle. They apparently don't care that we, as gamers, were shafted by this downtime too. They could always offer their very own "welcome back" bonus like discounts on their games if they really want to stand out. They could also offer free dlc. Theres all sorts of things these dev/pubs could do to attract attention to their games.

Perhaps they should suck it up and stop whining about their profit margins. They dug themselves this hole by making games that can be considered "old news" after only a few weeks.

We aren't here to serve them.

 

[DrunkWithPower]

Offer your stuff to Sony to pass out as free for the "Welcome Back", people download it, Sony picks up the tab, complaints become invalid. If your game is good enough people will get it, if nobody gets it either they already have it or you suck at your profession. I'd be more pissed if I was Bethesda.

 

[Choppaduel]

"By the time they are ready to buy something, Outland is maybe old news."

oh no, all your hype sales! how sad for you. Well I guess Outland will just have to stand up on its own merits then.