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[TylerDurden4321]

OTs should go up with the early releases.

I disagree because it's legitimizing this practice and could create peer pressure. It's kinda "whatever" for FH3 and the 4 days (and also, so(!) many people here going for it who are eager to discuss their experience, I understand that), but what if the practice catches on and some day it's a collection without VIP and season pass, just the standard edition that unlocks 3 weeks early if you pay 30 bucks more?

 

[failgubbe]

I disagree because it's legitimizing this practice and could create peer pressure. It's kinda "whatever" for FH3 and the 4 days (and also, so(!) many people here going for it who are eager to discuss their experience, I understand that), but what if the practice catches on and some day it's a collection without VIP and season pass, just the standard edition that unlocks 3 weeks early if you pay 30 bucks more?

That would die quicker than online passes

 

[Grettir_the_Swole]

As much as I'd like to envision every big-name video game producer as a Snidely Whiplash-looking super villain with a handlebar mustache, my take is this is the new version of the preorder bonus and, ultimately, the industry's latest way to combat rising overhead with a stagnated MSRP. Unless the MSRP is raised, or developers/producers find another way to stay alive after an unsuccessful release, game companies are going to continue finding new ways to recoup lost costs and protect themselves against a potential commercial failure.

 

[aBarreras]

I like it. I went with the ultimate edition of gears 4 not for the map pack or skins but since I can have the whole weekend to play the game. For me 40$ is worth a weekend of entertainment.

THIS, and i have friday and monday off, so, ho ho ho, im losing my mind.

 

[TheFurizzlyBear]

Yeah, I bet they will just keep bumping that date and price up just like EA stopped making demos because of EA Access....

 

[Zepp Twofist]

New trend? MMO companies have been doing it for at least 8 years.

 

[Snkfanatic]

OTs should go up with the early releases.

Agreed and I hope Horizon's goes up this week.

 

[ultrazilla]

Pretty much where I'm at. All power to those who want to stick with modern console gaming and don't mind the changes... but I'm pretty much done. I enjoy just popping a cart or disc into a console and having it just work-- no updating, no DLC warnings, no need to be online.

Conversely, there's an entire generation of console video game players who grew up with DLC, waiting for patches and installs, and the need for online connectivity. They don't know any different and accept console gaming for what it is now. It's fine for them, and that's great.

Thanks. I just feel like I(we older gamers) have an obligation or at least should try to educate this younger generation of gamers how gaming *used* to be. Where you got FULL game access. Plug and play. Full game. No internet activation. No *pick your size* gig day 1 patches.

Sure, games have grown more complex and life like and I get that the tech used costs money along with the developers who are making these games.

My point is, I'd like to see some of the younger generation take a stand. Don't buy Early Access. Don't buy into Exotic, play a month early, day 0 editions. Don't stand for huge day 1 patches(that by the way, totally screw over people who have metered net connnections).

Hold developers and publishers accountable. Call them on the bullshit but likewise give props to them when they do good by the gaming community.

And if anyone reading this is under 44 and has only really experienced "current gaming", go to a flea market and buy that old Atari 2600, Super NES, Genesis, Vectrex, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2 and some games that go with them. Broaden your gaming horizons and learn the history of gaming. There's an awful amount of fun to be had, back when gaming was plug, play and have fun.

 

[Clark W Grizwald]

Doesn't bother me one bit just like cosmetic DLC that is not pay to win. If people want to spend an extra 30 or 40 bucks for a version of a game to play a few days early good for them.

 

[ElNino]

Thanks. I just feel like I(we older gamers) have an obligation or at least should try to educate this younger generation of gamers how gaming *used* to be. Where you got FULL game access. Plug and play. Full game. No internet activation. No *pick your size* gig day 1 patches.

Sure, games have grown more complex and life like and I get that the tech used costs money along with the developers who are making these games.

My point is, I'd like to see some of the younger generation take a stand. Don't buy Early Access. Don't buy into Exotic, play a month early, day 0 editions. Don't stand for huge day 1 patches(that by the way, totally screw over people who have metered net connnections).

Hold developers and publishers accountable. Call them on the bullshit but likewise give props to them when they do good by the gaming community.

And if anyone reading this is under 44 and has only really experienced "current gaming", go to a flea market and buy that old Atari 2600, Super NES, Genesis, Vectrex, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2 and some games that go with them. Broaden your gaming horizons and learn the history of gaming. There's an awful amount of fun to be had, back when gaming was plug, play and have fun.

I'm close to the same age as you, and with children that are getting into gaming there are plenty of things I try to educate them on... but I don't necessarily have a problem with the things you list here. Not as a blanket statement at least.

