Sony charging publishers per-GB download fees on PSN

MTV Multiplayer Blog reports that for the last 5 months, and for the foreseeable future, Sony have implemented a new initiative on PSN where they demand games publisher foot the bill in regards to download fees. This means that for every gigabyte we download of a particular item, the publisher involved has to pay Sony 16 cents for use of their bandwidth.

Not all games are affected though, with MTV reporting that free content, like demos, will be only be charged during the first 60 days of release. However, for all other DLC, such as map packs and other add-on’s, the charges continue forever, or until that content is removed from the store.

“It definitely makes us think about how we view the distribution of content related to our games when it is free for us to do it on the web, on Xbox Live, or any other way — including broadcast — than on Sony’s platform… It’s a new thing we have to budget. It’s not cool. It sucks,” comments and unnamed publishing source to MTV regarding the charges.