Sony cuts bandwidth fees, publisher penalties from PSP Minis service

by Andrew Yoon { Aug 24th 2009 at 12:00PM }

For its PSP Minis service, Sony is doing away with many of the fees associated with other digital networks to attract the attention of developers. As discovered by GamerBytes, the PlayStation Network's bandwidth fee -- for which publishers are charged per gigabyte of data transferred over PSN -- is revoked for the PSP Minis service. It's a somewhat odd decision, considering each Minis game will be limited to under 100MB. Certainly, a bandwidth charge would be one of the smallest fees a PSP Minis developer would have faced.

The PSP Minis program also does away with many of the practices common to WiiWare and Xbox Live. Unlike WiiWare, there is no minimum sales quota for developers to reach before they get paid. Additionally, PSP Minis publishers are allowed to choose their own release dates, instead of joining the growing queue of games awaiting release on both the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Arcade.

It's clear that Sony is taking measures to make the Minis service appear lucrative to third-party developers, especially indie studios. The question is: Will PSP gamers buy into this new platform, or will Minis be a retread of the floundering Xbox Live Indie Games project?

Tags: fees, minis, playstation-network, psn, psp-minis, sony

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Paul @ Aug 24th 2009 12:03PM

cool I can't wait for these games to come out so I can download them off of my friends's accounts...oh gamesharing how I love thee

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Aug 24th 2009 12:08PM

no guarantee those will work that way dude....hell quite a few PSP games dont work that way....

Evildude @ Aug 24th 2009 12:26PM

Man Sony should make PSN sharing Illegal...it is actually illegal.....your not paying for it..

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Aug 24th 2009 12:37PM

I will soon own 2 PS3's.....I actually hope they DONT do it. I mean its not like its hard to do it because they do it for stuff from the SingStore. But thats too much of a headache....with the Singstore you cant even BUY the songs again if U want too, nor can you redownload them.....its quite crazy

Neuromancer @ Aug 24th 2009 12:43PM

Evildude:

Jack Tretton in Wired, prior to the PS3 launch, said "You can send that content to four other friends for that initial investment. We want to get the game in as many hands as possible. It's not about generating profits at each and every interaction with the consumer," he said. "I think that really offsets the argument that says, 'Wow, that's a really pricey system.'"

If that's not Sony saying game sharing is cool, I don't know what it is.

sony boy @ Aug 24th 2009 12:49PM

you fool. when you download 1 game from 1 account and download another game from another account, you can't play them both. you pirate.

Paul @ Aug 24th 2009 1:04PM

Well...actually, it's not illegal. Sony allows it on up to five consoles.

What my friend decides to do with those 5 is up to him. He put his info on my console and let's me use 1 of those downloads for the things that he buys.

Should he not be able to play his own games if he come's to my house? I mean it's no different than when my other friend let me borrow KZ2 for 6 months

linebeginstoblur @ Aug 24th 2009 1:24PM

Oh, gamesharers, how I hate thee.

Paul @ Aug 24th 2009 2:15PM

Still, what's the difference between sharing a download and sharing a disc?

also you know what? If I didn't get these games from my friend...I would have never bought them. never.

Drew @ Aug 24th 2009 3:20PM

Paul, nobody cares if you play them or not, fiscally speaking. They don't care if you ever get past the start screen, unless DLC is involved.

I wish somebody would steal the copper piping from your home while you slept, promptly detonating your house (trailer?), ending your game playing for a long, long time. I don't want you to die, however, for the dead feel no pain. Stealing from people that are just trying to enter the business, especially in this economic climate, is disgusting.

Considering your douchebaggery, you would probably then see debt-ridden devs in the streets, who are asking for change, lean over to your friend and say, "Why doesn't that fucker get a job?"

You see, sharing a disc is essentially the same thing. Doesn't make it moral, or fair to those who created the game, does it?

