YES, Xbox One DOES need internet, DOES restrict game trading Microsoft has finally confirmed that Xbox fans' worst fears are at least partially true: Although the new Xbox One gaming console won't need an always-on internet connection, that connection had better be on pretty often or you can forget about gaming. And don't assume you'll be able to sell or trade your old games, either. " …
Absolutely right. I just found my old copy of the original Diablo the other day and though I played the crap out of that game long ago I installed it and it's almost fresh again. I also don't need an internet connection or to register it online since I own it and installing a game and playing it less than 2 minutes without some stupid please register popup made me realize how good getting a new game used to be and why I rarely buy games now.
Nice to hear an intelligently expressed view JDX.
Personally I think that sale of new games is affected by availability of trade-in options. I usually buy 2nd hand, but sometimes new if it's a game that I want. The thing is, I wouldn't have bought some of those games new if I knew that I wouldn't be able to claw some of my cash back by selling on. So ultimately how much does the publisher benefit from stopping me selling my games ?
XBox / PS market share is still a big factor. If PS4 doesn't allow resale blocking it will likely gain some market share from XBox One as 2nd hand gamers switch. If MS stick to their guns but perceive this threat too they will likely pressure publishers to allow resale as, after all, MS still have to licence the games, right ?
Some good news here is that EA actually stopped their 'online code' requirement for multiplayer in games bought 2nd hand, so maybe they will allow resale and others too.
Ah yes more fool you then, without the cheap secondhand game market there won't be platinum games editions, who did you think they were competing against? They sell the game for $109.95 until enough people have got tired of playing them and traded them in that the market for new copies tanks, then they release platinum editions at the same price of second hand games to keep the money rolling to them instead of the second hand game shops.
If they can kill the second hand game market they will never need to release cheap platinum edition copies to compete, they will just sell the games at $109.95 until the market is saturated and sales stop, then release the next piece of mindless entertainement at $109.95 etc etc. Gamers will either have to pay the $109.95 or simply never play the game.
I don't buy used games either.
The platinum series and equivalents don't seem to be properly stocked at retail.
These consoles are not going to be sold at a loss. The stuff in them is not that expensive at all.
It would be interesting if MS released this at £150 though that would start to bleed Sony.
Cannot imagine it costs much more than that to make.
Those old 8-bit games are a fuck sight more fun to play than the 3D eye-candy shite that passes for video games these days anyway!
Case in point: I was playing Bubble Bobble on an Amiga emulator with my mate a few weeks ago, and I'd forgotten how much fun it was. There's something "delicious" about all those 16-colour cartoon candies that modern realistic games can't match. The gameplay is focused on fun rather than immersion, and I didn't realise how much I'd missed that kind of gameplay until we sat down and whiled away a few evenings with it!
I wrote a report at uni on the quality of graphcis vs gameplay. The general thesis of it was along the following lines.
Year 0, 8 bit games had extremely limited graphics and sound capabilities, the only way to sell a game was to focus almost entirely on the gameplay aspect. Some of the best of this genre were the text based games as they had no graphical foucs.
Year 1. Poor quality graphics and audio focus is still on gmeplay over graphics.
*fast forward*
Modern games (PS generation) graphics are now a key score on reviews matching gameplay. The developers started to focus on graphics more, but there was still a rather low ceiling on what could be done, so this was probably a fairly golden transition phase. Good graphics and a focus on gameplay.
PS2 generation, the graphical roof was raised and gameplay was focused on less and less, graphics continued to get more and more focus in reviews.
PS3 generation, pretty much no ceiling anymore, and a flood of FPS clones since the gameplay already exists without any additional effort.
There are of course games out there which have a focus on graphics and gameplay. But more often than not the gameplay is tacked on to make use of graphics and physics features, rather than graphics and physics features being designed to make the gameplay stand out.
My younger brother (by 33 years) laughed at me for bring the original pacman over to play. He soon found out it wasn't as easy as he thought. Would love to load up donkey kong, space invaders and defender for him. Nothing better than showing him how badly he is at a game after he pulls the poor-winner bit with the slightly younger sister with street fighter. At least she'll light saber his character if he jerks with her on the lego star wars games.
I really wish a lot of the newer games would either have simpler rules or better stories to justify all the game playing to learn every nuance.
Want to expand on this? I don't recall any anti consumer actions by Sony. They just make a great console with great games. My PS3 has been my best tech purchase ever. I don't care how much Microsoft shot themselves on the foot. PS4 is a day one purchase for me because every other PlayStation has delivered the goods ( despite Microsoft's attempts too convince people otherwise).
What's really funny is Microsoft fanboys who gave Microsoft a foot in the door must now be feeling rather silly that they are taking advantage of that.
" I don't recall any anti consumer actions by Sony."
You mean other than introducing a rootkit to 5.7 million customers PCs without their consent or knowledge?
You mean other than ripping off the copyright and licence of someone else's software in order to create the rootkit that they tried to justify as copyright protection when they installed it on those customers PCs without their consent or knowledge?
You mean other than lying to their customers through their teeth at every possible turn, and inventing new sets of lies when they were caught?
You mean other than letting hackers run riot over the PSN and then taking a week to bother telling 77 million customers that their personal data had been compromised, possibly including their credit card details?
You mean other than criminal negligence with regard to the hack and their complete and utter failure to maintain something vaguely resembling what is expected of PCI-DSS compliant merchants with regard to network security (unpatched servers, questionable firewalling decisions)?
You mean other than the music division bribing DJs to give their label artists more airplay?
You mean other than INVENTING a film critic to give their films good reviews?
No I don't recall any anti-consumer actions by Sony either.
Given a recent patent application (for discs with NFC chippery built in), I would say Sony will go one better and come up with a "use once only" disc that doesn't even require an Internet connection. Even if you have no Internet at all, once you use the disc, the NFC chip on the disc (which will likely contain a crypto key or the like) will prevent it being used anymore.
They pretty much axed the FUD on the "we'll tie in PS4 disks to one console" during the PS4 unveiling. Similar rumors were put out for PS2 and PS3, and both times they were disproven as well. While they did act as true asshats with the whole OtherOS issue, they haven't gone on full evil as their stupid music arm (the rootkit fiasco) or as MS is now doing with the XboxOne.
And with the WiiU also lacking this stupidity, they even have competition on the "we let you play second hand games" camp.
"Thank you, Microsoft, for making this an easy choice. Now I want to see what Sony offers. If PS4 can play used games offline, then that's my next console."
Nah - with what I've read about the options for playing older games on the PS4, I think I'll stick with my PS3.
Even when the supply of new games runs dry, there will still be plenty of old ones available second hand - and, TBH, although I used to play quite a lot, these days I switch on infrequently enough that my existing collection of games (most of which I haven't even started playing) will probably last for the rest of my life anyway, so even the second hand market is largely irrelevant.
So, it looks as though both Microsoft and Sony have helped save me some money. Nice one, guys.
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