There are a total of six PlayStation 4 games available to pre-order on the European PlayStation Store right now, two of which have expanded premium options. This compares pretty poorly to North America, where there's at least double that amount. Noticeable absentees include Resident Evil and Grim Fandango, both of which support pre-loading, meaning that players overseas can have the content installed and ready to go on the day of release.
This is frustrating in itself, as Sony made a big song and dance about the feature when it was deployed, boasting that it would give digital games a leg up over their physical counterparts. However, the greater concern is that publishers have attached pre-order bonuses to the aforementioned titles, neither of which can be obtained without the option to purchase them in the first place.
Capcom's actually already acknowledged this, and confirmed that anyone who picks up its next-gen Resident Evil remake within the first two weeks of its release will still get access to its previously pre-order exclusive cross-buy feature, meaning that you'll be able to play the game on both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 3. However, there's no word on how Double Fine will handle Grim Fandango's free themes just yet.
Irrespective of its solution, it's frustrating that this is even a problem in the first place. Capcom says that it "wasn't possible" to put up a Resident Evil pre-order in Europe, and yet Resident Evil: Revelations 2 has been ready to go for some time. To be clear, we're not blaming the Japanese publisher, as this is clearly an issue with SCEE – after all, the likes of Costume Quest 2 and Counter Strike: Global Offensive still aren't available in these parts.
Jawad Ashraf, who has the unenviable job of trying to communicate these frequent blunders on the PlayStation Blog, explained earlier today that Sony "will not be setting [Resident Evil] up for pre-order [and] pre-load", but while the comment is appreciated, we'd like to know why. We understand that Europe is a complex territory consisting of dozens of different nations, but the company needs to be a little more open about these clangers, otherwise people may begin to believe that it's not even trying in the first place.
[source capcom-unity.com, via twitter.com, blog.eu.playstation.com]
Comments 11
Some shady stuff happen occasionally with SCEE. As you said, counter strike was released on almost every main platform at the time in every area, apart from playstation in Europe. The current big mystery for me is Risk PS4. That game was announced on the store update on the 17th of Dec and was up on the store. A few days later I went to pick it up and it has disappeared. If you check the store update from back then, it's still listed leading to a dead link, no one has mentioned a thing about it and the PSblog team repeatedly refuses to comment. Mind boggling!
The store is still pathetic, I still don't see why I can't purchase vita or ps3 games on my ps4 even though they're registered to the same account. Let's not bother talking about pricing.
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Atleast Sony's pricing is better than Nintendo's on eshop...
The fact that people are still interested in pre-order bonuses in the first place completely baffles me.
It used to be that pre-orders were made by a customer to make sure they could ensure a copy of a major title at their local store on release day. But greedy publishers have totally hijacked that in order to monetize a previously wholesome consumer action/choice.
Digital 'copies' of games are the biggest offense to this former choice. The PS Store is rife with it. I still prefer physical. I like opening a new game and maybe having a little trinket I've found worth paying extra for. I like having my purchase protected by consumer rights. I like that once I'm finished I can sell it to someone who may not have the good fortune to afford the game at retail, they get the game, I get a few quid towards my next.
I think my point is that for me the Store sucks for many reasons. Unless it's circumstantial to have to use it, or you know what you're paying for in the first place, I would actively avoid digital on the whole.
Can't beat a good old disc purchase!
@JasonBeckerFan Sure, that's all fair, I think. But ignore all of the bonuses and extras, if I'm 100 per cent certain I'm going to buy a digital game, it would be nice if I could download it ahead of release so it's ready to play on the day.
The PS4 supports this, so why isn't SCEE using it?
Ah, Sony's good old Achilles' heel: communication.
@get2sammyb Your educated guess is as good as mine, Sammy.
This was a much touted (and in many ways highlighted) feature in the new generation console marketing push. Yet somehow it remains to be seen on the scale it was promised. I can't speculate as to why Sony haven't made greater use of this feature, or why publishers haven't pushed to have their titles make use of it to help sales or even to calculate revenue data. Surely it's as beneficial to them as it is the customer, right? I just don't know. Sony, as usual, are tight lipped about it too.
Hmm,well i'm a little confused -just to clarify,preloading isn't available thus people dont get their preorder bonus's when predordeing on psn? thats ridiculous,i preordered dying light complete editon digital version,should i cancel an just get the disc based version instead? Sighs,on the psn store it says i've preorderd the the complete editon and the vanilla version.Its a shambles,what to do?
And this is why I get after trolls who come into the comment section & start spouting off nonsense about how gaming will be all digital in 2 yrs.
No. It. Won't.
If we keep buying physical releases, then these greedy companies can either give us what we want or go piss off in bankruptcy.
i'd like buying digital if the service was better/cheaper.a dvd/bluray is a rubbish format,a big round spindly hunk of plastic with no protective case (remember cartridges or 3.5 inch discs?) a usb stick would be much better.
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