Blocking used games on next-gen consoles would be awesome, says Crytek

[Dohc-WP]

Regardless, I can see this move killing the console demographic somewhat. Many people buy consoles simply because games are so easy to get second-hand.

if all games was region free and released in all regions then they would have had a valid point. alot of the games i buy 2nd hand are not even freely available here and rare games like initial d on the ps3 is only available as 2nd hand copies. the gaming industry is turning into a moerse money hungry monster imo.

[Strifehart]

if all games was region free and released in all regions then they would have had a valid point. alot of the games i buy 2nd hand are not even freely available here and rare games like initial d on the ps3 is only available as 2nd hand copies. the gaming industry is turning into a moerse money hungry monster imo.

The only way to solve this is to have the physical copies linked to the respective digital store/account, like Steam. So regardless of the fact that I can't find [insert game x] in a physical copy, I can still purchase it in digital format years after the game has been released.

[Graal]

Also;

It’s weird that [second-hand] is still allowed because it doesn’t work like that in any other software industries, so it would be great if they could somehow fix that issue as well.

This is a really shit justification.

Which other entertainment industry tries to boss their patrons around like the gaming industry? Not one, that's what.

I can sell my music, movies or books any time I feel like it, and I don't have my access to those restricted in any way by online checks, DRM or anything similar.

So really, Crytek, do you really wonder why piracy rates are so high and games don't sell better?

[OmegaFenix]

Because not everyone has R600 to cough up for the latest game which normally ends up being somewhat rubbish. So, by selling a game that they have already payed and played, they can use that dosh to contribute to the next circular piece of plastic. It does help fuel the industry, because people at least are coming in to the store and spending money on the game, instead of going to the neighbourhood pirate and cracking the console and never purchasing a game at all. And you know what? That 13 year old laaitie can get his game on for a fraction of the price. And even better, the games store makes a little bit on the side as well, keeping them going in this age of "whoever buys the most stock can squeeze the better price" competition that sees the smaller but better businesses suffer because of a R20 to R50 price difference.

I think the consoles just might see their asses if they go ahead with this. It's definitely going the way of a Mac - initial purchase on the new consoles is going to be insanely priced, then all the "exclusive propriety necessities" i.e the games are single purchase with no resell value. A forward leap in imagination is required here as the producers soon realise they have a monopoly on the games and jack the prices up with promises of new and improved content. And lets not forget, you won't be able to use your shiny new console to play your older games, nope you have to keep that PS3 / Xbox360 around to play your collection of older titles.

I wonder why I stick with PC...

Sorry WHAT! "The way of the mac...." Im sorry to piss in your rice crispies but mac sales has sky rocketed in the last few years. Apple's earnings has doubled since last year.

Tim Cook spent a few minutes extolling the successes of the Mac series at this year’s iPhone press conference. He says that the OS X Lion software has sold more than six million copies – 80 per cent more than the previous Snow leopard edition – and that Apple computers now claim 23 per cent market share of the home computer space. Its computers still inhabit a minority niche, but it’s one that’s growing at speed, where the PC market managed just a four per cent increase year-on-year, over the last four quarters.

At the last count, there were over 58 million Mac users worldwide. And Cook says they aren’t planning on stopping any time soon – he says that the 23 per cent minority share gives plenty of room for improvement.

He's also noted that in the first quarter of this year, when Mac shipments grew by 27.7% while the PC market shrank by 1.2% year-on-year (by IDC's numbers; Gartner's show a 0.94% fall) Mac shipment growth occurred in "every single regional market". In Europe, they grew 10% against a PC market down 17.5%; in Asia up 69.4% (v PC market up 8.8%); in Japan, up 21.1% (PCs down 16.1%). All figures are IDC data, and all year-on-year.

Source - go check it out there are pretty picture also.

So with that piece of dribble out of the way we can get down to the rest of this.

First off, if you can't afford a new game the solution is brain bumblingly simple.... Find a cheaper hobby. Gaming is a hobby, an expensive one. If you dont have the Dong (Vietnamese currency) to fuel that habit find one you can. And if you cant fuel your gaming hobby due to cash shortage and you then go out and pirate it I count you as low as snake shit.

It DOES NOT help fuel the industry. The develops make sweet fuck all if you buy a pre-owned game. The Store makes all the profit. Sure they give you a R150 if your lucky but they sell the same game for double that. Making a sweet 100% clean profit. And most of the time you dont buy something else, new, in the shop because you are already so strapped for cash you had to skip a few meals to afford that pre-owned copy Call of Duty MW14. The game store makes alot extra on the side, sometime even running special promotions giving you a new title for next to nothing if you trade 2 specific games. U know why they do this? Because the titles they ask you to trade are in demand and by selling them on they make a fat load of profit. (Game UK ran a special where you got The Witcher 2 for 99p (12.5027 ZAR) if you trade 2 of a selected list of titles)

Why would the initial purchase on the console be insanely price? And what has that got to do with pre-owned game sales O.o
"The producers realise they have a monopoly on the games and jack up the prices...." WTF, JUST WTF! I cant respond to that because IT MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE.

Also you already can't use your Xbox 360 to play Original Xbox games so that wont change.

[Strifehart]

Also;



This is a really shit justification.

