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.