I, for one, quite like Gamestop, and I can't wait until I can buy YOUR used PS4 games for $5.99 or less.
Thank you, Gamestop.
Signed, Patient Gamers Everywhere
"Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
151–160 of 294 posts
Re: "Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
#152The comparison to Steam is false to begin with. PC gaming has NEVER been a trade with your friends (legally) culture. Console gaming has ALWAYS been a trade with your friends culture (legally). When was the last time you saw a used PC game store? Second, there is no evidence that companies who's job is to maximize profit will have any incentive to lower their prices for disc-less games. For this, we CAN look at Steam…
There used to be a lot of stores selling used PC games in the late 90s / early 2000s. What killed it (I think) was that people would sell a used boxed PC game and then download the pirate version but re-use the legitimate CD key for multiplayer. So you would buy a used game and try to play it online but get "Your CD key is already in use" messages half the time. I got burned by this a few times. This is also one of t…
My usual supermarket used to have a video rental section, and during the mid-90s they also rented PC games on CD-ROM.
They stopped doing before the days of CD keys being required for multiplayer, but right around the time that hard disks got big and cheap enough that you could just copy the contents of the CD to your HD and then bring back the CD.
Re: "Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
#153The real misstep here is that Microsoft is still selling physical media. Nobody (well, almost nobody) gets mad when they can't resell their iPhone games or mp3s or Kindle books; compare that to the outpouring of anger when a company puts limitations on used optical media games or CDs or books. Humans are wired to see a physical item (disks, etc.) and think mine .
OR I rarely pay more than $1 for a phone game, and get a lot more cynical when I'm forking out +$50 for something that often has less replay-ability to the $1 game...
And by mine you mean 'ours' right? because a huge issue being discussed here is people sharing games, its not a individual issue, its a community issue.
Re: "Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
>If Call of Duty 8 retails for $59.99 on the PS4 and $29.99 on the XBO, that suddenly makes the DRM a very appealing tradeoff. If they're both $59.99, Xbox is dead in the water. Exactly, if MS had been thinking this all along, they could have proved it with a low price game option announced with the DRM. That would have been really appealing to a lot of people.
That doesn't really work. The game is still supposed to be $60 at launch, that's when games make the most money, they really are worth that much (and more) as evidenced by the many people who pay that much for them, even on DRM-laden platforms like Steam. The point is to let the price fall faster after launch. Xbox can't exactly promise "Our games' prices will fall faster than the other guys" because the market will…
The poor schmuck in rural Nebraska with 25kb service won't be able to play the Xbox One period- MS has already proposed a min speed of 1.5mbps. And if you are in an area (like pretty much most of the US and the majority of the rest of the world) where your service goes down periodically for more than 24 hours, you will be locked out of playing any games while it is offline. Or if MS gets hacked like Sony and their network goes down for an extended period (at least PS3 owners could still play offline!). Or when MS decides to abandon the platform ad turn off the servers... no pulling out your old Xbox One to play some classic games (I still have an old Atari I like to play occasionally!). Or if you have to cancel your Internet for a few months to catch up on the bills or while moving you have to wait a few days to get you Internet turned on- there are so many points of failure in this fiasco. As a (former) Xbox fan and advocate, I won't be going anywhere near this one.
Re: "Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
>If Call of Duty 8 retails for $59.99 on the PS4 and $29.99 on the XBO, that suddenly makes the DRM a very appealing tradeoff. If they're both $59.99, Xbox is dead in the water. Exactly, if MS had been thinking this all along, they could have proved it with a low price game option announced with the DRM. That would have been really appealing to a lot of people.
That doesn't really work. The game is still supposed to be $60 at launch, that's when games make the most money, they really are worth that much (and more) as evidenced by the many people who pay that much for them, even on DRM-laden platforms like Steam. The point is to let the price fall faster after launch. Xbox can't exactly promise "Our games' prices will fall faster than the other guys" because the market will…
The thing is I really don't see Sony as being on the "wrong side of history" though since they are still having day-one downloads of all titles. They are just fully supporting both models (traditional discs and one-copy-per-user digital downloads) rather than forcing everyone into one. They are literally doing everything that MS is doing with digital, yet still having discs (and therefore offline play) as an option.
Re: "Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
#156Wow, seems the hiring standards over at MS are lower than I thought. I read through all of that and it mostly sounded like ramblings of someone on the verge of a nuclear mind meltdown.
There were a few good points the anonymous poster made about the advantages of non-physical media like no scratches or brothers/friends losing your discs, people just aren't ready to have a mostly medium-less console. It works for an iPhone or eBook reader, but a console is something that is synonymous with physical mediums.
"Well, if you want the @#$@ing from Gamestop, go play PS4." — we don't have a Gamestop here in Australia but I presume Electronic Boutique is basically the same and while sometimes you get reamed on trade-ins, chances are if you are trading in, you don't care how much you are getting because you're parting with the game anyway.
If XBOX One games are cheaper as a result of the lock-in console DRM, then Microsoft might have a worthy advantage in the fanboy fight against Sony. But we all know games won't be cheaper (especially new and exclusive titles).
I think the problem with the whole digital vs physical debate is that bandwidth is an ongoing cost (especially if you go over). Although my Internet plan gives me 500gb of bandwidth a month (times that by the 5 people currently in my house who love downloading TV shows and movies a lot) and a digital game is chewing up bandwidth left-right and centre.
Re: "Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
#157Microsoft has always struck me as a company that makes some really cool technology, then tries to find a way to make it relevant to the rest of us. For them, it seems the consumer is an afterthought and the technology is key. Windows 8 was an impressive attempt to merge mobile and desktop OSes so that mobile users are no longer second-class citizens and have access to everything desktop users do. The problem? Mobile…
I should probably make a throw-away for this comment but whatever, as much as it hurts to admit it:
I kind of like windows 8.
Re: "Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which just reinforces the point that you are not the product and paying at the same time.
Despite that the US newspaper industry alone makes more revenue than the US video games industry. So you are indeed both the product and the consumer and will continue to be both far into the future.
Wait, really? What are we including in "US newspaper industry?" Also, source?
Re: "Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
>If Call of Duty 8 retails for $59.99 on the PS4 and $29.99 on the XBO, that suddenly makes the DRM a very appealing tradeoff. If they're both $59.99, Xbox is dead in the water. Exactly, if MS had been thinking this all along, they could have proved it with a low price game option announced with the DRM. That would have been really appealing to a lot of people.
That doesn't really work. The game is still supposed to be $60 at launch, that's when games make the most money, they really are worth that much (and more) as evidenced by the many people who pay that much for them, even on DRM-laden platforms like Steam. The point is to let the price fall faster after launch. Xbox can't exactly promise "Our games' prices will fall faster than the other guys" because the market will…
Sony will have digital sales too. But that doesn't mean they will neet to put restrictions on Disc Based transactions. If steam selled Disc Based games I very much doubt they would adopt the same model.
Re: "Microsoft engineer" on Xbox1
#160Microsoft has always struck me as a company that makes some really cool technology, then tries to find a way to make it relevant to the rest of us. For them, it seems the consumer is an afterthought and the technology is key. Windows 8 was an impressive attempt to merge mobile and desktop OSes so that mobile users are no longer second-class citizens and have access to everything desktop users do. The problem? Mobile…
I should probably make a throw-away for this comment but whatever, as much as it hurts to admit it: I kind of like windows 8.
On a tablet or desktop?
I have it on a desktop and every affordance it makes for tablets and touch interaction is annoying to me. And its desktop UI is ugly.
It is fast though.