When I read this article regarding new releases on PSN regarding PSP games, my jaw dropped.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy is available for download on PSN for $39.99. What?! $39.99 for a downloadable game with no packaging, no manual, no physical disc and worse, no resale value?

The other games mentioned were mostly at full retail price too. This is a worrying trend. I've already blogged in the past about how the game industry is moving toward an all digital distribution method by incorporating downloadable games for sale on all the consoles. But one positive point I mentioned was that the savings companies would make from games not being burned to discs, mass-produced and shipped across the country would be turned around and passed onto consumers. But the latest offering from PSN is an about-face of that. Despite the fact that they're promoting an essentially bare-bones stripped down game package with no case or manual (it's pretty much the equivalent of buying the game from a pawn shop), the store is charging full retail for it.

I went to my local Gamestop yesterday and found that Dissidia is on sale brand new there for $34.99. I did a quick search on EBGames.com and found Dissidia retails for $39.99. So downloadable or not, the game costs pretty much the same.

The real danger here is that, while most people who hang out on sites like Gamespot and IGN and others have the good sense to know that this is a scam, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who have PS3s and PSPs who are going to log onto the PSN store, see Dissidia and buy it because it looks cool and they want a new game, maybe they like Final Fantasy. When people do that, they are telling Sony (and any other company that ponders charging full retail for downloadable games) that they will pay it. They will pay whatever the charge even though they're not getting nearly the value they would in a physical game. This means Sony will keep doing it. Once digital distribution becomes the absolute norm (and believe you me, that day is fast approaching), eventually every console manufacturer and game retailer, even Nintendo, will have to sell downloadable games at full retail price, if only to stay competitive. This invites the game companies to give us less for more. It tells them that it's perfectly all right to eliminate the $5-20 price point that earlier downloadable games retailed at and jack it up to a minimum of $30 (which actually started a while ago when Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection retailed on PSN for the same price as its physical counterpart. Other games like Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue followed the same suit). It's not that downloadable games themselves are bad, but I can't think of a single argument that supports them costing the same as physical games. They should be at least $10 cheaper just because you don't have a physical disc.

Soon every downloadable game except the cheapest indie titles will be full price and there will be nothing we can do about it. We as gamers and consumers must speak with our gaming dollar. If you must buy downloadable games, buy the cheap ones. Check the prices of physical games against their downloadable bretheren and if the price is the same, get the physical disc. And for the love of all that is good and decent, if you don't have a PSP and you want one, get the PSP-3000 with a 16GB memory stick (from Amazon, eBay, etc.) or at least wait until the PSP Go's inevitable price drop.

UPDATE:I just crossed the path of a friend of mine who told me he just bought the PSP Go for his kid. Said he paid $265 for it after taxes and downloaded two $40 games for it. He said they were "expensive because the device is new". I thought about educating him, but the damage is already done; he's got the Go now, what am I going to do, tell him to take it back?

It's already begun.