Game development studios and publishers have whipped the debating post of blocking used games for a long time. It’s a contentious topic: gamers want to be able to buy and sell their games as they see fit. After all, they did buy them and developers realize the same game is often sold multiple times without any of the additional revenue generated going to those who made the game. GameStop’s entire business model rests on buying and selling used games. And the latest rumor over Microsoft’s upcoming XBox 720 made a sharp hit on the stock of the top used game reseller.
Hanzla from eXputer inquires: "If Xbox can care about preserving its games and legacy, what exactly is wrong with Nintendo, trying to kill game preservation single-handedly?"
Ahh yes the good old game preservation of saving all your games to a removable hhd on the Xbox 360, taking it round your mates house, setting up multiple tvs to
Be met with “save data corrupted, please re download”
Or how about removing 360 games
From the store
, download them now or else, and, better hope to god that save data doesn’t corrupt, or it’s lost for ever
Nice one ☝️
This is just a scammy PR move to distract from the fact they are going digital only and trying to push streaming and subscriptions only.
No gaming company has pushed harder to remove ownership than Microsoft.
Without discs there is no preservation, preservation can't be done by the rights holders it can only be done by the consumers, anything else is a lie.
Nobody wants this. Sales or the lack of it in the case of XBOX is very telling. I wonder how the adorably all digital series X will fare. Adorably dismal perhaps?
Only time will tell, but for from someone like me suspecting that Xbox is trying to gracefully exit the console market, that "forward compatibility" team is trying to get Xbox games playing on Windows PCs. I mean, it's nice that they're not planning on exiting with a "enjoy your games while the hardware still works" message, so that's nice. They still have a brand to protect via Microsoft so probably feel obligated to have a better exit strategy.
Microsoft's future in the video game space is murky right now, so let's break it all down.
Not anytime soon. But they're on that path.
One thing not mentioned in the article is Microsoft's money bags. If Sega had Microsoft's money, they would have still been around as a hardware manufacturer. Xbox as a platform only survives because of the money bags. They can continue making consoles for the core and port to PC.
The multiplatform strategy is only the result of arrogance and misguided leadership that blew up in their face. They thought gamers would jump on Xbox in droves if they knew that many of their favorite games would be only on Xbox. But that's not happening at all. Sales didn't increase. They decreased. Why? Because the dumb asses thought giving away these expensively made games in a cheap service would also turn the tide.
Gamers on other platforms are willing to buy quality. They don't need to be handed nearly free games in a service that aren't even finished and sometimes average in their development. Gamers buy Nintendo games. They buy Sony games. Microsoft groomed their base to not buy games. Even the quality ones. It has always been their plan to go digital. But most gamers still like single player gaming. Still like physical releases.
Microsoft's problem has always been that they don't produce high quality games at the same output as Nintendo and Sony. Actually, they should be producing quite a lot more because they're worth over 2 TRILLION. How they don't have more is ridiculous and no excuse. Buying publishers to take away from competition only backfired. Because it still takes millions of dollars to continue to make those games from the publishers they snatched. Their only choice was to crawl back to their competitors to help sustain those developers because Nintendo and Sony platforms were the ones buying games.
Am I sorry for Microsoft? Hell no! They deserved last place for putting in the least effort. They deserved the fallout for buying up the industry and didn't make a single blip on the radar against their competitors where they now need those same gamers they took away games from to support them. Part of it may have been to cash in on their competition. But the result is the slow death of their platform. They may go 3rd party. They may keep making hardware. I don't give a shit about them to worry about it. I only give a shit about the destructive nature of their industry moves that only negatively affect gamers. They could sell and drop out of the industry and I wouldn't blink. Probably laugh. But not blink. They deserve whatever comes to them. At least Sega put in the effort when it came to games. They just had poor leadership. Microsoft has poor leadership and barely makes memorable games. That's a killer combination. And not in a good way.
Not sure about that. It's been two decades and I still think about Power Stone, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Seaman and others, but I'm not sure I'll remember Xbox Series X/S games in a few years from now... Maybe I'll remember about the franchises that the Xbox brand spawned, but I don't believe that the Xbox Series lives up to the late Dreamcast or even to the Xbox name itself. I do have great memories about the 360 with Blue Dragon, Gears 2 and Lost Odyssey though
No, Dreamcast was ahead of it's time and most still have very fond memories of it that had one. It also had some good games on it even in it's short lifespan. Xbox has none of these qualities.
Microsoft has announced the Microsoft Rewards app on Xbox will be discontinued in April and has confirmed that weekly streaks will also be coming to an end.
I look at the picture provided with the article and wonder why people don't understand why Sony and Microsoft have considered locking games to one account. I'm not saying it's a good idea or a bad idea, I'm just looking at that picture, remembering what it's like in the stores near me and thinking: 'perhaps they have a point'.
why do people think you cannot buy used games on pc??
i do it all the time, and i sell my pc games occasionaly
the only ones you cannot sell are steam/origin games
i sold my copy of lotr bfme2 for $85 a while ago....lol..wheni bought it it was $20
you can buy TONS of pc games used, you just need to know the drm behind them, if any....
many newer pc titles use steamworks as a way of curbing the pc used sales, but got to amazon and click pc games then look at the 10's of thousands of used games
there are more used pc games to buy than ps3/360/ps2/wii and xbox combined!
and you can bet ms and sony are going to find a way to seriously stifle the used market, it is inevitable
the best way to do this is not by force, make digital games available for $29.99 at release day, i'm talking AAA ps4/nextbox games, $29.99 for the digital version and $60 for retail
then everyone who wants the box, and wants to be able to trade it in and get ripped off at gamestop can, and then everyone else can just buy the digital version for half off
if you want me to pay $65 for a game, you bet your ass i want a box, a COLOR manual, and some damn fine artwork on it too
i own over 300 steam games, but there is not one digital download i have ever paid full price for, if i want a game bad enough to pay $50-$60 for, i want to own the copy!
i also have over 400 boxed pc games, i love them, they are my prized collection, also own about 80 ps3 games, 40 xbox games, 100 ps2 games, 30 ds games, 50 psp games
i almost never sell any of my games, unless it goes rare and i can get a ton of money for it....then i may if im not in love with the art or the game
sometimes i like the box of the game better than the game itself...lol
there's no need for 6 reasons because it's never going to happen.
I think we might get something in the middle. If the cloud service for PS4 is as I think it will be, you will be able to register your game with your PSN account and then you'll be able to download it digitally along the physical copy. You may sell the copy but the next owner won't be able to download it digitally, of course. But I think he will be able to play the game from a disk.
Just a speculation. What do you think?
Amazon's just announced they're going to sell pre-owned media files. I can't even imagine how it's going to work legally but gives you some thoughts.
What if the PS1 had something to block used games? Or the Saturn? It would throw away all my hopes of buying Suikoden II or Panzer Dragoon Saga one day.
I buy new games always, but most of them aren't AAA games by big publishers. This would definitely kill small game developers and publishers. I am forced to buy a lot of games used since no game can be manufactured forever...