Speaking to popular trade mag MCV, SCEE President Andrew House has said he wants to sell PlayStation Network games at retail.
In a move that would follow in the footsteps of Microsoft (GAME are already selling Xbox Live Arcade titles in-store) and SCEA (Gamestop sell some PSN content already), Sony Europe would shift the likes of Flower through the usual retail outlets like GAME and GameStation.
Not that this would be particularly new for a minority of titles – some retailers already stocked the likes of WipEout Fury – but it sounds like House has bigger plans.
“We would like to work with the right retail partners in Europe under the right model,” he said to MCV, “to undertake the same sort of activity [as SCEA].”
The beauty for some users is that downloaded games reside on the PS3’s hard drive, and are thus quickly accessible. This, we presume, would see the games being disk-based, even if they only took up a small portion of the space offered by Blu-ray.
Would you be interested in owning physical copies of currently PSN-only games?
Update: it’s not clear whether House was talking about boxed disks or codes that you’d enter online.
Tanzil
competitive prices, thankyouverymuch.
colmshan1990
Yes.
Game are more expensive at first, but they do sales well enough.
Plus, this is the start of competition. :)
hazelam
anything that gives the buyer more options is a good thing in my opinion, i’m not a big fan of monopoly suppliers.
and for the premium psn titles, £10 and upwards, i’d love to have them on disc.
call me a luddite if you like, but the more something costs, the more i need to have something physical in return for my money, something i can hold in my hand.
for smaller and cheaper titles a compilation disc would be great, ms have done it and sony have done it with psp downloadable titles, i see no reason the same thing wouldn’t work for ps3.
and you surely know my views on drm by now, i’d be happy that a disc copy of a game wont be tied to a single account or machine like a download would, unless certain recent rumours are to be believed.
gazzagb
Depends on the pricing, I always buy PSN Codes off the internet as they’re cheaper and you end up with more money for free, so if the games were cheaper, then yes I would.
I’d like to see something like the Amazon.com Store where you can buy PSN games from there.
jacklum
Buying downloadable games in a retail shop is a waste of resources. Just by it on the PSN store so nobody has to manufacture more plastic crap that ends up in the Texas sized-island of plastic crap currently floating around the Pacific.
gideon1451
I don’t download many games, but perhaps that’s the reason why: I don’t get anything physical. There’s no satisfaction in looking at on the shelf, stuff like that.
Awayze
If it’s cheaper at GAME them maybe I would and I’d get some reward points xD
Foxhound_Solid
Hummmmmm..
Let me think about this, I do love that new game smell and would much prefer all my titles to be on Blu Ray. I am interested!
hazelam
almond, that’s what new ps3 games smell like to me.
esir
Since I can’t buy anything from online, I’d like to get PSN games from a retail source.
ico
Would I buy PSN games from Game? No. Lost (the little I had) respect for Game when a few years back I walked into a sotre for some browsing and 3 staff members badgered me about ‘helping’ me. This would not be such an issue were one of them not the same woman who asked me twice in the space of about 5 mins. Come on people. Simple memory skills is all it takes. If I’ve politely told you to get lost once why on earth would you ask me again moments later. Sounds harsh but as far as I’m concerned Game may as well not exist. Had they a genuine wish to engage me in game related discussion rather than just wanting to sell their second hand titles I may feel a little more compassion for their current plight but given their hard sell attitude I feel they’re up there with some (not all) used car salesmen. Goodnight.