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The Downsides to Digital Distribution
The gaming industry's ongoing shift from physical media to direct downloads has made buying new titles much more convenient, and in some cases cheaper. However, as this article in The Escapist notes, there are downsides as well, such as an increased dependence on console makers and the inability to sell your used games. Quoting:
"Microsoft and Sony might end up charging publishers an arm and a leg to enable game downloads, especially as they gain more and more control over distribution. Think about it: What if, 10 years from now, 50 percent of software sales for Microsoft's latest console come through Xbox Live? Or, in an even scarier scenario for consumers, what if there is no physical media drive at all, and everything goes through Xbox Live? Sony's marriage to the Blu-ray format ensures its continued support of game discs, but Microsoft has no such restrictions. They could cut console production costs and take control over the entire supply chain in one fell swoop. There would be zero room for publishers to negotiate anything in such a de facto monopoly. The perfect comparison is Wal-Mart. As the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart is able to demand pretty much whatever it wants of suppliers because it grants access to such large numbers of consumers."
I declare: 2015 will be the year of the Linux video game console!
With games like networked FreeCiv, custom content versions based on the open source Quake II engine, and Snake who needs the evil, proprietary XBox Live?
On the other hand... for anybody who didn't realize that Microsoft *invested* $4-8 Billion on the original Xbox to claim the $40-80 Billion "home entertainment market" in the future... shame on you.
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If they had an actual monopoly, do you think the prices would still be low?
Umm... no, it's not. Because of Walmart's bizarre moralizing policies, many creative endeavors end up being curtailed and censored to see the shelves at Walmart. I mean, they censor all the music in their stores! And they don't even always warn you that the album has bleeps! Meanwhile, 10 feet away you can buy the unrated version of Natural Born Killers. I don't get it...
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As someone who bought two copies of Portal (one standalone, then as part of the Orange Box) and got pissed at the Steam for not letting me give one of the copies away, I sympathize with this. I've already decided that I won't buy stuff on Steam any more unless (like for Portal 2 and HL Episode 3) there's no other source.
With Wal Mart prices are LOWER. Maybe not for companies, but as a consumer Wal Mart's monopoly is a good thing for me.
That is a dangerously short-sighted view. Wal-Mart under charges, creating a false, diminished sense of monetary value of products. Consequently, either the product quality suffers, or the conditions under which the product is manufactured suffer (e.g., factory farms, slave labor).
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Don't game companies still need approval from Microsoft to distribute games in physical media? If so, how would moving to a downloads change that? You still need the same approval you did before.
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Of course people can say Marxist theory is insane, but the predominant economic theory is that everything is fine, markets correct themselves and all of that nonsense. So what is really more off-the-wall, the Marxists or the Panglossian head-in-the-sand economists of today who say everything is fine? This is from someone who has seen the US economy stagnating since 2000 (other than some slight growth in the mid-decade with the real estate bubble, which is currently popping).
x box live already charges outrageous amounts for games that came out 10+ years ago.
Some might claim that Disney charges outrageous amounts for films that came out 70 years ago. What makes you think the prices for rereleases on Xbox Live Marketplace and Wii Shop Channel are outrageous?
Consequently, both the product quality suffers and the conditions under which the product is manufactured suffer (e.g., factory farms, slave labor).
Fixed that for you :)
Fixed that for you :)
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Microsoft commandeer a market, forcing developers to use their proprietary tools and to cater only to their platform?
Yeah, like that will ever happen...
Funny may not give karma, but +5 Informative never made anyone snort coffee out their nose.
Probably - they've figured out that underpricing everyone out of the market will keep them unfathomably rich. If they raised them that would open the door to a new competitor rising up and spoiling the currently perfect scenario.
It's like in those old sword fighting movies when the hero is disarmed and the villain just for shits and giggles tosses him back a sword - and he inevitably regrets it. Wal-mart isn't stupid enough to keep tossing competitors back a sword by lowering their prices. They've found something that works and seem to be sticking with it.
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STFU.
Fixed that for you :)
Fixed that for you :)
Fixed that for you :)
Digital distribution is fine, as long as these guarantees are in place:
1) I can transfer my rights to the game to some 3rd party (ie, selling it on the 'used game market')
2) I can play the game without it needing to 'phone home' (so I can play it offline, and I can play it even if the activation servers go away).
3) I can play my game on any other device (eg, my wii breaks down and I buy a new one-- i should be able to play all my purchased games on the new one).
4) If the next generation console is backwards-compatible, I can transfer all my old games onto it and play them there (again, hopefully this would work even if the old activation servers no longer exist).
wrap it all up in drm if you want, but it needs to walk and talk like physical media, including all the freedoms (rights) i have now with my physical media.
Capitalism has a tendency towards monopoly. This was pointed out by Marx in the 19th century, and expanded upon by Lenin 95 years ago [marxists.org]. T
I have a broader theory than that. Things tend towards shit over time. The longer the period of time, the greater the likelihood all will be shit. Finally that shit hits the fan, people get mad enough to do something about it, and they put together something that isn't shit; it might even be quite good. But then they relax and time goes on and things start going to shit again.
Capitalism sucks. Marx and his buddies saw that, tried to come up with a better idea. It turned to shit. Capitalism has had a few reversals thanks to the threat of socialism/communism but now that the threat has gone away, things are sliding to shit again.
