Firstplay - PSN Euro finally gets Qore.

[Family Fry]

Created by Future Publishing for PSN, coming to the UK this spring with Europe to follow later.

http://www.firstplay.co.uk/

Each episode will cost you 99p and a quarterly sub setting you back ?8.99 a time.
Promises to have exclusive demos, beta access and more. People generally said Qore paid for itself as you sometimes got free games and PDLC with a sub, will see how this goes.

[JP]

Had an email this morning saying that I should have a beta code in the next couple of weeks. Not exactly sure how I'm supposed to beta test an online magazine?

I don't think I'd pay for the service though but there's probably a market for this stuff as I believe in spite of all the hate it got, Qore is actually a decent money earner for them. 99p a week sounds a little more palatable, especially for people paying with pocket money I suppose. I wouldn't be surprised if things like betas are only supplied with subscriptions.

There are rumours now that it's being produced by the Edge team so in the future people will be able to cancel two subscriptions instead of one which is surely a bonus of some kind.

I wonder if this is the first of the premium content that Sony had been looking into supplying?

[The Glider]

Future and Sony team up for European PSN interactive show FirstPlay

Via Gamesradar...

FirstPlay, a brand new interactive HD show for gamers, from the makers of Official PlayStation Magazine, will launch March 2010 in the PlayStation Store.

A weekly compendium of digital HD content, FirstPlay is downloaded directly to your PS3 hard drive and viewed on your TV screen. Made up of quality video reviews and previews, interviews and User Generated Content from the PlayStation Network it will also give subscribers access to exclusive demos and downloads not available anywhere else.

We've had a demo of First Play and can confirm it's a a sleek digital 'magazine' with each section given an informative yet snarky voiceover by British comedian Lucy Porter. First and foremost it's a unique and refreshing way to digest game information - even the HD screenshot galleries are given a commentary - and it visually echoes and compliments the bold design of the Official PlayStation Magazine UK.

It's good value too - non-commital, 'suck it and see' types can download FirstPlay on an episode-by-episode basis for just 99p a week (it will update every Thursday). Alternatively ?8.99 will buy you a three month subscription saving you... umm... you can do the maths. Anyway, check out this promo slot for a tiny taster of what's to come (Please note: this promo is in no way representative of the video quality of FirstPlay which is beautiful HD).

http://www.firstplay.co.uk/take-the-tour/

http://www.futureplc.com/2010/02/15/future-and-sony-reveal-firstplay/

[Briareos]

I can't see this taking off really, I understand the idea behind it but asking the userbase to pay for news about products you then want them to buy is a bit galling, especially as there is a plethora of free info on the web. I think the 360 model is better where you free videos are available if you are interested in getting more news.

[charlesr]

wtf. FirstPlay is copyright ntsc-uk etc. Sue them!

[wakka]

99p a week for adverts for new games? Bargain!

EDIT: Also what kind of article is that? Whoever wrote it sounds like he completely bums Sony. 'Beautiful' HD? Really? Like we haven't seen HD before -.-

[JP]

Also what kind of article is that? Whoever wrote it sounds like he completely bums Sony. 'Beautiful' HD? Really? Like we haven't seen HD before -.-

It's just one Future PLC publication writing up another Future PLC publication so it's probably more accurate to describe it as a case of self sodomy.

[Family Fry]

Got an email myself about preview episode. Thinking back on Sonys PSN survey, didn't they talk about exclusive access to certain items/demos/betas via paid subscription, this could be the start of the paid content being exclusive to subscribers for a period.
How would people feel about paying ?35 a year for Firstplay and possibly more?

[JP]

I certainly wouldn't mind paying a annual subscription for services but it really depends on what I'd get for my money.

Quite a few of the premium services that Sony were looking into are of interest to my and I'd b happy to pay for them but I don't really think that this is one of the services that I'd be bothered about.

Early access to demos & betas always sounds quite nice to me but I so rarely even bother trying the betas & demos that I have access to now that I definitely wouldn't pay for them.

I'm not completely sure whether making test versions of software available to anybody is going to be a good idea for Sony. I imagine that a lot of people would be expecting code that's close to final code which quite often it isn't.

There's already been a couple of downloads at early beta level which have been released to everybody and they've both got a lot of bad press from people who are so used to downloading demos which use near final code. MotorStorm 2 & ModNation Racers both took a lot of flak due to how rough the code was which I understand but I can't remember a similar reaction for betas of a similar level when the codes were just sent out to limited numbers.

I suppose I wouldn't mind getting this magazine if it was included with other subscription services that I wanted but I'd be be very surprised if I was tempted to subscribe to a service because of this.

[Number45]

I'm not sure I can be arsed to check this out weekly. Monthly at the right price with the right content I might have been tempted, but weekly is too often.

[JP]

Got my code this morning, downloading Episode 00 now and it's a biggie at 1412MB.

That'll be fun for people every week although I suppose it could of course be the reader that's downloading with the weekly downloads being smaller. I seem to remember that Qore was about this size too.

[Family Fry]

Ep 2 this week comes with a free PSP Mini game, D-Cube Planet rrp ?2.49.

[Family Fry]

Ep 6 today has kane & lynch them BUT next four episodes, Ep 7, 8, 9 and 10 will all be released with a PSP mini game free.