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PSN Game Rental Service For PSP?

The PSP Go! continues to be the primary rumor of choice surrounding the handheld industry, but another one has just arrived and it's worthy of your attention.

According to PS3Center, Sony has issued a survey that asks one very revealing question: would you be interested in renting PSP games from the PlayStation Store? The survey goes on to ask more questions about how familiar you are with the PSN, how often you indulge in your favorite hobby, and many more PSP-related queries. And as PS3Center points out, they could all be classified under the "no UMD" rumor category because they tend to focus on a digital download delivery concept. Of course, as time goes on and technology gets better, we could extend this idea to the home consoles as well. The days of Blockbuster may be over thanks to Netflix, but perhaps GameFly will be the next casualty if one will be able to rent games online. At this point, it certainly isn't feasible but only time will tell... And it's very feasible for PSP software, so perhaps this will be one of Sony's big announcements at E3. You can already download movies and TV shows; why not a few pieces of handheld software to try? Really, the entire world is gonna go digital before you know it.

Is it a good idea? Will people definitely rent PSP games off the PSN? How might it ultimately affect software sales? We have many questions and so does Sony...guess we'll have to wait and see what happens.

5/20/2009 Ben Dutka

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Comments (29 posts)

Ultimadream
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 11:10:22 AM
Reply

Ugh an online rental service, sounds awful.If i want a game i'll buy it, to keep. if i dont, thats that.
Last edited by Ultimadream on 5/20/2009 11:11:29 AM

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Cpt_Geez
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 11:21:10 AM

Yeah II feel you on that on.

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Kevadu
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 11:25:24 AM

Just because you're not interested in it why does that make the idea 'awful'? If Sony wants to go digital-only for the PSP (which it sounds like they do) then having rentals is a good idea.

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sticklife
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 11:32:01 AM
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I don't rent games much. I might if they have the right price.

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MadKatBebop
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 11:45:40 AM
Reply

Cool! online renting, I don't rent much now but if I could rent some PSP games before buying them Id do it, great idea Sony!

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Gone
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 12:00:58 PM
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Does this mean that there will be a timer for how long you can play a game, 48 hours and then self destruct?

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Tim Speed24
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 1:29:02 PM

Yes.

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jaybiv
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 12:20:31 PM
Reply

Great idea. Then if you like it, you can pony up more scratch to keep it. I'd like to see it include the PS3 as well.

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Highlander
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 12:28:32 PM
Reply

If you look carefully at the properties on your PSP games you can actually see the necessary fields to allow a game to expire after a certain date. It's really just an extension of the whole game activation thing that the PSP does when you download a game from the PSN anyway. So this is something that Sony could probably implement in a very short time scale with a minimum of fuss.

Certainly it would be nice to be able to rent a PSP game for a day or two for a couple of bucks in order to try it out before I buy it. It would sure as hell remove one of the 'justifications' that free-tards and thieves like to use for their activity - the old try before you buy ruse. Of course, if you're still 'trying' a game after several weeks of playing, I think you've progressed from a taste test to a full meal - so to speak.
Last edited by Highlander on 5/20/2009 12:31:53 PM

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Ultimadream
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 1:00:24 PM
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Well so far all the positive responses ive seen are saying "Its a great way to try the game before i buy it". Isnt that what demos are for?

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LegendaryWolfeh
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 1:01:44 PM

agreed

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MadKatBebop
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 1:16:52 PM

But not every game is demoed.

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Highlander
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 1:49:33 PM

Yes, but demos are often *very* limited in scope. This way you really get to try the game, not just a sampling of the game.

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MadKatBebop
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 2:10:40 PM

agreed!

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WolfCrimson
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 2:21:43 PM

lol Highlander, there is no difference in what you said. to 'sample' is also to 'try out' something. Unless you're aiming to finish a rented game before the time expires?

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Highlander
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 4:07:50 PM

@wolfcrimson

I disagree.

You can have a demo that lasts 5 minutes and tells you very little about the game other than the barest gameplay experience. Certainly it's hard to get a handle on the full game interface, characters and other aspects of a deep game with a 5 minute demo. All I'm saying is that if you can rent the game for an evening for a few dollars I can see a lot of people finding a game far more appealing after a short rental than they would after a very short demo experience.

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WolfCrimson
Thursday, May 21, 2009 @ 1:47:13 AM

Ah ok. I get ya ;)

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LegendaryWolfeh
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 1:01:08 PM
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pretty much how we rent movies via psn video service that expire at a certain date. Hope they give you a reasonable amount of time to rent these..

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oldmike
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 1:19:55 PM
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its good for games with no demos or short games that you want to play once

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Tim Speed24
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 1:33:35 PM
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This reminds me of the "Sega-Channel" that Time Warner cable used to offer many,many moons ago. Look it up young guys, it was pre-PS1.

You paid a monthly fee of $15.00 and could play games from 50 different titles each month (with some overlap of games) right on your Sega console. It was a great idea!

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Oyashiro
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 7:50:35 PM

Sega Channel was awesome! I miss it dearly.

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Riku994
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 2:01:22 PM
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I took this survey last night, all their options suck.

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MadKatBebop
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 2:09:13 PM

I just took their survey...not all their options sucked...just some.

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Jian2069
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 7:10:44 PM
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1. Rent game
2. Save to computer
3. Edit so it doesn't run out of "rental time"
4. KEEP GAME FOREVER!

this is based on the theory they are going to use a timed file that is supposed to run work for few days and then become obsolete (Like a long 'trial')

that is how i got half my games on the pc, it can't be much harder to do to PSP games.
Last edited by Jian2069 on 5/20/2009 7:11:49 PM

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Highlander
Thursday, May 21, 2009 @ 12:12:41 AM

I think you'll find that it's not quite as simple as that, thief.

Before anyone gets annoyed at my calling him a thief, he admits it in his own comment, he steals games.

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N a S a H
Thursday, May 21, 2009 @ 1:13:27 PM

Indeed he does, people like this are the reason why PSP software is so shocking.

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Oyashiro
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 7:49:02 PM
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How much are they planing to charge and how long will we be able to keep the game? Thats what I want to know.

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twenty8nine
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 @ 9:08:20 PM

As a gamer, I would want to be able to do it like Gamefly where I can use one game for as long as I like and then 'return' it in exchange for another game. From a business perspective, that could be a terrible idea. Nobody would have to buy the actual games anymore and the rental fees would be discouragingly high to attract new customers.

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Mamills
Thursday, May 21, 2009 @ 8:44:18 AM
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i actually think this is a good idea, if u want to try a game out and dont want to buy the digital download y not rent it, it'll b cheaper and at least u wont be stuck with it if it sux.

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