im just annoyed theyre not coming out in europe

djduke, please understand (I'm the one who found them), there have been some issues with the cards, and SCEA wanted to test them out on a smaller scale.  If many of you were to go through what I did (having to call PSN Support, although the experience was good since they were very helpful and got me to who I needed to talk to) to get the card to work, I pretty much guarantee you wouldn't be happy.  Just read my entire blog post either at the link, my blog on the PS3 forums, or my actual forum post here about the PSN Cards. 

Yeah, it's awesome news I finally got the card to work after talking to support, so they should be fine to those who buy.  If anyone has issues/questions, they can ask me on the forum.

About time, I've been waiting!

dont really see the point in them, well unless you dont have a credit card

@4eyedSnake

can't wait to see how this works.

@djduke316 forget nationally more like internationaly all the people in europe wont get until fall proberbly arggg

@VesNL your right dude

@4eyedSnake i have Visa Credit Card international but psn not supporting that i created my ID u.s address and now i need use credit card same address so it's hard for me i'm living center asia so i need those cards to buy games add-ons

so i'm saying someone even have credit card but can't use them

I don't understand why children not yet old enough can't just borrow the credit card from their parents. If their parents don't trust Sony with their credit card, I have to say, they're a bit paranoid.

I'm glad Sony is getting these out there as they'll now be able to push more stats on the PSN.

you cant use a debit card in canada

you can also buy a prepaid credit card based on almost any bank in the world....

Seriously how long did we have to wait for this? Hope BB and CC have this in stock soon, at least before the holidays.

is that store even in florida

not in europe?? way? sony europe suck...

@Cesarcsrf, I was told that a certain European retailer has them from someone at a forum, but they cannot sell them until they get the go ahead.  From what I hear, but of the issue with Europe right now is varying currency, and they aren't sure what to do (Nintendo and MS just translate to points, to avoid the hassle).

@Uncool, part of the explaination for the PSN Card wait had to do with the PS Store was kind of put together towards the last minute (I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem like Sony planned it early on, compared to the competition).  Setting up a pre-paid card system isn't exactly an overnight thing, it takes time.  But thankfully SCEA went through it and has it done, just needs to come to more retailers, which will likely happen within the next month or so I'm guessing.

To let everyone know, I did go back to Meijer, explaining to the employee PSN Cards are okay now and I figured out what was wrong yesterday after calling support.  That picture some may have seen of the PSN Cards, there's still quite a stack.  I'll probably be the one buying most of them, since I'm one of the biggest PlayStation product buyers at Meijer (I got my slim PSP and 20GB PS3 there).

i was think thats odd for a major company like sony to start something new like ps cards. to start selling them in middle america and not start in the east/west coast lines and work there way into middle america or at lest start in NY and LA. but better late then never

psn id: gingo.... luckily my debit card works just fine with the psn and i have no need for these but its a pity for other europeans who dont have a card that works or are too young to get a card

well the question arises  here that whether these cards would work in those countires who don't have PS stores?

@Punisher

My friends mom doesn't trust using her credit card for any online transaction.

A gift card. A GIFT CARD!!! Are you s****ing me?!?!? We're talking about skinny pieces of plastic that probably cost all of $0.03 cents to make and could potentially make Sony thousands of dollars. It's one thing for games to be delayed but this has got to be the simplest thing in the world to get done. A company as big as Sony should be able to push out some silly gift cards to at least the big retailers like Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

There has to be something else to this story. Something they're not talking about. Whatever it is it's stupid as, again, there's no excuse not to be able to get these things out the moment they launched PSN. If nothing else they could've at least released them when they launched the new PSN Store interface.

Unexcusable.

@ Girugamesh: Maybe parents don't want kids saving the credit card number to the account and buying whatever they feel like.

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@ incredibilistic: You do know that it isn't just pieces of plastic being made and sold right?  Sony has to set up a central database with every card number made and be able to activate cards at any given time, plus keep track of how much currency you've spent and have left.  It's not cut, paste, sell.

