Yeah, I want to buy you a present, but apparently Sony won't let me. I find it frustrating that the PSN store currently has no way of "gifting" a purchase such as a map pack or game to another PSN ID. It seems that this would have been a smart feature to build in at the beginning as it's virtually free profit for Sony at minimal cost. There have been times when I would gladly have bought a map pack for a clan member who didn't have it, and currently I'd like to buy a simple, social PSN game to play with a friend who has a medical condition that doesn't allow her to play the usual shooter games or games with a lot of 3D movement in them... so I'd like to try Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy with her. Unfortunately, she doesn't work and so I'd like to buy a copy of the game for her. I don't want to be giving out my PSN password as this breaks the PSN agreement, and frankly in many cases I really don't mind giving the devs the extra money.
I'd like to buy a code please Vanna!
Why don't they have a simple system whereby you can buy the game, or you can buy a code for game. Beside the "purchase game" link, add a link for "purchase game code"... then let it take you to a simple mechanic whereby you can buy a code for a different country and let them bill at the appropriate exchange rates (she's American and I'm Canadian). Heck, they could even offer deals... buy two map pack codes and get the third one free! You can then simply send the PSN code to your friend. I find it ironic that when the map packs started coming out for Killzone 2, they were offering codes as give-aways on various web sites, but the average user who wanted to actually pay for a code - well they can't. Sony doesn't mind giving games away, but dammit if you can actually buy a game for a friend.
I see now that Amazon sells PSN (and XBL) game codes. Unfortunately you have to have a U.S. billing address in order to buy one. I guess I could lie and fake one (though my credit card info would likely give me away as one of those evil Canadians), but why is it so difficult to incorporate this directly into PSN? I could also buy a PSN card and send it to her... but unfortunately Canadian PSN cards don't work for Americans. Why do we have to stoop to "gamesharing" or giving away our online ID's and passwords in order to accomplish the simple act of giving a gift to a friend that we are often quite willing to buy? In fact if "gamesharing" is legitimate, then why doesn't Sony simply give us a code with our purchase that can be used on 5 different PS3 units? Yes, I could create a sub-account, put an amount in the wallet and pay twice for the game... but it's still complex and stupid and if they're going to make me go to that much trouble then I'm likely to do what everyone else does... rip off the dev and simply give out my own ID info so my friend and I can play a game together.
Shopping is shopping... and people like to buy stuff for other people.
I also want to buy me a present... I would like to buy Uncharted 2's online game only. I don't want to buy the campaign because I'll never play it, but it would be nice to play the online portion of the game. In my opinion, it's a better online game than games like Fat Princess... so why don't the devs sell the online portion as a PSN downloadable game? It means free money for them and more people on the servers encouraging others to continue playing. What about other games like Quantum of Solace or Fear 2? These games are primarily purchased for their single player campaign and often have an online component that dies a quick death - so why not offer the online component as a PSN game?
Online purchases from a console are still new... and I know they have some growing to do, but it seems that the ability to buy something for someone else should have been a no-brainer and anticipated at the very planning stages. I hope the concept also grows to include "parts" of games. It would allow increased profitability for devs, but also lowered costs for gamers only interested in either online or offline components of a game.
So Devs... start thinking of new ways to make profit, and Sony... instead of wasting time and resources putting links to the PSN store all over our XMB, start making the PSN store useful and allow us to buy codes (at least for North America or Europe - regional purchases if you can't do international purchases). This way I can play my Uncharted 2 online and don't have to steal games and rip off devs so I can play a game with my friends.
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Yeah, it seems like there are so many levels of unnecessary complication still present in all of the companies' online components, and at the same time there are so many really simple things missing from them. I think they get all of these big ideas in their heads (like all of this nonsense that XBL is doing right now like Twitter...) that they can often forget about the simpler things that they should be doing. Gifting sure seems like a simple enough thing to do.
Steam gets this part right -- It's relatively painless to buy a game for a friend on that service.
It does boggle the mind that a small feature that would easily generate revenue can be so easily ignore by a company whose job it is to make money.
Nice post!
I've bought more than a few gifts for friends over steam and it's such an awesome feeling. To not be able to do that on your console of choice is frustrating as hell, I'd imagine. It's just a sad truth that this whole online thing is still relatively new (generation-wise), and anything new takes a long time to perfect.
They're like the Ents in Lord of the Rings... fuckin' talk for years about somethign and never make a decision unless they're about to catch on fire.
What Walk said. Steam does it right :D
Great post, as usual.
The Wii allows you to gift friends, although you'll still need the friend code for that person. If you already have a person on your friend code list then it's very easy to gift them.
I too would like to see this feature on the PS3.
You make some good arguments about these features. I'm not sure about the selling multiplayer parts of a disc happening anytime soon, but the gift thing sounds like a really good idea. I could see that happening very soon.
Yeah if the Wii is able to do something that your online service cannot, then you know you are doing something wrong. It may be a free service but Sony really needs to put more effort into the entire PlayStation Network.
Good blog. I find it frustrating when Sony makes it hard for me to give them my money.