What do you do for a living? I assume its something retarded, like janitor. And not a cool janitor, with helpful life tips. The one with a lazy eye that always is cleaning the same stall, leading you to believe he has a camera in that stall, which puts you in a bind, because thats the only clean stall. Now, what if your boss, who pays you, just started cleaning up their own shit? You would be deemed too expensive for a decidedly clean environment by your boss's boss, and you'd be fired. You could then crawl back to your ironically dirty trailer, and wack off until your life essence comes out. All because some guy didn't want to spend a buck to keep you truckin' along.

You're a dick.

Plastic Rat @ Aug 24th 2009 10:39PM

Hey Paul, regardless of this entire argument, regardless of the morality of it, whether you have a point or not, whether sharing is bad or not or whether you ever get the point, you sir, will always be a gigantic, seeping tool.

Dartmerc @ Aug 25th 2009 12:16AM

Drew, you're a bit of a dick too.
I think everybody needs to take a long hard look at the situation, and revisit the dev/consumer rights and ownership argument.
If I want to share my game with others (by lending the disk), I should be well within my right to do so. It's not my fault that the industry may be built off a non-sustainable financial model. Don't limit my rights just to fix your mistake.

Paul @ Aug 25th 2009 8:50AM

if it's not even ok to let someone borrow a disc or have one of your downloads, than is it even ok to have someone come over and play split screen with you? Or should they start charging each account whenever they connect?

where do you draw the line?

again if you buy a game you pay for 5 downloads. what you choose to do with those is up to you. My friend paid for 5 downloads. Having that chance to get the game 5 times is what we get in exchange for not being able to resell the game afterwards. I will never support Digital distribution with my money for that reason.

Why would I spend $20 for a digital copy of burnout paradise when I can get a used copy of it online for $12 and then resell it for $10 down the road?

My friend bought wipeout HD and fury for a total of $30, he doesn't play it anymore but he can't trade it in because sony wants to destroy the used game market and get rid of brick and mortar stores that employ thousands of people.
So he let me have a copy in exchange for me buying him lunch on day.

Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Aug 24th 2009 12:06PM

I think its a good move to get people to start making a LOT of games for the service. Thing is will they go back and add the bandwidth fees back once the Minis take off? I hope not, it would just be wrong. And depending on the games I will most like buy some of them. ESPECIALLY if they do "lite" models for us to test them out before buying. Hell I am still wondering what is to come of that "rental" system they are rumored to have in the works

NickAVV @ Aug 24th 2009 12:07PM

I know that if I could get my hands on a PSP dev kit, and my game engine decided to support PSP I would totally go for this. I like that they're making it attractive to indies, there could be some really cool titles on here. Think Cave Story for PSP.

Ranben @ Aug 24th 2009 12:43PM

Funny you say that...

NickAVV @ Aug 24th 2009 12:50PM

Think Cave Story for PSP without turning your PSP without using CFW (I don't mess around in homebrew)

Ranben @ Aug 24th 2009 3:36PM

Yes, I know what you mean. Just so happens I have Cave Story on my PSP. But it would be nice for an official release, yes.

NickAVV @ Aug 24th 2009 3:41PM

Right, and there are other good indie games that I think would be great fun on the go. PSP could turn into a legitimate indie platform. That'd be cool. :)

Muhammad-Oli @ Aug 24th 2009 12:10PM

In regard to that final question, I'd definitely be keen to pick up games like Tetris for my PSP. Hell, it's gotta be better than playing it on my mobile phone's screen.

Evildude @ Aug 24th 2009 12:28PM

I agree, perhaps even a "portable" version of Bejeweled for PSP..so addicting

linebeginstoblur @ Aug 24th 2009 1:25PM

Bejeweled? Hell, ANYTHING by PopCap for the PSP would be more than welcome! (We still need more for the PS3. Peggle, I'm looking at you...)

Courtney @ Aug 24th 2009 12:16PM

Now cut the bandwidth fees for the PSN so that we can actually have demos for more games (or at least cut the fee out for demos).

