Next Gen Console Rumors Are Depressing.
Seriously, they are.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/02/codename-orbis-sony-playstation-4-gets-working-title-and-other-rumors/
"The bad news is that the PS4 will not be able to play PS3 games, so users might want to consider selling their games, or trading them in."
and this gem:
"Rumors are circulating that the next generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles will also block people from being able to play used games.
Some news isn't too bad, like the Playstation 4 releasing before the "NextBox 720":
http://m.ign.com/articles/1222124
Nintendo has mentioned what the Wii U will be backwards compatible with Wii games and Wii controllers. No word if they want to disallow used games though.
All that to say, not all the rumors about the next gen consoles are bad its just that some of them are really bad. Its no secret many publishers hate used games.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57405801-17/how-much-do-industry-ceos-hate-used-games-a-whole-whole-lot/
Simple fact is used games are great for publishers! They just see a used game purchase as a lost sale so they get upset because they wanted that as revenue and view it as a loss. I buy games based off what I hear from other people(ala Cheerful Ghost) and what I play from demos. Most demos I play suck and I immediately delete them and that translates to a lost sale, does that mean demos are bad and should be abolished? No, they should have made a better game.
I have only so much money for video games so if you artificially make them all $60 I have less to spend and therefore own fewer games. Often times ill pickup a game I heard was good for $15 and love it. Often times that means ill pickup the sequel to that game on release day. The Orange Box was one such deal. I picked it up on the PS3 used for $20. I pre-ordered Portal 2 for $60 and will get pre-order the next Halflife game with no thought spent.
I wouldn't have picked up The Orange Box for more money. More money would have meant a lost sale because I had no VALUE for The Orange Box before I learned to love it. I had no idea how rad the Halflife-a-verse was before I existed in it. I had no idea how bad-ass Portal was before I played it. Now I love them all and will funnel money to buying each sequel. Lost sale? If you only think in the short term, possibly.
You can't value something you don't know about and a lack of used games OR incorrect video game pricing lead to gamers, like me, simply not valuing your product because its not priced accordingly to how I value it.
So you can say that all used games are lost sales or you can look at used games as getting it into the hands of people. I hope Microsoft and Sony don't listen to publishers here because the console that doesn't allow used games will be one I don't purchase. Reason? If you going to basically adopt the Steam model and allow me to do LESS with what I buy you are wrong.
The next gen will be living in the "half realm" of discs/memory cards AND digital downloads. Have a physical product I can buy that locks me into a console sounds like Steam but less appealing. Why? Well Steam has years of a proven track record of allowing you to buy a game and access it across your PC's life-cycle. Plus, many games run on Mac and Windows. Console manufacturers are now possibly dropping support for old gen games on next gen hardware. So, again, you have the digital only model, but its WORSE than the Steam. Imagine if Steam didn't allow people to play Halflife 2 on a Quad Core computer when you upgraded. Its as silly as Playstation not allowing your digital or physical games to not play on the PS4.
I love my Playstation 3. It ain't perfect but its pretty damn good. I can buy a game and play it used or new. I often loan games to friends and get games from them to try. Graphics look great and it plays Bluray. I am not interested in doing less for the same or more money with no benefit to me as a customer. Then again, these are all rumors.....
The problem is that it doesn't sound so far out of band for Sony or Microsoft. I hope someone in the console space can get it right though and perhaps Nintendo is the only company that can?
I want there to be a next-gen console in my future. Hope someone gives me a reason to buy one. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo its your play now.
Seriously, they are.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/04/02/codename-orbis-sony-playstation-4-gets-working-title-and-other-rumors/
"The bad news is that the PS4 will not be able to play PS3 games, so users might want to consider selling their games, or trading them in."
and this gem:
"Rumors are circulating that the next generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles will also block people from being able to play used games.
Some news isn't too bad, like the Playstation 4 releasing before the "NextBox 720":
http://m.ign.com/articles/1222124
Nintendo has mentioned what the Wii U will be backwards compatible with Wii games and Wii controllers. No word if they want to disallow used games though.
All that to say, not all the rumors about the next gen consoles are bad its just that some of them are really bad. Its no secret many publishers hate used games.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-57405801-17/how-much-do-industry-ceos-hate-used-games-a-whole-whole-lot/
Simple fact is used games are great for publishers! They just see a used game purchase as a lost sale so they get upset because they wanted that as revenue and view it as a loss. I buy games based off what I hear from other people(ala Cheerful Ghost) and what I play from demos. Most demos I play suck and I immediately delete them and that translates to a lost sale, does that mean demos are bad and should be abolished? No, they should have made a better game.
I have only so much money for video games so if you artificially make them all $60 I have less to spend and therefore own fewer games. Often times ill pickup a game I heard was good for $15 and love it. Often times that means ill pickup the sequel to that game on release day. The Orange Box was one such deal. I picked it up on the PS3 used for $20. I pre-ordered Portal 2 for $60 and will get pre-order the next Halflife game with no thought spent.
I wouldn't have picked up The Orange Box for more money. More money would have meant a lost sale because I had no VALUE for The Orange Box before I learned to love it. I had no idea how rad the Halflife-a-verse was before I existed in it. I had no idea how bad-ass Portal was before I played it. Now I love them all and will funnel money to buying each sequel. Lost sale? If you only think in the short term, possibly.
You can't value something you don't know about and a lack of used games OR incorrect video game pricing lead to gamers, like me, simply not valuing your product because its not priced accordingly to how I value it.
