Industry Asks Gamers To Pay More

Last week we mentioned a Guardian post about secondhand games, with some industry commentary that the secondhand market was lowering the innovation expectations of developers. Today, the Gamers With Jobs: Press Pass reacts to the whining of the poor underpaid developers: "The always candid David Jaffe wrote: 'You know what? Why the **** should we even try anymore?' while Epic's CliffyB noted: 'What other entertainment medium that's mass market is at $60 a pop?' Cliffy would seem to have the right of it. The used market for DVDs, or CDs is relatively small. Why? Presumably because getting a five dollar discount on a fifteen dollar DVD is not as enticing as thirty dollars off of a sixty dollar game; when it's only five bucks, the natural desire to buy something perfect and new will, in most cases, outweigh thriftiness. While I certainly sympathize with Mr. Jaffe's frustration on this matter, his concerns are a result of working for an industry which refuses to intelligently adapt to a changing marketplace."

Comments

MMO's and indy games

[Harbinjer]

Well, there's certainly lots of MMO's out there that charge per month. And of course the indy games that are free, or some that are cheap, like 10-30. I think the game industry is facing a big change, one way or another.

Re:MMO's and indy games

[TheRealBlueEAGLE]

Paying per month is certainly an option that we might see more of. Systems like Valves Steam might be turning towards a subscription plan for updates, but that might drop off lots of customers as they feel that they are paying for a game over and over. Unlike ORPGs that has got obvious expenses with server maitenence people will be hard to convince that they need to pay more than once for a single player game.

I think FunCom has struck a piece of genious in the way they allow people to play the original Anarchy-Online for free, wilst giving the option to buy the Shadowlands and Alien invasion expansions to gain access to the rest of the games. This type of "feature" will probably only be feasible for such ORPGs as other types of games aren't really that geared towards upgrading your player character. The accounting system of Battlefield2 however might be elligeble if you were able to get a free or cheaper version that is not elligeble to play on ranked servers. If you choose to upgrade you will be able to accumulate points and upgrade weapons on ranked servers. Just a thought.

However lowering prices on games would probably entice people to buy the game instead of pirating it. Still this chicken and egg situation has been debated for ages and will probably continue to be debated for ages to come.

In the end it will probably be a combination of online accounting systems that allow for upgrades and good "teasers" that will allow people to play a big part of the game for free but still leave a significant feature out that will make it harder for them to advance that will make gamers play.

Just my thoughts right out of bed. ;D

Re:They need to charge less, not more.

[voice_of_all_reason]

Right, not having the money for the stuff you want gives you the desire to steal.

My ally is the torrent. And a powerful ally it is...

"poor underpaid developers"

[stlhawkeye]

I know a lot of people in the development community. UO and UO2 programmers, a designer for Galaxies, people from Digital Anvil, EA, Microsoft. Most of them make enough in 8 months to take 4 months off a year collecting unemployment. One is about to head back to work because he's blown through the $30,000 he had in his savings account after his last contract was up (was a gig with Microsoft). His new job is level design and mission scripting for a PS3 game. The pay is $50 hour plus double pay for overtime. So he'll work for 6 months then take the rest of the year off to play Warcraft. I have no sympathy.

It's not the price, it's the protection.

[sehlat]

I fall into the category of "casual gamer." Which means I've got a day job that lets me *afford* games, I don't have the time to cope with anything that's going to eat my life learning how to play. But that's not the major reason I've pretty much quit buying games.

The major reason is the nasty, intrusive and ugly copy protection, and yes, I mean *YOU*, Half-Life 2. The dozen or so times I tried to play the game, EVERY STINKING TIME I STARTED IT UP the program would run out to Steam's servers and ask "mother may I," making it VERY plain that Valve regards everybody who buys its game as a thief or thief wannabe. It also extended what should have been a less than thirty second startup time into five to ten minutes.

I got tired of being bitch-slapped by Valve's nastiness. Also, consider this: I can't sell the game to the used market because, once registered, you're pretty much stuck with the thing.

Feh!

EB Games sells USED games as NEW

[thpdg]

I'm really fed up with these gaming shops that open up EVERY copy of almost EVERY game in the store.
They keep them all locked up in a showcase, and put empty boxes on the floor.
WHY should I buy the brand new version, when they've already opened it up and rifled through it? They've probably even played it. That's not new product. Aren't there laws about selling used materials as new, any way?

Re:Reply

[sstamps]

Amen to that!

I don't buy second-hand games, but I do buy games usually at discount sales (like at the recent closing of Media Play), or a year or three after they have come out when the price has dropped into the $20-30 range. Why? Because few games nowadays are WORTH more than that to me. Many games are the same rehashed formulaic crap, just like what Hollywood has been regurgitating on the audiences for years (and in some cases, the games are made from those franchises.. serious double-plus-ungood karma there). Eye candy alone does not impress me at all, as I still can go back and play DOS CGA games and have a blast playing them, because the GAME is good, regardless of how it is rendered. I know not everyone is like that, but that's what gets *my* hard-earned cash.

I think the biggest problem facing the industry is that it is industry a dearth of design creativity, and is substituting high-dollar glitz and glamour. Also, most game companies are notoriously and horribly mis-managed, wasting $5 million dollars on an idea which doesn't even rate a B title.

What will revive the industry is a resurgence of small, fast, smart, and creative independents, some of who will eventually become tomorrow's giants, and the cycle will repeat itself. The very best of them will remember what made their games and companies great, and carry that wisdom forward to be a dominant player in the industry for a long time to come.

In the meantime, we as gamers will have to live with the winter of our discontent. For me, that doesn't include paying US$60-$100 for an average game.