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It's too bad it took Sony so long but they're going to see a huge jump in PS Store sales as soon as these hit nationwide.

@ posts 23 & 24

I keep trying to tell you both, these cards are released at ONE retailer first to ASSURE they are working without issues.  Did you even read the story I posted at my blog?  I had to go through support to get it working, and there ended up being some issues.  Just imagine, if SCEA released it at every retailer nationwide (or at least one nationwide retailer) how many complaints would there be on several forums if you spent your hard earned money on a PSN Card, it didn't work, and retailers wouldn't let you take it back?  Getting upset with SCEA over this only shows ignorance in some PlayStation fans, because SCEA has to assure they cards are just fine (kind of like a beta test for a smaller sample), before everyone gets them.  It's like MGO, we got a beta test to assure the game can handle a load of people.  The beta test got delayed becasue Konami learned they could not handle a load of people and had to fix things. 

I think what people are complaining most about is WHY did it take so long just to get to THIS point. Yes the cards have to be tested and there's clear evidence that they certainly needed to be but this is nearly 2 years into the system's life span, it makes no sense especially when you're trying to regrab market shares from your two rivals that seemed to have these things ready simultaneously with THEIR online services.

Alpha2, the PS Store was a last minute idea by Sony.  It was not put together until just before PS3 launched.  Which explains why it was a web page, why third parties couldn't initially put content up since SCEA had to set it up for them to do it, and so on.  The competition had plans for an online store WAY before their consoles launched.  Sony saw the popularity (or people wanting them), so they had to catch up.  Unfortunately, setting up a pre-paid card system does not take 1 month to do, more like 1-2 years.  The competition had it up and running right away because it was setup along with their stores, 2-3 years before launch, so they were able to have it ready.  If SCEA previously had a pre-paid card setup (where you redeem PIN numbers) previously, it may not have taken as long, but they had no such setup.  You gotta hire people to do it, setup the system, assure it works, randomize codes, get retailers involved and assure they know how to use it (the one on PS3 works like a giftcard, where retailers have to swipe it to activate it).  And tell me, would you rather have SCEA have zero PS Store until pre-paid cards were setup and ready to go, or would you rather have a PS Store now and just wait for pre-paid cards.  I rather just have a PS Store now, which they did.  That is why it took a while.  I guarantee none of you could have setup a pre-paid card setup over night, and I don't think you'd want to be in the position of being the only console without a store, and having to quickly put one together for launch (unlike the competition planning it for over 2 years).  Please understand this. 

Don't care about these things..I have a Debit Card

@InfernoReaper:

Yes, I understand that it's a process but we're not talking about some mom & pop shop, this is friggin' Sony. Maybe I'm oversimplifying the process but, again, Sony is not a rinky-dink operation and I don't think they deserve ANY breathing room on this issue. It's just insane that something as simple as a gift card could be this difficult to put together.

Okay, they need a database to track the cards and a currency system to track what you've spent and so on. But (broken record) THIS... IS... SONY!!! Funny thing is that I searched for Sony Gift Cards and got a link (www.sonygiftcards.com) that was ironically broken.

Overall, there is little to no excuse for something this simple from a company that has its hands in just about everything (they do have a Sony Visa card) from TVs to stereos to games. I know that SCEA is separate from every other division in Sony but I find it incredibly unbelievable that they can't get this campaign running any faster or better than it's being run now. It definitely doesn't speak well for the future of the cards (hope they work).

As for anyone with a debit card, if you got it to work then you must be using magic because I have a debit card and a credit card and only the credit card works. Everytime I put in my debit card info it kicks it back. I called Sony about before and they told me that debit cards are accepted.

@ Mana Knight:  I read your original forum post and I was never upset with Sony over this.  I'm glad Sony is doing a soft release for that very reason.

I don't care how long anything takes as long as it's done right.  I was just saying that the quicker Sony can get these out, the better for them.  These are going to really kick up buying in the PS Store and hopefully keep it free.