“The Man” sticks it to us again with no Vaseline. GameStooge.com has a good editorial on how THQ doesn’t take too kindly to us gamers buying their games on the rebound. They’re pulling a page from EA’s playbook beginning with SmackDown vs Raw 2011. Every new copy of the game will include a single use code that will unlock “key elements” of the game such as online play.
This is my spin on the subject. I have the solution to developers like THQ, EA and others who say the used game market is pulling food from the mouths of their corporate shareholders. MAKE BETTER GAMES. When I open the cabinet where my games are stored, I see titles in my library that will NEVER be traded in. The God of War series, Ninja Gaiden, Heavenly Sword, GTA: San Andreas, and a few others are titles that I will continue to play repeatedly because they are so good. I purchased these games on day one because they hit so many of the high points that are on my genres of choice checklist.
I think just about every gamer out there has a game or games in their library that they’d almost rather loose a finger than put it on the GameStop trading block. If publishers want to put a dent in the used games market, make games that we wouldn’t want to part with. I don’t need every game to re-invent the wheel. I just want the genres that I love to evolve those elements that draw me to those types of games in the first place.
Developers like THQ need to step their game up, (pun intended) and stop blaming the gaming public because we aren’t willing to pay new car prices for last year’s models.
Great Article Shonuff. This has been a hot topic as of late. I think everyone knows how I feel about the used game market. Publishers took too long to act. While they have been raking in the money for the past 20 years, the used game market flourished. And now, they’re losing money, they are turning an eye towards the used game market. The change happened when GameStop bought up the competition. Consumers lost too, because we have to accept the trade-in prices. So, monopolies are the real problem. Why don’t publishers start Bitching about used game retailers? Why don’t they fuss about the fact that new games are shoved to a small corner in Gamestores. They need to stop being scared of the Big Bad Wolf, and combine their forcess. They act like the used game just popped up overnight!
Why is the used game market treated differently than any other used market? Last time I checked, if I buy a used car, I don’t have to pay the manufacturer a fee in order to drive it on the highway or put gas in it. If I buy a used house, I don’t send a fee to the builder or architect to use the kitchen. So why do I need to pay a fee to the developer or publisher in order to get full access to a used game? They already got paid when the original owner made the purchase.
Amen Deatryx!
i have gone back and forth on this topic but I have to agree with Deatryx except the fact that online capabilities require game creators to keep servers which do cost them money. unlocking any capability on the disk by a code is wrong. Codes for online access are not. This is money the creators have to make and when gamestop leeches from the cycle of cash if you will, the publisher is hurt. Once again charging for content on a disk is WRONG, but not for online usage.
Hey, I’m the author of the original GameStooge article, thanks for reading it!
Now where’s my fee for accessing used content? :^P
Seriously though, I can see boricua22′s point, but the difference is that (on the Xbox 360 at any rate) folks are already paying a fee to maintain the servers via Xbox Live Gold. As far as I’m aware, the publishers themselves do not maintain the servers.
Actually, Im pretty sure that the publishers maintain the servers. Xbox Live just provides the conduit to access those servers. The reason I think this is because of articles like this one talking about “EA shutting down servers” and the like.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/01/ea-shuts-down-25-game-servers-including-madden-09.ars
I don’t have much of an issue for a fee to access online content as long as it is across the board and not discriminatory against a specific group of gamers. And as long as the box states that online content requiresan additional fee, like on MMO games.
Although I thought the original reason that XBox Live was a paid service was because Microsoft was supposed to be hosting the servers. If that is true, then publishers shouldn’t be complaining that they are losing money if they decide to host their own servers.
Yeah I would agree with you if Microsoft is supposed to be responsible.
eh for the smackdown game i find in the past that the online part of the game is always laggy and the people have maxed out guys anyways(99 overalls instead of like realistic stats) so if i got the game used i wouldnt really mind not haveing the online. i think if you buy a game you shouldnt have to pay more for things that are put into the disk. good dlc should be the focus point of the companys. look at all the dragon age dlc thats been pumped out and they;re already makeing a part 2. look how well rockband’s doing with just dlc and no extra fees to play it online lol..