TheOverseasConnection.net - With the announcement of the Xbox One came a wave of uncertainty and unease over the used game market. Many have taken to battle cries of unfairness and openly stated disdain at the thought of used games becoming monetized by the publishers. It is a complicated issue that is hotly debated and is emotionally charged for many. Ultimately, things always change and with the Xbox One we are seeing once again the industry stress testing such a change.
Quantic Dream are set to offering hands-on opportunities at PAX East 2024, but which game it will be has not yet been revealed.
Quantic Dream has announced a new publishing label, Spotlight, following the reveal of debut title Under the Waves.
Interesting to see how this works out for them. QD have had a very lucrative partnership with Sony. David Cage is a household name among Playstation owners, and he might not have been if QD stuck with Atari as their publisher. Now they're launching Spotlight so they can circumvent Sony exclusivity? I imagine this isn't the last we'll hear from Spotlight.
Can’t wait for all those quicktime events and bash-you-with-boredom storytelling.
From GI.biz: "Today, Quantic Dream embarks on a new chapter as it is brought into the fold of NetEase – the Chinese publisher's first European acquisition.
Over the past quarter of a century, the French studio has built a reputation for itself on the back of cinematic titles such as Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human. While these games may divide opinion among individual gamers, generally speaking they have been well received by critics and praised for attempting something different when it comes to interactive storytelling.
The high profile of these games, and the studio's long-running partnership with PlayStation, put Quantic Dream on the map – to the point where co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumière (pictured above left) tells GamesIndustry.biz the company has engaged in acquisition discussions with several potential buyers over its lifetime."
I guess another company that will be restricted on what they can and can't say by the Chinese govmt
infinite supply of fried rice?, I kid I kid, most probably cash ?, retirement? running out of ideas, who knows.
Well I wrote a big post on this but somehow it deleted from the stupid glitching advertisement on this site. Does any bodies screen jump around as the advertisement changes up. Just asking.
As for the Chinese buying up game companies. What’s one way to monitor people and behaviors? Through the gaming analytics they get from people playing. I really believe they are trying to manipulate the world as much as possible. Remember the bird nest at their first Olympics. Their Vision of the world all neatly tied up for them.. I know it’s a stretch, but either the Chinese government has a lot of Gamers, or something else is going on behind the scenes.
Microsoft is getting all the heat for this but Sony is going to follow, there is no doubt.
What Sony should do is come out and say used games are a thing of the past and site reasons why like the THQ closing, the heavy rain issue, etc. But hopefully they have a plan in place to ease this pain.
One thing would be to offer a buyback program, like each day after you purchased a game takes money off the buyback amount until it hits a certain level then that price stays the same. Those funds then stay in your wallet for the next purchase. And to make current Sony owners happier to accept this is start the buyback program with digital content on PS3 PSN purchases. This would sell the idea and also generate some good will.
Another thing they could do is use the social media features they have built in, allow you to post an ad that the game is for sale, only at a price set by sony, maybe 10% less than buying it direct, so a 60$ game becomes 54$, to your friends, and when they click the link and buy it, the game deactivates for you and activates for them. Sony then gives you 30$ credit and splits the 24$ between them and the developers.
Who knows but it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.
How much money does a car company get from a used car sell? How much money does that same car company get for rentals?
I hear a violin playing somewhere. The market will dictate the next step. If M$ is the only entity to do this, their bottom line will truly be affected. Currently, this appears to be generating a lot of negativity. Remember EA recently dropped its Online pass program after only being around for 2 or 3 years.
Used games. Are they really the cause of studios closing down due to lost sales?
In part? Yes. Yet there are other factors present to cause such things. One observation I have made is the large availability of titles that keep hitting the market every year. There are so many games released every month that I am having a hard time researching them all. Sure there are reviews to help sift through the duds, but I'm finding many great games catered to my personal tastes that reviews don't reflect. So their value is limited.
Many great games slip through the cracks (like Kingdoms of Amular) and fail to reach the people that would buy them. Studios would naturally close anyway when an oversaturation occurs. It is the natural process of business. Supply and Demand.
Yet these developers blame used games for the primary cause of their struggle. Not a suprise they had a hidden agenda behind the trophy/achievement feature...to monitor and gauge the ratio of games sold vs. the number of people playing.
The numbers don't lie. They don't reveal truths either. They are just numbers given for further analysis. On the surface they see 2 million copies sold and 4 million who got to play. To them the logic is clear and straightforward. There are 2 million lost sales.
Thus the true weakness of logic is presented when used by a weaker mind. It applies to all intelligences, but is applied much more linear and simple by the narrowminded.
For if one were using logic to a higher level, one would observe more factors to the logical thought processess. For starters a strong logical mind would ponder more doubt to disprove his thought process...a critical step in purging the possible emotional bias that may underlie beneath. For if truth were one's true motive it would serve him well. To support an emotion or belief using logic is the first step toward the justification of one's own desired outcome...a completely different use altogether.
If these developers weren't seeking to blame used games from the start they would have never stopped at the numbers before them. They would have considered the possiblity that the other 2 million may have never bought the game had it not been for the opportunity to obtain a cheaper copy. They might even have considered that people only play content that is free, such as demos...or even pondered that those may hurt sales as well.
Never do they ponder the thought that their failures may be their own. Maybe they just suck. Or maybe they can't advertise (like Sony), costing them millions in sales for not having the ability to reach consumers. Or maybe the required Online Pass system, despite it's deterrance of used games, may have turned people away from buying their products at all.
So many variables to consider if one were to take the time to smell the true scent of their creations. Yet they don't. They just justify what they want to believe in the first place.