29 August 2010
Removing Features from Used Games Is "Cheating"
THQ: Buying Used Games Is "Cheating":
When THQ (and EA, etc) make an end run around first sale doctrine, disallowing their customers to sell used games feature-complete, THQ is cheating the customer out of value.
It would probably be worth rereading "Jeff Bezos' open letter on used book sales" from 2002, where he responds to the Authors' Guild suit against Amazon's practice of selling used books on the same page as the new ones.
And let's also add that the folks who published the used games and books are the same companies that published the originals. Publishers are competing against themselves. If they don't want to compete against used games, make fewer prints of the original. And make games good enough over a long period of time that gamers don't want to sell them!
Now admittedly, there are all sorts of ways that the game/printed book analogy is already well past its prime, as I've written about a bit under the trope of the virtual rare book room. Steam, the Wii store, and (ironically) even the Kindle have all killed the concept of game/book-as-encapsulated-commodity, and all shift power and value from consumer to producer just as THQ is doing here.
As Matt's pointed out about the Wii virtual store, "If our Wii dies, I'll have to buy it all over again or hassle customer support to move our games over in some way." Steam's not as bad in a sense, and I can always lend my Kindle library to someone else just by loaning them my Kindle (in some ways more useful than loaning a single book), but the point is clear. Commodities have changed in ways that the producer has designed to increase their hold on copyright.
Embarrassingly, I've purchased at least twice from each of those three outlets. At least Matt has started voting with dollars. "Until there is some sort of portability for these purchases -- at least to the same hardware or new Nintendo systems -- we're not buying anything else in Nintendo's virtual storefront." I'm still trading my rights for convenience. Well, starting now, I'll never buy another THQ wrestling game new! I wish the other compromises were as easily avoided.
THQ's Cory Ledesma has delivered a blunt message to consumers buying used copies of his company's games: they're cheating the publisher out of money.
When THQ (and EA, etc) make an end run around first sale doctrine, disallowing their customers to sell used games feature-complete, THQ is cheating the customer out of value.
It would probably be worth rereading "Jeff Bezos' open letter on used book sales" from 2002, where he responds to the Authors' Guild suit against Amazon's practice of selling used books on the same page as the new ones.
And let's also add that the folks who published the used games and books are the same companies that published the originals. Publishers are competing against themselves. If they don't want to compete against used games, make fewer prints of the original. And make games good enough over a long period of time that gamers don't want to sell them!
Now admittedly, there are all sorts of ways that the game/printed book analogy is already well past its prime, as I've written about a bit under the trope of the virtual rare book room. Steam, the Wii store, and (ironically) even the Kindle have all killed the concept of game/book-as-encapsulated-commodity, and all shift power and value from consumer to producer just as THQ is doing here.
As Matt's pointed out about the Wii virtual store, "If our Wii dies, I'll have to buy it all over again or hassle customer support to move our games over in some way." Steam's not as bad in a sense, and I can always lend my Kindle library to someone else just by loaning them my Kindle (in some ways more useful than loaning a single book), but the point is clear. Commodities have changed in ways that the producer has designed to increase their hold on copyright.
Embarrassingly, I've purchased at least twice from each of those three outlets. At least Matt has started voting with dollars. "Until there is some sort of portability for these purchases -- at least to the same hardware or new Nintendo systems -- we're not buying anything else in Nintendo's virtual storefront." I'm still trading my rights for convenience. Well, starting now, I'll never buy another THQ wrestling game new! I wish the other compromises were as easily avoided.
Labels: copyright, drm, online distribution, used, virtual console, wii
--ruffin at 10:00
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[ 2 ]
11 August 2010
No Wii Madden 11 Reviews?
Why can't I find a review of Madden 11 for the Wii? And, on the other hand, why can I find a review for HoopWorld, whatever that is, with nearly top billing when I check out Wii at IGN?
(Nothing at their PS2 site on Madden either. What gives?)
(Nothing at their PS2 site on Madden either. What gives?)
--ruffin at 12:52
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[ 2 ]
28 July 2010
A new challenger
While running an errand today I noticed a new video game store along the way. I stopped in and there was a fairly modest selection of games from the PS1 era up through the current generation. The place had a scent of new paint, so I asked the proprietor how long he'd been around. Answer: Two months.
I mentioned that I enjoyed finding and browsing independent shops and he offered his motivations for opening his own store. "GameStop bought a used game from my son for $14 and then sold it for $47. That's just wrong."
