Developers Whining Over PSN’s 16c Hosting Charge

Game developers are throwing their toys out of the pram over a charge Sony levies on them for hosting content on the Playstation Network. According to 3 unnamed developers Sony has been charging them 16 cents for every gigabyte of data downloaded of their files. The charge counts for 60 days in the case of free content or for the life of the network for paid downloads.

The choice quote from the developers is this :

It definitely makes us think about how we view the distribution of content related to our games when it is free for us to do it on the web, on Xbox Live, or any other way — including broadcast — than on Sony’s platform.

OK, no its not free to host on the web or Xbox Live. Firstly if you host it on the web then you’re likely paying someone for the server space and bandwidth. Secondly if you host it on Xbox Live then either you have to charge for it or we pay for it with our Live fees (or even our Space Bucks).

There’s also the matter that this is not a big amount of money. For a demo maybe, especially with most demos clocking in at over a gig these days that’s 16 cents that will likely rack up. I mean, that’s $160,000 if a demo gets downloaded a million times.

However, that’s in the case of demos. When you consider it in terms of paid downloads like full games, map packs and add-ons its not a charge you’re losing money on. For example Noby Noby Boy costs £4 roughly, take away 10p from that and you’re likely still profiting from the sale. So developers quit your whining, this charge isn’t going to bankrupt you.

Via : Destructoid