This stems from my comments over on AnimeSuki in the Xam’d thread. I’m tiered of people not understanding what I’m saying, or just ignoring it (which is probably more likely) since I’m a Brit who clearly doesn’t understand what’s going on (that according to one PM I was sent).

So, Xam’d: Lost Memories is a new anime series that launched this season, it was pre-licensed by Sony and is being released on the Play Station Network, which is only accessible for those that have PS3’s.

I’ve no idea what the sales are like in the US, but in the UK PS3’s haven’t sold as well as was expected, and they’re still not as popular as say the Wii or XBox.

Releasing on the PSN isn’t such a bad thing, and not my real complaint, per say.What annoys me the most is that Sony are limiting it to the US only,  despite them having the rights for most of Europe as well.

there are of course ways around this, webcards can be used to pay for it, and if you know what you’re doing you can mask your IP so it appears you’re in the states. However the fact you have to run around like that is what’s annoying.

Sony have been making promises that the PSN was to come to the PC and Mac, and contrary to what’s said on AnimeSuki, it’s not:

I think you misunderstand what they meant by that. They intend for the PC and Mac to be able to access the PSN Store eventually as a gateway to download content to transfer to the PSP and the PS3. PSN was never meant to serve as a PC or Mac store, and there are no plans at all for that.

On the contrary, this was what the Sony claimed to have wanted the PSN to be, and still want. Yes they want the ability to download and move to PSP and PS3 on Mac’s and PC’s, but also to make the content available. The idea was to make the PSN multi-platform. Which is a good move IMO.

The other comment that got my attention was:

It takes a lot more than pushing a button to launch a video rental service in a region. What did you want them to do, launch in all the areas with JUST Xam’d? And don’t forget the localization issue for releasing things to Europe.

Again, not true. We aren’t talking DVD’s here which are coded to region 2 or region 1. We’re talking about a digital download. All it does take is a push of a button (well a few buttons lol)

The localisation issue is a crock as well, I’ve friends in Germany and France who would happily buy anime with English subs, so long as they can buy them.

Yes localisation is a bit of problem and takes time to resolve, no one is doubting that. But it’s not a huge problem, in fact I don’t really consider it a problem really. And neither do those I’ve talked to in Germany or France, it’s a small problem easily resolved.

As for the other argument:

This isn’t limited to America. America just gets it first.

If that isn’t a great way to commit suicide I don’t know what is. Lets say for fun that Sony announce a UK release of Xam’d in January, how many people do you think will buy it? Not a lot that’s for sure. Why? Because they’ll have already seen the series through the illegal downloads.

A bit of research revealed that Xam’d has had and insane amount of torrent downloads since it’s release. Yes some of those are the prats that don’t really care and just want it cause it’s free, but how many of the thousands of downloads could have been sales?

This was another that made me laugh:

It’s so easy to knock off those illegal copies that if they were concerned they would have taken them down already.

how many years have the big anime companies been fighting to have fansubs removed, and how successful have they been? For every group you kill off, another rises to take it’s place, if not two or three others. I’ve already found over 30 different versions of Xam’d doing the rounds as torrents and I doubt Sony could kill it off.

Yes they could lock the files so it only plays on a specific machine, but how long before someone breaks the code, and how long before someone sues them as I happening with Apple over the iTunes locking? Easily kill of the illegal version, yeah right, keep dreaming

The fact of it is that Sony have killed themselves over this. In the process of trying to promote the PSN they’ve alienated buys simply because they aren’t in the US.

No one is asking them to make specific localisations (though it would be nice) but there’s no reason for them to block the content simply because the buyer doesn’t speak English, or do they think that anyone not in the US can speak English??

Whatever the case may be, they’ve alienated a large market in Europe, which is just another in a line of many, blows to Sony.

Though I have to admit it’ll be interesting to see how they handle the XBox version of an anime channel. Since they’re aiming to get Funi and ADV titles in both dubbed and subbed version on their channel which is due for a simultaneous launch next year in Europe and the US.