Amusing, and I didn't even bother to point out that one could see that story and come to the same conclusion (i.e. open your own store) for perfectly rational capitalistic reasons.
He did mention that he had come across some Atari 2600 games and would bring them to the store, so I'll stop by again in a week or two and see what he's got.
--jvm at 14:24
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[ 0 ]
15 July 2010
The glorious future of games
Kinsley would call this a gaffe, perhaps?
The video games industry has to learn to operate in a different way. My answer is for us as publishers is to actually sell unfinished games - and to offer the consumer multiple micro-payments to buy elements of the full experience.
Emphasis mine. Well, someone finally said it out loud. This is, of course, the natural progression from releasing beta games as final.
Remind me not to buy any CodeMasters games.
--jvm at 14:26
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[ 0 ]
04 July 2010
GTA4 (PC): FImp
Been playing GTA4, even though I've got God of War 2 in the PS2 and Team Fortress 2 sitting on the Mac. (And, admittedly, Golden Axe 3 on the Wii.) Quick notes.
* I've gotten just past (potential very minor spoiler here) where Roman and Niko have to move.
* The game is very good.
* That said, it's nothing like its reviews. It doesn't really feel "more realistic" than GTA3:SA. Too many reviews talked about how you had to earn your weapons and that you started with no money, etc. Forgive me here, but I remember starting out with a bike in SA, and, in GTA3, it seems I recall running around with a bat for a really long time. Nor does the city feel (operative word is "feel" here) that much larger than the cities of SA. That is, it's not that horribly much more immersive.
That is to say, GTA4 is ultimately very much like GTA:SA and GTA3. Cars with hoods flying off, bad driving ignored by cops, easier to run mobs over than shoot them, lots of ammo available at the Ammu-Nation equivalency, radio is as snide as ever, etc. There're slightly fewer over-the-top locations and I don't yet own an airstrip, but when the nearby restaurant waitress routinely & sarcastically asks me if I want a "meal and a h**d job," I'm guessing we're not exactly toeing the realism line here either.
I mean, though I do miss its gang wars, I don't miss SA's arcade-style jetpacks and the "chase the koosh" missions straight from Power Drive Rally. Still, other than a slightly harder, slightly more realistic/less arcade-ish edge to some missions, it seems, it's the same game as SA. That there's no real shift in game mechanics is a shame -- Niko started off sounding like he wanted to have some ethics, and at one point can choose to wax or release a guy he'd been sent to kill. I'd hoped for a little more character development and influence between in-game choices and the story you play out, and that promise goes out the window shortly afterward the choice to spare (or not) that earlier mark. After the missions he does solely for money soon after, Niko strikes me as the hardest criminal of the series now.
* Perhaps it's because I'm dual booting into Vista instead of living there, but the Games for Windows requirements and phoning home bothers me not at all. As long as I can play indefinitely and Rockstar provides a single-player enabling patch once their servers are down, I'm fine.
I'm also fine with the Xbox 360 controller requirement. At first not being able to use my Logitech rumble pad (and I tried the dll hacks) riled me, but after eBaying a used Xbox controller for $6 shipped, I've got to say I like the feel of it. Why not make Windows more console-like? And I do find myself wondering how often the Xbox phones home too.
* I enjoy the characters. Little Jacob, Michelle, Malorie, Vlad, Faustin, Dmitri, Roman, Brucie -- this is probably the first GTA where I remember nearly every NPC's name. Most memorable story so far for me for some reason. This isn't to say Caesar, Tenpenny, and James Woods' character aren't memorable. And Big Smoke. And Ryder. And the blind dude who owns the casino. I guess the pot selling dude was memorable too.
Okay, perhaps it's not so much "memorable" as "engaging." These characters in GTA4 are much more engaging so far. So far, they seem a little less foils to set up the possibility of missions than characters I'd like to know more about.
* Running GTA4 on a 2.26 Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook with two gigs of RAM is actually quite playable. It's burning itself up, but plays well. I'm sure it'd wow the crud out of me if I had real hardware, but I don't find myself complaining in my ignorance.
* The game is hella cheap. I got it for about $6, iirc, from NewEgg a while back. Steam has it on sale for $5 through today. Again, this is for WinPC.
If you're looking for a brand new experience, this isn't it. Probably the most notable change so far for me is the inclusion of talking GPS in cars. But if you were addicted to a previous GTA3+ and want more of the same with a better plot, now's the time to pull the trigger for your Windows box. If you have one -- and an Xbox controller you can borrow -- that is. The console version is still pretty steep.
