When Sony trademarked the name Qore, you knew something was about to happen. There were some rumblings about what it would be, but for the most part PlayStation owners were not exactly sure. Sony announced Qore on the official blog some days ago. It has since been released just yesterday. If you were around for the announcement, then you would have had a hard time missing out and a common theme on the blog and the boards that day. What theme is that? A common one…complaining.
What sparked these complaints was the fact that Qore was not free. I know that the PSN service was free, but I do not recall Sony ever saying that everything provided on PSN would be. I think the PS Store is evidence of that. However, the complaints were not simply because you had to pay for Qore, but that people that paid for Qore were going to get access to additional content and special demos. (You know that people often complain about the lack of content on PSN and especially the lack of demos). The masses instantly began to cry foul. They went as far as to say that this was Sony’s clandestine attempt to force us to pay for PSN. (I’ll get into this later). Some others on the boards and blog attempted to quell the masses. Sony employees even stated several times that this was not the case. However, people had a hard time listening.
I’ll first address the idea of having to pay for Qore. Qore is an online magazine. Not only does it provide you with information directly to your PS3 in hi-def, but it will give you info that only Sony itself can give you about upcoming products for the PlayStation brand. I would enjoy getting this for free, but when you think about it, how could they? It costs money to produce a show and one that is distributed in HD doesn’t help to lower the cost. You may like to think that Sony should just expense it out, but that does not lead to the production of high quality products. Qore is a service that could very well help distinguish PSN even further. After selling a console for a loss, the company will need to try to stop the financial bleeding in some shape or form. Why not do this by giving us an official magazine for less than the price of purchasing magazines retail? We will not have to wonder if Sony is being unfairly treated; something that so many, including myself, despise
Now we must talk about content. I do believe that the PS Store has been improving on the content front. I’m sure that you saw yesterday’s update. Is there really much to complain about? I don’t think so. I see Sony’s decision to offer exclusive content to Qore as only more of a reason to buy it. I never heard anyone curse a magazine for including a demo disc. People praised them for it. What is Qore again? Oh yea, an online magazine. Lol, I thought you’d like to hear that. So when I hear about Socom Beta being offered to Qore purchasers, I take my hat off to Sony. The company didn’t say that you had to buy the magazine and when you do, it gives you something that you actually want. I think that is not a horrible thing to do. Do you want the Socom beta to be offered to everyone? You and I both know that this would not happen. It isn’t plausible for business reasons. The company did promise Beta offers for those that pre-order the game. So you’re not forced to purchase the magazine.
I’ve heard this is the answer to X-Box’s Gold membership. I won’t say that this is entirely incorrect. Everyone is entitled to view things in their own way, but I strongly disagree. This service is not one that you must purchase to get online and play people. Yes, that’s still free. This is for people that would like their information delivered to them on their PS3. That’s it. It has nothing to do with the online experience that you will get from Sony. You’ll still get your demos and will be able to purchase your games without buying this magazine. You can get online and play COD4, GTA4 or UT3 without this magazine. You can’t do that without X-Box Gold. So…they are not the same.
I am a proud Qore subscriber. I’m happy that I will be getting exclusive information from Sony. Hopefully you’ll decide to subscribe as well.
Will you? Why or why not?