Tarheel @ Aug 24th 2009 1:00PM

I agree, but someone's got to pay the money (especially demos, which I'm sure use the most bandwidth). That's the downside of not having to pay a fee like you do with Xbox Live. Steam doesn't have a demo for every game either, so I've always assumed that they have a pricing scheme similar to Sony's (anyone out there know?)

j.howlett @ Aug 24th 2009 12:21PM

and that's why i download activision demos, sometimes multiple times, even if i'm not into the game. oh, i would get some minis. quick fun and i could use my cell phone to talk or ignore people at the same time

Jcarpio @ Aug 24th 2009 12:25PM

is the XBLIG really floundering? or just starting slow? I wouldn't declare it a failure after less than a year.

And honestly, I have a PSP.. but i rather have a full blown PSP game (like echochrome or StarDust).

Tiptup300 @ Aug 24th 2009 12:45PM

Theres not a whole lot of great games on there yet. So far I've only bought like 2 games from it and I'm not much of an online impulse buyer.

Tarheel @ Aug 24th 2009 12:48PM

I'm not sure about the PSP version of Stardust, but PSP Echochrome was only 45 MB or so. Another UMD game I bought off the store, Puzzle Quest, was only around 65 MB (which really surprised me), so it is possible to get some quality stuff within that size limit.

My bigger worry is price. I'm guessing $2 (though I'm hoping for $1) until the bigger companies get greedy and start charging $5. After that, it shouldn't be called a "mini."

Muu @ Aug 24th 2009 12:58PM

I think there's just too much competition out there for the 'Indie' games to actually get somewhere. On iTunes a lot of the 99cent crapware is pitted against other 99cent crapware, therefore lowering expectations and making it a possible one-click purchase. Sure, 15seconds later you'll be regretting the purchase, but it's only 99 cents.

On Live you already have a huge library of other interesting arcade titles that's already been released, or is slated for release. The price point is slightly higher, but with the worthy titles you do get what you paid for. Time's money, too, and if I had the choice I'd rather be going through one of those instead of even bothering to look through what's likely to be a bunch of useless crapware.

What we need to overcome this kind of mindset, of course, is for decent games to come out and for news/blog sites to cover them. There's more content out there than people can chew anyway, so unless it somehow catches in their radar they aren't going out of the way to check it out.

Archon (PSN: Archonik, XBL: DarkARHN) @ Aug 24th 2009 12:27PM

:( I wish those could be played on the PS3 too...

Lurkero @ Aug 24th 2009 12:28PM

I guess its a good idea to start that way, but soon, without quality control, the PSP Minis could end up like the wretched iPhone game store

rells009 @ Aug 24th 2009 12:43PM

I think Sony's doing themselves a big disservice by cutting out QC for these smaller projects. If the apps/games sucks you can bet people will complain about how the PSN store is loaded with crap and that the PSP isn't worth the investment. Heck if I was a developer I'd actually prefer a little QC, so I can know if I need to improve something.

Mr.Chrome @ Aug 24th 2009 12:35PM

minis will be awesome

Faceman @ Aug 24th 2009 12:38PM

" It's a somewhat odd decision, considering each Minis game will be limited to under 100MB. Certainly, a bandwidth charge would be one of the smallest fees a PSP Minis developer would have faced."

There's a psychological effect where if you give someone something for free they feel like they owe you. Therefore, by making it free, you get more developers to favor your platform. boosh

Ranben @ Aug 24th 2009 12:45PM

If they're cool games I'll be buying a lot of these. Some of the ones they announced are iphone games already, but with actual button controls they could be better.

NickAVV @ Aug 24th 2009 12:49PM

Think Cave Story for PSP without turning your PSP without using CFW (I don't mess around in homebrew)

NickAVV @ Aug 24th 2009 12:54PM

ugh, sorry. I'm a n00b at commenting. Ignore this. >.

