Report: Developers told of PSP rental plans at GDC

by Andrew Yoon on May 21st 2009 12:30PM

It looks like Sony's been thinking of doing a PSP games rental service for quite some time now. A consumer survey we discovered yesterday gauged interest in a PSN-powered games rental service for the PSP. Through the hypothetical service, PSP owners would pay a monthly fee to gain access to a library of new and archived games on the PlayStation Store.

According to a report by Develop, Sony pitched plans of a rental service to developers at GDC last March. Certainly, a PSN-centric PSP would be far more attractive to developers that have shied away due to piracy concerns. Offering a rental service would be yet another nail in UMD's coffin, and would perhaps incentivize PSP development once again.

Source

Tags: playstation-store, psp, rental, umd

Reader Comments (33)

A big "hmmmmmmmm" on this one.

Rental? Sounds dodgy.

I like your reasoning.

Renting for games digitally may be new, but renting in general isn't.

iPod allow you to play rented movies, and Zunes allow subscriptions to music.

And the Xbox 360 and PS3 allow movie renting too.

I don't see why it sounds dodgy, PSP games max out at about 1.8GB, that's not that big all things considered.

dodgy indeed. i'm wondering how this would work exaclty... how many games can i "rent" while in my month subscription, is it a week per rented game? whats the deal? guess we'll find out around E3 if this is true.

Like one question on the survey, it'd have to be legacy type games, that have been out for a while on the buyers market first.
It wouldn't make sense for every new title be available for everyone. How would devs get paid? Why make GoW and FF:CC when you can make bejewled XIV.
Unless sony paid them based on downloads?

I think New titles available for purchase, then after Xmonths, (devs decide) then available for rental and sony pays them $X if devs ok it ....

Obviously theres kinks to figure out.

that is how the PSN movie downloads work, you can only purchase in SD for the first week/2 weeks then its downloadable. i think we'll be looking at a $4-7 price tag PER game far a certain amount of time. that is what makes sense to me.

"Like one question on the survey, it'd have to be legacy type games, that have been out for a while on the buyers market first."

Not necessarily. They had quite a few pages having you choose your ideal plan out of 4 plans, many of those choices included games for rental "day and date" of their retail release. I tried to pick those, because delaying games for rental just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. It also makes the rental service less attractive.

Hopefully the UMD will die a quick, painless death. I've been using CFW and playing my (owned) games from memory stick forever, and there are alot of benefits to doing it this way.

umd will be around as long as psp is

thankfully

Well I would think they would mention it to Devs before average joes....

Not if you're Nintendo =)

not to get pedantic but:

>PSP owners would pay a monthly fee to gain access to a library of new and archived games on the PlayStation Store

Usually that's referred to as a subscription service or 'all you can eat' subscription. Rental generally refers to a per-game fee paid for limited time access.

Well, we all noticed the increased in PSP software. Some amazing titles coming out this year, and not only that, a LOT of them are coming.

I can't help but think that indeed Sony told/promised them something like last year that made them all say, let's make some great PSP games. I mean other then Japan, indeed, I can imagine piracy rates are insanely high.

I can so see a PSP GO! happen. With full download (purchase and rental) service, no UMD, a touchscreen (XMB is perfect for touchscreen) and some other features, maybe a dual analogue stick, replacing the original one and a slider or something. That would make a good PSP. I don't need a NEW one, like a PSP2, I just want them to continue making good games for the excisting PSP.

Who'se with me?

You know what? It's pretty stupid to call the new PSP PSP Go! PSP already means "on the go", hence the Portable in PSP, assuming the "Go" means "on the go" and not just a sub-title without any meaning on it; it's way too redundant. I just hope it's a rumour

If they can keep the catalog current and up to date with classic and original IP's, this is a sure win for PSP owners who choose to take advantage of it.

what's pitiful is that the psp was starting to get great new games in droves. but with the leak of rock band unplugged, maybe some devs/publishers that were considering making a new psp game might get scared off. certainly it's a harsh reminder of piracy on psp. that's my only concern for the psp at the moment. if sony can figure out a way to keep publishers and devs happy with the psp, then i see a bright future ahead for it.

