The Future of Digital "Ownership"

It definitely helps that XBLA games tend to be much cheaper than full disc based games. However, I am much more less likely to purchase games from Xbox's On Demand service, mainly because the games are overpriced. CoD2 goes for $30 on the service, yet you can get the game of the year edition with the extra maps for $10 used at Gamestop. Why would I want to pay $30 for something, when I can get the same thing and more for $10? On the flip side. Perfect Dark 0 is $20 ($20 too much if you ask me), but gamestop doesn't even sell it anymore. Of course there are places like ebay that you can still get it used or even new for less then half the cost from On Demand.

I think pricing for digital downloads needs to be lower before it really takes off. I think it is safe to say that the used market can hurt developers and publishers. If people buy the game used, then they don't see a dime of that money. Probably one of the reason game prices have gone up. With no used market, developers and publishers will actually be making money off of every single sale, yet we don't see this playing a role in the price of digital content.

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Originally Posted by ElCapichan

I think it is safe to say that the used market can hurt developers and publishers. If people buy the game used, then they don't see a dime of that money. Probably one of the reason game prices have gone up. With no used market, developers and publishers will actually be making money off of every single sale, yet we don't see this playing a role in the price of digital content.

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Every market out there outside of like food and condoms has a used market. Why should games be any different or special? Plenty of markets are able to make more than enough money to keep going and have a nice profit, why can't games?

Do you really think these publishers who want to nickle and dime gamers for every little thing, which gamers seem to do willingly (buying lightsabers for their avatars), aren't going to try and milk every dime from gamers. Specially when gamers don't do a damn thing about it. I mean come on they want 30 bucks for Assassin's Creed on games on demand. Now you can walk into any Walmart and buy the game brand new for 20. The on demand version doesn't have to be shipped, doesn't need packaging, doesn't need to be printed on a disc. You're not having to share any of the profits with a store. That fucking version should be 10 bucks. Publishers are going to milk as much money out of gamers as they can, cause so few go hey this is bullshit I'm not paying this much/buying this game.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

But what about consoles? I have 46 XBLA games, 16 WiiWare/VC games, and 15 PSN games. What happens to those when the 360, Wii, and PS3/PSP ride off into the sunset? Will hardware manufacturers ensure their next generation consoles have backward compatibility with each and every downloadable game?

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What happens to all the Genesis games after the last Genesis dies? Ultimately, emulation is the only solution for the long-term preservation of a medium that depends on a specific piece of hardware. That's why it's so important. Already there are games on floppy disk that were barely rescued in time thanks to MAME. That's what's going to happen.

Of course it isn't legal, which is why I think copyright law needs to be reformed to expire sooner for items that are out of print. If copyright expires in 10 years after being out of circulation (as was originally intended... might have even been 7 years), then it's no longer a problem. The current bullshit is destructive.

frogacuda is pretty goddamn correct

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Originally Posted by Shin Johnpv

I mean come on they want 30 bucks for Assassin's Creed on games on demand. Now you can walk into any Walmart and buy the game brand new for 20. The on demand version doesn't have to be shipped, doesn't need packaging, doesn't need to be printed on a disc. You're not having to share any of the profits with a store. That fucking version should be 10 bucks. Publishers are going to milk as much money out of gamers as they can, cause so few go hey this is bullshit I'm not paying this much/buying this game.

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I don't mind the nickel and dime stuff, because I never buy them. But this I absolutely hate. The whole idea of DD is to cut out the middleman/eliminate waste (not really a company's objective but nice for going "green") so DD should be cheaper than retail. But it isn't because companies are fucking retardedly greedy.

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Originally Posted by kingoffighters

I don't mind the nickel and dime stuff, because I never buy them. But this I absolutely hate. The whole idea of DD is to cut out the middleman/eliminate waste (not really a company's objective but nice for going "green") so DD should be cheaper than retail. But it isn't because companies are fucking retardedly greedy.

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Dead Space is $30 on demand, or $14.99 brand fucking new. They need to get with the program.

I think it's less (though not no) greed than it is trying to play nicely with retailers. I suspect the first publisher to make its games cheaper through DD will instantly see reduced or eliminated shelf space at retail as retribution.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

I think it's less (though not no) greed than it is trying to play nicely with retailers. I suspect the first publisher to make its games cheaper through DD will instantly see reduced or eliminated shelf space at retail as retribution.

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Good point, still stupid.

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Originally Posted by Josh

Also: NOT A CHANCE that downloadable console games will be backwards compatible.

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Indeed. Even if they manage to do it for next gen, it's not going to continue indefinitely.

I'm not big on digital-only downloads but I do buy them, especially cheaper ones. I won't ever re-buy a downloadable but I will have no issue with pirating or emulating a game that I already paid for if that's what needs to be done in the future.

I may have already encountered a situation where I can't do that, though. I bought a downloadable copy Agni: Queen of Darkness (physical copies weren't being shipped outside of India or else I would have bought one) last year. It's no longer available to buy from the company. My PC at the time died a few months later. I did back up the game on disc before that but it won't run on my new PC anyway. I can't tell if there was copy protection that prevented it from transferring over or if it's just a Vista compatibility issue. I don't care about the $13 it cost me but I worry that this version of the game may end up getting lost to history with probably hardly any physical copies out there (looking on Google there seems to be a Russian version of the game, though).

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Originally Posted by Shin Johnpv

Do you really think these publishers who want to nickle and dime gamers for every little thing, which gamers seem to do willingly (buying lightsabers for their avatars), aren't going to try and milk every dime from gamers. Specially when gamers don't do a damn thing about it. I mean come on they want 30 bucks for Assassin's Creed on games on demand. Now you can walk into any Walmart and buy the game brand new for 20. The on demand version doesn't have to be shipped, doesn't need packaging, doesn't need to be printed on a disc. You're not having to share any of the profits with a store. That fucking version should be 10 bucks. Publishers are going to milk as much money out of gamers as they can, cause so few go hey this is bullshit I'm not paying this much/buying this game.

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That was pretty much my point, though I may not have worded it all that well. In simpler terms. Fuck digital distribution if we, the customer, don't share the benefits of it.