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The Weekend Gamer - #4

Posted by Scott Anderson, VGG News Editor

Editorials

31 Jan 2012

Scott Anderson

(Speedracer513)

United States
Casper
Wyoming

THE WEEKEND GAMER (#4)

The part where I rant about something . . .

The rumors are thickening...

For the past several months, there has been a generous amount of speculation about when the next iterations of gaming consoles from Microsoft and Sony will be announced and released. Some rumors have reported that developers are already using the next-generation Xbox dev-kits, with an expected release in 2012. Other reports point towards a 2013 release. Still, others say that both Microsoft and Sony are holding off until 2014. Most recently (and despite speculation to the contrary) a Microsoft France executive has said that there will be no news of the next Xbox at E3 this year.

I don’t know about you - but I don’t really feel the need to have the next generation of consoles yet.

With The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim still occupying most of my gaming time (and still stunning me with its graphical beauty) - and Mass Effect 3, Bioshock Infinite, and Halo 4 to still look forward to in the next year - I’m quite content to stick with the status quo for at least a couple more years... And that’s before even mentioning the seemingly endless supply of cool indie games coming to XBLA and PSN!

Perhaps way more substantial than the when though is the what - and recent reports that the next Xbox will not play used games have created quite a stir. Clearly it is still too early to know whether this is true. If it is true, I will be very curious to see how this will be accomplished - and what other features the system will have.

Not that I don’t understand why Microsoft would want to limit the console to only playing games that were bought new - because I think it is quite easy to see why this would benefit them. Rather, the question I’m currently weighing internally is how I should feel about this proposition... Should I adamantly oppose it, ardently support it, or apathetically acquiesce to it...?

I am inclined to say it’s not that big a deal - and perhaps even support it. I feel strongly that the people (and companies) that develop and publish the games we love should be able to fully reap the rewards of their creation. In the past several years, I have probably purchased about half of my console games second-hand at GameStop. But it’s hard to deny the unfortunate truth that the developers and publishers get no benefit from my used game purchases.

I have been very intrigued in following your discussions on this issue and I am anxious to hear your comments below. I am still pondering the potential pros and cons of having my next console be designed to only play games I purchased new. Perhaps there aren’t really any pros - but the cons might not be that big a deal either...

Snippets and Tidbits . . .

Tweet(s) of the Week: courtesy of @cwgabriel

”Mike Krahulik” wrote:

I'm not saying you can't buy used. I'm saying don't blame publishers for trying to incentivize you to buy new.

. . .

and don't tell me the publishers are greedy fat cats. At least they made a game. Gamestop is a greedy fat cat that didn't do shit.

Video of the Week:

What I played last week: I was sick and stayed home from work for half of the week, so I played a lot of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim along with a little Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.

Parting thought: "Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author."
-- Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

10 Comments

Tue Jan 31, 2012 11:00 am

Post Comment

Andy

(Grimwold)

United Kingdom
Stockport
Manchester

It's been said before, but I believe game developers do benefit from the second hand market because it's putting money back into the hands of the people who are buying games new.

Posted Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:32 pm
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Help me to help you! Help me to help you!

(WrongWrongWrong)

United States

It is a lot like the piracy issue in that every used game is not a lost sale of a new game. Plus, like Andy said, it gives the seller more purchasing power. I believe if not every system implemented this, it would keep me away from the ones that did.

Posted Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:12 pm
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James Lowry

(Rindis)

United States
Sunnyvale
California

I might be willing to accept 'new games only' technology if they can guarantee that any game I want to buy will be available for purchase, whenever I may want to buy it, even if that's twenty years later.

No? Warehousing costs you say? Inventory tax? Better things to do with your space than hold spare copies for the day that I finally decide, 'gee, that sounds kind of neat?'

Then let me buy a used copy off a person who doesn't want his anymore.

Posted Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:32 pm
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Luke Stirling

(paralipsis)

Australia
Southbank
Victoria

WrongWrongWrong wrote:

I think there is a qualitative difference between the two issues. In the case of piracy, the notion is that pirated games allow the user to freeload, hence keeping their money out of the system. The counterargument being that people who pirate games usually dedicate a significant portion of their disposable income towards gaming anyway, and would perhaps not spend more even if they could pirate. Hence the consumer dollars entering the gaming economy is (hypothetically) unchanged whether there is piracy or not.

In the case of used games, the argument goes that used game sales fundamentally alters the flow of the money that already exists within the gaming economy, strongly biasing retail service providers over other players in the industry. So rather than talking about hypothetical disposable income that people who pirate games, it becomes a discussion about real money in the gaming economy, and where that money flows. Following this argument, the decreased buying power of the person who is unable to sell their game is more than compensated for by the used game buyer redirecting their purchase towards "new" games. Presumably the idea is that person who was going to spend $40 on a used copy of a new game, instead buys a game that is several months old, and has been discounted from the original $50-60 price tag. Those numbers are kind of arbitrary, but that's the general gist of it. So while new games take a bit of a hit from reduced sales from the "buy new/sell used" customers, they are more than compensated for by giving games a longer tail in the marketplace.

I do think there are problems with this point of view as well, as I think it overlooks buyer psychology somewhat. If used-game buyers are largely lured to their purchases by the perceived saving, what to they do once that saving is gone? Recently price dropped older games may hold a similar appeal, but maybe not. And if it doesn't then that kind of buyer may go elsewhere to spend their entertainment dollars, and that would be really bad news for the industry.

I should add that I'm really not sure at all if this course of action is a good idea or not, but I do think the argument for trying to minimize the used market has more legs than those made advocating aggressively combating piracy. Also, in my arguments I'm not trying to suggest that "new game buyers always do this" or "used game buyers always do that", merely that when talking about things on an industry wide scale, certain generalisations become necessary.

Posted Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:56 pm
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Hadley Langosy

(ewlyn)

United States

Massachusetts

I'm curious to know how the XBox could possibly know that a game is used. Would that mean that we would be unable to borrow games from friends? Because my best friend and I will often buy games we know the other doesn't own simply so we can then swap them. If the system is somehow going to track if a disc has previously been played on another unit, and this somehow becomes a trend, I hope there is at least a way to authorize multiple ones. What happens if my system dies and I replace it? Will I be unable to play my games? It will be interesting to see if this is true or not.

On the subject of used games... I buy most of my games new, but I do also own some which I purchased used. Sometimes it is because my disc somehow got damaged and I simply cannot bring myself to pay full price a second time. Sometimes it is because the game has been discontinued and I can only find a used copy. Sometimes it's because I am interested in a certain game or series but I am unsure if I really want to invest in it. Buying a used copy of FFVII all those years ago has lead to my purchasing every Final Fantasy title which has come out since when it was released. Ditto with Tomb Raider.

I have also previously purchased a game used and then loved it so much I have purchased multiple new copies to give to friends.

I think there are pros and cons to used games and I hope the gaming industry weighs all of them carefully.

Edited Fri Feb 3, 2012 9:31 pm
Posted Fri Feb 3, 2012 9:28 pm
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Luke Stirling

(paralipsis)

Australia
Southbank
Victoria

ewlyn wrote:

It seems more than likely that a game will become tied to a specific XBL account. It seems unlikely that it would be tied only to a specific piece of hardware. Even there is some kind of tethering to specific hardware, Microsoft would almost certainly offer a de-authorisation tool online to disable your dead device and tie a new one to your account. As for splitting the cost of games between friends and swapping them, my best guess is that if they are trying to kill the used market, this kind of scenario is likely going to become impossible too. One reason they may do both hardware and XBL account, is that it would make sense for them to allow owners of the game to let other people use the game while in the owner's machine. If they don't do something like this, and it become possible only to play a specific copy of a game via a single XBL account, that instantly becomes a family-unfriendly strategy.

ewlyn wrote:

On the subject of used games... I buy most of my games new, but I do also own some which I purchased used. Sometimes it is because my disc somehow got damaged and I simply cannot bring myself to pay full price a second time.

If the game is tied to your XBLA, presumably a replacement disk would work fine, though of course if they kill off the secondary market finding one could become a challenge.

ewlyn wrote:

Sometimes it is because the game has been discontinued and I can only find a used copy.

If all games come in both disk and download format (something not expressly stated as yet, but a pretty safe assumption for the next generation), then tracking down older games will be much less of a problem in the future.

ewlyn wrote:

Sometimes it's because I am interested in a certain game or series but I am unsure if I really want to invest in it. Buying a used copy of FFVII all those years ago has lead to my purchasing every Final Fantasy title which has come out since when it was released. Ditto with Tomb Raider.

I have also previously purchased a game used and then loved it so much I have purchased multiple new copies to give to friends.

This is not entirely dissimilar to some arguments I have heard regarding piracy. In both cases the pirated game and the used game offer no revenue at all to the game developer up front, but getting a quality product into the hands of consumers is potentially a great driver of future sales. I'm inclined to agree with this position in both cases. Obviously pirated games are far more legally and ethically burdened than used sales, but I think both mechanisms support the industry (and quality developers) in the long term. The counterargument to this point goes that consumers get accustomed to the free/lower price point, and never become profitable sources of income for developers. While this may be true in a minority of cases, I've yet to see any evidence that supports this for the market at large.

ewlyn wrote:

I think there are pros and cons to used games and I hope the gaming industry weighs all of them carefully.

No doubt. We can only hope that whatever Microsoft and Sony come up with the future, it's not going to be anything like some of the paying-customer-hostile strategies that some developers on the PC have attempted in the past.

Posted Fri Feb 3, 2012 10:03 pm
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Aaron Tubb

(Aarontu)

United States
Fuquay Varina
North Carolina

Many PC publishers are already using the "no used games" model, and have been for some time. Digital distribution models work fine, and are even more convenient in many ways than physical retail game media. If the new Xbox is going the same way that digital distribution platforms are going on the PC, then the advantages will include:

-Buy and download a game directly from your console.

-Never worry about losing or breaking a CD; the games are tied to your account, so you can just download it again if you delete it or get a new console.

-Games will never become rare or hard to find.

-Lower prices! Since the publisher doesn't have to spend money on physical media, and a retail outlet isn't marking up the price for profit, prices will be less, all around. Publishers can still make money, even after dropping the price of a game to $5.

This is all assuming that MS takes the same approach that PC digital dist. services have taken. It would be pretty stupid and nonsensical if you were STILL required to have a physical disc in the console, even though that disc can only be played on your account or hardware (however they decide to do it).

There was a lot of the same kind of complaining in the PC gaming community going on during the rise of digital distribution as there is about the new Xbox, now. I didn't like it either. It turned out to actually be pretty nice, though.

THOUGH, not all digital dist. publishers on the PC are convenient to use and user friendly. Steam is good, and there are other good ones, but some of them have gathered a lot of ire from PC gamers. Having a physical copy of a game is really nice, and digital dist publishers need to make up for that with extra convenience in other areas.

Edited Sat Feb 4, 2012 8:40 pm
Posted Sat Feb 4, 2012 8:32 pm
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Luke Stirling

(paralipsis)

Australia
Southbank
Victoria

Steam isn't too bad in the PC gaming space, but here's how I would modify it for a console environment:

* As with Steam, I would connect purchases and game activations to a single account (i.e. gamertag).

* In addition to this, all accounts can opt to link a single console to their account, and other users can use the game on that hardware as long as the owner's account is not actively playing that game elsewhere at the same time. The linked device permission should be revocable either on the device itself, or online so as to be manageable in the case of hardware failure. A single device can "belong" to multiple users, but a user can only have one linked hardware device at the time. This should give the best of both worlds. A user can just log in with their gamertag on their friend's console and play at their house, or their family members can play at home on the family console without having to buy the game for every member of of the family that plays. For this to work it would require at the very least that a console be online to validate a new game installation.

* Linked hardware would also allow games to run without an active internet connection for some period of time. It probably couldn't be indefinite, as then unscrupulous sellers could try to market "pre-loaded" consoles that kept those games playable forever as long as the user never connected the device to the internet. But I think there's a happy medium there.

Unfortunately once you go to online account management rather than verification based on physical media, it's going to mess things up for some people. For the vast majority of people, being online to activate a new game or switch over hardware licences isn't a huge problem, especially if they do away with crappy serial entry, perhaps using a peel away panel with a QR-code underneath that the Kinect camera can recognise. But the internet doesn't get everywhere, and for people in remote areas, serving in the military abroad, work on an oil rig, or some other scenario that allows for pure offline console gaming but no easy way to get online, any change down this route is going to suck big time.

Posted Sat Feb 4, 2012 9:25 pm
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Hadley Langosy

(ewlyn)

United States

Massachusetts

Luke, that was all so carefully thought out. Thanks!

Posted Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:04 pm
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Anthony DuLac

(wytefang)

United States

Minnesota

I kind of enjoy the whole uproar over the no used games sales issue - it's fun to watch console gamers have to deal with their own "elephant in the room" now, too. Heh.

Plus, as a console gamer - of sorts, myself - I don't mind at all. Console games are rarely a priority for me at launch so I don't mind buying them later when they're cheaper but I still buy them new.

I also could never understand the idea of not keeping your games - trading away one of my beloved videogames, completed or not, is anathema to me.

Edited Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:28 am
Posted Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:26 am
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