well i don't think that's the same kind of piracy. since that game isn't even out yet, it had to be from inside the company (or by some hacker). the rampant PSP piracy they are most worried about is in the homebrew scene where people can get the game, easily rip the ISO, and post it on the internet for easy play on (easily) hacked PSP's. i used to run custom firmware on my PSP and i remember how easy it was to rip my PSOne games and play them in ISO form on my PSP, it's essentially the same thing for UMD.

sure the Rock Band Unplugged leak is unfortunate but homebrew piracy is a much bigger issue.

trust me, i don't need the custom firmware lecture haha. i've got a hacked psp myself. and i rip my games myself too. required firmware updates ala the ps3 would pretty much eliminate psp piracy but that would require a constant internet connection which few psps actually have. at this point, i guess incentives for buying retail is the only viable solution at the moment.

If they told them about it last March why has it taken over a year for news to leak out?

Normally we know all about Sony's plans well before they do anything thanks to the loose tongues of developers!

Technically, the last March was March 2009.

I saw the survey over on Kotaku and it had a section on pricing and one option was $50 with a 12 month minimum subscription period,15 games per month and 30 added each month with a "rencency" of each game added one month after release.

If I am going to spend $600 dollars a year on video games they damn well gonna' be physical copies that I can own.

Although I don't know the actual pricing I don't think this will be very successful. Something tells me Gamefly would be the better route for those who like to rent, you certainly wouldn't have to worry about memory card space.

gamefly wouldnt be able to compete if the games were downloadable only though

Assuming they don't get rid of the UMD entirely which seems like is going to happen :|

If this is unrestrictive I think it could be very successful. By 'unrestrictive' I mean no limit to number of rentals, or for how long - just activate the license for one game at a time, kinda like a digital GameFly.

I'm all for downloadable content, but do you really think the Big Box retailers and gamestop are going to support a product that they can't make any incremental sales off of. I mean they could sell cards and subscriptions, but If I were a retailer I would be pretty pissed and not support it. I mean they make no money off of Hardware and how much do you think they would make off of a subscription card. Look, I love my xbox live games, but I still like to go the store and purchase a physical copy of a game, especially one that is $40-$60 dollars. Or at the very least order one over the internet and have it shipped to my house. I just don't see any retailer support unless part of the subscription model is enticing to the Brick and Mortar stores. Just my opinion.

why would sony or the developers care if gamestop is making money when all gamestop does it sell u the game then u trade in the game and they resell it and make money off of it multiple times with money only going to the developer and sony once. people are buying more and more used games http://consumerist.com/5264337/how-do-you-stay-entertained-in-a-recession-used-video-games

source, i just heard about a brand new thing. it's so awesome.it's actually a family of totally great things. it's called punctuation.

Thats just how i talk... :(

we still need retailers to sell the hardware

it doesn't translate to the internet, sorry.

What I am trying to say is most of the games are sold through either brick and mortar stores or online from those stores. Only the hardcore audiences would be likely to understand the concept behind the virtual store. Think of it this way, A typical mother and father is going to walk into a store and say they want the new psp and some games. The clerk is going to say we only sell the hardware. If you want to purchase or rent games, you need to sign up for a subscription plan. I understand that eventually this is the way it will go and I am actually for it, but from a business standpoint...if your product is not in Gamestop, Walmart, Bestbuy or Target, you won't get the national exposure needed to sustain its profitability,

If all psp games went to digital only, wouldn't that leave developers the chance to create games over 1.8 gigs....since it would seem that it is a UMD limitation, not hardware.

no. sony limits downloads to 1.8 gb. umd games have come out on multiple discs

Forget it. If I can't even own a copy of a game physically or virtually, I'm not interested at all! Movies make sense to rent because they are, for the most part, one-time, passive, short viewings. My hats off though to players who like to be under obligations and time constraints when paying for games they don't even get to keep. I cannot be one of those people. Monthly cable, internet, etc. bills are more than enough. Yes, I use GameFly. But I use it to buy cheap, used games around $10 during free shipping sales.

this would make piracy cheaper and easier

call me crazy but i like to own things i pay for not rent them

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Report: Developers told of PSP rental plans at GDC

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