PSNStores, a site dedicated to PlayStation Store releases for various regions, has taken a look back at what released in 2009.  One such category is PSN PS3 game releases for 2009. It would seem that North America had a slight lead in total number of PSN PS3 releases for 2009. PSNStores counts 75 releases.

Take a look at the site and the various categories to see what was released in the various PlayStation Store regions for 2009.

PSNStores.

Pretty big update this week. If you are still on the fence about Ratchet and Clank, this week you get a second demo featuring Ratchet. For those lagging behind, you get a Fat Princess demo as well. I am still curious as to who the winner was for the Fat Princess code I gave away on the PSNation Podcast? Anyway, here are your notable releases on the PSN Store.

PS3 Games

• Inferno Pool ($9.99)
• Hasbro Family Game Night ($39.99)

PS3 Demos

• Ratchet And Clank Future: A Crack In Time – Ratchet Demo
• Fat Princess Demo
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 Demo

PS3 DLC

• Trivial Pursuit Sports Pack ($4.99)
• DJ Hero Extended Mix Pack ($5.99)
• PAIN – Celebrity Character Elvira ($1.99)

PS3 Dynamic Themes

• South Park Dynamic Theme ($2.99)

PSP Sales

• Super Stardust Portable (50% off)
• Echochrome (50% off)
• Myst (50% off)
• Brain Challenge (50% off)
• Unbound Saga (50% off)
• Manhunt 2 ($19.99 new price)

PSP Minis

• Zombie Tycoon ($7.99)
• Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam ($4.99)

PSP Games

• LocoRoco: Midnight Carnival ($14.99)
• NBA 2K10 ($29.99)
• Darkstalkers Chronicles: The Chaos Tower ($19.99)
• Mega Man Maverick Hunter X ($19.99)
• Crystal Defenders ($9.99)
• Petz Dogz Family ($29.99)
• Petz Hamsterz Bunch ($29.99)
• Petz Saddle Club ($29.99)

PSP Demos

• LocoRoco Midnight Carnival Demo
• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier Demo
• Crystal Defenders PSP Demo
• Petz Saddle Club Demo

I’ve been absent all week but I always come back to the joy that is the store update. Trine is coming next week, which unfortunately for me is getting lost in-between the great retail releases. Back to Uncharted 2 I go.

Sales

• Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars ($4.99)
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty ($9.99)

PS3 Games

• Topatoi ($9.99)
• BUZZ! Junior: Monster Rally ($4.99)
• Mushroom Wars ($9.99)

PS3 DLC

• BUZZ! Quiz TV Space Pack ($5.99)

PS3 Apps

• .detuned ($2.99)

PSOne

• Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation ($5.99)

PSP Games

• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike ($15.99)
• Manhunt 2 ($29.99)
• Midnight Club L.A. Remix ($19.99)
• Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition ($19.99)
• Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max ($19.99)
• Astro Boy: The Video Game ($29.99)
• Harvest Moon: Boy & Girl ($14.99)
• Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon ($14.99)
• Reel Fishing: The Great Outdoors ($14.99)

According to Eurogamer, one of my favorite PSN titles is coming to retail overseas. The release will include the recently released Fury add-on pack. In the US you can have such an amazing futuristic racing game for only $19.99 while the Fury pack will run you an additional $9.99. Honestly, this is a steal considering what you get in the game.

SCEA, where is the US Blu-Ray release? It deserves to be in as many hands as it can be!

The PS3 firmware 3.0 introduced some wanted and unwanted features. While I previously disliked the larger font and scrolling ticker, I was OK with it after a day or two. Although, I still dislike the changes to the friends list. What I do like is the What’s New section in the XMB. There is great content on the store and although Sony has the PlayStation Blog to inform users of what’s new in the store, what better way than to show them when they boot up the PS3?

Developer Doublesix Games has reported to GamesIndustry that since firmware 3.0, they have seen a 40% rise in sales of Burn Zombie Burn.

This is certainly great news to hear for PSN developers as I am sure XBLA developers have been enjoying some ad space on the 360′s dashboard. It will be interesting to see what enters into the “weekly” top 10 for PSN and if any featured “What’s New” titles appear in the PSN top 10 download list for Sept 2009.

