I haven't had time to read the entire article but the synopsis on Slashdot for this article at gamesindustry.biz made me mad.
Q: How do you see downloadable content evolving over the next few years?
Michael Capps: I'm not sure how big it is here [in Europe], but the secondary market is a huge issue in the United States. Our primary retailer makes the majority of its money off of secondary sales, and so you're starting to see games taking proactive steps toward that by... if you buy the retail version you get the unlock code.
I've talked to some developers who are saying "If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free". We don't make any money when someone rents it, and we don't make any money when someone buys it used - way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it...
This sucks as bad as the rumoured (and nixed) PS3-burns-a-sector-on-your-disks-so-you-can't-sell-them 'feature.'
The fuckwad then goes on to imply that second-hand gamers are stealing:
Q: Do you see an enemy in this equation? Is it the retailer, or the purchaser of second-hand games?
Michael Capps: I'd hate to say my players are my enemies - that doesn't make any sense! But we certainly have a rule at Epic that we don't buy any used games - sure as hell you're not going to be recognised as an Epic artist going in and buying used videogames - because this is how we make our money and how all our friends in the industry make money.
I think a little bit of it is education so people realise that the reason there's no PC market right now is piracy. I mean, Crytek just put out some numbers saying the ratio was 20:1 on Crysis, for pirated to non-pirated use. So guess what? That's why there's no Gears of War 2 on PC, because there's no market, because copying killed it - and that's gruesome to a company like ours that's been in the PC market for so long.
We're trying to fix it, there's a new alliance of companies trying to make PC gaming work again. But if people are playing games without buying them, then the games aren't going to keep coming.
What a wanker.
10 comments:
Definitely not buying Gears 2 new now.
hmmm, complicated subject. I think that if they have some problem with the rentals or pre-owned, they should take that up with blockbuster and gamestation et al. Seems unreasonable to point the finger at the gamer, who is after all, following a legal route.
I can understand an in-house rule. about used games. If he believes that the second hand market harms the industry they all work in that point of view makes sense. I think he is wrong, but can understand them applying the rule - after all its only his (wrong) belief.
To clarify my opinion, I think he is wrong and that the second hand market most certainly doesnt harm the industry. Quite the opposite, after gears2 shifted 2 million units I suspect that alot of those people played the first one based on a second hand play of the original.
WoW aside, PC gaming has suffered a fair amount from piracy (let me know if I am wrong there btw) so can understand them avoiding the PC market. There is a massive distinction that should be drawn between the second hand market and piracy.
Apologies for the long comment, but find the whole copyright DRM thing with games quite interesting - good article to post.
I never even attempt to justify piracy. It's wrong. I know it, you know it, we all know it. Whether it's technically theft or not is irrelevant. It's wrong.
Buying second hand games does not ever ever fall into the same bracket.
Do publishers and authors have the same problem with libraries and second hand bookstores? I think not. What, then, is the difference? Could it be the £45 price bracket on a 10-20 hour game?
Hmmm....
could not agree more.
This guys comments are just more examples of the overreaction to piracy and the enforcement of DRM/copyright laws.
Mass Effect and Spore are other good examples of where this doesnt work. They end up hurting the people trying to do things legitimately.
Good library analogy btw.
What happened with Mass Effect? I assume you're talking about the PC version as I had no problem with the Xbox.
yea, will post a linky later if any is interested. Basically, if you wanted to play it you had to be online as it phoned home to validate everytime.
I was thinking the same thing, about written published media.
The 'Cheek' to imply that buying a second hand game is similar to being a pirate!!!!!!!!!!
I believe the games industry is the only market where the product manufacturers complain (read - 'winge') about rentals and second hand sales.
Examples; Cars, Books, Electricals, Furniture, Clothes, DVDs, CDs.......
I know they justify the high cost of games...
BUT
-if they lowered the price and used simultaneous-global-releases, the pirate market would drop.
-if the industry spread it's big game releases across the year, the consumer has more chance to afford the games.
-if the industry 'policed' itself and only released quality titles (I'm especially looking at you Nintendo, with your "publish as many titles as possible for DS and Wii regardless of how poor the game is, after all their only kids, they don't matter!" strategy.) the public wouldn't be quite so resentful of the cost (if they knew they were buying something worth the money, e.g. the perception of Waitrose and M&S food).
As an example, I paid £40 for Burnout Paradise but I've played it for well over 100 hours and had some Great Fun playing it, and there's been free updates as well.
GREAT VALUE in my opinion.
In contrast, MOST of the Wii and DS games I've played are not worth the RRP! £30 for a DS game! There are very few DS games worth that amount of money!
Nintendo are easy to target but their not alone.
You just have to read 'gamesTM' or 'Edge' or even 'metacritic' to find games that have an RRP of £50 but score 3 or 4 out of ten! I think that the industry expecting us to pay £50 for a game that has been carefully reviewed and given a score of 6 or lower is unacceptable.
Part of the problem is that we still pay full price for games.
If we, the consumer, stopped buying games that were so expensive, the industry would be forced to rethink their pricing policies (or perhaps they'd just stop producing games altogether... Doh! shot our selves in the foot there then).
There will also, of course, always be people who just want to get things for free, and others who like to 'get one over on the man'.
Sorry, rather a long and wafflely rant.
We're still going to bootleg his stuff though right?
I mean right?
"Sweet!"
Dood!
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