Interesting Article The REAL Top Five Ways The Industry Is Screwing You - PSP3D.com - Sony PlayStation Portable News, Homebrew, Hacks, Reviews, Videos, Mods, Forums

jsf · #1 (**permalink**) 06-04-2008, 12:34 AM

I found this interesting

Quote:

5. Paying $60 to be Beta Testers

I was one of the lucky ones. My 60GB PS3 and GTA4 got along famously. Unfortunately, for an unacceptably large portion of the millions who purchased GTA4 for both the PS3 and the 360 the game simply wouldn’t work. Freezes and crashes are something PC consumers have had to deal with for ages, but considering the near infinite hardware and software configurations PC developers have to account for, we can forgive these issues. What we shouldn’t forgive is developers working on closed architectures still delivering half baked products and telling us to be patient because they’re too busy counting their cash to work on fixing the problems.

4. Toll Booth Economics: Pay More to Access Everything on the Disc

It has been proven and admitted that developers have started locking content away on the disc that requires even more money to access. Developers and publishers told us that the $60 price tag of next generation games was an economic necessity as development costs have skyrocketed. We accepted this. They also sold us on the concept of downloadable content as a way to extend the life of games by offering smaller, episodic upgrades in the way of new characters, weapons, levels, etc. We accepted this as well. What we shouldn’t accept is a $60 game actually costing $80 or more if no extra work (and therefore development costs) have been put into the additional $20 of content. Holding back finished code for the sole purpose of wringing every possible penny from consumers is both disingenuous and dangerous. Video games aren’t the only entertainment choice consumers have, and as games start getting shorter and shorter while becoming more and more expensive, the cost to benefit advantage they’ve enjoyed in the past is going to evaporate.

3. Special Limited Editions: Not Really Limited, Not Really Special

Sony and Konami have dreamed up a limited edition PS3 that includes the backwards-compatibility-less 40GB PS3 and the limited edition copy of MGS4. All for the bargain price of five hundred and ninety nine dollars. Oh, but the PS3 is gray! That’s only a $120 premium for a paint job. When it comes to the games themselves, there are exceptions of course, but it seems to me that most limited editions feature little more than what used to be given away for free as a pre-order bonus. Combine that artificial price increase with developers locking content away and we’re literally seeing $100 games today. But hey, at least you have that Master Chief helmet on your mantle that continues to ensure your virginity!

2. That will be $60 + Tax…

For your new DualShock3. Accessories have always been the insane profit margin wet dreams of hardware manufactures. Somewhere along the line the industry as a whole decided that $25 and a 100% profit margin wasn’t enough for your controllers, and taking a cue from Monster cables started asking ridiculous prices. Microsoft is probably the worst offender, as it requires proprietary hardware to upgrade the HDD, doesn’t include wi-fi, and sells a console SKU that doesn’t even have an HDD to begin with (something they told us should be in every console just a generation ago.) Of course they’ll tell you it’s all about giving the consumer a choice. And that choice? Whether to “upgrade” your console to actually make use of all of the cool stuff on Live or eat more than just ramen noodles and peanut butter until next payday. Sony’s Sixaxis for $50 (”Rumble is last gen! No wait, it’s now next gen! That will be $60 please.”) and Nintendo’s $60 Wiimote and nunchuck combo are just as guilty.

1. The Slow, Methodical Death March of Disc Based Games

I love Steam. I think it’s as close to the perfect downloadable game service as we can realistically get within the next few years. All of my games are tied to my account, not the machine. If I have to reinstall Windows or I get a new computer, I just sign into Steam and re-download all of my games! This is not how things work in the land of consoles, where downloaded games are tied to your console and its serial number. More distressing is that a future with no physical copies of games mean that if you get bored with it, or hate it, you can’t even recoup a little of that cost reselling it. Just two weeks ago I was able to unload my copy of GTA4 after beating it and never wishing to revisit Liberty City again. In a world of digital distribution only, I would have been stuck with an unwanted game for eternity. And game rentals? Sayonara! Thankfully we’re not there yet, but the writing is on the wall. More and more developers and publishers are complaining about used games cannibalizing their profits. More and more marquee franchises are seeing titles launch in fully downloadable versions. The future seems to be digital rights managed games as the rule rather than the exception.

