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Sony Computer Entertainment America announced Siren: Blood Curse as an episodic PlayStation Network game in North America. The case is very different in Japan where Siren: New Translation won’t have piecemeal distribution. Sony Computer Entertainment Japan will sell Siren: New Translation as a regular retail game for 5,980 yen ($57).
This isn’t the first time where Sony chose to give a game a retail release in one region and make it a downloadable game in another. (Hi, Echochrome). Sony has yet to announce if there is any extra content in the Blu-ray version. Warhawk, Gran Truismo 5: Prologue and Echochrome all have additional content not found in the PlayStation Network versions.
Regardless of content differences I appreciate how the PlayStation Network can be a home for “experimental” games that may not sell well at retail. So far only first party games have gone this route, but this could be another distribution channel for niche third party titles like Anata wo Yurusanai, a PSP visual novel from AQ Interactive.
Images courtesy of Sony.
