Sony Playstation 4 Games – Downloadable

The Sony Playstation 4 could possibly be the first of a new type of consoles, one that won’t require disks, or a tangible game at all. While this may seem like a far-fetched concept, more and more intangibles are becoming only available through downloads. Look at many of the recent additions to the online playstation store… or for that matter, outside of the gaming industry, Napster or iTunes. Game consoles like the XBox 360 and the Nintendo Wii also do downloadable games and downloadable game add-ons online.

Could this concept take over the the majority of sales for games over the next decade?

Playstation Store

Some of the most popular titles that Playstation gamers can download right now are  Final Fantasy VII and Battlefield: 1943, and at a much more reasonable price than they would or have been available in stores. This gives the Sony company the ability to sell their games to their players at the most reasonable prices possible, and the ability to pay developers as much as possible. No big game distributors or retail stores acting as game brokers for the public means big savings and more niche games for players everywhere.

This type of direct marketing can be exactly what Sony needs to put the Playstation back as the number one console. While the Playstation 3 is arguably a more capable console than that of it’s competitors, the amount of money required to produce Playstaion 3 consoles or develop Playstation games has led to a difficult year for Sony in 2008. Sony has spent the majority of this slow economic period implementing and adding to the Playstation Network and the Playstation Store, further developing and increasing their brand, and making the first of many downloadable games.

The Playstation Store is Playstation’s very own virtual marketplace available to Playstation 3 and PSP gamers, offering a full range of downloadable content for purchase and available free of charge. The downloadable content available from within the Playstation store ranges from complete games, modified games, game trailers, movies, and various tv shows, with more being added all of the time.

This new type of marketing begs the question, does Sony need the game distributors anymore?

While it is unlikely that the Playstation 4 will have no diskdrive, it is becoming more and more likely that the majority of the titles released for the future gaming consoles will be released over private networks and available for download… which I got to admit sounds nice – no more having to stand in line to reach a sold out sign! The future of gaming very well could be in downloadable game content and the Playstation Network Store, putting a lot more power back into the hands of the gamers!

Downloadable games require a far smaller investment to produce and make available to the public, just as downloadable music has opened up a more broad spectrum of music, downloadable game networks are likely increase the availablity of more interest specific games.