The irony is that publishers and retailers are both responsible for a sizable portion of the cost of a game on the shelf, so direct distribution to consumers should result in lower prices for consumers and higher profits for developers. So far though, prices seem to be the same. I’ve heard the excuse that offering lower prices for digital distribution would only anger retailers that still provide the vast majority of sales, but let’s be honest, given their track record of greed, it’s not a stretch to assume that we’ll still be paying full retail prices for downloadable games in a future where Gamestop and Best Buy are only in the market of selling collectible used games.

I love games and I respect the hard working guys and gals that create these great pieces of entertainment. However, there are literally billions of dollars at stake, and publishers are working harder than ever to screw you out of every penny!

Source

flammingcowz · #2 (**permalink**) 06-04-2008, 09:15 PM

very well written, did you write this? if so, good job.

back in the day, games werent about high definition graphics and the ability to mod it as much as possible, they were about gameplay. Not too long ago, you were able to get a game system, extra controller, and a game for your new system for $160(gamecube). Now its $600(i think) for the 80gb ps3, and some other rediculous price for the xbox360 "elite". when most(if not all) xbox's dont even come with high definition cables, hd dvd player, wifi, or anything else youd expect in a next gen console. ps3 doesnt even come with a high definition cable either. the sony hdmi cable is $80, which is the same thing as a generic cable for $20. then all the games are about $60, the headseats are $50, a HDTV(because the next gen systems besides wii decided to make it nearly impossible for good graphics on SDTV, white lines scrolling and un-readable text) is a few thousand for a good 1080P(tv's that only display 1080I dont even display half a full 1080 signal!!!) gahhhhhh, when does it stop?!

sorry for a run-on paragraph, but you have to be rich now to have a next gen console and its bullshit

jsf · #3 (**permalink**) 06-04-2008, 10:51 PM

No i didn't write it. actually forgot to add the source because it was late last night

Edit:
Source added

dq9 · #4 (**permalink**) 06-05-2008, 01:30 AM

Great Article!!!

5. I rented GTA IV for the 360 and thankfully it get's along fine with my 360 Elite. Personally I think that the who game freeze crazy was just a hoax Rockstar started to get the game even MORE publicity.

4. Crackdown (Xbox 360) is a perfect example of this. You can't finish the game without buying the "extra" content. You might be able to squeak by, but you need the upgrades to level up your character. Developers are putting out free downloadable content (DLC) now to get you hooked on downloading their crap, and yes most of it is crap. Massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) are a major offender of this. Take World of Warcraft (PC) for example. You pay $40 tops for a new game AND a $10-15 (I'm not sure on the exact price) monthly fee. A MONTHLY FEE!! What kind of bullsh!t is this? Then you get a crap game that most gamers grow tired of after a month of playing.

3. My law and society teacher from high school always talked about how "special editions" and "limited editions" are just a marketing ploy. I have three DVDs of the original Transformers movie. One copy is the original disk that includes: the movie (duh!), a couple deleted scenes and story boards, and an Interview with the music composer Vince DiCola. The "special collector's edition" includes: the same movie, NO deleted scenes, two story boards, and Stereo 5.1 sound. Finally my third copy is the 20th anniversary edition. This is the crown jewl of the bunch. This one has two disks with three different versions of the movie (full screen, wide screen, and fan comentary which is just like VH1's pop-up video.), comentary, trailers, all of the deleted scenes, toy comercials, the Japan only episode "Scramble City" which has never been seen in the US, and a whole bunch more. The kicker is that the 20th anniversary edition costs $10 less than the other two editions.

