Firmware 3.0 brought a slew of new features to PlayStation 3’s operating system, most notably in the form of dynamic themes. Rather than just adding on new icons and sound effects, dynamic themes offer PS3 owners the ability to have background environments rather than just background pictures. But the price tag present on current dynamic themes have raised some serious questions about Sony’s decision to allow developers to profit off these themes.
What’s surprising, though, is that the cost to build these dynamic themes is actually quite high. And in fact, they may even be completely unprofitable to build and release to the public. Dylan Cuthbert of Q-Games explains how products like dynamic themes are actually a large investment for the companies that create them:
“Remember that we’ll be lucky to sell even a few thousand themes and so the cost of developing the theme (3-4 weeks of coder/artist time, checking, testing etc) will still far exceed any money we make from it.”
There’s of course some other incentives for creating dynamic themes, such as building brand awareness. But we hope these labor-intensive items continue to populate the PlayStation Store. And if you don’t already own the LBP dyanamic theme, the only question is “why not?”
[Source]
