DEO3 said:
.. is this mess the standard for DLC on consoles? Am I just an old man late to the party? Or is this simply PD trying to reinvent the wheel for no good reason - yet again?
It is probably just a first-time implementation of the probably still officially unannounced - but obviously incoming - new Sony policy regarding strengthening the DRM on PS3.
I have no real info about it, but from what we know so far, it could be the way how PSN Store will start to function more and more - basically in the same way how Xbox Live Marketplace is doing until the very beginning.
Until recently, we had a greatly loosed DRM-management on PS3 console, where all profiles had access to all DLC content on the same console. Also, policy of "5 downloads per console" has resulted with numerous "sharing" of all DLC content in the past among vast number of users worldwide because there was no strict DRM-management imposed. We can only presume the amounts of money/income/profit lost on both Sony/developers side because of that.
First batches of DLC with "strict" DRM-policy was previously reported for FIFA 11, LBP and PS Home (if I recall from other posts since I have never bought any of those DLC). All those were heavily tied to PSN-ID of the initial purchaser and couldn't be shared among profiles/consoles. However, that policy came to greater light with release of GT5 DLC just because it is the extremely big title with strong and vocal community.
Notice how all above DLC is not "classic" DLC, nor you can actually see it in your "Download History" or re-download it again. Only place where you can actually see it on your console is under the Account Settings > Transaction Management > Services List.
Why do I presume how such policy will become more present in the future? Because in less than 24 hours from initial release of the DLC for Europe/PAL (last week) Yamauchi tweeted the following:
Were planning an another update for GT5 in December. In that update users who purchased cars and tracks from the DLC already, can receive a free family upgrade in the PS Store, which will let all users in the same PS console use the DLC.
That particular sentence went unnoticed, but I find it very intriguing since it says how in less than 60 days there will be new option on PSN Store that will allow re-distribution of the tighten-DLC content through "Family Upgrade" functionality that does not exist at this moment. Connect the dots.
We will be smarter in 2 months, but maybe all of this is just a sign of things to come.
EDITED: That particular *problem* many of US players had yesterday is probably result of some miss-management over the US PSN Store. I followed the development of the problem over GTPlanet and during the first hour of DLC being available on Store, everybody had the same problem as you.
Of course, there were people who didn't know about the need to "install" DLC from the in.game "Red Button", but there were also many members who were very aware of the actual process. Suddenly, everybody could install their DLC and hassle was gone.
Somebody at US Store probably uploaded the initial sequence of the DLC and made it available to be seen and purchased, in the same time being late to upload the initial content. Once the content was uploaded, everybody could download it.