2. Hey $ony, here's an idea: let's market the same feature that's been in your controllers for 10 years as "next generation!" We'll make millions! And while we're at it, we can bring back New Coke. Hey Micro$oft, since you cheap @$$ robots decided that the Xbox 360 is to good to have a Wireless adapter (Like the Wii, PS3, PSP, and DS all include free of extra charge) I decided to rig up my own adapter. I use my APPLE MACBOOK!!! Bend over now, Steve Jobs will now ram his foot up your loose cornholes. Oh and guess what, his iPods have wireless adapters included in them as well. Yes their MP3 PLAYERS are more high tech than the 360! Xbox Live? What a rip off. Let's pay $50 for a years worth of slow download speeds, bitchy / irritating people, "Micro$oft Points" (need I say more), and servers that just fail when one to many people log onto them to play. You still haven't given back to us! Hey Comca$t, I got an idea: gouge your customers for an arm and a leg to use your service, then block anything they want to do.

You all get the idea, hopfully I can stop this now.

1. Downloadable games. Pirates invented this back in the early days of the internet, but NO when the consumer wants to download a game it's wrong, but when the developers throws a $60 price tag onto the game and you give us the same crappy game then it's ok. I'll have you all know that when my casette deck was stolen out of my car I cried. There it's out there. I still use casettes and records. I see no need for cd's other than the fact that you can not find anything on good formats any more. When VCRs came out, they were the wave of the future! George Jetson used one in the 21'st century. It's the 21st century now and my VCR is now a paper weight. Since the VCR's birth, 5+ tangable (touchable, excluding anything on the computer) video formats have been invented and 3 of which are dead and 1 is now outdated. The last one is too expensive for the working class, which includes myself, to afford so where does this leave us? That's right, in the dust. The industry changes formats more often than they change their underwear or high school girls change their boyfriends. And now we are in the age of digital distribution. I for one, try to buy all my games used. Why, because they're cheaper. For some of you, the ones who don't work or own a car or pay bills, money is just another object in your parent's wallet. But for me, money is scarse. I work for peanuts and put all my money into my gas tank which when I waste all my gas driving, five minutes down the road, to work. Once that vicious cycle is over, I has a little bit of money left over to buy a game, but no much. Maybe $10 tops. So I have a choice: buy a new game (option A) or buy a used game (option B). Well option A costs usually around $60 and option B is roughly $20-30, depending on the game. Now I can wait a month to buy the new game, but by that time gamers have finished the game and returned it, thus making the game used. But then again the way most recent trends are going, it's taking much longer for used games to go down in price. For example: Halo 3 (Xbox 360) has been out since Christmas time toting a $60 price tag for a new copy. The used price is, at Gamestop, $55. That is what we call progress...NOT! So what does this have to do with digital distribution? Simple: if everything is digital then no one can return their games then I can buy their used games and then Earth will be doomed because I will have to pay full price for a crappy game I will barely enjoy. I don't know about the rest of you, but actually being able to hold the game in my hands is a great feeling. It makes me feel like I really do own the game where as digital distribution does the opposite. And yes I have bought something through digital distribution. I bought the old Mac classic and now Xbox Live Arcade game, who saw that coming, Crystal Quest. I bought the full version and play it ofted. However I do feel like I stole the game simply because I can't pull out the disk and say "Hey, here is the Crystal Quest disk!"

Sermon over!

Disclaimer: I said some nasty things in there. These are my views and do not reflect the views of PSP3D or any the other staff members.

I am also not a Apple fanboy, I promise.

jsf · #5 (**permalink**) 06-05-2008, 08:56 AM

Very nice dq9

dorkdork777 · #6 (**permalink**) 06-05-2008, 11:12 AM

There's one main way I bypass all of those problems. I wait about a week after the game is released, and if there's something really wrong with it (like crashes or a faulty menu), then it'll show up on Digg, and I won't buy it. If there's nothing of the sort, but there's something really anti-consumer (price tag, or restrictions), then I'll wait for it to be cracked then pirate it. I'm not giving my money to a corporation of wankers, that's for sure.

If it turns out the game is perfectly playable, and there's nothing throttling you (to 'protect against piracy', usually), then I'll pay full price for it. I just don't like paying for something anti-consumer.