360 Rant Rave Forums

Whether you own an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3, downloads have become a big part of this console generation.  We get game videos, game demos, game add-on content and even full games via online downloads.  It’s the norm now and we’ve come to expect it.

Both Microsoft and Sony have, thus far, offered a lot of this content (specifically, game videos and game demos) for free; though Xbox Live Silver members often have to wait an extra week before demos are made available to them. 

Well, last October (10/1/2008) Sony very quietly made a policy change regarding downloable content.  Starting on that date, all publishers will now be required to pay Sony .16 cents per 1GB of downloaded content.  I can already hear you saying to yourself, “.16 Cents per 1GB?  Big deal!”

Actually, it is a big deal.  Consider this example: if a publisher wants to put a 1GB game demo on PSN (PlayStation Network) for users to download and assuming 500,000 users download the demo, the publisher would have to pay Sony an additional $80,000 (1GB x .16 cents x 500,000 downloads).  

For content that’s free to the user (such as game demos & game videos), these charges will apply for only the first 60 days.  However, for paid content (such as game add-ons like map packs), the charges continue to accrue forever for every download, or until the Publisher removes the content from the PSN. 

Alternatively, the publisher could place the same content on the Xbox 360 Marketplace for no charge.  If you were a publisher, which console would you want to place your downloadable content on – one that charges you depending on how many people download it, or one that charges you no fee to host the content?  The answer is obvious. 

I believe this shift in policy is really going to hurt Sony in the DLC department.  The Xbox 360 already leads the PS3 in downloadble offerings (a great example is the new GTA IV mission, which was exclusive to the Xbox 360), and with Sony now charging publishers, they’ll be even more reluctant to put up DLC (especially exclusive DLC) for the PSN. 

Sony has, of course, declined to comment on why they instigated this new policy/charge.  They do claim that it isn’t causing publishers to pull material from the PSN, but I have no doubt that it will effect their future decisions regarding what content/how much content they want to place on the PSN vs. the Xbox 360 Marketplace. 

Game on!