Oh, and note to Matt: Did you play Vice City Stories on PS2? Horrible, horrible plot, at least to start. Voice acting, dialog, plot all atrocious. I'll stipulate that for $5 I owe it the chance to get better, but I'm pretty sure I'll be well through GTA4 before I return to VCS. I'm interested, but I'm not sure I trust Rockstar Leeds at this point.
* I've gotten just past (potential very minor spoiler here) where Roman and Niko have to move.
* The game is very good.
* That said, it's nothing like its reviews. It doesn't really feel "more realistic" than GTA3:SA. Too many reviews talked about how you had to earn your weapons and that you started with no money, etc. Forgive me here, but I remember starting out with a bike in SA, and, in GTA3, it seems I recall running around with a bat for a really long time. Nor does the city feel (operative word is "feel" here) that much larger than the cities of SA. That is, it's not that horribly much more immersive.
That is to say, GTA4 is ultimately very much like GTA:SA and GTA3. Cars with hoods flying off, bad driving ignored by cops, easier to run mobs over than shoot them, lots of ammo available at the Ammu-Nation equivalency, radio is as snide as ever, etc. There're slightly fewer over-the-top locations and I don't yet own an airstrip, but when the nearby restaurant waitress routinely & sarcastically asks me if I want a "meal and a h**d job," I'm guessing we're not exactly toeing the realism line here either.
I mean, though I do miss its gang wars, I don't miss SA's arcade-style jetpacks and the "chase the koosh" missions straight from Power Drive Rally. Still, other than a slightly harder, slightly more realistic/less arcade-ish edge to some missions, it seems, it's the same game as SA. That there's no real shift in game mechanics is a shame -- Niko started off sounding like he wanted to have some ethics, and at one point can choose to wax or release a guy he'd been sent to kill. I'd hoped for a little more character development and influence between in-game choices and the story you play out, and that promise goes out the window shortly afterward the choice to spare (or not) that earlier mark. After the missions he does solely for money soon after, Niko strikes me as the hardest criminal of the series now.
* Perhaps it's because I'm dual booting into Vista instead of living there, but the Games for Windows requirements and phoning home bothers me not at all. As long as I can play indefinitely and Rockstar provides a single-player enabling patch once their servers are down, I'm fine.
I'm also fine with the Xbox 360 controller requirement. At first not being able to use my Logitech rumble pad (and I tried the dll hacks) riled me, but after eBaying a used Xbox controller for $6 shipped, I've got to say I like the feel of it. Why not make Windows more console-like? And I do find myself wondering how often the Xbox phones home too.
* I enjoy the characters. Little Jacob, Michelle, Malorie, Vlad, Faustin, Dmitri, Roman, Brucie -- this is probably the first GTA where I remember nearly every NPC's name. Most memorable story so far for me for some reason. This isn't to say Caesar, Tenpenny, and James Woods' character aren't memorable. And Big Smoke. And Ryder. And the blind dude who owns the casino. I guess the pot selling dude was memorable too.
Okay, perhaps it's not so much "memorable" as "engaging." These characters in GTA4 are much more engaging so far. So far, they seem a little less foils to set up the possibility of missions than characters I'd like to know more about.
* Running GTA4 on a 2.26 Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook with two gigs of RAM is actually quite playable. It's burning itself up, but plays well. I'm sure it'd wow the crud out of me if I had real hardware, but I don't find myself complaining in my ignorance.
* The game is hella cheap. I got it for about $6, iirc, from NewEgg a while back. Steam has it on sale for $5 through today. Again, this is for WinPC.
If you're looking for a brand new experience, this isn't it. Probably the most notable change so far for me is the inclusion of talking GPS in cars. But if you were addicted to a previous GTA3+ and want more of the same with a better plot, now's the time to pull the trigger for your Windows box. If you have one -- and an Xbox controller you can borrow -- that is. The console version is still pretty steep.
Oh, and note to Matt: Did you play Vice City Stories on PS2? Horrible, horrible plot, at least to start. Voice acting, dialog, plot all atrocious. I'll stipulate that for $5 I owe it the chance to get better, but I'm pretty sure I'll be well through GTA4 before I return to VCS. I'm interested, but I'm not sure I trust Rockstar Leeds at this point.
Labels: firstimpressions, gta, PC
--ruffin at 14:06
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[ 1 ]
25 June 2010
Activision tries to stand out
I was passing through a GameStop earlier today and there was a fairly large shipping box at the front of the store, clearly labeled as "From: Activision". I asked the clerk about it, and was told that Activision was going to have its own metal stand in the store, just for Activision games.
