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Do you remember the 90’s console generation? Can you remember reading in magazines about the beautiful game-shaped fruits that the Americans and Japanese enjoyed while we (the Europeans) ate mouldy old cheese-shaped floor sweepings for our offerings from their shores? Well, we did get some nice scraps sent our way sometimes but even those had bits chopped out or borders added on. Basically we lived by the old saying your granny used if you complained; “you’ll eat what you’re given, and enjoy it!”. Ah, those were the days. In truth though, we’re still in those days.

I recently had a little look at the American PSN Home spaces, and I have to say that I was shocked at what I saw; In fact I was more than shocked, disgusted even. The amount of stuff on offer to the Americans far and away out-weighs what our collective countries get. Lets just remind ourselves which countries make up the European slice of Sony’s market shall we…

Germany, France, U.K, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Norway, Austria, Greece, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Latvia, Iceland…

I could go on (I’m sure there are about 44 countries) but I think you’re seeing my point here. I know that America’s a big place and I know they have a lot of disposable income, but do we Europeans really spend that much less than them on DLC in comparison? Just to clear things up here, I’m not sore because I can’t buy a fancy non-existent sofa for my non-existent flat so that my non-existent-self can be more comfortable. I’m sore because ever since I was a child I’ve looked on in envy at our foreign brothers and sisters who seem to get a bigger, tastier slice of gaming goodness and at cheaper prices too. Still going with the PSN Home thing, most furnishings in the American shops cost around the $0.99 mark (that’s about 60p to us Brits), whereas the same things cost us around £1.59. Also, those ‘cubes’ we were all seeing in Home’s shops that seemed to do nothing, they’re ‘value packs’ and they’ve been taken away from the European Home spaces presumably because all Europeans live in mud huts and still trade with chickens or various bits of flotsam they’ve found floating around near their house (sorry, hut) and therefore don’t deserve them. The American Home mall also has all its shop spaces filled with things like the LucasArts shop, Loot shop, Exclusives shop and an E.A shop; whereas ours is more reminiscent of a forgotten Glaswegian high street with its windows boarded up. They also have The Gamer’s Lounge, where you can do a Q&A session with various game developers from time to time and I’m sure we’ve all heard of the more advanced Namco Museum area they have in comparison to us. Actually, instead of just giving us the Namco Museum as a free space like America we’ve been given it as a separate download for the cheap, cheap price of £7.99. As for private Home spaces they get yachts, villas and beach resorts all with a tonne of extra stuff like the ‘value packs’ full of clothes and furnishings for each space at a much, much cheaper price than us. They get wall-hangings and pictures, rugs and carpets, appliances and even TV studios. While the E.U spaces and shops are as barren and empty as a hooker’s pocket in comparison.

Forgive me for focusing on Home as an example but it’s here that the contrast is obvious, I could mention games that have no rightful place in grotty European hands such as Afrika or Aquanaut’s Holiday but that would probably get a ’so what’ reaction from most U.K gamers, as the PS3 has no region lock and can be bought online. Most Brits that have had any interaction with PSN Home generally shrug their shoulders in reaction to it, and say it’s as useful as a dried pile of bat vomit if asked what they think. Maybe if we were given the same volume of content as our gaming siblings across the pond we’d be a bit more enthusiastic about it. I used to welcome this new, always-connected-with-the-rest-of-the-world vision where my gaming was concerned, because it was supposed to mean we (as Brits at least) would finally get our sweet slice of game-pie that the others allow themselves, and yet it seems we’re still getting a raw deal regardless of how easy it is to distribute DLC across the globe.

Now some of you might say that the language barrier is still a problem for games and while this is understandable, I still can’t get my head around why we (the EU) have less films, mini games or game add-ons in our online stores that don’t need any interpretation (save subtitles). Certainly in Home’s case a bunch of hats or T-shirts wouldn’t require much in the way of reiteration for a few different languages, surely? I’ve always supported PSN’s Home because it can bring awareness about games, films and events to the masses, but more importantly it can bring gamers together in a familiar environment and allow them to discuss their favourite past-time. However, after looking to see how much greener the grass on the other side actually is, I’ve been reminded that we are still treated as separate entities because of our global positioning. So it begs the question, why does our brave new world of connectivity still impose these old-fashioned barriers on our gaming community?

Answers on a postcard please.

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