More info on Playstation Network Japan starts 9/24 - Huge selection planned

[Quarkboy]

According to this article over at animeanime:

http://animeanime.jp/biz/archives/2008/08/_924_ps3.html

The launch of the PS3 video store in Japan will be as planned on 9/24.

They will premier Xam'd at 300 yen for SD, 400 yen for HD that are _30_ day rentals. Yes, you heard me right, Japan gets them for 30 days for the same price the US gets them for 1.

And much much more interesting is that they are planning on offering a very large number of SD shows as well, from aniplex and bandai (these are listed as planned, so I'm not sure if they will all be there on the launch day or not):

Here's the full list

From Aniplex:
Arc the Lad
Full Metal Alchemist
Blood+
Persona-trinity soul
Popolocrolis Stories
Wild Arms TV

From Bandai Channel:
Gunparade Orchestra,
Gunparade March,
Mobile Suit Gundam Char's Counterattack,
Gundam Seed OVA,
Gundam Seed Destiny OVA,
Gundam 00,
Z Gundam (various, not sure exactly which movies, etc... not the Tv series though I don't think),
Mars Daybreak,
Eureka Seven,
Sakura Wars OVA,
Sakura Wars 2 OVA,
Mai Otome Hime,
Mai Otome Hime Zwei,
Disgaea,
Macross Zero,
Macross F
Super Dimensional Fortress MAcross,
SDF Macross Do you remember love?,
SDF MAcross II Lovers Again,
Macross 7,
Macross Plus,
Macross 7 the Movie "The Galaxy's calling me!",
Macross Plus "The movie Edition",
Macross Dynamite 7


No word on the prices for the things other than Xam'd, but NOTHING will be offered in high definition except for Xam'd, according to the article.

Presumably they will be region locked to Japan only and raw, but the shear selection is quite impressive.

[Asf]

For reference, all of those shows besides Xam'd have been available for Windows for months/years, and many of the provider sites have no IP address or credit card restrictions. (I live in the U.S. and have U.S.-issued credit cards, and I've rented shows from goo, Anime Newtype Channel, Videx, .ANIME, AII, Animate.tv, and sg.tv.)

So it's mostly interesting for those who 1) want to watch these shows on a "TV" display rather than a "computer monitor" but who 2) don't have a PC hooked up to such a display and 3) do have a PS3. (*Videx offers downloads rather than streams, which can probably be played on DRM-compliant media center extenders like the Xbox 360, maybe? Or you can capture the streams from other sites, but that’s starting to get technical. And of course if you strip the DRM, then you can do whatever, but that’s generally considered bad form to do with rentals.)

Using the PS3 version from outside Japan would presumably be subject to the same restrictions as the rest of the Japanese PSN store, that is to say, you can create a Japanese PSN account from anywhere in the world, but it won’t take non-Japanese credit cards, so you'd need to instead order the PSN store point cards from stores that deal in those.

As of right now, the main Bandai Channel site lists 622 shows / 8976 individual episodes currently available for online rental for Windows—so they’ll probably rapidly expand the PS3 catalog. (Online anime rental is largely dominated by Bandai Channel affiliates, though there are few independent titles, like, for example, Haruhi and Lucky Star are exclusive to Newtype Anime Channel and not part of the Bandai Channel catalog.)

[Fudce]

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

Presumably they will be region locked to Japan only and raw, but the shear selection is quite impressive.

That'd be my guess, considering the US video store is region locked.

[Shiroi Hane]

Originally Posted by Asf

Using the PS3 version from outside Japan would presumably be subject to the same restrictions as the rest of the Japanese PSN store, that is to say, you can create a Japanese PSN account from anywhere in the world, but it won’t take non-Japanese credit cards, so you'd need to instead order the PSN store point cards from stores that deal in those.

I expect it to be more like the current US video store in that you cannot even access it outside Japan even if you do have point cards.

[Asf]

Originally Posted by Shiroi Hane

I expect it to be more like the current US video store in that you cannot even access it outside Japan even if you do have point cards.

Interesting. Is it IP address-based restriction?

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Asf

Interesting. Is it IP address-based restriction?

It seems to be. I can access the store using a US registered account from Japan, but the video tab doesn't show up. Reports are that connecting through proxies work so it's surely Ip based.

[Shiroi Hane]

Just thought I'd mention that I'm currently downloading the promo video for Xamd from the JP PSN store.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Shiroi Hane

Just thought I'd mention that I'm currently downloading the promo video for Xamd from the JP PSN store.

Yep, I did that yesterday.

I think the promo was slightly different than the one that was used in the states...

Still cool, though.

[djanss]

And what anime do we get on PSN-US over here?
---
Funi Channel
- Xam'd
- Robotech: Shadow Chronicles
- Afro Samurai ( <snicker!> )
- The rest of the same six-series crap as on iTunes (Samurai 7, Trinity Blood, etc.), only without the comedy/romances.

== THAT'S IT ==

(...It ain't FAIR, I tell ya!
And I only passed up an AppleTV because I thought having PS3 downloads would be the next best thing!)

Although I was tempted to try out "Galaxy Railways", just for having something to watch without Netflix, but not for $1.99 a pop--
Plays better as an Episode 1 sampler before full Netflix rentals, but there's no way in HFIL I'm going to watch an entire 26-episode season for $51.74, when I can buy a nice, shiny DVD boxset for $39.

[omo]

It's strange that you complain about price in the Japanese PSN video store thread...?

I think they pay about the same as we do. The only bone to pick is that they have a 30-day rental and we get ... a day? Sucks.