Evildude @ Aug 24th 2009 12:57PM

Neuromancer:
You miss understood that...."article"
It means that if your ps3 somehow dies..then you still download the game (up to 5 times, I think)so that you get it in your new system.....

Don't believe me?
post a link or show me where in the PSN Store "Users Agreement" says that you can.."PSN SHARE".

Vidikron @ Aug 24th 2009 1:41PM

Actually, the article quote is quite clear and means exactly what they're saying it means. Seriously, how the hell can you misunderstand this: "You can send that content to four other friends for that initial investment"? That means nothing like you're claiming.

BUT I think Sony has since changed their stance on game sharing. Their customer service reps will now tell you that that is not allowed. But Sony's initial stance was quite clear and is the main reason a lot of people still game share today. It's a problem of Sony's own making.

PN04 @ Aug 24th 2009 1:44PM

There's nothing preventing you from sharing games. Even if it were in the EULA, the way that it's constructed simply makes the process possible because they want to make sure that if you have more than one system you can place the content you paid for on those systems. You can always claim someone else's system as your own. The problem with it is that if you dont have access to those systems you can't deactivate the system's content authorization so if someone doesnt want to stop downloading your content you have no way of removing them from your account unless you have access to their system.

I had to have a very long discussion with sony to get a friend's old system's removed from my account when he sent them in for repair/replacement because he didnt accurately remove my account. This ate up slots on my accounts and when my system needed to be replaced it still counted as another system on my account, So if I didnt check with sony at some point I'd be denied my content because I was unable to remove my account from those systems that were sent in. They dont stop you from doing this but they warn agianst doing it indiscriminately when you talk to the reps because they really dont want to be removing systems from your account ever other month because you werent more careful who you shared with.

David Black @ Aug 24th 2009 1:08PM

I'll probably end up buying loads of these. I think the difference between the XBLA Indie games is that there are on a portable system. When you are purchasing a game for your home console, you expect something on a entirely different quality scale to compete with the Shadow Complex, Battlefield 1943 level of downloadable games. On my PSP, if I have something I can play for 15 minutes at a time and it is enjoyable, then it is worth it to me.

PN04 @ Aug 24th 2009 1:34PM

The band width charge was for games that werent exclusive to PSN. Minis are (aside from games like tetris) all exclusive and the ones that arnt probably dont make enough money to make charging make sense. You'd have to sell 5 thousand copies (an average number of sales for Iphone games are between 2 and 20 thousand) just to hit 50 gbs, the fee was like 50 cent, sony would make about 2 bucks 20 if they're luck off a particularly big game so why even bother until the platform becomes far more successful? This is just logic.

drdre74 @ Aug 24th 2009 2:09PM

from what I've seen these are games that are already on the iphone so sony has to do whatever it takes to be up to speed with the apple store. Why would i pay 10 bucks for the same game thats on the iphone for 99 cent.

FeaturePreacher @ Aug 24th 2009 5:31PM

You wanna make psp owners buy more psp games? Why not try putting the equivalent of trophies into psp games but call them pendants, medallions, or ice so they fit with the portable theme? But I guess Sony has to wait for someone else to find success with this. Hopefully Apple will do it soon.

Dartmerc @ Aug 25th 2009 12:18AM

If you actually follow the news around here, rather than turn up to make uninformed comments, you'd know that the reason that Sony will not add trophies (in the foreseeable future) is because of the risk that hackers will break the system, making trophies completely useless.

Evildude @ Aug 24th 2009 7:25PM

Bingo, PN04!!!

You see, my problem is sharing with ppl I don't know...I mention this b4 in here....but the other day I was using Home and a couple of guys send me invites/messages...they wanted to "PSN Share" some games with me....and is stuff like that that ticks me off....so my opinion about it.....

IS NO, PSN IS WRONG AND IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL...and inmoral BTW.....lol jk i just had to say that lol :P