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PA Report - The Xbox One will kill used games, that's good

Link

This is good news for a few reasons. The first is that piracy will likely be reduced. If the system phones home every so often to check on your licenses, and there is no way to play a game without that title being authenticated and a license being active, piracy becomes harder. You'll never be able to stop pirates, not entirely, but if you can make the act of pirating games non-trivial the incidence of piracy will drop. This is a good thing for everyone except those who want to play games for free.

So piracy reduction, although not elimination, will likely be a solid byproduct of this system.

The next thing is that the used-game market all but disappears. GameStop may not be able to aggressively hawk used games for $5 less than the new price to customers under these new controls, which is great if you're a developer or publisher. Once that secondary market is removed you can suddenly profit from every copy of your game sold, and as profit margins rise it's possible we'll see prices drop. Some stodgy publishers will likely stay with the $60 model, but they're dead companies walking already. The smart companies will see this opportunity to play with pricing and see what works and what doesn't.

Without the used market sucking up all those sales and all that consumer money, it's very possible we'll see Steam-style sales on older or bundled games on the Xbox One. It's not a sure thing, but killing used games is going to free up a ton of money for companies to try new ideas in terms of sales and pricing. The people who get innovative and take advantage of this structure will thrive. The rest are likely to slowly choke on the new economics of game development.

It needs to be made clear, if all the studio closings and constant lay-offs haven't made this explicit: The current economics of game development and sales are unsustainable. Games cost more to make, piracy is an issue, used-games are pushed over new, and players say the $60 cost is too high. Microsoft's initiatives with the Xbox One may solve many of these issues, even if we grumble about it. These changes ultimately make the industry healthier.


EDIT: To skip to the part of the thread where Burai kicks ass and takes names, click here.

EDIT: To skip to the part of the thread where faceless007 kicks ass and takes names, click here.
 

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
and as profit margins rise it's possible we'll see prices drop.

Without the used market sucking up all those sales and all that consumer money, it's very possible we'll see Steam-style sales on older or bundled games on the Xbox One.

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahhahahahahahahah
 
gaf is always a tear fest with candlelight vigils everytime a studio is closed yet a system that helps the industry stay alive and profitable is being demonized.
 
The current economics of the industry are a creation of the industry. You can't just run your business into the ground and then claim that the only solution is to take away consumer rights. It's insane.
 
Yeah, I don't "grumble" about not owning the games I buy, or potentially not being able to play them at all in fifteen years.

What I do is avoid the platform that enables this at all.
 
5FiRzn5.gif
...
 

maltrain

Junior Member
These guys are dumb. Killing used games it's a BIG incentive to pirates.

Besides... what's the relation between used games and piracy?

Nonsense...
 

twinturbo2

butthurt Heat fan
It's all well and good until some chucklebuster wearing a Guy Fawkes mask hacks into the Xbox Live servers and takes them down.

That's what's giving me pause about the whole thing.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
People pay attention to the Penny-Arcade Report? They're just as bad as Polygon/Kotaku at times.
 

Dyno

Member
He mentioned stopping piracy on consoles and then it became very difficult to finish reading the article.
 
People pay attention to the Penny-Arcade Report? They're just as bad as Polygon/Kotaku at times.

Ben Kuchera is/was a pretty big name in tech journalism

As I said in the other thread:

The smart companies will see this opportunity to play with pricing and see what works and what doesn't.

Pray tell, Ben Kuchera, what in the last six years has made you think that gaming companies are capable of being smart when it comes to pricing their own games?

It needs to be made clear, if all the studio closings and constant lay-offs haven't made this explicit: The current economics of game development and sales are unsustainable. Games cost more to make, piracy is an issue, used-games are pushed over new, and players say the $60 cost is too high.

Don't blame the morons who ballooned the costs beyond what gamers actually cared about with celebrity voice overs and mocapped dogs. Nope, just point and said, "the market did it."

These things are just scapegoats. Fix those and you bet there will be more excuses down the pipe.
 
I'm bewildered as to how its great when the two benefits he puts forth don't affect me directly.

(And sorry console makers, but is piracy really that big of a problem?)
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
I just think this is so wrong. Used games are a critical source of consumer liquidity, and they liquidity is often used to purchase NEW games.

I'm about ready for every publisher to reap what they've sown with this broken AAA model. They'll learn.
 

AColdDay

Member
Piracy is a huge problem for the console space? I thought only a niche group of people actually pirate games on consoles.
 

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
Spoken like someone who hasn't had to actually buy games their entire lives.

less competition = higher prices
 

Durante

Member
I can't believe that even games journalists gloss over the huge distinguishing factor between PC DD and consoles in terms of pricing: competing distribution channels.
 

BY2K

Membero Americo
It's good for the business, it's not for the consumer.

But if it's not good for the consumer, it's not good for the business, because the consumer won't buy it.
 

Usobuko

Banned
Am I right to say the key difference between Steam and Xbox One was for the latter, the policy is implemented for retail games? So what exactly was the comparison to Valve for?
 

Grief.exe

Member
This is good news for a few reasons. The first is that piracy will likely be reduced. If the system phones home every so often to check on your licenses, and there is no way to play a game without that title being authenticated and a license being active, piracy becomes harder. You'll never be able to stop pirates, not entirely, but if you can make the act of pirating games non-trivial the incidence of piracy will drop. This is a good thing for everyone except those who want to play games for free.

So piracy reduction, although not elimination, will likely be a solid byproduct of this system.

Its funny because Gabe has been releasing data for years saying the complete opposite.

When you layer ridiculous DRM on top of games, you see significantly reduced sales.

Good luck stopping pirates, they will find a way.

I love how they think getting rid of used games may actually lead to price drops, lol. Please.

What are they high?

Competition leads to lower prices, not near monopolistic distribution.
 

Anth0ny

Member
This is good news for a few reasons. The first is that piracy will likely be reduced.

BAHAHA

this thing is going to be cracked after a couple of months, and the pirates won't have to deal with the online checks/used games policy at all.
 
that blogger needs to take Don Mattrick's cock out of his mouth for 5 seconds and realize what kinda garbage he's spewing, holy shit
 
gaf is always a tear fest with candlelight vigils everytime a studio is closed yet a system that helps the industry stay alive and profitable is being demonized.

Except you and PA are only looking at it from one angle. The other angle is that used games were helpful in helping people buy new games. Gamestop brought this up as well. You get far more from Gamestop through trade in credit than you do for straight up cash, so I think most people just get the credit and eventually buy a new game with it. That's not going to be possible anymore. There's a very real possibility that publishers are going to see their games selling less now because people are going to be much more picky with their purchases due not having a viable avenue for trade ins.
 
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