One of the more frustrating aspects of the PSP was (and continues to be) the unfortunately fractured policy on downloadable games. Not every game was available on PlayStation Network--notably, many Square Enix releases.
"It's up to individual third parties to decide if and when to publish their UMD releases on PSN. Most, if not all, are on board, as this is a revenue opportunity for them," said Sony Computer Entertainment America director of network operations Eric Lempel at the time.
At Gamescom today, Sony announced "all" Vita games will be downloadable through PSN, presumably meaning Sony has convinced the holdouts on its last portable to embrace the digital world.
I've asked Sony to confirm whether this really means all Vita games, which would include everything from third-parties. That's a crucial difference. I hear people really like those Final Fantasy games. Right now, I haven't heard back.
For now, it's probably safe to assume it really does mean every Vita game. If that changes, I'll let you know.
lots of sony news
@C2C said:
Tends to happen at Sony press conferences.
@Rolyatkcinmai: Ah well that explains it :P
I thought this was already confirmed.
1 day sony will learn its to soon to go digital only especially on hand helds that are mostly bought for kids that don't have a credit card
unless im reading wrong and there will also be disc/umd?
@Patrickklepek: "Third Parties" should not be hyphenated.... just sayin.
Yay! Now I won't have to have any form of social interaction with people or couriers when buying games ever again. Really convenient news.
...You do realize that the Vita's main game format is physical, right? This would only be an option for people who would want ti.
Wow, that's kind of big news, and a big push for standardized digital distribution
Heck you could even ditch the bandwidth problems by embracing something like Bittorrent.
cool! but will vita be that big of a hit for this to matter?
I'm ok with this. This gives the industry some room to breathe on costs with less overhead on the physical product.
Happy to hear about this. Not having to swap cards and discs is a big deal-breaker for me with handhelds. Unfortunately, the prices won't ever go down much on the Playstation store like they will at retail.