Friend: “Hey, you want to split that game purchase and share it?”
Me: “No, buy your own copy.”

That is normally how my conversations go with friends when it comes to PS3 games. It is usually followed up by a look as if I don’t want anything for cheap or free. No thanks. If I like the game and want it, I will buy it and support the developer.

What is game sharing?
Game sharing, in my opinion, is an exploitation of the PS3 game DRM. Sony allows users to activate 5 PS3 machines for their content. This is supposed to be for things such as a machine being replaced, or the user having two or more machines in a home and downloading and playing their content temporarily on another machine. Users game share by sharing PSN account details. A user will create another PSN users account on their machine. They will then have access to that users download list in which they can download any piece of content they choose. Naturally, you can see what’s wrong with this but some even go so far to create a special account for game sharing.

The problems with game sharing
A) You are allowing people, strangers even, to access your PSN downloads list. They can certainly take more than what you offer. B) You limit your own downloads. There have been people who game shared almost everything, and when their PS3 died, or was replaced, they found they could not re-download their content. C) You are stealing. You are taking games for free and the developer is not being paid. For some developers, every cent counts as they are publishing the games themselves.

Why do people think it’s ok?
Most use a 2006 quote from Jack Tretton stating that it was ok to share games.

“You can send that content to four other friends for that initial investment,” said Tretton. “We want to get the game in as many hands as possible.”

“It’s not about generating profits at each and every interaction with the consumer,” he said. “I think that really offsets the argument that says, ‘Wow, that’s a really pricey system.’”

I find it funny that many like to hang on to that quote but everything else a Sony exec says is rubbish. Then there is the reasoning that since it’s “easy” then it’s OK. Give people an inch and they’ll take a mile. No matter what argument people give, it is against PSN terms of use to share account information. Surely, you don’t think those who game share all sit in one room or are parent and child?

Except as stated in this Agreement, all content and software provided through PSN are licensed non-exclusively and revocably to you, your children and children for whom you are a legal guardian (collectively for purposes of this section, “You” or “Your”), solely for Your personal, private, non-transferable, non-commercial, limited use on a limited number of activated PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment systems, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) systems, and any other hardware devices authorized by SCEA in the United States or Canada (where permitted).

What should Sony do?
It is a start by having some titles, such as Warhawk, enable a 24hr lockout. This makes me wonder if this is not optional to the developers. Sony should simply allow a user recommended feature. Since most PSN games do not carry demos and most users turn to game sharing (but never actually pay for the game), Sony should enable a limited time use license to another PSN user. A PSN user can “gift” a game to another user which gives them a 24-48hr play period before the game expires. This allows the buyer to share the content but it’s limited to the receiving user. This way they don’t keep the game that was shared.

Honestly, I am all up for anything they can do to stop people sharing games (and keeping them without paying). In a digital market, lots of little guys are publishing games themselves and it sucks to see 1 person purchase the game and share it with 4 other people.

That’s the end of my rant.

Doesn’t it just warm your heart? Sometimes it is just a simple “Thank You” that makes me feel good. No matter what the motive is or who it is from. You know what Sony? Thank You! Thank you for bringing amazing games such as Everyday Shooter, SuperStardust HD, Pixel Junk Series, Fat Princess, The Last Guy, Shatter, Flower and many more to the PlayStation Network! Keep the great games coming and keep PSN free and my wallet will floweth over with green.

So PSP Go is going all digital and will be in your hands on Oct 1. Launching with it will be the new PSP Minis section that will feature small, cheaper download-able games. Several iPhone developers have made the jump over to port some of their titles as well as get started on original titles. The long awaited GT Mobile will be launching that day as well. This all got me thinking; if the Go is all digital, what will happen to those pre-orders that everyone seems to love?

Paper or Plastic?

