Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

Could you possibly be more in love with Nintendo? Nintendo games don't come with any more bonuses than games developed anywhere else, and split-screen isn't any less present on other consoles. Damn.

Nintendo games come out polished and finished. You know, unlike Bethesda games, which are more like a beta test you pay to participate in.

As for spilt-screens, well, explain to me why fewer and fewer FPS sport splitscreen play and LAN functionality? It never entirely went away for racing games, but its notably absent from most first and third person shooters, though in PC gaming LAN is still a given, though dedicated servers no longer are a given.

If you can't see how these companies are trying to steamroll the consumer, then I can't help you. I only just got into the current wave of console gaming recently and I have not forgotten what it was like four years ago. It sure as hell was not like it is now.

[DakAttack]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

It's about time and money. Damn, do I have stories to tell about my job that would make you cringe.

In every company there's that one guy in management that, when somebody says, "This is the correct way", "it would be better this way", or "how about this idea", they shoot it down and cite time or budget constraints. They're ball-breakers, and they're why games come out crappy. It's not that they don't have a valid point, they just take it too damn far. It's not always QA's fault that a game comes out buggy, because that ball-breaker will refuse to fix some things.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

who pays in to those IPs, which happen to put food on the table and a roof over your head.

Mmm... Not the people buying used games? Not without a "online pass" type system, anyway. Otherwise, all the money paid go only to the retailers of those used games.

The used game merchants should have offered revenue sharing with the game publishers before the big guys came up with this kinds of systems. Really, it was all but inevitable that the publishers want a cut of the used game revenue stream--the used game's 'game' is all about undercutting the brand new copy of the same product price wise, and it is nearly impossible to stop/control people from selling and buying used games without those restrictive mechanisms.

If inserting bits to control license transfer is cheaper/easier/more reliable than getting the used game dealers to cough up the dough, that's the way things would go--and, so they did. Too bad for the retailers.

Contents as product is a fading business model in an age where contents can be replicated and distributed essentially for free. You see newspaper dying all over this country, do you not? And the music and movie industries have been complaining about lost revenue due to that for years. (I'm betting the college textbook industry is the next victim. lol.)

The game publishers realize that, and are pushing gaming is toward the service route--I think it won't be all that long before the lion's share of most major new game titles will incorporate subscription and/or "micro"-transactions ($0.01 - $15.00 range for 'additional' content/in-game items, etc.) as a (major) part of the "gaming experience".

I am not sure if I approve or disapprove, but there's no incentives for the publishers of those big-budget titles to go back to the way things were. Really, the only leverage gamers have is their wallets--don't buy if you hate the system--no gamer will die without the (previously) latest sequel to a spin-off series of some famous franchise.

* * *

I see almost no (financial) reason to create an expensive (to make) game that can be easily cracked, distributed, then played just like a legit retail copy.

Right now, we see a lot of games which seem to have some junk tagged on to force it to have online component, such as the "online pass" type systems or purchasable code for contents already on the media. In the future, I think most major games wouldn't even get the green light to start the architectural design unless they have compelling (or what's thought to be compelling) monetize-able online component built in.

(Of course, there's always a market for slick, small, self-contained games. But, making a new compelling small game like that is more difficult than a big, visually attractive large budge game, in my view. *shrug* We'll see how things go, sooner or later.)

* * *

Next step for the crackers: break game protection, then connect the players to their own content stores/servers! (And, charge them a weekly subscription, too!)

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

Mmm... Not the people buying used games? Not without a "online pass" type system, anyway. Otherwise, all the money paid go only to the retailers of those used games.

Its the retailers that buy the games and barely even on them. They sell used to give the customer value and to make real revenue the publishers are not helping them make.

The used game merchants should have offered revenue sharing with the game publishers before the big guys came up with this kinds of systems

That revenue doesn't belong to the publishers, though. Used product. Used. As in not new. If you want to prevent that - package a registration code with you game from the start, not retroactively.

What car factories are going around demanding a cut from people that sold their cars used? They made the car, right? Where's all the companies asking for a cut from pawn shops and Goodwill?

Well? Where are they?

If these other companies aren't doing it, what makes game publishers so fucking special? The RIAA never went after record stores that sold used CDs and vinyl and they don't get a cut from them. They sure as hell don't go after Goodwill and they've got CDs and vinyl there.

You only get one shot a revenue. One. And if you're willing to let them change that for video games, just wait for all the other companies that see that and try to do the same with their products.

See, I don't like people like you - you are willing to just give our rights away to corporations and government alike - and all out of some dumb sense of what's "fair." Not all of us want to live like George McFly and have Biff pushing us around.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

Used car have worn parts. Heck, eventually metal fatigue will cause catastrophic structural failure, if you can find parts to keep the vehicle going long enough.

'Used' game? As long as you have the system to run it, without licensing control software, it would work just like the 'new' game. Oh, the media can become worn out, but bits never age, do they? (Think emulators and ROM files.)

Which is why selling software (or 'intellectual' content in general) like physical product ran into difficulties--it was the wrong business model, especially in the coming era of pervasive internet.

* * *

Do you 'own' the game? Well, once upon a time, you used to. These days, the legalese inside the boxes insist you have only purchased a license to use the software, and not the software itself.

