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As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

nytimes.com

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Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#11

Post by douche »

eropple wrote: post #9
habitue wrote: post #8

Now, if only we could get rid of the DRM infesting the games industry like they did with music. It's seriously ridiculous that you can't get a refund for or resell downloaded games. The plastic disk doesn't fundamentally change anything, and they know it, otherwise they'd charge less for digital versions.

You can get a refund for games sold on Steam.

That is a relatively recent development though - I think only about a year.

I hope it is being used to incentivize publishers to fix their shit before release, rather than dumping buggy, broken, incomplete trash on their captive pre-orders.

Most of my Steam orders are sale items, so my calculus is that it really only has to give me as much enjoyment as the equally costly big coffee at Starbucks for it to be worthwhile, and that's a low bar.

Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#12

Post by chris11 »

habitue wrote: post #8

Now, if only we could get rid of the DRM infesting the games industry like they did with music. It's seriously ridiculous that you can't get a refund for or resell downloaded games. The plastic disk doesn't fundamentally change anything, and they know it, otherwise they'd charge less for digital versions.

Steam has a somewhat reasonable refund policy: http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/ . And most online purchases are made with credit cards, and those usually have strong consumer protections. You could always do a chargeback if the game launch was really bad (SimCity, Dayz). Also, a lot of credit cards have return polices where you can get refunds for any reason within 60 days of purchase.

Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#13

Post by moskie »

I think a harbinger of this was the fact that the latest console generation did not come with an upgrade in (physical) game medium.

Previously, each console generation came with newer cartridges, then with newer disc formats (CD, then DVD, then HD-DVD / Blu Ray). But this generation just stuck with Blu Ray. That signaled to me that this may very well be the last generation to even support physical media.

If this console generation lasts the typical ~7 years or so... do we expect people to still be using any physical media in the early 2020s?

Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#14

Post by eropple »

striking wrote: post #10
eropple wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get a refund for games sold on Steam.

(as long as you've only played <2h of a game, or the game is fraudulent)

Sure, but that's pretty fair. If you've played two hours of a game, you know if it sucks or not.

Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#15

Post by Cpoll »

chris11 wrote: post #12
habitue wrote: post #8

Now, if only we could get rid of the DRM infesting the games industry like they did with music. It's seriously ridiculous that you can't get a refund for or resell downloaded games. The plastic disk doesn't fundamentally change anything, and they know it, otherwise they'd charge less for digital versions.

Steam has a somewhat reasonable refund policy: http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/ . And most online purchases are made with credit cards, and those usually have strong consumer protections. You could always do a chargeback if the game launch was really bad (SimCity, Dayz). Also, a lot of credit cards have return polices where you can get refunds for any reason within 60 days of purchase.

There are numerous horror stories about people issuing a charge-back on a Steam purchase and having Steam respond by permanently disabling their account (invariably filled with $3000 worth of games).

Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#16

Post by swang »

eropple wrote: post #14
striking wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(as long as you've only played <2h of a game, or the game is fraudulent)

Sure, but that's pretty fair. If you've played two hours of a game, you know if it sucks or not.

Until game companies decide to "game" their games by making the first two hours work perfectly, then have everything break apart after that.

Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#17

Post by port6667 »

I wasn't expecting the PS4 or XBone to have any media drive, just a hdd and wireless/wired internet connection.

Guess we're still a little ways away from that. I remember using Steam when it was new for HL2. I cracked open a beer to enjoy while it downloaded, happy i didn't have to drive for a half hour or so to pick up a copy at gamestop.

I had good broadband. However, it took all day and evening until around 2-3 AM for it to finish downloading. Things were over saturated i guess. I didn't re-use steam until a decade later since it left such a poor impression with their one 33.6 modem uploading the game to everyone.

Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#18

Post by vlunkr »

slimsag wrote: post #5

Gamestop is to Steam what Blockbuster is to Netflix, they failed to adapt and now they're obsolete. Not only that, they also have a horrible track record for customer service. The internet is littered with tales of horrible experiences from Gamestop, and the only people who might still shop there are grandparents shopping for their grandkids.

It seems like most complaints about Gamestop aren't directed at customer service, as the employees are usually pretty nice, it's about the prices and policies. They'll buy a used game or take it as a trade in for next to nothing and then turn around and sell it at almost retail price. Lots of kids are basically throwing games away at Gamestop.

Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#19

Post by SapphireSun »

moskie wrote: post #13

I think a harbinger of this was the fact that the latest console generation did not come with an upgrade in (physical) game medium. Previously, each console generation came with newer cartridges, then with newer disc formats (CD, then DVD, then HD-DVD / Blu Ray). But this generation just stuck with Blu Ray. That signaled to me that this may very well be the last generation to even support physical media. If this cons…

I think the limiting factor is how much hard drive space you want to take up with coresident games. If you use a blue ray, you can load a significant amount of content from disk. Otherwise you're forcing your players to make tradeoffs based on how much space they have left which would cause first releases for a system to have a natural advantage over later releases (sales wise) as HDD space fills up.

Edit: Fair enough, it seems games are doing this already, so maybe this argument isn't as valid as it used to be.

Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry

#20

Post by Houshalter »

habitue wrote: post #8

Now, if only we could get rid of the DRM infesting the games industry like they did with music. It's seriously ridiculous that you can't get a refund for or resell downloaded games. The plastic disk doesn't fundamentally change anything, and they know it, otherwise they'd charge less for digital versions.

They can't charge less for the digital version because of gamestop. Gamestop won't carry games where the digital version is cheaper. There might also be similar arrangements with the console makers themselves, not wanting to encourage the PC market. Games made only for PC are cheaper and have better sales.

As for reselling games, that would seriously hurt developers. A single game could be resold 100s of times, but only the first sale goes to the developer, and everyone else in the chain plays for free.

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