When I was young (as in a teenager), I often paid close to, if not more than, $100 for a game (in the SNES, N64, PS1 era at least) so game prices aren't much of an issue for me. I don't have a problem with Day 1 patches, and I don't have a problem with DLC. Micro transactions are a tougher sell, and I DO educate my kids on those and when they are not appropriate/exploitative, but they are easy enough to avoid as it stands.

To be honest, the only game/feature I've had an issue with recently was that the 2K basketball games lock out a significant portion of the game from my son's account because he is younger than 13. I refuse to buy him the newest game unless he is getting it at a big discount as he really only gets half of the game unless he is using my account.

 

[KTO]

Thanks. I just feel like I(we older gamers) have an obligation or at least should try to educate this younger generation of gamers how gaming *used* to be. Where you got FULL game access. Plug and play. Full game. No internet activation. No *pick your size* gig day 1 patches.

Sure, games have grown more complex and life like and I get that the tech used costs money along with the developers who are making these games.

My point is, I'd like to see some of the younger generation take a stand. Don't buy Early Access. Don't buy into Exotic, play a month early, day 0 editions. Don't stand for huge day 1 patches(that by the way, totally screw over people who have metered net connnections).

Hold developers and publishers accountable. Call them on the bullshit but likewise give props to them when they do good by the gaming community.

And if anyone reading this is under 44 and has only really experienced "current gaming", go to a flea market and buy that old Atari 2600, Super NES, Genesis, Vectrex, Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2 and some games that go with them. Broaden your gaming horizons and learn the history of gaming. There's an awful amount of fun to be had, back when gaming was plug, play and have fun.

People paid the equivalent of $70 for FULL GAME ACCESS to Frogs and Flies in 1982. It's a fun game but to say it's 30 minutes of entertainment is a stretch. Retro and modern games are a lot less comparable than you seem to think they are.

 

[ambar_hitman]

OTs should go up with the early releases.

Hmmm. Even Wikipedia page is edited now:

Release date(s) 27 September 2016
(23 September 2016 for "Ultimate Edition" owners)[1]

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

Augment your preorder.

Mofos. Ugh. I'm quite pissed at them for that. :/

 

[Tecnniqe]

Not sure. I do dislike it as the "early" release is usually on a Friday or before a weekend, essentially giving me a weekend of play before the official release and it allows me to get the hype out without only having a few hours a day during the coming work week if I shill out $40 more up front.

But you do get season passes and some more stuff thrown in for good measure, at least on Windows Store, which means the early access is essentially just a added bonus.


I'm torn on the issue at hand.

 

[Cyanity]

I think it's absolute bullshit. Some of us are poor college students who can't afford a surcharge just to play a game earlier. Guess I have to do my homework early this week :

 

[ElNino]

I think it's absolute bullshit. Some of us are poor college students who can't afford a surcharge just to play a game earlier. Guess I have to do my homework early this week :

Except the "surcharge" isn't for early access, it's for extra content. The early access is just a (relatively) new perk to it.

 

[Rizific]

it doesnt bother me. if people want to bend over and give up an additional $20-$30 for a few days early access, feel free. i can wait.

 

[Slaythe]

If someone wants to pay extra to play a game a few days early I don't see a problem with that. Seems like a waste of money, but it doesn't hurt any one.

Right then I just have to go on media blackout for a week, avoid twitch entirely etc...

Yeah no fuck that. That is not acceptable.

 

[Cyanity]

Right then I just have to go on media blackout for a week, avoid twitch entirely etc...

Yeah no fuck that. That is not acceptable.

This is a good point. When this starts happening to story-focused games there are going to be shitstorms.

 

[Tecnniqe]

This is a good point. When this starts happening to story-focused games there are going to be shitstorms.

Cant you consider Gears to be story focused?

By the time the game release the ending will be up there, most likely.

 

[D'ultimate]

Right then I just have to go on media blackout for a week, avoid twitch entirely etc...

Yeah no fuck that. That is not acceptable.

So everyone needs to get games day one or else...spoilers. C'mon man.

Plenty of people are getting games days, weeks and months after release.

All this conjecture, strawman positions, and what-if fear mongering about a bonus for pre-ordering games just seem like bitter tears to me. You don't like a thing so it's a problem and everyone else should too. /rolleyes.

BTW, I've preordered exactly one game in my life. It's not difficult to avoid doing something I'm not forced to do.

 

[Cyanity]

So everyone needs to get games day one or else...spoilers. C'mon man.

Plenty of people are getting games days, weeks and months after release.

All this conjecture, strawman positions, and what-if fear mongering about a bonus for pre-ordering games just seem like bitter tears to me. You don't like a thing so it's a problem and everyone else should too. /rolleyes.

BTW, I've preordered exactly one game in my life. It's not difficult to avoid doing something I'm not forced to do.

Do we really need to give companies MORE ways to milk money from the consumer without giving them a real added value?

 

[Slaythe]

So everyone needs to get games day one or else...spoilers. C'mon man.

