Bad EU PSN updates? SCEE knows and is working on it

by Jem Alexander { Sep 14th 2007 at 6:00AM }

At a ThreeSpeech organised Warhawk tournament (more on that later) at 3Rooms last night, a member of the Sony Europe PR team spoke to attendees regarding the lackluster EU PSN releases. The general gist was that Japan and America are receiving decent content regularly because each territory only has a single language. Europe, on the other hand, has 21 languages and each piece of content has to be localised for all of them. They recognise this is an issue and are working on a fix.

"Will you be able to see improvements in the next week, or the week after? Probably not, but do expect to see things get better in the near future." We look forward to it! Despite that, yesterday's EU PSN update has been heralded as the best yet. It's good to see Sony plans to push beyond that with future EU updates, rather than sitting back and relaxing now that some people have been appeased. We look forward to seeing what they come up with over the coming months.

Tags: 3Rooms, EU-PSN, ThreeSpeech

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

reakt @ Sep 14th 2007 6:17AM

Hi Jem, great to meet you at 3Rooms last night. It was a great night wasn't it? Please add me to your PSN: "reakt" and I'll see you in Warhawk sometime! Richard Downey

chappers2000 @ Sep 14th 2007 6:23AM

I don't see why SCEE can't just push out identical English-language updates to the EU Store at the same time as the USA Store, and then work on alternative languages in their own time. Then at least those in the EU that speak English or are prepared to download a title in English in order to take advantage of it being there don't have to suffer a wait.

rav97 @ Sep 14th 2007 6:36AM

We don't get wallpapers nor music tracks. You're telling me that they need to localize those too?

AL7AIR @ Sep 14th 2007 6:46AM

The "funny" part is, that most of the demos in the US Playstation Store are localized, the "Heavenly Sword"-Demo for example has English, German, Spanish, French and Italian audio as well as on screen text, same goes for the "Folklore"-Demo.

Ian @ Sep 14th 2007 6:48AM

In the voice of Comic Book Guy - "Best Euro Store update so far!"

We can all see that there are issue with languages and localization but there are some good demos in the waiting and a promise of improvements in delivery sounds like things will be getting better over the the next few months.

Beano @ Sep 14th 2007 6:49AM

I'm getting pretty tired of SCEE never-ending promises about improving content on the EU Store.

Why are we still waiting for many PSN games that are allready out in the US for weeks, if not months?
If MS can make worldwide XBLA release, why can't Sony?

/B

ixxo @ Sep 14th 2007 6:58AM

I do NOT understand why they think everything has to be subtitled and translated to every europeean language before it comes out here.. most ppl here have english in school .. its the lamest excuse ever and the europeean discrminiation is the PRIMARY reason I ever consider pirating anything.. be it tv or movies or music or games..im SICK of being discriminated against because i happen to live in europe.. i DONT want localized subtitles smashed all over my heavenly sword videos when thats all I get in a weeks update.. i want stuff when everyone i chat to online gets it.. if I have friends in USA and some cool game comes out in PSN.. i wanna be able to play it BEFORE they are sick of it and moved on to something else..... its no fun to sit on irc for example and 300 ppl start talking about a great movie that wont reach cinemas here for another 6 months.. OFCOURSE ppl will download the videos when they can.. same goes for games....we feel left out.. and nobody is gonna tell me they have to translate the sudoku packs for diff languages.. or translate wallpapers or the music addonpacks for Ridge Racer...are our numbers and ears not the same as in usa? lame..

ppl who play games knows english.. if they dont they should learn it.. its the international business language and translating anything is just a waste that pushes the prices up and is a hell of an incentive to pirate.. if Im gonna have to wait a year or two to get Final Fantasy 13 because some idiot has decided that it has to be translated from US english to UK english im gonna detonate like a 60 billion megatons nuke of pure fury!

Will this mean that WipeoutHD comes out 6 months after USA here because they have to change the ads on the billboards along the tracks with localized brands of detergent?.. I realize GERMANY has a history of dubbing everything but that does NOT mean we all like dubbing for example..

The only good thing about PS3 is its lack of regioncoding of games but until there actually ARE any games i can import.. i have to stick to PSN and i dont see why PSN games have to be "regionalized" if the disc based ones doesnt..

stupid sony!

