Some PSN developers concerned over Sony's planned store updates
A few studios are worried that Sony's multiple updates on the PlayStation Store over the next few weeks could cause some titles too lose much needed exposure.
Speaking with Edge, a developer who wished to remain anonymous, is of the opinion there will be such a "backlog of traffic," it may be hard for consumers to notice some of the titles.
"As a developer, I feel very sorry for those teams that did try to release their titles during the PSN outage window," he said. "Beyond that, I feel sorry for those that are attempting to launch games in the days following the outage, as there will likely be such a backlog of traffic that it may be hard to be noticed in the flurry of 'get everything back up and running'.
"The absence of PSN has slowed the development of online functionality for games that rely on PSN, because you can't test your PSN-dependant features without it. My project was fortunate enough to have robust offline / LAN support that allowed us to test core gameplay features without online access, despite the outage. We're still on target for our original release date as a result, although we're very glad our original release date didn't fall within the PSN outage window."
Ilari Kuittinen, CEO of Housemarque, is worried himself worried the free titles on offer may deter folks from purchasing game coming out soon, such has his firm's PSN title Outland.
"My biggest concern is whether people will come back to use the system and browse the Playstation Store," said Kuittinen who is also worried about the loss of customer loyalty.
"On top of that, the second issue is that everyone now gets games for free (including our Dead Nation and Super Stardust HD), so people might just play the free games for a while. By the time they are ready to buy something, Outland is maybe old news," he added.
Kuittinen also said the decision to release House of the Dead for free as part of the "Welcome Back" package on PSN was a deal between Sony and the game's publisher, Ubisoft, not Housemarque.
The PSN store is rumored to go back online May 24.