Which other entertainment industry tries to boss their patrons around like the gaming industry? Not one, that's what.

I can sell my music, movies or books any time I feel like it, and I don't have my access to those restricted in any way by online checks, DRM or anything similar.

So really, Crytek, do you really wonder why piracy rates are so high and games don't sell better?

I think the biggest disparity in the whole story is that music/movies specifically devalue much quicker than games, for a reason which escapes me. Perhaps it's because piracy is much more rife in these industries? So it's almost a moot point to buy a movie/cd second hand if you can pick it up brand new for < R100 a couple of months after release.

I'm pretty sure the biggest factor involved (in people opting to purchase/sell second hand) is the fact that spending R600 on a brand new game is simply very difficult to justify for most people. Especially if it's something they will only be spending 6-10 hours on.

I'm pretty sure that if they do start enforcing product activation/user limits on a game that the console industry in general will :

a) See a big drop in sales
b) See a big increase in piracy
c) perhaps a combination of both a and b.

The only way they'd really be able to combat the outcome on this is to re-look at the pricing imho.

The question is, are these companies who are already struggling to break 1million sales figures willing to risk this? Or is it going to be a case of consumers only ending up buying the AAA titles and completely ignoring the others, effectively putting the entire industry at risk?

Fact of the matter is that even if the 2nd hand market gets killed completely, it's not going to convert all those 2nd hand buyers into 1st time buyers. People won't automagically be able to afford it simply because you "outlaw" something.

PS. Don't take this post in the wrong way though, I have no problem paying R600 for a new release. I might not like it, but it is not a basic need for survival, so I really don't mind the pricing. I just find it a rather interesting topic to discuss.

It DOES NOT help fuel the industry.

I disagree, I have personally traded quite a number of games in the past for store credit and directly used the credit to purchase a new game. That's one additional sale that the developers would not have received.

Also you already can't use your Xbox 360 to play Original Xbox games so that wont change.

Yes you can.

[Graal]

The big issue with the gaming industry is they're continuously trying to battle the effect, not the cause. Second-hand sales is an effect caused by absolutely ridiculous high prices. Deal with the idiotic pricing system on consoles, people can afford to buy games new, the second hand industry's impact lessens.

[Dohc-WP]

my xbox 360 plays original games !

halo1,2 dead or alive ultimate, soulcalibur 2 etc (waay back in 2007 i downloaded the Backward comptblity patch and it works with quite alot of games almost perfectly

also on wiki

All Xbox 360s are backwards compatible with supported Xbox titles as long as they have an Xbox 360 HDD attached.

[OmegaFenix]

I disagree, I have personally traded quite a number of games in the past for store credit and directly used the credit to purchase a new game. That's one additional sale that the developers would not have received.



Yes you can.

How many did you trade? If I remember correctly, depending on the age of the title it would take 2 or 3 pretty new releases to get you enough to buy a brand new console title. So the industry gets 1 sale, retailer gets 3.

We can debate the if and maybes of whether a lack of pre-owned sales would directly correlate to a drop in new game sales until the cows come home. The people who make the decisions, the publishers and developers are feeling the squeeze and the choice will be made by them. Its a matter of when not if anymore.

You also have to remember in SA u have 1 major game retailer that deals in pre-owned games. Sure u have a few smaller ones like Zaps and the ilk but the UK has every supermarket and any entertainment store (HMV, GAME, Gamestation, Amazon, Ebay, Play.com, ShotTo) all buying and selling pre-owned titles, that mounts up. Its a similar story in the US & Across Europe. If these retailers gave a percentage back to the publisher all this talk of blocking pre-owned sales will wither up and die.

The original big white xbox has Backwards compatibility, a feature an update nuked some time ago.

[OmegaFenix]

my xbox 360 plays original games !

halo1,2 dead or alive ultimate, soulcalibur 2 etc (waay back in 2007 i downloaded the Backward comptblity patch and it works with quite alot of games almost perfectly

Do you still have your launch Xbox or do you have one of the newer models? On my original Xbox 360 I could play some Backwards compatible games, (Halo 1 & 2, Fable Lost Chapters) but most don't support HDMI connections and If I recall the new slim refuses to play them completely.

[Dohc-WP]

How many did you trade? If I remember correctly, depending on the age of the title it would take 2 or 3 pretty new releases to get you enough to buy a brand new console title. So the industry gets 1 sale, retailer gets 3.

We can debate the if and maybes of whether a lack of pre-owned sales would directly correlate to a drop in new game sales until the cows come home. The people who make the decisions, the publishers and developers are feeling the squeeze and the choice will be made by them. Its a matter of when not if anymore.

You also have to remember in SA u have 1 major game retailer that deals in pre-owned games. Sure u have a few smaller ones like Zaps and the ilk but the UK has every supermarket and any entertainment store (HMV, GAME, Gamestation, Amazon, Ebay, Play.com, ShotTo) all buying and selling pre-owned titles, that mounts up. Its a similar story in the US & Across Europe. If these retailers gave a percentage back to the publisher all this talk of blocking pre-owned sales will wither up and die.

The original big white xbox has Backwards compatibility, a feature an update nuked some time ago.

my 360 is up to date (dash wise) and i still play my old xbox games