Another thing that they need are demos/trials of their PSN games. There are plenty of PSN game that I want to try, but since I can't get a demo version I have to either buy it or forget about it. Please get on that Sony.
Great post BTW.
You're doing yourself a disservice by not playing Uncharted 2. Unless, I suppose, you aren't into the whole cinematic experience while playing a game.
But yeah, I can't think of a plausible reason not to include a gift option.
@walk... Can you buy games for people in other countries on Steam? Regardless, it seems that Sony should have looked at their business model when designing the PSN store!
@bluexy... LOL on the Ents!! Nice visual there!
@Eternal...I forgot about the Wii! Yeah, I heard they had gift giving available. You're right, if they can do it, then Sony should be able to.
@dwolfwood... I could wait and buy a used copy of UC2 - but by then the servers could well be dead and frankly the devs don't get paid when I buy used. It just makes sense with some games if they start to think about selling "parts" of games on PSN. It's money directly to the devs and can make an online game more viable with busy servers (especially with a game where many will never play the online portion, but buy it for the story portion of the game).
@Celica.. "frustrating" - exactly!
@Arch... another good point. I too have looked at some games but never bought then due to lack of a demo.
@Fatherchesz... there are just too many other good games I enjoy playing and I have quite a few on pre-order (not to mention my current addiction to the MAG beta!), so Uncharted just didn't make the cut. I may pick it up if we get a dry spell in gaming but I just prefer either online games or offline western RPG's (and Dragon Age Origins will fill that gap pretty quick!). I've heard UC2 is fairly short, so I may rent it at some point.
Solution:
1: I give you my Login, you Buy present for me, I enjoy it. (Not recommended)
2. You give me your Card Details, I buy present for me, I enjoy it. (Highly recommended).
I don't even think you can gift XBLM purchases, either, unless you go the Amazon.com route. In fact, the only one of the three major consoles that does let you gift stuff is the Wii, and that has the major problem of friend codes.
Interesting thing on selling the multiplayer portion of a game as a separate item at a reduced cost. Since a few companies have been poking around with that idea, Valve for example if you didn't buy the boxed version of Half-Life 2 you can buy the single player or two multiplayer games (Counter-Strike Source and HL2 DM).
I think if a game has both favorable multiplayer and single player game companies should seriously consider the option for the buyer at say half price buy 'half' the game. It's a good idea you have proposed because quite a few times it happens or as you pointed out with FEAR 2 that the multiplayer is just dog awful and wouldn't want to pay full price for a game that is only designed halfway.
i want a present! today is my birthday...
Fap Fap Fap. Nice insight I'm not a nice person so I don't think like that
I agree, but the whole digital distribution thing is quite 'new' so give it a break. I'm sure the next generation of consoles will have much better usability and whatnot. I personally am still kind of scared of digital distribution on consoles, so I use it as little as possible.
Also, FEAR 2's online died quickly... on the consoles. There's still a pretty tight online group on the PC side, and I'm part of that group!
Yeah, this is a problem with digital distribution as a whole. The in-tangability of it all makes giving gifts to people really hard. I wanted to get my dad and i-tunes card, but they're restricted to the Australian i-tunes store and he still lives in Scotland. Vice versa, when my brother sent me an Xbox Marketplace Points Card, I couldn't use it. I ended up sending him the code back for him to use.
But yeah, Steam is great for a quick gift giving opportunity. I got Plants Vs Zombies, World of Goo and Killing Floor for my wife's cousin and he was over the moon.
Yeah, my brother and I use Steam to throw the odd trial run and gift at each other. One of the great things about it was I already owned Half Life 2, then got The Orange Box and it told me I could just give that second copy of HL2 away. That was something I really didn't expect. Steam was born out of PC community ideas, while PSN and Live aren't really expanding on those ideas since they were born out of competition. I don't see them changing any time soon either.
As for seperate multiplayer...hmmm...it's a tricky situation. I mean, consoles have short term multiplayer offerings, while some lasted longer than the actual game's intended lifespan (CoD: WaW's zombie mode). It's a balancing issue more that needs to be refined before the whole idea of seperate multiplayer can be taken seriously enough in the console world.
Also, you can "gift" MS points, but only if they are new and bought with your credit card. You can't use your existing points, you must purchase new ones.
Kind of shitty.
The gift code situation is definitely an issue. It would be nice if there was some avenue to get a code even if it was in retail like the new PSP voucher items that have shown up at stores since the launch of the PSP Go. Since on the PS3 / PSP side it would involve only programming within the PS Store group and if they would decide to do it shouldn't take that long to get to market.
Hopefully they get the hint and put this into motion.
@Speednut.. I didn't know that they currently sold PSP voucher items, though now I recall that some games are sold as just a downloadable voucher in the case. You're right, something of this nature would also work, though it should be available directly in the PSN store and would have to be "North America" - being Canadian is often a problem! :(
@EternalDeathSlayer... even the ability to "gift points" is better than nothing!!
@Stevil... those "short term multiplayer offerings" might have a longer lifespan if they were offered as the multiplayer game only and people didn't have to spend $60 for a single player game they didn't really want.