Next-Gen Gaming

[JaoSming]

Note: This is not a rip on EA; this is just a little rant/thought on the possible ugly future of gaming

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/737/737177p1.html

Everyone who is thinking about playing new games (especially from EA) I think needs to read this article from IGN. Unfortunatly I believe that video game publishers are moving down this road where gamers are going to be paying more for add-ons than for the DVD the game comes on.

With NBA Live 07 this year, we got T-Mobile and Toyota ads in the game. 2k7 uses the advertisements in realistic and kinda cool ways; Toyota Fast Break Camera, Toyota Key Matchup with great presentation. Live 07 just has the PA Announcer announce that this quarter is brought to you by T-Mobile or just throws a random ad in there and gets paid.

With BF 2142 bundled with spyware, Extra Madden stadiums (which used to be free) costing money, and Gran Turismo HD costing money for better cars. How Long will it be until we are paying for alternate jerseys for NBA Live. Shit, paying from home to play a quarter of a game. Maybe even paying for bench players or extra years on our dynastys.

Yes we have our precious old versions of Live, and once we get the bugs out of 07 (and we will) we should have no need to buy new versions of a game. But where are we as gamers going to draw the line with newer versions costing 60 bucks with add-ons?

[[Q]]

yeah the extra money for stadiums and cars is pretty ridiculous.... I'm a big fan of Gran Turismo because of its depth, and i don't tihnk too many people would be too happy to pay for extras.

[volsey]

Commercialism is everywhere these days. I really hate the idea of buying add ons. Paying for cars, tracks, roster updates, etc. and not to mention paying for the Xbox Live, I think it's just stupid. For next gen, you have to pay AT LEAST $500 for a system, then you need to buy a new TV (we all know how expensive those are). You have to pay for Xbox Live, for the game itself, then all the add ons, it's getting way out of hand. I though the PS2 was expensive when it came out.

[Christopherson]

I would prefer to have ton's of ingame advertising then to have to pay for add-ons for the game. Personally, with things like Live and Madden, I think the advertisements add an element of realism to the games. I wanna see Pepsi logos all over stadiums and such. Video games are an almost untapped source of advertising. In my opinion, it would definatley be worth while advertise in games given the amount of time people spend playing them.

[JaoSming]

Yah but I dont want to hear the PA Announcer force a Tmobile ad

[Christopherson]

Why? They force adds in real life all the time.

[Tuomas]

Good thing I'm pretty fed up on gaming anyways, I just play my old pc and xbox games. This sounds like customers are ignored, what happened to making the best possible product money can buy?

One way or another it will change for the better one day, if big companies make money that much out of sequels, it's inevitable to happen that a small company releases a great game with no extra payments. Gamers will win!!

[Andrew]

Great read. Even though there's some wild exaggerations for the purpose of satire, it's not difficult to imagine game developers charging money for more extras and so forth. In all seriousness I don't think they'd ever go to the extent of charging for some of the things that piece suggests because the average consumer couldn't afford it and it wouldn't be profitable but the fact remains there is a move towards generating more profit by inviting players to spend more money on features that aren't essential but are desirable.

There was an example of that in THQ's Smackdown vs RAW 2006 for the PS2. Most of the unlockables could be attained through completing challenges or earning "Smackdown Dollars" through various tasks and then "purchasing" the unlockables, a system we're all familiar with since games have been using it for years and it works since if you play the game a lot chances are you'll be able to unlock everything eventually.

However, there was a noteable exception in SDvRAW 2006: Jake "The Snake" Roberts could only be unlocked on the PS2 version by unlocking him on the PSP version and transferring the data to your PS2 profile. That means barring the use of third party cheat devices such as the Action Replay and Gameshark or knowing someone who owns the PSP version, the only way to unlock Jake Roberts was to buy a copy of the game for the PSP (and a PSP if you don't already own one) after you've already spent money on the PS2 version; a significant amount of cash on top of what you've already spent. For one unlockable that isn't essential but most players would probably like to attain.

I've grown up with video games and remain fairly enthusiastic about them to this day as a result but I'm just not willing to shell out money like that. Most PS2 games debut in Australia at $99.95 and new PC games are generally $75+ so video games are already an expensive hobby without having to pay more for in-game extras...and that's not even taking into account the cost of hardware. I'd much rather put up with advertising and branding in games, particularly sports titles where it kind of adds some authenticity anyway.

[The X]

most of the things they are selling aren't worth buying anyways....sure I'd like to play with more jerseys or in old school stadiums, but if it's not unlockable in the game, then I will play without it....I got no problem with companies making these items after the game is out to improve the game & charging for them....although it shouldn't be something that is withheld from the game....for example, if you are paying to add new stadium to Madden 07 since they made it after the game was released, then that's fine, but if I was buying Madden 08, I would expect that new stadium to be in the game....am I making sense?!?

[shadowgrin]

Damn.
That's why I'm planning to keep my fossil of a PC just to play old games, when worse comes to worst.

[Jowe]

I guess this year they are going to make players pay for ingame subs.

[JaoSming]

I mean I was just making points of what could happen. Hopefully game companies will think about the "little guy" and not incorperate many of these techniques. Unfortunatly there are people out there who would pay 3 bucks per level or doom, or 5 cents for each bullet. And companies would make a lot more money than they do right now.

Holy shit I sound like a conspiracy freak

[shadowgrin]

Jowe was making a Live 07 reference.