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Forums - Sony Discussion - Publishers forced to pay fee for PSN bandwidth

Star Scream on 20 March 2009
Until October 1 2008, video game publishers who wanted to offer downloadable content on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 didn’t have to worry about getting a bill from Microsoft and Sony.

The million-plus downloads that a popular demo or map pack might receive could delight gamers, but rack up some expensive bandwidth costs. No problem: the publishers, who already pay a licensing fee to get their games on the two big platforms, could count on the platform holders — Microsoft and Sony — to pay the cost of piping that digital content to gamers.

That situation changed with the PS3 on October 1 of last year, when Sony implemented a 16 cents per Gigabyte fee to publishers for paid and free downloadable content, according to publishing sources familiar with Sony’s policy.

Game publishers are not happy about it.


http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/03/20/sony-now-charging-publishers-for-ps3-downloadable-content/



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antfromtashkent on 20 March 2009

ummm thats a good thing since now the developers will think twice before offering DLC that should have been in the original game >:(



welshbloke on 20 March 2009

I see no problem with a model like this except of course if Microsoft do not implement the same policy. Obviously the PSN model not being subsidised by any subscription fee needs to find new models. As long as the publishers continue to pay and it has not detrimental effect then all power to the fee free PSN service. If publishers on the other hand start holding back then I think Sony will be forced to review the subscription free model.



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Sharky54 on 20 March 2009
Star Scream said:
Until October 1 2008, video game publishers who wanted to offer downloadable content on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 didn’t have to worry about getting a bill from Microsoft and Sony.

The million-plus downloads that a popular demo or map pack might receive could delight gamers, but rack up some expensive bandwidth costs. No problem: the publishers, who already pay a licensing fee to get their games on the two big platforms, could count on the platform holders — Microsoft and Sony — to pay the cost of piping that digital content to gamers.

That situation changed with the PS3 on October 1 of last year, when Sony implemented a 16 cents per Gigabyte fee to publishers for paid and free downloadable content, according to publishing sources familiar with Sony’s policy.

Game publishers are not happy about it.


http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/03/20/sony-now-charging-publishers-for-ps3-downloadable-content/

 

Is that GB downloaded by people? Or GB in general. IE you demo is 1 gig, you pay 16 cents to sony and thats it.



Phrancheyez on 20 March 2009

Game publishers aren't happy about it? Sucks for them..MS will never charge this because they already charge the users via annual fee.

Articles like this make you realize some of the things that your annual fee is actually covering for MS - not saying it's always a bad thing, but you don't really know what you're paying for - all you assume it is, is to be able to play online..you're covering a bit more than that.



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saicho on 20 March 2009

I wonder if this applies to indie games like Noby Noby Boy or Flower etc.



MikeB predicts that the PS3 will sell about 140 million units by the end of 2016 and triple the amount of 360s in the long run.

saicho on 20 March 2009
Sharky54 said:
Star Scream said:
Until October 1 2008, video game publishers who wanted to offer downloadable content on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 didn’t have to worry about getting a bill from Microsoft and Sony.

The million-plus downloads that a popular demo or map pack might receive could delight gamers, but rack up some expensive bandwidth costs. No problem: the publishers, who already pay a licensing fee to get their games on the two big platforms, could count on the platform holders — Microsoft and Sony — to pay the cost of piping that digital content to gamers.

That situation changed with the PS3 on October 1 of last year, when Sony implemented a 16 cents per Gigabyte fee to publishers for paid and free downloadable content, according to publishing sources familiar with Sony’s policy.

Game publishers are not happy about it.


http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/03/20/sony-now-charging-publishers-for-ps3-downloadable-content/

 

Is that GB downloaded by people? Or GB in general. IE you demo is 1 gig, you pay 16 cents to sony and thats it.

Perhaps you should read the article through the link.

 



MikeB predicts that the PS3 will sell about 140 million units by the end of 2016 and triple the amount of 360s in the long run.

Sharky54 on 20 March 2009
saicho said:
I wonder if this applies to indie games like Noby Noby Boy or Flower etc.

 

Flower isn't an indie game. It is a sony game. I doubt they would need to pay themselves this fee.



blazinhead89 on 20 March 2009

Better they pay, than us.



saicho on 20 March 2009

^
no idea who published Flower but the question remains the same. I'm wondering if Sony charges network bandwidth fee for non-retail PSN games from other publisher.



MikeB predicts that the PS3 will sell about 140 million units by the end of 2016 and triple the amount of 360s in the long run.