If you ever needed proof that used games do matter, I offer you this article linked HERE.
The Gears Of War 2 Flashback Pack was supposed to be the reason you bought this game new and didn’t wait for the used game market. It would only be included with new copies of the game, so if you wanted it, you better fork out the $60. Hey, it worked. I bought it.
But, now it’s January 2009. The game has been out three months, they are rolling out maps as quick as they can, and the economy is in the crapper. So, people stop caring about these maps and just buy the game used. What to do? Cave in and offer the maps on download. For $5 (400 points), you can now download this set of maps for yourself, if you bought the game used. Epic caved because they know there is going to be a used game market and need to make profits off of that contingent as well, and if they can get a few bucks they normally would have been out of the loop on, that is acceptable.
What does the whole exercise prove? At least for this generation of games, used games matter. Especially when the biggest video game retailer in the company, Gamestop, has used games to thank for a majority of its profits (and its viability now due to high margins), they have the ability to throw around clout in making sure that the game gets retail space when new. You’re not going to tell a billion dollar company not to accept your game in used, it is likely bad for your own bottom line!
It also proves that the real long lasting moneymaker in the future (and the only way you can protect yourself against used game sales if you feel you need to) is through downloadable content. Rock Band and Guitar Hero are perfect examples of this, and no one (including myself) don’t seem to mind. Punishing the used game buyer won’t work long term, embracing them and gaining profits from them makes far more sense, and it keeps your name in the thoughts of gamers. Would you be giving Burnout Paradise, good as it was, a second thought if it wasn’t for the constant influx of really good DLC? Probably not, but it keeps getting play because of that.
What’s your take on the about face of Epic Games? I want to be shocked, really I do. But, I’m not. Money talks, no matter what they say at any given time. Oh yeah, and if you’re patient, you’ll get what you want.
One of the time honored traditions of the music, video, and game world is that of a street date. Your product that has to come out at the exact moment and exact day for the marketing blitz. As someone who has worked (and has a love for) the independent retailer realm, the other time honored tradition is NOT sticking to that date.
You know what? If you are one little neighborhood store competing against a hundred Best Buy’s, Gamestop’s, and every other chain known to man (even the local 7-11), I don’t begrudge anyone who begins to sell a game the moment the distributor is stupid enough to send it to them. Maybe I’m jaded and cutthroat anymore, but if the distributor is stupid enough to send the game early, and the retailer is stupid enough (if you feel that way) to offer it early, I am stupid enough to buy it!
I got a great kick out of what Rock Band 2 put in their game, a message on the Main Manu congratulating the player on scoring the game early. This of course would fit the spirit of a game about Rock & Roll, and is really refreshing. Hey, it’s a sale, and to them, getting that game in your hands and getting you to buy some DLC is the end goal. Who cares if you got it three days early? Go you!
This however sets up where the new street date will commence, and you can’t do anything about this one: digital content. No one is going to be able to get that download until the company posts it for you (and if you’re getting it early, it isn’t because you bought it early, it is because you pirated it early). With more and more stuff going DLC, even companies are changing their entire offerings from hard media to DLC (D3 Publishing this week for the PSP). The day everything goes digital is not a day I look forward to. While I enjoy the variation of having some stuff live on real media, and its extendability with DLC, I do not look forward to the day that everything is digital and the independent stores I love so much lose that feel. Thank goodness for older used systems to help it live on!
So, have you ever bought a game pre-street? I have a couple of times (not a ton since I try and avoid the new price anyways), but I have certainly done so. Post your thoughts in the comments.
Next-Gen Baseball Needs Last-Gen History!
I’ve began to embark on playing MLB 09: The Show, as my baseball game of choice this year. Based on the first few practice rounds and games I’ve played, I have no reason to feel disappointed about this. The game does a great job portraying modern-day 2009 baseball, and even the World Series Baseball 2K9 series looks to do a pretty good job of this.
That all said though, as time goes on, there is only so much you can do with the current-day game and current rosters. A direction in content that I’d like to see these games go is backwards, into the history of the game, allowing gamers to better re-create the history of our national pastime, both in players and venues.
THE PLAYERS – How cool would it be to, with a click of a mouse, be able to go back in time and play baseball with rosters from any past year! Simulation games and sites have already been able to harness history to create these mythical matchups (Baseball Mogul, WhatIfSports.com come to mind), so why not bring it to a fully interactive next-gen game. MLB 09 does get closer than most games on this front, allowing user-created rosters to be traded about over their site. The only problem is that any roster traded assumed a 30-team league, which makes re-creating any season before 1998 challenging, if not impossible. Maybe it needs to be amended to allow create-a-teams, or create-a-seasons. I know some things can’t be re-created, but flexibility would allow quite a bit to be.
THE SEASONS – To that same effect, baseball was played differently even 10 or 20 years ago. Doubleheaders were normal fare, even scheduled. Four-man rotations were a normal occurrence, and the season didn’t last as long as it did not. Heck, no baseball game has ever managed to conquer a season-long weather pattern and (God forbid) rainouts! I would love to see a completely wide open customization of schedules and seasons made available, so that you could go back to a 16-team 154-game season if you so chose, and allow for slider adjustments specifically for certain types of play, like four-man rotations. Maybe someone can fork out a few thousand bucks and get a Farmer’s Almanac license deal in there too, I bet they’d dig it!
THE STADIUMS – This is the one feature I could see being included as downloadable content, and for the record, if it’s done right, I’m cool with it. You can of course play all the modern parks every single year, but how much fun would it be to go play in classic stadiums … ANY of them! I realize that this is a huge undertaking for any developer, considering that over the past 20 years, I’d venture that 80% of the stadiums are freshly built, and the remainder have had some refurbishments (like a Wrigley Field, sans lights … hey, games called by darkness!!). But, if there were stadium packs, and even like in old PS2 Madden games, create-a-stadium options with a fancy owner mode, imagine the realism you could attain.
Let’s face it, history makes baseball what it is. That’s why people get so bent out of shape about the steroids scandal, it messes with that history in ways that are hard to undo. That said though, there’s no reason that technology can’t help bring history to the current with video games. The tech is already in place, it just has to be nearly pushed into one interactive package.