Sony putting money in Sega’s pocket
Posted by George. Filed under George, Sony PSP, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3. Tagged with getting paid, gold star, Phantasy Star Portable, rewards, Sales.
Sony has just launched a new rewards program in Japan for publishers. It pretty much awards and pays publishers that release titles on the Playstation 3, Playstation 2 and PSP that sell over a certain number of copies. Could also be for Playstation Network games, but I doubt any have sold more than 500,000 copies in Japan.
The three prize awards are
- Gold Prize Awards - Games that sell between 500,000-1,000,000. Publisher gets a fat check of ¥500,000 ($5,362 USD)
- Platinum Awards - Game that sells between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000. Not sure what kind of money a publisher gets for this, since no one has won this award yet. But it should be around $10,000 USD.
- Double Platinum Awards - Games that sell between 2,000,000 - 3,000,000 copies. The publisher gets a fatter check of ¥2,000,000 (21,449 USD)
The only Sega title to win this so far is Phantasy Star Portable, which won the Gold Prize Award. The prizes are given out based on Japan sales only, not world wide. Hit the jump to see the other games on the list.
Gold Prize Winners
Metal Gear Solid 4 - PS3
Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- PSP
Phantasy Star Portable - PSP
Winning Eleven 2008 - PS2
Super Robot Taisen Z - PS2
Double Platinum Winner:
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G PSP
Double Platinum, watch your back because Yakuza 3 will be the first game to win that prize.
[Source Kotaku]
Comments on this article
There have been 13 responses to this article.
Hopefully this will make some developers take some more chances with Playstation 3 games instead of just quick ports.
Sega Uranus
Posted December 3rd, 2008 at 11:38 am.
Awesome, now if I make a game that sells two million copies I’ll be RICH!
…Oh.
Kijuna
Posted December 3rd, 2008 at 12:17 pm.
How does this work? Is there like a time scale?
Because say Sega releases a game on the PS3 and it hits “Gold Status” in 6 months. Then another 6 months goes by and the game continues to sell past the Platinum mark. Then say another year goes by and it reaches the Double Platinum mark - will Sega get the Gold money, then the Platinum money and then Double Platinum money - as it passes each mark?
Or will Sony wait for a set time (say a year) and then see where the game lands in sales figures and give the money out there and then (not caring if it suddenly sells more later)?
Also am I the only one who thinks this is kind of an under-handed way at getting publishers/developers to make and release games for Sony formats?
If Microsoft did something like this I bet the Internet would have a field day with all the “M$” trash talk.
Graham
Posted December 3rd, 2008 at 1:07 pm.
M$ SUXXXXXORS!! : D
James
Posted December 3rd, 2008 at 4:32 pm.
$20,000 is hardly a reward for a game that costs, say, $15 million to make and nets $50 million (1 million copies at $50) in sales.
Now if it were for basement developers, like the ones who make Braid and Sonic 2 HD and all that other stuff, then it might be worth something more…
TRAViS
Posted December 3rd, 2008 at 5:12 pm.
Sony must be getting desperate for better games if they need to put there hand in there wallet to get them. Hopefully better games will come now so far we have had a few good ones like MGS4, V chronicles etc but thye nned more.
SGtom
Posted December 3rd, 2008 at 6:38 pm.
You say that it’s just for PS3 and PSP titles in your second sentence, but there are two PS2 recipients in your list. Not to mention, the Kotaku article makes it sound as if this happens every year anyway.
Angelo
Posted December 3rd, 2008 at 7:56 pm.
What is this, a joke? The only series that busts 3 million in Japan these days is Dragon Quest, and I doubt that they care about a lousy 20 odd thousand dollars.
Jon
Posted December 4th, 2008 at 12:07 am.
Jon, Monster Hunter did a bunch too ;)
Angelo, corrected. SASASARRY
George
Posted December 4th, 2008 at 12:24 am.
¬_¬ well if you have money to throw at people…
Snowcat
Posted December 4th, 2008 at 4:25 am.
Sony are pretty desperate to make a move like that.
But don’t worry, Sega makes esxclusives for free (that doen’t sell) , so it’s no use ^_^
City Hunter
Posted December 4th, 2008 at 5:47 am.
I think this is not new. Sony does this event every year since PS1 era…
It’s a shame(for Nagoshi) that his latest game is not on the list.
Storm!
Posted December 4th, 2008 at 7:01 am.
i thought mgs4 sold more. sad to see that valkyrie chronicles aint on the list. maybe sony should start throwing money at developers to buy exclusive instead of giving bonuses if they’re that desperate.
still…playstation 3 is this generation’s sega saturn. slowly dying, and losing games.
farmer pancho
Posted December 13th, 2008 at 8:05 pm.