Create new account
Forgot password?

NEWS

PSN Cards Headed To Europe?

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

July 27, 2009

  • Login or register to post comments

See also:

Related Articles:

Europe could finally be getting prepaid PlayStation Network cards, according to an online retailer listing.

Belgian site consoleshop.be is currently listing prepaid PSN cards - in €20 and €50 denominations - for release on October 1, the same day that the PSP Go launches. The site is also offering pre-orders on PSP Go and PSN card bundles.

PSN cards, which customers can purchase and then redeem to download games, are currently available outside of Europe, notably in Japan and North America, and PSN director of operations Eric Lempel said recently that US stores are doing “a pretty good PlayStation card business.”

While no plans have officially been announced to sell PSN cards in Europe, the upcoming launch of the download-only PSP Go has seen retailers call on Sony to introduce new initiatives to help stores drive sales.

“You need to see some sort of revenue streams coming off the back of these machines, otherwise from a retail point of view it’s just not worth it, and so Sony will need to come up with some sort of mechanism so that if we’re going to sell the machine it’s beneficial to ourselves and to our customers,” Chips MD Don McCabe told us last month.

We contacted Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for comment, and were told that the image pictured is actually an altered US PSN card. The company has yet to return our request for comment on the possibility of PSN cards being introduced in Europe.

Alex Walker's picture
On July 27th Alex Walker said:

About effing time.

I can't see why retailers wouldn't get anything from stocking the cards. Sony doesn't need people to actually use them to get any money. So they can easily sell a £20 card for say £18 to the store, enabling the store to make money as well.

Given many peoples aversion to credit and debit card transactions over the internet, and the amount of kids using PSN, any loss in revenue from people buying cards instead of paying online would be offset by the increased userbase.

I'd be very shocked if GAME stocked them without making any money from them.

Indrema's picture
On July 27th Indrema said:

I wonder if they'll sell 3-pack bundles for Activision games.

StealthBadger's picture
On July 27th StealthBadger said:

But do stores actually see any profit from PSN cards? (i am citing: http://kotaku.com/5321003/retailer-profits-for-psn-cards-are-zero )

The gist is, because sony uses real monetary units, rather than using hilarious points to confuse you into forgetting how much you're spending (those points really irk me, especially as Wii ones and xbox ones are worth different amounts, i always forget how much they are), the retailer has to sell them on at cost price, much like a store voucher. I assumed that this was sorted by sony selling the vouchers to the shops for less than their prescribed amount, but according to the article i linked, this might not be the case.

Note: I am not dreamhunk. My link is actually relevent.