JimNasium @ Sep 14th 2007 7:11AM

It's not just language. It's licensing issues too. Making sure they don't break any copyright laws in 27 different countries takes a lot of work

borland502 @ Sep 14th 2007 7:12AM

"im SICK of being discriminated against because i happen to live in europe"

Ease up there fella. That is a lot of vitriol for only minor problems.

"ppl who play games knows english"

Dunno, quite a few people can get very, very funny about the assumption that everyone knows English. And even if true, they'll still get pissed that it is their only choice.

rd2000 @ Sep 14th 2007 7:31AM

I guess there are different laws and licenses to consider depending if it's Microsoft or SCEE who sends out content..... /sarcasm off

Pickoo @ Sep 14th 2007 7:39AM

Can't you just download stuff from the US store anyways?

Or is there that whole thing about NTSC and TV support or whatever, right...?

zetsurin @ Sep 14th 2007 7:47AM

I was there last night, and after hearing the standard Sony excuse I decided to leave early (after a quick game of Drakes first). There is NO DIFFERENCE between the US, UK and Australia in terms of spoken language. ALL regions only speak English (as in English is the one dominant language). The localisation issue does not wash at all because the same binary shipped to the US could in fact be delivered to UK and Aus. It doesn't explain a delay and before anyone says 'well it wouldn't be fair to the rest of EU' ... bullcrap! It's already unfair as it is.

Beano @ Sep 14th 2007 7:50AM

"It's not just language. It's licensing issues too. Making sure they don't break any copyright laws in 27 different countries takes a lot of work."

And somehow MS still manages to make worldwide XBLA releases every week.

ixxo @ Sep 14th 2007 8:15AM

licensing issues my ass.. its all done in the name of greed.... and if ppl cant handle that the digital world is dominated by english they can go read a book or something!

is the majority of games translated? NO..

does a wallpaper break licensing issues in europe? geesh.

they sell ridge racer here too but WE cant buy the music packs..? wtf+

if such things are licensing issues they should never ever even bother making online purchases at all cos it will never do anything but anger customers..

and US store.. well only if you can get a US person to make you an account or buy a 2nd PS3.. and then u still cant BUY stuff unless you can send that person money and add it to your account..etc

its the same typical issue.. its SO hard to be legal that ppl prefer doing it illegally.. if the PS3 is ever cracked.. and this problem isnt COMPLETELY GONE.. you can be sure all my respect for content providers and IP holders go right out the window cos if they dont respect customers and treat customers fairly.. customers SHOULD do whatever they can to kick back..

and no.. NTSC is not an issue if you have a TV made after 1995. and it also doesnt apply to HD..

Charles @ Sep 14th 2007 8:32AM

Pickoo, the NTSC/PAL thing really isn’t an issue and I download all the free stuff from the US store. The problem is you can’t buy things from the US store without a US credit card.

Hopefully they’ll get a voucher system out in the US like they have in Japan as that would enable people in Europe to buy things from the US store. Once that happens the EU store would be entirely pointless and unnecessary. There’ll be no need to put up with SCEE’s delays and incompetence or endless excuses and promises once you can buy from the US store. I can’t wait.

Popfrogs @ Sep 14th 2007 8:42AM

#15: When I first bought my PS3 I bought RR7. I noticed the Japanese store had all kinds of new stuff added weekly (nearly daily sometimes) for RR7, yet the US store had nothing. The Japanese store is _still_ the source for extra tracks, challenges, sticker packs, etc.

I'm not sure who's failing here. Sony, ultimately, but what about companies submitting content for the store? And what's the deal with the lack of bandwidth in the US and Europe stores?

Sony has a long way to go before the PS Store is close to their nearest competitor's. They've made bad decisions all over the place, for example..

1. The PS Store is a web page. That's right. With the right trickery you can access it with a normal PC.
2. Since it's a web page, it's easy for Sony to update it. It's also easy for it to break, and to be laggy when the servers are under load.
3. More intelligent designs have been devised by the community..for example integrating the entire store into the XMB via a new icon and cascading menus for content. Sony has largely ignored these.
4. The PS3 doesn't cache _any_ parts of the PS Store. Each time it visits the store it's brand new. Which ultimately wastes Sony's bandwidth and server resources. If every PS3 downloaded a local copy of the PS Store and only got the "new" pieces of it, well, think about it.