Don't like it? Write your own software, or go write laws to prevent software company from doing that and get those laws passed by the Congress.

Otherwise, you can insist you own the software all you want, but if the bits won't work without the next 'owner' coughing up $10 to the publisher, you'd better factor that into the calculation of the resale value.

[Feba]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

Don't like it? Write your own software, or go write laws to prevent software company from doing that and get those laws passed by the Congress.

For the love of Christ, don't give BBQ an excuse to talk about Congress.

[Kailea]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

As I see it EA's little "idea" has failed. We have about 2-3 of the new UFC 2010, and we cant sell them, because after we tell them about the code thing,they don't want it. Also we have tons of the game new, and no one is buying them -.- (at least at my store.)

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

If the game isn't compelling enough for its price, then it's the wrong product at the wrong price.

* * *

I'm curious about the unsold 'new' software. Do you return them to the publisher and get a refund? Or, once purchases from the publisher/distributor, it's strictly up to the retail stores to recoup the cost of goods?

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

You put in an order for X amount, you get X amount (or sometimes with a limited release they only allow a certain number of games per...and how many you get sometimes that depends on how much product your store moves), and then its up to you to sell your stock. Hence, sales and clearance, trying to get rid of overstock. If the store is a franchise, then sometimes stock is moved between stores that belong to the owner to help sell overstock.

[Ufgt]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

TGM: not entirely true, new products can be returned to publishers and developers depending on what the distribution contract reads.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

It's not a common practice though. It also leaves you open to more involvement and critique from the distributor.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

Do you 'own' the game? Well, once upon a time, you used to. These days, the legalese inside the boxes insist you have only purchased a license to use the software, and not the software itself.

Be that as it may, its still a very, very bad idea to treat your customers like thieves and robe them of choice.

When you treat your customers like dirt, you are starting a war you are only going to lose. History has proven this and clearly some people have not learned from history because they've seen fit to repeat it in less than ten years.

I knew the video game industry would not prepare for the changes it needed to, partially because Sony is part of this industry too and they NEVER learned from the whole scare they got over MP3s.

And that cost them marketshare. They spent so much time trying protect the old business model, Apple came in and smoked them by legitimizing MP3s through their own service.

After their mishandling of PSP, Apple has now smoked them again. Nintendo goes without saying.

People clamoring for a solution to this seem to want to insist that there's a better way of doing it that Steam does it. I don't think there is a better way. I think Valve nailed it with Steam. There's your perfect distribution model if you don't want the used market undercutting you. People have to buy new and no one gets shorted on content.

You even don't have to do these stupid codes to redeem "free" DLC, you can just put it back in the game where it belongs.

Simply put, if your company is worried about being undercut by used sales, not release physical copies of your game - period. Go digital with those games and don't look back. It can be done. Hell bust Sony and MS' balls until they have a Steam-like system in-place to make it happen.

People who have a problem with such games being digital-only will either adapt and get over it or they'll miss out..

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

Simply put, if your company is worried about being undercut by used sales, not release physical copies of your game - period. Go digital with those games and don't look back. It can be done. Hell bust Sony and MS' balls until they have a Steam-like system in-place to make it happen.

People who have a problem with such games being digital-only will either adapt and get over it or they'll miss out..

Maybe one day digital will be the norm, but not anytime soon. Sony did try it. Remember the PSP Go? It failed. They have said it was a test to see if digital media would work and they've learned that people still want physical media. Maybe my nephew's generation (he's about a week old now lol) will be more accepting of digital media only, but that's a good ways down the road.

[Kailea]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

Maybe one day digital will be the norm, but not anytime soon. Sony did try it. Remember the PSP Go? It failed. They have said it was a test to see if digital media would work and they've learned that people still want physical media. Maybe my nephew's generation (he's about a week old now lol) will be more accepting of digital media only, but that's a good ways down the road.

I know I am not -.- I like having things, for collections and such, like my Final Fantasy and Survival Horror/horror collection.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Sega to dig its own grave with EA, Ubi Soft and other publishers

Maybe one day digital will be the norm, but not anytime soon. Sony did try it. Remember the PSP Go? It failed. They have said it was a test to see if digital media would work and they've learned that people still want physical media. Maybe my nephew's generation (he's about a week old now lol) will be more accepting of digital media only, but that's a good ways down the road.

Valve had plan with Steam

Sony did not have a plan with PSP Go and, to be frank, if they don't show any really dramatic changes with PSN this week, I doubt they'll ever get it together this generation. They're choosing to highlight the Move Dildo over all else this week.

Sony is also trying to pass the PSPGo off as "test" to the gaming press right now. They just cannot own up to any failure on their part, no matter how tremendously fucking obvious to the gaming public.

But that's Sony. Don't own up to failure, but damn can they dance like monkeys when they imitate Nintendo.

Bioware, Sega, Activision and others can just release these games digitally if they are so concerned about piracy, though. Its not like Xbox Live doesn't do digital distribution, they sell retail releases, too.

If you go digital, you force registration and the consumer has to accept they will not have a physical copy, so its going to be a real test of how much they want it if its not on physical media.