Recently you would have noticed that more and more PSP games are being offered as downloads. You should have also noticed that for some download-able titles an empty box is placed on a retailers shelf that includes a game manual, some other random item and a redeem code for an extra fee. So you get to keep an empty box with no disc. This is still a good idea, outside additional price but it’s understandable, as consumers can still see that there is a product available even if it is for download only. You also have some titles that are still present via UMD disc for all current PSP models. How long this practice will stay up is beyond me.

Pre-Order Please

So now that you know the delivery methods for future PSP games, what about those pre-orders? A PlayStation.Blog user asked that if he purchased the upcoming Motorstorm Artic Storm from PSN, how could he get the pre-ordered items? The response was that it would be made as a download the first 30 days for those that purchase the game via PSN.

More Than Just a Pre-Order

If a publisher chooses to release a PSP title digitally and opt out of releasing a retail copy of the game, I hope they would still feel inclined to provide a pre-order bonus. How will this work? Simply give a deadline to pre-order the game before it is released.  I am thinking of a two step pre-order process:

1. Make pre-order available before game release date with an additional item for user that ends on game release date,
2. Make a second pre-order gift available for a limited time after the game release date.

The main goal I see is to spur first week sales and garner attention pre and post release. Most titles can do this but if the pre-order items are compelling enough then maybe you can get many to commit before they get the game. Since Fat Princess was announced, I knew I would be purchasing this game and I would have plopped the money down earlier if I could.

How Do You Pre-Order

Another thought running in my mind regarding pre-order is pre-loading.  When users pre-order, they can download the game that requires an unlock key to activate. This activation key can be a manual download or simply a timed activation similar to the video store movie rentals. The pre-order can even be the activation key itself with users downloading the full game on release.

Enough Rambling

This certainly isn’t restricted to PSP titles or PSN titles as well. Sony could offer their own pre-order bonus from the PSN store by providing a discount code for that retailer, or actually allowing you to select your retailer of choice via PSN to pre-order. Well, I am getting ahead of myself here. Let’s see if they head in this direction or pick up on some of the things Valve’s Steam does. I can dream can’t I?

Sony doesn’t give out a lot of information regarding PSN in comparison to Microsoft, so you have to put a little guess work into it. Therefore, I am putting a little guess work into information they do release, what it could mean, and when it is updated.

For the week of 7/9-15, I suspect these were your top 10 titles:

1. Bomberman Ultra
2. Wolfenstein 3d
3. Burn Zombie Burn
4. Zen Pinball
5. Gunstar Heroes
6. Worms
7. Wheel of Fortune
8. Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty
9. Flower
10. Linger In Shadows

The PlayStation Store was updated for you on 7/23 and that leaves me to what I believe were the top 10 titles for week 7/16-23:

1. Battlefield 1943
2. Namco Museum Essentials
3. FINAL FANTASY VII
4. 3 on 3 NHL Arcade
5. Trash Panic
6. Brain Challenge
7. Bomberman ULTRA
8. WipEout HD
9. Savage Moon
10. Wolfenstein

Compared to the last store update it looks like the PSN sale bumped some title up into the top 10. WipEout HD was reduced in price to $14.99 to promote the release of the Fury DLC pack.  Savage Moon also brought the top 10 to a close while the NHL arcade made an impressive jump to the top 5.

Battlefield 1943 was declared the fastest selling day one and week one download title hitting an impressive 600k units across PSN and XBLM. There is no question as to why it sits as the number 1 title.

Next week we will take a look at how well Shatter did and if the sales boosted titles can retain a spot in the top 10.

I always find it a bit difficult to dissect some of the Store stats that we receive. One of those items is the Top 10 Games, Top Downloads, and Popular Games section. Is the Top 10 Games list for the month, week prior, or current week? Is the Top Downloads for the month, or prior week? What is Popular Games? Is this a Top Downloads in disguise? Or could this be a “What is played the most on the network” category?

Despite all those questions we can thank GamerBytes for analysing some of the info. Take a look at the top 5 games for PSN in May and be sure to check out a further in-depth view here:

1. ZEN Pinball
2. Worms
3. Mortal Kombat II
4. Wheel Of Fortune
5. Flower

Once I get my move out the way, look forward to a run down of some very cool PSN games you must try!