Microsoft products suck. But some hippies and computer scientists tried coming up with a better idea and Microsoft said "Oh, shit." So they were able to actually reverse the shittification process of the 9x series and came up with Win2k. Brilliant. But then the slide towards shit resumed. Some people liked XP, some people hated it, but everyone hated Vista. W7, a reversal or a further slide down the shit chute? Only time will tell.
So, to somehow get back on topic. Company makes a game machine. It's great. Company gets greedier and graspy and ends up alienating customers, turning to shit. Eventually people won't want to use their shitty products anymore and they go away. Atari exists only as a brand name used by another company. Sega is a shadow of its former self. Nintendo remains but people argue as to whether they've declined or are stronger than ever. Certainly they don't dominate the market as they did in the NES/SNES era. Sony came onto the scene out of nowhere with the PSX, reigned supreme with the PS2, and became an also-ran with the PS3.
It's hard to say what the future will hold but I do think the console makers are lusting after digital distro. The only question is whether the market would bite. I thought Circuit City's Div-X would have been more popular than it was and was pleased when it failed. Will customers make the right choice here?
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North Korea. They're so poor and backwards, even electromagnetic waves don't propagate properly.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Wal-mart isn't stupid enough to keep tossing competitors back a sword by lowering their prices. They've found something that works and seem to be sticking with it.
Didn't you mean raising?
This comment is worded exactly as intended. Any application of lame "Fixed that for you" jokes will be "dealt with".
Irony bleeds.
That's not how monopolies work. If Wal-Mart had an *actual* monopoly, they *could* raise their prices because no one else would be there to undercut them.
In your analogy, it would be like the villain throwing a dead hero back his sword.
However, while Wal-Mart isn't a monopoly per se, it does have some monopolistic attributes which, while probably not illegal, are at least a bit concerning from the consumer's point of view. Wal-Mart is sufficiently large to make demands of suppliers, such as the movies and CDs are (or at least, were, I haven't looked into it recently) edited from their original versions and were no labeled as such. If you're opposed to RFID (personally, I'm not terribly concerned by them, but some are), Wal-Mart is instrumental in getting them into products. Similar happened with the bar code. Wal-Mart demanded all products have a bar code, and thus they became standard everywhere.
Finally, they bully their suppliers to such an extent that they often have to provide products at a price lower than they can afford or not be carried at all. While this generally means lower prices for the consumer, it forces manufacturers to cut costs and cut corners, often by lowering the quality of their products and shipping jobs overseas (e.g., to China). To me, this is the worst thing Wal-Mart does, and is the most invisible. We get products cheaper today by sending our jobs overseas, which sends wealth from the US to China, not to bolster the US economy, but to bolster Wal-Mart's profits. I'm not against profits at all, but there comes a point where someone's right to seek profit causes too much damage to the rest of us to be allowed.
Many 'monopolistic attributes' die. Wal-Mart demanded music companies stop selling to iTunes, and they were ignored. Wal-Mart fills their store with cheap junk, so people switch to Target. Wal-Mart demands lower prices and the cheaper products end up with higher return rates and product failures, which also lead to increased legal and insurance costs.
Many manufacturers choose not to sell their products through Wal-mart while many others have their own oligopolies that Wal-Mart has to contend with, such as car batteries and name-brand pharmaceuticals.
The shipping of jobs to China is not a Wal-Mart issue nor even a China issue, it is a U.S. immigration policy and labor policy issue. For over a century the U.S. was the destination for opportunity and freedom from oppression. Immigrants would come here to seek better lives for themselves or for their children. They would come here with no skills, empty stomachs, and a strong desire to make the world a better place for themselves and others. They would work terrible hours for terrible wages in poor conditions. They saved every penny they made and lived in poverty so they could afford to send their children to good schools and better colleges. On the backs of their eager labor, entrepreneurs would make millions, employ thousands, and establish and expand schools, churches, and other not-for-profit organizations. The Smithsonian, Harvard, Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, Howard Hughes Medical Institution are just a few of the largest and most prestigious, with countless small and mid-size organizations created by them that make daily differences in people's lives.
But today only 10,000 people who are do not have direct relatives are allowed to entry into the U.S. Even if you have a direct relative, it is still not an easy or fast process to gain citizenship. Wage laws make hiring people a significant risk with large tax liabilities and insurance payments attached to hiring. Minimum wages make it impossible to hire unskilled labor and maintain a profit. These policies mean that we are not going to make very many things that people want to purchase.
Wal-Mart cannot be held to blame for this policy for many reasons, not the least of which is that they are doing what every company in every industry in the U.S. is doing. Go to just about any non-Wal-Mart store, online and offline, and you'll find many of the products are made in China. Design a product and figure out how much it is going to cost and how many you have to sell to make a profit, and you'll quickly decide that the U.S. is not a smart choice for your manufacturing needs.
To get an even better feel, take a look at how many products are made in the U.S. China is the nation that we have the largest trade-deficit with, but it is not the only one. In fact, there are no countries with which we have a notable trade surplus. If special tariffs were created just for Chinese imports, companies would quickly move to Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, India, South Korea, Eastern Europe, etc.
However, believe it or not, nobody enjoys doing business with China. If fact, everyone hates it. There is an 8-11 hour time difference. Simple questions take a day to get a response to. When there are warranty issues, it's hard to deal with when the supplier is in another country. The payment terms are awful, long lead times make forecasting a constant nightmare, and high minimum order quantities give headaches and nightmares to executives everywhere.
This problem is not about preference, it is about market forces. Wealth is leaving this nation at an astonishing rate and we are only doing things to increase that rate.
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