Plenty of people are getting games days, weeks and months after release.

All this conjecture, strawman positions, and what-if fear mongering about a bonus for pre-ordering games just seem like bitter tears to me. You don't like a thing so it's a problem and everyone else should too. /rolleyes.

BTW, I've preordered exactly one game in my life. It's not difficult to avoid doing something I'm not forced to do.

It's easy to handle 100 dudes that get the game early.

If everybody can get the game by paying more nobody will have the decency to not spoil left and right.

On top of that, games with multiplayer component give an unfair advantage to people that spend more money to get it earlier.

There is no way in hell where this is a good thing.

Marginal amount of people that get game early through shady retailers == paying fee to get a game earlier.

This is garbage.

 

[Enilced2]

Do we really need to give companies MORE ways to milk money from the consumer without giving them a real added value?

You get the Vip pass and Season pass with it. Its pretty standard like all other games with a bundle version this one just has a preorder bonus of early access... there is added value

 

[blame space]

To be honest, the only game/feature I've had an issue with recently was that the 2K basketball games lock out a significant portion of the game from my son's account because he is younger than 13. I refuse to buy him the newest game unless he is getting it at a big discount as he really only gets half of the game unless he is using my account.

can you expand on this a little? i had no idea content was age-locked in an E rated game.

 

[BHK3]

That would die quicker than online passes

No. It won't. DLC was vilified as it became more exploitation along with On-Disc DLC, way back in the days of 2006/2007, nothing changed and it's the norm.

 

[Angel_DvA]

MS and EA are always the pioneer of what's wrong in the videogame industry IMO, it's annoying but they have a public for it, they're right to do it, some people just don't care about their money when it comes to their hobbies.

 

[Caayn]

That would die quicker than online passes

It won't. Online passes have morphed in a mandatory subscription. And DLC wasn't always as happily accepted as it is now.

 

[Iorv3th]

I think sometimes they promote it as such but when it comes out they are like "oh we actually released both today". I know that happened with one of the Call of Duty's if you pre-ordered or did something you got it like a day early and they just ended up releasing it to everyone the same day.

 

[HeeHo]

Oof, seems super crappy. I have not bought a special edition of a game in almost 10 years. Usually comes with a bunch of junk. I don't want to feel like I need to get the special edition of a game just to keep up with the player base.

Not trying to sound anti-MS, but it does seem(along with EA) like they have a tendency to make business moves that end up hurting the consumer more in the long run.

It doesn't bother me as much as something like 'always-online' DRM but it doesn't sit well with me. It might end up blowing up in their face too.

 

[adamantypants]

As someone who rarely plays games at launch anymore, I couldn't care less. Both launch prices are usually too much for me.

 

[RedStep]

I'm completely fine with it as a bonus thing that is available if I feel like spending the money. Games are held in boxes in the back until release day anyway, it's not like they'd suddenly be released on Thursday without this. We had that before, and we had to call Gamestop/EB every day to see if their shipment came in. It sucked, release dates are the way and the light.

I'm also okay with EA Access letting people play earlier (and save their progress), press and streamers getting early copies, people being able to buy premiere/festival tickets to see movies earlier than me, and windmill high-fives.

At Best Buy, you get the Gears 4 Ultimate Edition, a preorder bonus skin pack, a copper mug, a coaster, the season pass, a steelbook, the game, and a $10 rewards certificate, three days early, for $80. There's no value complaint there, so it boils down to "you can do something I can't and I'm mad!" which is not really valid.

 

[Tunesmith]

I would like someone here that works at a publisher to explain how this works. Maybe the early date is actually bad as a real launch day, but there's no loss because it's only for preorders.

I think of these early launches like timed exclusive DLC.

Some thoughts:

- Smaller initial player base will buy in early, allowing for last minute tests of online infrastructures and tweaking before flood gates open. This is a tactic that MMOs have used for over a decade.

- It moves backend IT work on the publishers' end towards a weeks end instead of being stretched over the weekend for prep the following week.

- It's additional incentive for fans to buy into the more expensive editions of the games that come with season passes and whatnot, the overall perceived value goes up

- It may curb some of the broken street dates of traditional games that would typically get the games into circulation around the time regardless ahead of PR plans

- Tests the waters of moving away from the traditional retail release cycle of "shipments arrive at stores on Monday following transit over the weekend to sell on Tuesday" of old retail

 

[chrominance]

I wonder if the people defending this would balk if publishers stopped pussyfooting around and actually committed to this stuff.

Every game launches at $10,000, then slowly walks down to $60 over the course of a month. Perfect price discrimination. Only the most famous and obnoxious youtubers can afford the game at launch. By the time you buy the game, it's already old.

I would be pretty okay with a company deciding to charge $10,000 to play a game a month before anyone else. If I was already not planning to pay $30 for that privilege, why would $10,000 be any different? It's not like games have expiry dates. (Or at least most of them don't, anyways.) It's still good in a month.

