[quote name='MSUHitman']I think Sony is starting to realize that there are A LOT of people out there that either aren't technical enough to connect their consoles/handhelds to the internet, or just flat out refuse to do it.
Small sample size of course, but I feel there's a lot more of these type of people out there than us (who visit gaming sites, blogs, forums, etc.)
I was in Gamestop on Sunday night talking to the manager and someone (male about 16-24) comes in looking for shooting games on PSP. The manager doesn't own a PSP but offers a used copy of Resistance and asks me for suggestions, and I suggest the Syphon Filter games, of which they only have Dark Mirror in stock. They then go around to the new section and the conversation turns to SOCOM. The manager asks if I've played it which I say I haven't, but it's a well-reviewed game but the customer will want to buy it new as there's the $20 charge to play online if its a used/pirated copy.
I leave for a bit to gather my things from the store I work at next door I had closed earlier and I remember the price drop on the SF games to $10 each so I go back in to suggest to the manager to sell the guy a PSN card. Apparently my short back-and-forth with the manager about the SOCOM online charge (he couldn't believe it was $20) caused the customer to ask questions because apparently he didn't know PSP's had internet access.
The manager tried to explain the PSN concept and how to connect the system (not sure if the guy had a PS3) but the guy was just lost and the manager didn't want to get him upset and just sold him SOCOM.
Then there's the case of my older first cousin (4 years older than me.) He was the one who got me into videogames full time when he moved in with my family briefly in 1990 but he is now part of the "casual" audience for games as he's mainly a Wii/DS owner but does still have a fat PS2 and a original XBox.
He has broadband access that is not Verizon Wireless (a somewhat rarity in southern Illinois) and I've talked with him about the concept of digital purchases (asking him if he hooked up his Wii to download old NES games he enjoyed) and he went off on a mini-tirade saying the concept was stupid because it was too complicated, too time consuming, and people want to buy something than can actually hold.
If you think about it, there's a significant amount of people that fall into either camp. The best-selling digital purchase game of all-time on the consoles (that we know of) is Battlefield 1943 at like 1.5 million purchases. If you sell 500K of a digital game, it's a smash hit.
Granted there's the smaller cost to greater profit margin factor, but when the top selling disc games are in the tens of millions, it makes you wonder how many people never connect their consoles online. Look at Madden that last year had 300K users try the online modes once and then never came back.
Looking at my friends list on the 360 of 98 people (2 spots are CAG-related group tags) I would say 10% of them are Silver members full-time, or are only Gold members when particular games come out they want to play online (UFC, Halo, etc.) I know another person who works in computers, but doesn't even have a Live Silver account because he just doesn't want to mess with it or bother setting up parental controls.
I can understand the parental aspect, but another friend and I have tried to convince him to convert to a Silver tag as there's all kinds of tabletop games on XBLA that he would love (as tabletop gaming is his true gaming passion) but so far our cries have fallen of deaf ears.
So in short, it's no surprise to me that Sony is putting out a UMD version of this now, and that you can guarantee if there is a PSP2/PSP 4000 revealed at TGS, it will still have physical media as the primary way of playing.[/QUOTE]
So true. Most of my friends (Mid 20s) dont even hook up their PS3s to the internet. I try to explain to them that there is a Playstation Store on their console that lets them buy games from their controller. Mind you they are technically capable, but it seems like too much work for them to even bother