European PSN Support Explained

If you live in Europe and own any of Sony’s consoles, you probably love everything about it, except one minor flaw: Not having access to a lot of great games on the Playstation Network is probably making you cry right now.
 

The European PSN support always seemed a bit crackled.
 

If and when you’ve wondered why in Poseidon’s name other regions can enjoy some awesome classics and you can’t, you can finally get some clarity on the matter. Ross McGrath from the Playstation Store Team broke down some of the major issues, stating: “There are two major stumbling blocks between submitting a game for emulation and us being able to publish it: not getting legal clearance and failing quality assurance (QA).”

What this means in laymen’s terms is that on one hand being able to publish a game in the US, doesn’t mean you have the right to distribute it elsewhere in the world. The publisher might not own the rights for that particular part of the world, so you have to find the person that does. The rights to a certain game blocking another release can stretch pretty far, as there are characters, music but even clothing to take into account. In turn, that person might not even be interested, as Ross said: “Some publishers choose not to undertake [it] because of the costs and time involved.”
 

Nasty bugs can slay even the biggest beasts.
 

On the other hand, there’s just the conversion of games from a (localized) copy to a digital release that can give it major issues. There are more than just a few minor glitches when transposing a game apparently. For instance there are menu screens with upside down text, explosions that kill your character at random after watching a cut scene, games that continue to slow down the longer you play them, or music that sounds like it’s coming from the bottom of a well. Don’t want Cloud to blow up after watching him defeat Midgar Zolom? Then you’ll best wait for all the kinks to get tested and taken out; which can take some time.

There’s a lot of wisdom to be found to those who are still puzzled about the very disheartening phenomenon that is European PSN support. You can check out Ross McGrath’s blog post for more details if my summary doesn’t amuse you. If so, shame on you; I’m just trying to help.
 

Rejoice PSOne fans, for your Tomba! prayers have been answered.
 

Additionally, some new names were announced along with some mystery titles. Amongst those, Wild Arms has been confirmed for release. Also, Tomba! was sent for legal clearance, after petitions and such going around for its release. And to top it off, Crash Bandicoot 2 will finally be released this Wednesday, so you’ve got something to hold on to for a while now.

Sony is also planning to listen more to its fans and bring re-releases of PlayStation One classics upon request. And who said that mouthing off on the internet has never worked? It seems to work perfectly to me, so mouth off all you want.

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed.