Constable Reggie Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 One, they're not forcing digital anytime soon. They may be pushing it alongside physical copies, but not making it the defacto method of distribution. And you're seriously underestimating how much influence Gamestop has. Risking the loss of endorsement of Gamestop and every other used game retailer (Best Buy, Amazon, etc) isn't worth what little benefit they get from the so called "loss of money from used game sales". They have too much to lose from trying this for too little gain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esau of Isaac Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Sure, they do now. But if I felt like betting I'd put money down that the same won't be true a decade from now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constable Reggie Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 I'm willing to bet that the major game companies will crash due to a surplus of overbudgeted, unprofitable games in the near future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehab Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 What scares me at this point is that some people are actually starting to believe "games are services, not products," and that's how it should be, despite that IIRC every time any part of the games industry that has ever taken an idea like that to court, they've had their shit slapped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Laufeyson Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 If I am forced to buy every game new, then the number of games I purchase will decrease significantly. It's not a question of spite, but instead of practicality. There are very few games I find to be worth $60, but many of those same titles are easily justifiable at a $35 price point. Not that anyone would (or should) care about this, but it is a situation I'm likely to find myself in if they go this route. Of course, there's always the PC, and mine is half decent. As long as I can wait several months and get a particular multiplatform game for 20%+ off on Steam then that's going to continue to be my first stop. Yeah basically this. I dont buy new games all that often to be honest, and i dont like dropping over a certain amount for one. Over 50 bucks for a new game? lol...no. I tend to research what i buy as it is, so yeah. If i want a game but dont want it right away or anything, i go used. Also because im not made of money and have other expenses. I dont have TOO much of a beef with the whole downloadable game thing. I dont like the idea of paying like 60 bucks for a downloadable game, but im not exactly opposed to game companies and consoles going that route. I dunno. Its like someone said awhile back. Unless consoles and game devs go download only, used games will still be a thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy_One Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 Do remember that the game designers, while they'll be cutting off 30-40% of gamers who don't have/don't want to hassle with the online, they're also gaining back a lot of sales from people who would have bought used over a new copy. As I told my friend today, 'I'm not worried that Nintendo will win if Sony/Microsoft go with this plan. I'm worried that their win will come at the cost of console gaming.' As much as I hate the PC Master Race, I will admit that they have a point. Consoles are in a direct competition with PC's. Sadly, it's a losing competition if the console aims for flat-out gaming power, and with good reason. We're already hitting a 'graphical cap' where things simply can't get rendered any better or the amount of 'better' isn't worth the extra cost. Performance and the number of things that can be done are also nearing their limit. And both those things take time to program in and debug (and will never be fully free of bugs). And, sadly, until recently that has been the main defining thing for consoles that's separated them from PC's. Consoles only have one way to really go if they want to continue and it's to find something PC's can't do (at least easily). If Microsoft and Sony don't realize that what you'll get is 600$ consoles that you have to pay full-price all time time for games on that doesn't offer much in the way of improvements over it's predecessor and won't work if you're unable to connect for any reason at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constable Reggie Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) Do remember that the game designers, while they'll be cutting off 30-40% of gamers who don't have/don't want to hassle with the online, they're also gaining back a lot of sales from people who would have bought used over a new copy. Not necessarily. And losing a good percentage of casual/recreational gamers who don't buy the consoles (which then extends to not buying any of their video games whatsoever, which is where MS/Sony primarily make their profit) is far more severe than a few million dollars in recovered used game sales. Edited February 9, 2013 by Constable Reggie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy_One Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 (edited) Not necessarily. And losing a good percentage of casual/recreational gamers who don't buy the consoles (which then extends to not buying any of their video games whatsoever, which is where MS/Sony primarily make their profit) is far more severe than a few million dollars in recovered used game sales. He sounds like he knows a lot more about used games than most developers. I agree with him. Edit: Too add to that, look at LoL. It's a game that's TOTALLY free to play. You can start, level up, and even become the champ without ever dropping a cent on it, yet Riot makes a LOT of money from optional items (buying champs, skins, and the like) and if they charged people to play LoL... They would have nowhere as much income as they do now. Edited February 9, 2013 by Snowy_One Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superbus Posted February 9, 2013 Share Posted February 9, 2013 On the same note as League of Legends, Team Fortress 2 is the same thing. There's no pay to win, because every weapon has a drawback. Basically, people just buy hats. Of course, TF2 started out as a fully paid game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esau of Isaac Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 When they said they weren't going to let DotA 2 become TF2, I really, really hope they were being serious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 I like what LoL does. It gives the player their own sense of how much the game is worth. You basically pay as much or as little as you want for the game, in return getting skins and extra champs and such. With regard to console games going 100% digital, I am not opposed to it... As long as the price of games are cut pretty drastically, like Steam does. I like the idea of getting your game without having to leave the house for it. The lack of a physical copy saves you bedroom/living room space. However as with a movie, there's something awesome about having your collection of games mounted on your wall. However with this method, you will literally have to carry your console around should you want to play the game at your friend's and your friend hasn't downloaded it. It's just a nuisance. I also enjoy lending my games to friends, which is something this will obviously put an end to. And my lending has sometimes resulted in some friends buying their own copies of games. Most people do have an internet connection of some sort, however not everyone has broadband speeds. Try downloading gigabytes on a 56k connection. Not happening. Overall I'd give the idea 4/10. I think the cons outweigh the pros for people like me. And if the PS4 and 720 go with this idea (nobody's confirmed it yet, it's just heavily rumoured), then I think Nintendo will win this generation of console gaming, too. I just hope the next Ace Combat will be available on Wii U. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
braiel Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 One major thing that would need to change before anything went digital only would be isps being greedy as hell and having data caps I'm not sure how common it is elsewhere but in canada most isps have these and downloading 15+gb games frequently simply isn't feasible for many people with these caps. The plan I have is pretty much the middle of the road one from rogers and allows for 60gb a month which I almost hit each month from regular internet use add in downloads and the games would cost me 2.50 per gb just to download up to a 50 dollar max. Even the best plan from rogers is only 250gb I believe which is still not very much if you're having to download it anytime you buy a large game. Not to mention that speeds would need to increase to fibreop quality across the board and up here fibreop is still only available in a few of the largest cities for the Maritimes and as far as I'm aware not at all in other parts of canada downloading large games can take an entire day even on some of the highspeed services like when companies like rogers throttle p2p services and inadvertently throttle other things (they did it to wow connections for a while) slowing it down even more. Basically I don't believe average internet quality or speed is good enough for this to work out yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constable Reggie Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 When they said they weren't going to let DotA 2 become TF2, I really, really hope they were being serious. I would actually much prefer that. I absolutely hated LoL's pricing scheme, when they eventually devolved into "everything is 6300 ip" even while they had promised they'd be releasing on several pricing points. Being able to use every character for free is great. You still get free random cosmetic items from time to time too, if it's going to be the same as the beta/TF2. I personally don't see what's so bad with TF's system. Yeah, it has some ridiculous prices for seemingly useless items (the ring), but you can easily just not buy them and not be affected gameplay-wise in any way, unlike LoL's stupid ass system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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