PlayStation Network gets the Amazon treatment

(Credit: Amazon)

Sony announced Wednesday that Amazon will be the first online retailer to sell codes for games and add-ons available in the PlayStation Store. In addition to buying a voucher in-store or downloading directly from the PlayStation Store, PlayStation 3, PSP, and PSP Go owners can now shop online at the world's largest online retailer as well.

Having a digital store has seemed to work for Microsoft and the Xbox Marketplace as users can also use the site to read customer reviews and browse through rankings. Sony has recently increased the number of original PSP games available in the PlayStation Network store, though it doesn't seem all of the newest titles are available yet on Amazon.

Check out the PlayStation Network Amazon store.

Seems it is only Sony products on there. No third party games.

[jeremy23j]

lol that was awesome

So after you download all this content onto your game console, what's the backup/recovery strategy for when the hard drive fails? Do any of these online marketplaces allow re-downloads of purchased content?

[kewell82]

Well if you have ever used the Playstation Store you would have noticed that you can view every download from your account. Obviously you have never used the Playstation Store because you would have noticed. So if the hard drive fails you can re-download everything from the View Downloads section.

[lil-yankee]

in deed they do sir, you can always re-download your content if necessary.

[xmaster_dosx]

well thats good to know

Thanks for the info regarding the Playstation Stores re-download policy. I've been considering a PS3 to replace my dead Xbox 360 arcade, and that was an open question for me. Appreciate the help.

[CASAVERDE26]

Sony..... 1 step foward and 3 steps back!
LOL, consumers will have to go to the PSN store to DL it anyways?!?!?!? Oh well.....

[kewell82]

3 Steps back?? How?

[Kendokill]

This makes it easier to put games from PSN on your wishlist for family to buy for someone. It's actually a step forward. Period.

[Eurostar7]

This makes it easier for people to buy games when they arent on their PS3, it is an awesome idea. If you do some shopping at work, or on a hot-spot, or any other place where you cant get on the PS3, and when you get home you just download it and thats it. I would call this 2 steps forward, and no steps back LOL

[xmaster_dosx]

i thought you could download things from playstation.com????

[NervClaX]

I know what this is. If you have a PSP, chances are you shop online (not PSN) looking for UMDs. By putting PSN titles up for sale on Amazon, Sony grabs a few more eyeballs and hopefully makes a sale before you score a used UMD. That's all this is. They're putting the digital store up against the used games market. There's some logic to that if you're looking for a rare UMD and the download is cheaper. Or it could just drive used game prices down...

Either way, the consumer wins.

[CASAVERDE26]

Consumers will have to go to the PSN store to DL it anyways and your not saving $'s.
Now if we were to get it a couple of bucks cheaper (Amazon=Savings), then it would make some sort of sense, wouldn't it???? Or I'm not getting the picture here at all!

[z_black]

I live in a small area so I don't have a big variety of games at my disposal. Granted we do get all the major releases, but for me personally, having this available will save me a lot of time at a store when I'm out of town. Will be a big convenience.

While I agree it should be less money, as there is no distribution costs for the physical media. I'm not sure how that cost would offset say the extra bandwidth and services they need as I don't know how that stuff works. I'll be taking advantage of this regardless, and it's not going to do anyone harm, you can still go buy the discs if you prefer, it's just another means of availability for the consumers. I can't see any downside to this.

[locohuge]

I thought we were getting Amazon on the PSN when I read the article at first, this doesn't seem to make any sense, now if they change the browser and put Amazon on PSN or the PS3 XMB then we're talking.

[gogoseani]

So the go comes with a 16 GB hard drive - is there still a card slot and if so will they be making cards with more than 4 GB space. Are they going to completely stop producing UMD's? If I can get a nice 32 GB card for my PSP 3k, is there any benefit to buying the go aside from size and weight reductions? I know, that's a lot of Q with very little A.

[atomD21]

There's still so many games yet to be on the Store that this doesn't really make any difference as far as physical vs digital purchases (unless you have a PSPGo). Next chance I get, I'm going to go get Crisis Core, which is inexplicably not on the Store for download. Just picked up MGS Portable Ops, also not digital yet. Come on third parties!

[Ray180]

It's about time playstation catches up to xbox.

[Daytona Dave]

A big plus for me, is that I can browse reviews and/or purchase games and Blu-ray movies at the same time on Amazon with my computer without using the PS3 that is hooked into our home-theater system. I don't need to tie up a 56-inch HDTV with surround sound to decide on a game. I am an old guy, just a casual gamer, and I always look at the user reviews on Amazon anyway. I realize they can be suspect sometimes, but if there are a lot of reviews, I have found them to be useful.