That's expensive, you can be sure. Especially if it's being done across the hundreds of GameStop stores in the U.S.
But, I can kind of understand it. I consider myself a fairly savvy game shopper, but even I was bewildered by the huge wall of games available in GameStop. If there were an attractive kiosk with Activision games somewhere in the store, I might be more likely to see those few games than I would many others on the big wall.
It will be interesting to see how it works out.
Someone else in the store -- I don't think it was an employee -- made the comment that Activision was "worse than EA" even when EA was at its peak. Frankly, I have little interest in either company's games, but I think it's amusing that this opinion (which I've seen tossed around on NeoGAF, where I hang out) has become mainstream enough to get mentioned in videogame store chatter.
--jvm at 17:37
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[ 1 ]
Retail PS3 games on PS3: Finally!
I would never have finished* Burnout Paradise if it hadn't been available as a full-game download on the PlayStation Store. Simply having a game available to play all the time makes it much more likely to get played. Had I stuck with the Blu-Ray version of Burnout Paradise, I'd likely never have enjoyed it as much.
(In a similar way, I really love having two dozen games or so on my PSP Go. That plus the game save-state feature makes the PSP Go one of my favorite handhelds of all time. Regrettably, if I like a handheld, it's probably going to be a loser. See also: Atari Lynx.)
There are only two other important games on the PlayStation Store that are also sold on Blu-Ray disc: Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. I've often wondered why this was the case, but it now appears that Sony is going to start putting more full PS3 games on the PS Store.
According to the details of the EU PSN+ program, early adopters will get a downloadable version of LittleBigPlanet as a bonus and will soon have access to a trial version of inFamous which can be converted to the full version with the purchase of a key.
Sony should have been doing this a long time ago. The three existing games on the service showed that the concept can work, and the PSN+ service certainly isn't required to promote full game downloads. Now we just need Sony to make games available online the same day as they're available at retail, and they'll have a real advantage over their competitors.
* For my own ego's sake, achieving the Burnout Paradise License is finishing. I won't ever get the Burnout Elite License, especially since my Burnout Paradise License was lost when my original PS3 60GB died and took the save games with it.
--jvm at 16:49
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20 June 2010
Make Online Game Storefronts Suck Less, Please
The three big hardware manufacturers all have relatively robust online software distribution systems now. I'm just about to the point that I could live without retail games at all. However, it is clear that this space is still not taken seriously enough by the platform stakeholders or the third-party publishers.
Sony was able to give a complete line-up of Move games but we still have practically no idea what PSN games we can expect in the next 12 months. Heck, even the next six months. The PSN+ plan is an incremental step, and should help lay the foundation for a robust, long-term service offering, but Sony is not setting out a clear vision for consumers. Sure, subscribers can expect free access to games but which games will be available and when? If Sony doesn't make it clear that some truly ace games are going to be on the PSN+ list, the plan will likely languish and only attract the truly hardcore PSN junkies.
Sony (and Microsoft and Nintendo) need long-term lists of software release dates for their services. If we can get release dates for titles coming to retail stores, we should be able to get the same for online services. Here's a sample of just how FUBAR Sony's system is: on 27 May they announced the 1 June release of a game, then on 1 June had to apologize that someone screwed up and it didn't get released. This is not an isolated incident, and isn't just a scheduling problem. Sony also releases broken software and then has to pull the releases. Just in the past few months, Sony also uploaded a broken version of After Burner for the PSP and a version of Dark Forces (PS1) that works on the PSP but hangs on the PS3. The bugs are obvious to anyone who downloads and uses these files for just five minutes -- yet Sony can't even be bothered to do even this much for its users.
For this, and many other reasons, I expect PSN+ to be a debacle at launch.
At E3 2010 Microsoft seemed so distracted by Kinect that it did little to promote what I consider its crown jewel, the Xbox Live Service. Yes, its Netflix client may be getting a search function (the PS3 and Wii versions need this too, please) and the new 2D Castlevania game is a coup, but I haven't heard much beyond those tidbits that seemed significant. Maybe I just missed it, so feel free to me. From what I can tell, Microsoft at least has its software quality and scheduling pretty well done, even if a long-term release schedule is still unavailable. (I don't own an Xbox 360. So I'm not as fully-informed in this area.)
I believe Nintendo has a similar problem providing information on its online software releases, but it also lacks the facility to tie purchased games to an account for portability. When my PS3 died (I have a Slim now) it was a matter of setting up an overnight download/install process to install all of my favorite PSN purchases. In the morning the system had cut itself off and my games were ready to play. Similarly, I can put the same games on my two PSP systems without any trouble. Purchases from Xbox Live are tied to an account as well, and are portable in a similar way (although there are slightly different rules).
