Playstation 3/Vita Crossbuy promotion EU exclusive so far

[Lady Lilith]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2012/08/19/will-sonys-cross-buy-playstation-initiative-come-to-u-s/

When Sony announced their PlayStation Cross Buy promotion at Gamescom earlier this week, the initiative was well-received by press and gamers alike. Cross Buy would entitle consumers purchasing a copy of a game on PlayStation 3 to receive an additional copy for PS Vita. When SCE Europe CEO Jim Ryan broke the news during Sony’s press event (which was streamed globally) no territory restrictions were mentioned, but there is now reason to believe that Cross Buy may stay limited to Europe.

Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu recently asked SCE’s Worldwide Studio Head Shuhei Yoshida how the company’s bevy of announcements would affect Japan. According to a translation by Andriasang, Yoshida stated that Cross Buy was currently only for Europe.

Sony's "Cross Buy" PlayStation Initiative Is Exactly What Vita NeedsJason EvangelhoContributor

(For the record, Andriasang’s specialty is delivering Japanese gaming news to English-speaking audiences, so I put faith in the translation.)

As someone rooting for Sony’s PS Vita, I and other websites want to believe Cross Buy won’t stay isolated to Europe; this is an initiative that will foster goodwill among Sony faithful and drive Vita hardware sales. Sadly, this is the part where I serve up some painful reminders.

In September 2009, Sony introduced another promotion that would foster goodwill — at the time for its PSP Go, a UMD-less upgrade to its PlayStation Portable. Dubbed “PSP Go Rewards,” Sony gave away 3 digital games from a selection of 17. This was meant as an incentive for consumers to upgrade from the PSP to PSP Go. Unfortunately, Sony never brought “PSP Go Rewards” to the United States.

Earlier that year (June 2009), Sony’s John Koller (director of hardware marketing) told Gizmodo the company was discussing a “UMD game trade-in program” which would allow gamers to trade in their physical game disks for digital copies on the PSP Go. Following that interview, it was widely reported that the trade-in program was a surefire thing — until it was later scrapped by Sony due to “legal and technical” reasons.

Two initiatives teased to the world within the span of a few months; two initiatives that never saw the light of day in the United States.

So, while I remain optimistic about Sony’s Cross Buy coming stateside, it’s worth keeping in mind that a precedent for these things going south has been established.

I’ve reached out to Sony PR for an official comment. When I contacted Sony and other major publishers immediately following the Cross Buy announcement, all responses indicated that the respective companies had no further comments.

Well this kinda sucks. This was a pretty big selling point for the Vita for me. Hopefully it comes here.

[Fsck It]

I was confused about why CrossBuy was announced as something new. Aren't they already doing that with various games? Sound Shapes, Foosball 2012, The Pinball Arcade and I think some others were all buy on one platform and get the other for free? Am I missing something here?

[HeySumbode]

[CasaDeBen]

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