Reaching the Qore

Earlier this month, Sony introduced a new addition to the PlayStation Network: Qore.

The company describes it as a gaming-lifestyle program, packed with developer interviews, screenshots, downloads and other original content (and an easter egg here and there). It’s fully interactive, allowing the viewer to browse through the content any way you want, and it’s in glorious high definition, too.

The first episode includes a beta invitation to SOCOM: Confrontation, along with inside looks at Secret Agent Clank, Soul Calibur IV and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

The content comes at a price, however. Individual episodes cost $2.99, and a 13-episode subscription is $24.99. Plus, there are unskippable ads sprinkled throughout. Is it worth all that fuss?

After browsing through the first episode, I was pleasantly surprised with the amount and the quality of content. It certainly doesn’t replace OPM, but it’s a step in the right direction. (You could almost call it PlayStation Underground 2.0.) It helps that Tekzilla host Veronica Belmont is the show’s bubbly-yet-unintrusive host. Call me crazy, but having her on board lends a certain amount of legitimacy to the product.

Like any other form of media, Qore’s success depends on the exclusive content it delivers each month. Gamers have plenty of online resources for developer interviews, trailers and screenshots; in that respect, Qore doesn’t break any new ground. If gamers have to drop cash for content, it better be valuable content. In this first episode, it would have been a real treat to see an exclusive interview with Hideo Kojima in the weeks before MGS4’s release. It also would have been nice to get an update on Home.

Overall, Qore is a promising marketing engine promotional tool for the PlayStation brand, as long as it gives us something we can’t find anywhere else.