That copy of Kirby (NES) that I bought for my son on the Wii store? If our Wii dies, I'll have to buy it all over again or hassle customer support to move our games over in some way. Same for Super Mario Bros. (NES) that Collin wanted. But that's as far as we go. Until there is some sort of portability for these purchases -- at least to the same hardware or new Nintendo systems -- we're not buying anything else in Nintendo's virtual storefront. The launch of WiiWare and DSiWare and (presumably) 3DSWare makes the problem all the more acute.
I had hoped Nintendo would use E3 2010 and the showcase of its new handheld to announce that it will finally deal with this problem, but that hasn't happened. While I think the 3DS looks like a nice piece of hardware, my appetite for it is diminished by the lack of parity with the features that Sony -- of all companies! -- has offered for the past four years.
Microsoft, by far, is doing the best work and I hope the other companies will work to surpass that standard. Still, each company can do better. For example, which company will be the first to offer me a storefront that is as useful as the one Amazon has?
--jvm at 23:36
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[ 1 ]
18 June 2010
E3 2010: The interesting bits
This week the videogame industry met in Los Angeles to hold E3 2010. I am already way behind in playing several videogames I've collected since late 2009, but I couldn't help getting excited about several things I saw this week.
PS3/PSP
Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable will finally get a version of Pac-man Championship Edition, similar to the game available on the Xbox 360 for years. Also, it appears that the PS3 version of Portal 2 might have been intentionally left out of that game's official announcement earlier this year, just so it could make a big splash on Sony's E3 stage. Sony is also giving Sly Cooper the HD-retread treatment. The source material is not as rich as the God of War 1 & 2 Collection, but the very existence of this collection keeps my hopes alive that we'll eventually get an Ico/Colossus Collection, preferably right before The Last Guardian arrives.
That's the excellent stuff I can think of off the top of my head. The perfunctory updates to existing games include inFamous 2 (PS3) , Killzone 3 (PS3), and God of War: Ghost of Sparta (PSP). These kinds of things are expected.
I was disappointed that Sony didn't at least show off their PSP-upgrade plans. I love the platform and regularly buy full games and minis through the PlayStation Store onto my PSP Go (which can only play downloaded games), but the platform is really aging quickly. God of War and Pac-man CE might keep me somewhat happy, but it won't suffice for another year...
As for PlayStation Move, Sony's motion control scheme ... I'm interested. I've already got the camera, so I'll get a primary and secondary controller to test the waters. However, Sony's going to have to make some pretty compelling software to move the wider public into their camp. Also, the $100 bundle price (camera, primary controller, game) is kind of steep for the mass market.
Xbox 360
Microsoft is going all-out with Kinect, their camera-driven motion control system. This looks like a great idea for some games, like Dance Central from Harmonix. I'm less than confident that this will work for driving or shooting games. There have also been some technical questions that have to be answered: will it work while sitting and is it easily distracted? The key advantage I see for Microsoft is that the price (rumored to be $150) will cover more than one person (provided that the technical issues above don't interfere).
The exclusive deal Microsoft has for Call of Duty DLC frustrates me. Contractual third-party exclusivity frustrates me more each day, and I don't even care about CoD DLC. Let's just get the games on all the viable platforms and call it a day. First-party exclusives are, of course, perfectly fine.
Wii, NDS, 3DS
Nintendo put out a very impressive show of software and hardware. They've got a new Zelda, Donkey Kong, Metroid, and Kirby in the pipeline for the Wii ... they'll be making money hand over fist from those games. Go watch the Kirby trailer and be amazed at how impressive 2D games can be in an age where most console players appear to worship high-definition 3D shooters. The message was clear: we've got software taken care of, for at least another one or two years.
I'm still waiting on the pricing for the new 3DS handheld, but it sounds very cool. I'm particularly interested in the Metal Gear Solid 3 game. That was the best game in the series, at least in my book, and if the 3DS provides a compelling platform on which to play a suitably modified and improved/expanded version of the game, then I'm going to be on board. However, I'm not nearly convinced that this system can come to retail under $200, and that will put a damper on sales. Yes, glasses-free 3D is a sweet feature, but it may not be sweet enough for parents whose kids already have a Wii and/or Nintendo DS...
Oh, hey, here's the site logo. I'll fix the broken one in the header now...
--jvm at 22:45
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