Today we wrap up our analysis of the high-level Sony meeting on the direction of its online strategy (parts one, two and three of our coverage). We now examine the developer feedback Sony Japan (SCEI) received from its various first party studios. Such feedback provides an interesting insight into where developers would like to see the PS3 online go.

First, developers would like to have access to some of the PSN’s features without exiting a game. As well as accessing both the music and photos folders. Developers are specifically requesting not only read access, but also the ability to write out content created in-game to these folders. Some developers want to be able to output interesting screenshots captured in game directly to the photos folder. Others want to be able to access a user’s music either to be played during a game, or to be used within a visualizer. Sony Japan has responded quite positively and has assured developers that they will seriously consider adding such functionality in future API updates.

A couple of developers have also raised concerns on Sony’s policy of allowing a user to download purchased content to up to 5 consoles, and how this is apparently leading to increased piracy. This issue has recently gained more attention in the gaming media, but it is very interesting to note that developers are quite concerned about this. What is intriguing is that the SCEI representatives attending this particular meeting have been aware of the potential for abuse of the policy, but did not seem to consider it a significant issue. SCEI said that, according to their current stats, only 10% of users download purchased content to more than one console.

This was probably the most divisive issue at the meeting, and developers are worried that they are losing a sizeable amount of potential revenue. While developers would like to see the process of “sharing”purchased content be made more difficult, SCEI felt that 10% was not a very significant figure. This will certainly become even more of an issue as knowledge of the “sharing” workaround spreads ever more widely.

Another request made by developers was for a forum or marketplace where user-created content could be sold or traded. As a point of comparison, Sony Online Entertainment’s Station Exchange was mentioned. Such a feature (and it would actually be quite an imposing feature to implement) was not currently on SCEI’s radar, but it appears that further discussion on possible implementations will occur. Two unannounced titles were mentioned that are expected to require such a system. An unconfirmed rumor has it that Phil Harrison’s keynote next Thursday will announce and discuss one of these titles.

Finally, the possibility of implementing a global EULA system was discussed. Such a system would do away with all the EULAs which users must accept everytime they want to play any online game. SCEI believes that this would be possible to implement and would look to roll it out in the SDK update after 1.60. SCEI will try to create a global EULA, which all WWS studios would have to accept. This is likely to involve a lot of bureaucracy to address all the legal issues, and is therefore unlikely to appear any time soon. However, it is an additional step in the right direction, with Sony actively trying to address issues of user friendliness. It’s not a big deal to have to accept a EULA everytime you play online, but it does become tiresome after a while and is ultimately unnecessary. Doing away with it will simply further streamline the end-user’s experience.

The 1.60 update will usher in a lot of new features for the PSN, and is a very positive step for Sony. Should they continue to improve their system in this manner (and we have no reason to think that they won’t), there is every reason to believe they will be able to offer a service to rival Xbox Live by Christmas. Tackling some of the more challenging issues we mentioned previously will be difficult for Sony, but if they make some firm (albeit painful in the short term) decisions, they have much to gain in the longer term.

Posted by Raoul on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 1:12 pm.