In fact, I submit to you that this is actually what you want to happen. You WANT someone to try selling a game at $10,000 a month early. It'll be such an obvious cash grab that it would be a PR blunder, and 99.9% of the game's audience won't pay $10,000 for the game if only because they can't afford it. So no one gets hurt except the idiot publisher that tried this gambit, and it'll never happen again. Win-win, right?

 

[Dubz]

If the market wants it, then I have no issues with it.

 

[mdubs]

If there are a significant number of people willing to pay for the privilege of playing the game a few days early I don't see why they shouldn't do this.

 

[Mohasus]

what if the practice catches on and some day it's a collection without VIP and season pass, just the standard edition that unlocks 3 weeks early if you pay 30 bucks more?

Then I wait 3 weeks more.

If enough people pay 50% more to justify having an early release, then it is what it is. I mean, this is how capitalism works. If there is demand, you gotta exploit that.

I wonder if the people defending this would balk if publishers stopped pussyfooting around and actually committed to this stuff.

Every game launches at $10,000, then slowly walks down to $60 over the course of a month. Perfect price discrimination. Only the most famous and obnoxious youtubers can afford the game at launch. By the time you buy the game, it's already old.

Old for the youtuber, new for me. I played Donkey Kong Country Returns this month, and playing it now instead of years ago didn't change my enjoyment of the game.

 

[AerialAir]

Then I wait 3 weeks more.

If enough people pay 50% more to justify having an early release, then it is what it is. I mean, this is how capitalism works. If there is demand, you gotta exploit that.

True enough, though capitalism itself is reaching a breaking point (or has already, but nobody noticed that, we're too busy)

 

[shandy706]

It's a great way of shifting a lot of copies before reviews hit!

Terrible games can be major succeses before a single review is out.

...uhhh, but Horizon 3 reviews are already out. It's the best reviewed racing game in like 5+ years (pulling that from the other thread).

That's the opposite of your post.

 

[ElNino]

can you expand on this a little? i had no idea content was age-locked in an E rated game.

The game creates an account with 2K in order to play any online mode, including a regular versus mode I believe, but since my son's account has him under 13 (he is 10) he doesn't meet the minimum requirements to create an account. It even resets his profile to the default every time he launches the game, or at least that's what it looked like to me.

Even though he and his friends and cousins have Xbox Live Gold accounts (or share a family account), they can't play straight versus games against each other, which is bullshit. I happily let him play Madden online (no voice chat unless with friends/family though) and he is fine, so it should be my decision to allow him to online.

 

[Surface of Me]

To the people saying this is a delay...Im guessing youve never worked retail. Lots of games are shipped to stores days or weeks before release. The game is ready to go, are they delaying it by having it sit in store backrooms?

 

[Gren]

Hardly one of the more offensive trends from pubs, but it is a lame-ass way of "adding value" to the premium product by means of inconveniencing the standard one. Just as it was with select content/demos for XBL Gold back on 360.

 

[Deleted member 752119]

Are there any that are really paying more just to play early? Isn't it just adding playing a few days early as another perk to buying ultimate editions that include the season pass?

I see no problem with that. Nor with paying purely to play earlier if that's an option.

 

[Ooccoo]

I miss the times when gamers were all treated equal.

 

[xRaizen]

It's fucking disgusting if you have to pay anything more than $59.99 just to play early IMO. I sincerely hope this doesn't become the norm, but we all know moronic gamers will eat that shit right up. Which will just make more and more publishers do the same.

 

[OfTheOverflow]

I don't understand why people are okay with this. For all intents, its basically, effectively, meaning that the game is delayed for those of us who don't want to pay a premium for the privilege of playing 'early' (see: normal release time before push back for people who only pay the full price).

 

[OfTheOverflow]

And yes, I almost hope this becomes a trend where people who can afford to pay $1000 for a game get it a few weeks 'early' and the plebian casuals have to wait like dickheads.

 

[Odrion]

so it's a delay for poorer people

 

[paperspace]

To the people saying this is a delay...Im guessing youve never worked retail. Lots of games are shipped to stores days or weeks before release. The game is ready to go, are they delaying it by having it sit in store backrooms?

Yeah, you clearly have no idea how retail works, but yes, that's a delay for all intents and purposes.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

I disagree because it's legitimizing this practice and could create peer pressure. It's kinda "whatever" for FH3 and the 4 days (and also, so(!) many people here going for it who are eager to discuss their experience, I understand that), but what if the practice catches on and some day it's a collection without VIP and season pass, just the standard edition that unlocks 3 weeks early if you pay 30 bucks more?

When yall gonna get it that the people that are buying it later are buying the game late? Thats not when it comes out whenever a consumer is able to buy a product it is available. The release date is just there