14 DAY TRIAL // At the E3 trade show, Microsoft officially announced that the Xbox Live service would be enhanced later in 2009 via the addition of a Games on Demand service, which would offer gamers a chance to download full Xbox 360 games to be played from the hard drive. Analysts quickly questioned whether Sony had similar plans.
Eric Lempel, who is the director of operations for the PlayStation Network at Sony Computer Entertainment of America, told IndustryGamers that “It's not something we have planned, just because the size of the games is massive. With Blu-ray we can put up to 50 gigs on a dual-layer disc, while... is still on a 9-gig media. So technically it's possible, but I think the issue would be, 'Do you want to download 40 gigs and keep that on your hard drive?'”
Of course, Sony is not saying that, as both hard drive capacity and network capabilities increase, it will not be offering something like the Microsoft service, but it will not be in the near future.
Still, Sony's statements are, at this point in time, contradicted by its actions. After all, those gamers who have a PlayStation Network account and a means of payment can log in and download the full versions of two Blu-ray releases, Burnout Paradise from Criterion and SOCOM: Confrontation.
There are also a variety of add-on packs that can be applied, especially to Burnout. So, for some titles, likely those who might be getting play time long after the release of the boxed versions, Sony is willing to take that extra step and put them up for download on the PSN. Let's hope that the publisher and console manufacturer sees the wisdom in applying the same treatment to more of the videogames it releases, mainly PlayStation 3 exclusives, as a way of making it easy for gamers to get and play the flagship titles for the platform.