Used games and 'AAA' games are incompatible? Good.

Publishers overestimate their necessity

"Game developer Cliff Bleszinski has never been a fan of the used game market, and he's made his feelings on the Xbox One and PS4 policies quite clear -- he supports Microsoft's decision to "redefine" the concept of videogame ownership, in a bid to protect the way videogames are currently made."

[Emilio_Estevez]

Excellent article, love Sterling (for the most part). There are plenty of games that are successful without ridiculous budgets, examples everywhere.

[Anon1974]

Nice article. I see where Cliff is coming from. I do, but I don't agree that used games are the problem. As Jim stated, quite correctly, you don't have to go all out to produce a good game that makes you a tonne of money. It's a developers decision to ramp up the cost of production, it's not some choice that's forced upon them. Used games wouldn't be an issue if spending was reined in.

[Emilio_Estevez]

Exactly. There is also the problem of almost all games costing $60 at launch. You can't put a game like Skyrim out for that much and then expect people to be okay paying the same amount for a movie tie in game.

[Anon1974]

And that's the other thing. There's no tiered pricing structures for games (other than what we see for digital titles). Like you pointed out, we shouldn't be paying $60 for a huge AAA title and then expected to shell out $60 for a movie tie in, or some simple game for kids. Digital distribution and the pricing there helps, but all disk based games shouldn't be the same price at launch.

[despair]

yea this was an amazing read with very valid points, we need more articles like these.

[Mikelarry]

there are so many games franchise i got into by buying them used

prince of persia
saints row
god of war

and the list goes on. if not for used game i would never have supported the franchise to buy the next installments at retail prices. i keep saying this the day used games go that is that day all these publishers will start dropping like flies because if you are not a proven publisher why in the hell would i want to try out your franchise when i haven't played any of your other games to get a feel of maybe i would want to support you.

[yugovega]

do these developers not realize to become a used game someone had to buy it new? and after they trade/sell it then someone else gets it. but the point is they are still supporting the same amont of gamers. it's not like the person hat traded it still plays it. most people that buy a used game does so because it's cheaper. so they may get money out of the cheaper gamers but it'll be when the games are in the bargain bin for 19.99 or less and this new plan will cause aot of people who would normally buy games day 1 to wait as well?.

[FullMetalTech]

I liked the article. He really did have interesting points on the subject.

Games like Journey, Minecraft, even F2P games while low budget have been raking in cash and probably have had smaller budgets.

We as consumers shouldnt be penalized for trying to rent a game and see if we like it. Or that were to blame that your story line for a AAA game sucked so we want to get rid of it.

[-Gespenst-]

Fine by me. Most AAA games effing suck anyway.

[MilkMan]

Nice point of view.
Truth is, everyone knows that these budgets are primarily to pay everyone other than the devs. Its a know fact that developers don't get paid top dollar, its all the management that gets paid.

When you say cut costs, you are saying take less money if you are not in the creative process. Basically the "suits" and as in even our government, that's not gonna happen.

Whats the solution? Pass it on to us.
I see amazing games in kickstarter and on my PC and they get it done with minimal amounts of money. Necessity is the mother of invention.

We've forgotten this.

[grassyknoll]

I've said this for a long time, gaming budgets are spiralling out of control. Publishers & developers need to scale back. Imagine if the film industry said they were putting film prices up because they expensive to produce?

[trouble_bubble]

Sterling has been shootin' an all time high the past few weeks. Killstreaks everywhere. Perfect k/d ratio. Very pro-consumer, very good. "Let the videogame equivalent of inbred aristocracies wither and #*% rot." <--- gold

[mmj]

They won't scale back because then developers might get ideas about self publishing or going somewhere cheaper, publishers are a parasite to the whole gaming industry... they rush developers, take a chunk of their profits and then try to rob consumers of their rights in order to stay relevant.

[despair]

Wow this is a good read, excellent counter points to the ridiculous statement from Cliff "whats his name". I for one do not understand why the consumer is the one punished when its truly the retail chains like Gamestop who are the biggest problem with used games.

I highly doubt me lending or trading a game with my friend is what is the biggest problem with used games sales, especially when you have gamestop making a huge profit off their used games section with zero going to developers.

I mean what about setting some rules and deals with these retail chains so that they sell used games and the devs take a cut, all without having ridiculous DRM or trading in security measures. Keep them DRM free and get some ground rules in with the chains, they would go out of business if the game companies and publishers refused to give them copies of games to sell if they didn't adhere to the guidelines or rules.

This is like those people who fight tooth and nail to get people to stop smoking cigarettes by getting it banned in public, near schools, ads, promotions etc. while ignoring the actual company that is making the product or trying to change it from a legal point of view.

[DEEBO]

bravo,bravo! great article dude.you nailed it.how can a guy that makes middleware tools to help bring the cost down say such stupid things is beyond me.but really it's just greed.don't get mad because gamestop is sitting on million copies of gears like the dirt in mexico were the E.T games are buried.