Ok this is too long and you all quit reading. Still disappointed in the Store, Sony. You can make it alot better. At least these days the US content is gaining weight.

Andir3.0 @ Sep 14th 2007 8:52AM

This wouldn't be a problem if everyone just gave in and spoke English... :p

Andir3.0 @ Sep 14th 2007 8:58AM

@Popfrogs: Yeah, it would be terribly simple to come up with an XML based store that the XMB loads instead of loading the web browser. The hardest part would be purchasing, which isn't all that difficult either.

JarOfFlies @ Sep 14th 2007 9:57AM

Is there a way to buy stuff off the US store if you live in Europe?

Namely, that Poker game.

OrganicShadow @ Sep 14th 2007 10:21AM

As others have already said, why can't they just put the US content on the UK store at least? Does it have to be localized with UK accents, slang, and etiquette?

Richard @ Sep 14th 2007 10:49AM

English is the most common language in Australia, what's their excuse for the lack of releases onto the PSN. Still haven't got the stranglehold demo which was released on the US store a week ago IIRC.

Carl @ Sep 14th 2007 11:32AM

BULL SHIT, Sony are trying hard enough. If Mirocsoft can do it Sony can do it.

Peter @ Sep 14th 2007 12:08PM

Best yet? HAHAHAHA!!! Ireland (and Australia) didn't get any demos!! We speak the same language as you guys in the UK, we should have got the demos!! I got the NBA demo from the US last week and I got the FIFA demo from the US last night. Sony should have the decency to release all of the US content in all English speaking countries (including European countries like Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, etc).

finelicker @ Sep 14th 2007 1:58PM

How hard would it be to create a bespoke UK store alongside an EU store, I would hazard a guess and say that the majority EU PS3's are in fact in the UK, therefore negating any language barriers that arise from the rest of Europe.

Also, how hard can it be to add items from the other stores that clearly don't require translation.

SCEE are letting the side down, the 360 doesn't suffer this problem.

one thing that stands out in my mind is LAIR, it was developed in the UK, but we get its trailers later than US along with the game itself. Also heavenly sword, yet we've only just got the latest episode from the HS stories, a fortnight later than everywhere else.

AL7AIR @ Sep 14th 2007 2:27PM

@ finelicker
"SCEE are letting the side down, the 360 doesn't suffer this problem."

Yeah right ... on the Xbox Live Marketplace every territory is handled equally :P. Massive and concurrent updates are happening only during "Bringing it Home" and even then you don't get the same content than other countries.

That being said, the Playstation Store is on the right track by releasing updates, and with copyright and localization in mind, I don't care if I have to wait a little longer if the demo or DLC gets released at all. And if you take a look at my earlier post on page #1 I'd say it's just a matter of licensing and copyright issues that are delaying the releases.

ixxo @ Sep 14th 2007 3:51PM

if you have a friend in the USA that is either willing to share his version with u using the totally unpractical sharing system.. yea.. either that or if you know someone there that will makje a SUB account on their PS3 that you can use and either buy the game on that account or you send money top that person who then adds it to your account.. then yea u could buy that poker game..

all the excuses with licensing and languages is just bullshit.. if these things were real ISSUES they should have solved them before launching the damned thing.. japan has tons of ridge racer stuff.. usa is getting more and more of it.. last i checked PSN EUR had NONE...

its an insult to everyone who lives here.. some small fraction of ppl may care about getting it translated to uzbekistan or whatever but the majority do NOT...

and they wonder why ppl pirate.. idiots

sain @ Sep 14th 2007 8:24PM

"2. I don't see why SCEE can't just push out identical English-language updates to the EU Store at the same time as the USA Store, and then work on alternative languages in their own time. Then at least those in the EU that speak English or are prepared to download a title in English in order to take advantage of it being there don't have to suffer a wait."

Wouldn't it just be easier to sign up for an American account?

Mak @ Sep 17th 2007 6:42PM

I say push English updates as soon as they are ready, and then update with other lannguages when they are done.

Perhaps a redesign of the PSN Store, it could somehow show languages supported, so people know what languages they will be getting, by little icons, and can see when additional langauages have been added.

Perhaps PS3 could have a central language translation database, where games can share translations.

Users can download seperate languages packs for games, once the translations are complete.

Lots of things that could be done.