Bishi Bashi Special removed from UK PSN - the end is nigh!

[Sketcz]

I only discovered this yesterday. Konami has stealthily removed Bishi Bashi Special from the UK PSN store. I kept meaning to buy it, since it was like £3.50 or something, one of the cheapest and best games on the UK store, but since I already had the disc I kept putting it off.

Now they've removed it!

When did this happen? Why did this happen?

Is this a sign that all PS1 games are slowly going to be removed? Why the hell would they do this? Konami's track record is terrible. They removed Silent Hill as well after only a couple of weeks being up.

This bloody sucks. Digital distribution is meant to allow niche titles like that a chance to succeed.

[Phar]

They removed Track & Field as well iirc, wonder if there are any extra overheads for keeping games up on the store, if there is it's probably not worth the cost for Konami to keep them up if they sell so little, can't think of any other reason why they would do it. Luckily I managed to grab Bish Bashi and Silent Hill when they first went up, ****e for others who didn't though.

[Sketcz]

What concerns me, is that there's plenty on the Japanese store which I've been putting off for months since I want to ration my funds.

If companies are going to be removing stuff willy nilly then that means I need to stock up on them.

I mean, it's not like with a physical retail game, where I can wait a few years and even if it goes off the shelves I can still buy physical copies off ebay or forums. With the PS3 region locked for PS1 discs, there is absolutely no other way to play some Japanese games on it, unless bought off PSN.

This whole thing makes me think bugger this nonsense, I'm just going to pirate PS1 games and run them on my modded Xbox. At least then I can absolutely guarantee I will always be able to find them, instead of running the risk they might get removed suddenly from the store.

[Phar]

Reading a thread over on Gaf said these have been removed as well as a few disney titles:

Cool Boarders 2
Crash Bandicoot 2
Everybody's Golf 2
Fade to Black
Spyro 2

It probably is cost related, I remember them discussing PSN releases on the final episode of Retronauts and they mentioned Sony Europe saying they weren't going to bother releasing any more Sony published PS1 titles as it was far to much effort with licensing issues and costs to make it worthwhile.

[Sketcz]

Christ, Sony Europe are so ****ing lazy it's pathetic. SCEA and SCEJ seem to be doing just fine releasing stuff, as is Monkey Paw Games, which is licensing imports for sale.

What costs? If it's Sony published, Sony themselves own the license surely?

Everything about the Euro branch reeks of inept stupidity and laziness. I heard from someone the person in charge is some cretinous women who cares more about getting her hair done than doing the job (this is unconfirmed, but the story seemed to fit the situation).

[Dogg Thang]

The EU PS1 stuff is ****e, no doubt about it so I don't quite feel right for defending Sony but it's not always comparable to the US and JP stores. US is one territory. JP is one territory. EU is a whole bunch of territories all with their own laws. It is unlikely that every aspect of most PS1 games had complete buyout contracts, especially when it comes to music licensing - which is likely what Phar refers to above.

When you don't have a complete buyout on every aspect (and I suspect in many or most EU countries, you can't legally get a complete buyout on music) then you've got a mess on your hands. And at less than a fiver, that mess may not be worth the cost of sorting out or who you have to pay every time a game is sold. Probably why WO2097 was rated years ago for PSN and still hasn't appeared.

Odd though when a game goes up and then is taken down. Possible they thought they had it sorted out and then someone crawled out of the woodwork.

As for Monkey Paw games, they actually have it a little easier because they're introducing games to new territories rather than having to unravel past laws and contracts from a whole bunch.

[Phar]

Christ, Sony Europe are so ****ing lazy it's pathetic. SCEA and SCEJ seem to be doing just fine releasing stuff, as is Monkey Paw Games, which is licensing imports for sale.

What costs? If it's Sony published, Sony themselves own the license surely?

Everything about the Euro branch reeks of inept stupidity and laziness. I heard from someone the person in charge is some cretinous women who cares more about getting her hair done than doing the job (this is unconfirmed, but the story seemed to fit the situation).

I think they'll still be all kinds of licensing issues even if Sony originally published it, take Cool Boarders 2 for example, originally developed by UEP who are now defunct, who owns their IP these days to pay royalities to?

On the same podcast they mention a post by Vic Ireland on Gaf about Monkey Paw and the complications of bringing these titles over to PSN, basically he says they make pennies and their doing it more out of the love of bringing these games to a wider audience than the money, i'm sure that doesn't apply to most publishers though, makes you wonder how little PS1 titles sell on the EU PSN given how few titles there are.

[Phar]

Odd though when a game goes up and then is taken down. Possible they thought they had it sorted out and then someone crawled out of the woodwork.

Yeah something like that must have happened with Silent Hill, it was up for less than a week if iirc, you have a point with the whole EU region thing as well, could be very messy with licenses and sub licensee's across various countries as well as different publishers.

[Sketcz]

Anyone got a link to GAF and Ireland's post? I always enjoy reading his comments.

[ItsThere]

I bought this. Presumably I can dowload it to multiple PSP devices to spread the love?

[Phar]

Anyone got a link to GAF and Ireland's post? I always enjoy reading his comments.

This thread here

This post by him explains some of the issues quite well.

The problems come from the fact that initially a number of parties were involved, and with the passage of 10 years (or more in the case of some PS1 games) those companies have changed hands, merged, or disappeared.

Following the rights trail is a challenge. Seemingly "simple" licenses become complicated when one party (say a musician) has rights again because a license lapsed. Or maybe 3 parties on a game are willing to license, but the 4th isn't interested or doesn't care.

It's a lot of cheerleading and motivational politics, which adds up to time, time, time and money, for a game that sells for $6, divided 3, 4, 5, 6 or more ways (depending on the level of complication in the license) and won't sell 50k units, in all probability.

It's an issue of opportunity cost in the end.

I bought this. Presumably I can dowload it to multiple PSP devices to spread the love?

Yeah, I tried re-downloading Silent Hill after reading this thread, so the games are still there for those of us who bought them, think you can have the games on upto 5 registered devices.