Further attacks on used games :P
Feb. 18th, 2010 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owsf2000Here's some more assaults on the used game market. And basically another step down that slippery slope we've been watching with more and more important things being given as DLC.
Essentially, online play is now considered an add-on for the game. It comes with free vouchers with a new retail game but otherwise you have to pony up 20 bucks if you bought it used and thus don't have the voucher that game with the game.
I can't wait until until end bosses come as DLC, but I guess we'll have to wait until "bonus extra bosses guarding rare powerful items" are added as DLC first.
I'd want to blame Game Stop for causing the Game Industry to lust after the used game sales, but the blame lies entirely with the game industry being dicks and GAMERS ACTUALLY THINKING 5 DOLLARS OFF RETAIL MAKES AN AWESOME FUCKING DEAL. We know Game Stop is being a bunch of dicks with their pricing, we have the power to make them stop by not buying it.
Additionally, I think I know what the next gen for consoles will probably do. It won't be digital-only media. Even if that's what the console makers want (so they can charge insane prices for a virtual product without any physical alternative for people to complain about) there's just no way in hell the bandwidth will be there.
Instead, I can see them attempting to pull what Ubisoft is pulling with the always-online-to-play bullshit. "It's the next logical step." I'm tagging this as "game prediction" to hopefully find the post again easily 4-5 years from now or whenever the new generation launches. We'll see if I'm right. I pray I'm wrong.
*edit*
I was going to fix that "game" typo up above, but decided to leave it to make another unrelated point. I used spellcheck to quickly find typos without pre-reading the post. That's how it slipped through. That's why game developers that make a conversation heavy game, like Ar Tonelico II, should have more eyes reading their scripts. (Those are the types of typos you see littered throughout the game.)
Essentially, online play is now considered an add-on for the game. It comes with free vouchers with a new retail game but otherwise you have to pony up 20 bucks if you bought it used and thus don't have the voucher that game with the game.
I can't wait until until end bosses come as DLC, but I guess we'll have to wait until "bonus extra bosses guarding rare powerful items" are added as DLC first.
I'd want to blame Game Stop for causing the Game Industry to lust after the used game sales, but the blame lies entirely with the game industry being dicks and GAMERS ACTUALLY THINKING 5 DOLLARS OFF RETAIL MAKES AN AWESOME FUCKING DEAL. We know Game Stop is being a bunch of dicks with their pricing, we have the power to make them stop by not buying it.
Additionally, I think I know what the next gen for consoles will probably do. It won't be digital-only media. Even if that's what the console makers want (so they can charge insane prices for a virtual product without any physical alternative for people to complain about) there's just no way in hell the bandwidth will be there.
Instead, I can see them attempting to pull what Ubisoft is pulling with the always-online-to-play bullshit. "It's the next logical step." I'm tagging this as "game prediction" to hopefully find the post again easily 4-5 years from now or whenever the new generation launches. We'll see if I'm right. I pray I'm wrong.
*edit*
I was going to fix that "game" typo up above, but decided to leave it to make another unrelated point. I used spellcheck to quickly find typos without pre-reading the post. That's how it slipped through. That's why game developers that make a conversation heavy game, like Ar Tonelico II, should have more eyes reading their scripts. (Those are the types of typos you see littered throughout the game.)
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-19 07:00 pm (UTC)Between this and the Ubisoft thing I brought up in my journal, it's almost to the point where I'm starting to really believe that game companies simply no longer care about PC gaming at all, and are beginning a scorched earth policy with crap like this.
...oh wait, this is a PSP game, not a PC game. Huh.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-20 07:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-20 08:15 am (UTC)But then I was like, wait, this SOCOM thing is on a (handheld) console and not a PC, and that kind of killed my momentum.
Yeah, at first the whole DRM thing was just about "we gotta stop the pirates." Now it's "we gotta stop the pirates and the used game resellers." Next it will be "we gotta stop the pirates and the used game resellers and X." I wonder what X (and Y and Z) will be, when the time comes.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-20 08:38 am (UTC)"We gotta stop the resellers!"
"We gotta make them pay for every little item in the game"
"We gotta make them pay every time they turn it on."
"We gotta charge each person watching the screen while a person plays."
"We want ponies."
Yeah, something like that.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 06:52 pm (UTC)With "couch gaming" catching on again thanks to the Wii I imagine we'll start to see this one soon.
It'll probably start with paying a service to keep your Mii or equivalent stored virtually, then when you go to a friend's house you can get him remotely on their console with all his achievements, customizations, etc. It's just a short step from there to "core functionality is locked at your friend's house until your online avatar reaches level 10".
Play enough Zynga Facebook games and you start to see how the microtransaction business survives on a series of microscrewings of the customer base until you've paid more than the $40 you might get for an off-the-shelf game.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-22 07:51 pm (UTC)Still, I can't say I was joking with that charging people who watch the screen step. I remember reading that was one of the reasons the movie industry was so reluctant to allow any home video format at all back in the day. There was never a way to count the heads to charge people as if they were going to a theater, and thus they were afraid it was going to cut in and destroy their lucrative theater going revenue. >_>