So you can say that all used games are lost sales or you can look at used games as getting it into the hands of people. I hope Microsoft and Sony don't listen to publishers here because the console that doesn't allow used games will be one I don't purchase. Reason? If you going to basically adopt the Steam model and allow me to do LESS with what I buy you are wrong.
The next gen will be living in the "half realm" of discs/memory cards AND digital downloads. Have a physical product I can buy that locks me into a console sounds like Steam but less appealing. Why? Well Steam has years of a proven track record of allowing you to buy a game and access it across your PC's life-cycle. Plus, many games run on Mac and Windows. Console manufacturers are now possibly dropping support for old gen games on next gen hardware. So, again, you have the digital only model, but its WORSE than the Steam. Imagine if Steam didn't allow people to play Halflife 2 on a Quad Core computer when you upgraded. Its as silly as Playstation not allowing your digital or physical games to not play on the PS4.
I love my Playstation 3. It ain't perfect but its pretty damn good. I can buy a game and play it used or new. I often loan games to friends and get games from them to try. Graphics look great and it plays Bluray. I am not interested in doing less for the same or more money with no benefit to me as a customer. Then again, these are all rumors.....
The problem is that it doesn't sound so far out of band for Sony or Microsoft. I hope someone in the console space can get it right though and perhaps Nintendo is the only company that can?
I want there to be a next-gen console in my future. Hope someone gives me a reason to buy one. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo its your play now.
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I'm sorry, I can't get on board with the Wii-U. The touch screen controller looks like it was designed in 1998, and the graphics don't look all that "next-gen". Oh, and it's reportedly spendy too. We'll see I guess.
You know how you combat used games? Cheap games. Arcade and PSN games are the future. $5 here and there, and you're set. No one is trading in a $5 game. These games are impulse buys. I've bought probably 15 games on a whim.
I've spent as much or more money on Humble Bundles over the last year than I have AAA titles.
Look at TF2. It's free to play, but it costs $10 to buy a hat for your character. It's not even functional in game. You know what? People pay it, because it's an impulse level purchase. I would love to see more of this stuff, because its fun.
You just have to convince the major pubs not to abuse this. Can you imagine spending $60 on COD6, and then you have to spend another $5 each level? EA would do it.
I'm on record as loving Steam, so I'm not going to complain about a similar setup for XBOX and PS4, as long as it's free. LIVE: dump your subscription fees and I'll let you stop me from playing used games. Or at least bundle the subscription with a free game. I let my LIVE account lapse last month because I've been on Steam for the last year.
Wii U: Well see. I have no plans to get one.
I agree one way to combat used is to sell games more cheaply. Digital allows for this. Problem is, if you lock in the purchase to the hardware you bought it on ONLY you have a problem. Steam allows your games to move to your new hardware, this is nice.
And for the record, I was initially hostile to Steam and have warmed up to it a lot lately. I think the service it offers is really really great. I compare console digital offerings to it because I consider Steam to be best of breed alongside GoG.
You're right about the hardware thing. If I have to buy symphony of the night again for the xbox 720 I'm going to
revolt.
With mobile gaming, I'm becoming less and less invested in consoles. I was hoping that kinect might be the hook to draw me back on, but it's starting to look half baked and under utilized.
Mobile has the potential to change the way I play games but it hasn't really arrived for me yet.
It has some great games, but nothing has come close to sitting down to play Borderlands on my console VS nearly anything on my phone. Then again, Sword and Sworcery got close.
I like a good puzzle game, and those are pretty doable. Action games, you're right, I can't quite see those really working on mobile. What do I know though: I thought the iPhone was a fad that would die after a year or two and everyone would go back to hardware keyboards.
I don't think smartphones are a fad at anymore. What I do think is that right now I can't really play a game as immersive as a PC or console game on mobile. Two games have come really damn close though:
Sword and Sworcery & Plants VS Zombies. I guess with Plants VS Zombies it was better than the PC experience I had, so yeah perhaps that game transcended the mobile experiences ive had thus far.
I played Canabalt for about an hour on my phone yesterday. All you do is jump. No, it's not the immersion you get from a big title, but it still drew me in.
No used games? Forget that. I will not buy a new system that won't play used games. The PS1, PS2, and Xbox I all bought because they had an expansive used game selection. Instead of buying 1 50 dollar game for my new system I was able to buy 4-5 used games. And of course from that point on I purchased many new and used games for all those systems. :)
I agree. If a console has a feature where you can buy a PHYSICAL product to place in, because of the closed nature of consoles they shouldn't be bound to the hardware. If consoles want to avoid used games, make older games cheaper. Already you can download full games on the PS3 but the price is a little steep for a game thats been out as long as they have been.
Like Civilization Revolution, that should only be like $10 digital.
I think part of the problem is publishers feel they need to combat used game sales and they view someone who buys a used game as a pirate instead of a customer. Really they need to compete with used games and reward customers who buy new, but realize that people who buy used are still valuable customers. This is where DLC can shine, because companies can package fun rewards, like vanity items, in game rewards, or even additional playable characters to reward people who buy the game new. Instead companies are using DLC to lock out used games from playing on-line, or using "day one" DLC to charge people extra for something that should have shipped with the game.
And making older games cheaper is a great idea. There are several PS1 games on PSN I would like to buy, but not for what they're charging. :\
@notch I think said it best: people who pirate or buy used are fans, not criminals. The publishers need to find a way to profit from that fandom, not punish it.
http://www.gamezone.com/products/street-fighter-x-tekken/news/capcom-defends-on-disc-dlc-for-street-fighter-x-tekken
Great example of lazy dlc.