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Surprise, SSX has Online Pass [Works differently than normal.]

The only shocking thing is when I hear people speak like the game industry lives in it's own special bubble, seperated from other types of entertainment media. I hear a lot about "entitlement GAF", but I'm still unsure why I should give a shit about entitled developers who think they should have the right to double-dip.

Not too shocking to see how coachable some are, and will take a publisher's word at face value. At least games with passes drop in price faster than normal, so it's not all bad...
 
People are hung up on a word I used and not looking at the bigger picture. I understand that a used game purchase has no guarantee that it will be in the condition it's sold in as new. I'm looking further down the road to where we don't even have the option of resale.

That's what the corporations are educating people with right now... the idea that their software isn't owned, it's licensed. It's not yours to do with as you please even though you bought it on a disc. They want to ensure you cannot transfer it to someone else. That's what the online pass hints at, and as people say "Oh, that's ok. I want the corporation to get all my money!" they show that they've bought into the idea that first-sale doctrine shouldn't be followed for software... and that's bullshit.
 
I guess it comes down to your individual desire to expend energy caring about these kinds of things. In the grand scheme of things, 30 seconds to enter a code or, in the extremely rare case that I have a dud pass, 5-10 minutes of my time is far from a barrier to purchase.
 
Oh, come on! This shit has been known for weeks in the Official SSX Trhread.

A thread like this with old news... oh wait this is GAF. /old
 
Look on the bright side, used buyers won't have to deal with RiderNET harassing them about people beating their times and whatnot. If it's anything like the Autolog in NFSHP, it's going to be totally annoying.
 
The indifference of the game buying public to anti-consumer practices like online passes and preorder exclusives is why Anti-Used/Rental schemes will probably be implemented in the next round of hardware (see that latest Kotaku 720 rumor). By the by, it's also why we now have 56 day delays on movie rentals. The population at large is stupid, impatient, and will-less.
 
An online pass is not even remotely the same thing as a fucking cd key dude. Are people that ignorant around here?
I'd like to hear your reasoning on this. Unless you are suggesting that an online pass is superior to a CD key (the reality), of course, in which case I agree.

A CD key is far more restrictive than an online pass.
 
I'm looking further down the road to where we don't even have the option of resale.

That's what the online pass hints at, and as people say "Oh, that's ok. I want the corporation to get all my money!" they show that they've bought into the idea that first-sale doctrine shouldn't be followed for software... and that's bullshit.

Well, I'll get back to you when that happens. Right now, I couldn't care less.
 
The indifference of the game buying public to anti-consumer practices like online passes and preorder exclusives is why Anti-Used/Rental schemes will probably be implemented in the next round of hardware (see that latest Kotaku 720 rumor).
I think those things are harder to put into practice than they are in theory. I seem to remember before the PS3 came out there was a very strong rumor that Sony was somehow going to tie each new game to a console's hardware, and that game wouldn't be playable on anything else after that. In fact Sony themselves may have said it, I'm a little hazy on the details now.
 
You've heard that's the rumor of what's planned for the next generation on the Xbox right?

Sorry man. I don't care about rumors and even if it is exactly as you say, I won't lose sleep over not being able to resell my games as it's not something I ever do. I'm not saying it's something worth fighting "the good fight" for though.

Fill your boots - I'll be at the bar.
 
Why don't publishers offer you to send old games back to them? Send in FIFA 10 and get a discount code for FIFA 11. That way they would make sure no one gets to play my old copy without them getting some money. They could sell the old FIFA to someone else and make a few bucks that way.

They could make deals with GameStop (GameStop collecting used games; selling them back to the publisher).

Make a compelling argument for buying new. Do what Microsoft did with Alan Wake. Instead of a crappy plastic box we got a nice Collector's Edition at no additional cost. We also got the first DLC for free. Alan Wake is still sitting on my shelve.

I like all three of these ideas. Though online passes aren't the absolute worst case scenario, publishers should make more of an effort to encourage the purchase of new sales that don't take anything away from the people who play the game.
 
The indifference of the game buying public to anti-consumer practices like online passes and preorder exclusives is why Anti-Used/Rental schemes will probably be implemented in the next round of hardware (see that latest Kotaku 720 rumor). By the by, it's also why we now have 56 day delays on movie rentals. The population at large is stupid, impatient, and will-less.

Well what do you expect people to do? Not buy a game they were planning on getting because they have to enter in a code once? I think that's asking a lot. I'd prefer if games didn't have an online pass, but I personally couldn't justify skipping a game because of such a minor inconvenience. Have you skipped a game you wanted because it has an online pass? Not trying to start an argument, just wondering if it's that much of a bother to people that they would boycott buying a game they were looking forward to.
 
Suck it up and move on.

Game balance tweaked to make purchase of a 'Credit Pack' necessary?

Suck it up and move on.

You don't know that the buy credit pack option is any different from EA wanting to cash-in on players who're strapped for time and simply want the best gear ASAP -- and don't have a problem paying for it. This is something EA has also been doing for quite some time. Remember when Tiger Woods had the option for players to pay to unlock the best gear and/or all the courses?

Suggesting that they've tuned the game balance for this is suggesting the developers, who never want something like an online pass in the first place, also want to nickel and dime the end user. Leave them out of this. This isn't the App Store.
 
That's what the corporations are educating people with right now... the idea that their software isn't owned, it's licensed. It's not yours to do with as you please even though you bought it on a disc. They want to ensure you cannot transfer it to someone else. That's what the online pass hints at, and as people say "Oh, that's ok. I want the corporation to get all my money!" they show that they've bought into the idea that first-sale doctrine shouldn't be followed for software... and that's bullshit.

That's already the case with almost every game that's bought digitally.
 
People are hung up on a word I used and not looking at the bigger picture. I understand that a used game purchase has no guarantee that it will be in the condition it's sold in as new. I'm looking further down the road to where we don't even have the option of resale.

You mean like on the PC? Are the members of the Master Race secretly slaves?!?!!?!

That's what the corporations are educating people with right now... the idea that their software isn't owned, it's licensed. It's not yours to do with as you please even though you bought it on a disc.

This has always been true, legally speaking. The only thing that has changed is the interconnected nature of modern technology means that companies can actually enforce it to some degree now.

They want to ensure you cannot transfer it to someone else. That's what the online pass hints at, and as people say "Oh, that's ok. I want the corporation to get all my money!" they show that they've bought into the idea that first-sale doctrine shouldn't be followed for software... and that's bullshit.

You can still resell the game, but buyers of new copies get a bonus. That's all that's happening here. Do you also hate direct download? XBLA? Virtual Console? PSN? Steam? You can't resell any of that, either.

Sure, theoretically there may come a day when publishers attempt to remove the consumer's ability to resell console games entirely, but is it likely? Considering the size of the used market, I would say that's a big "no." Are the publishers and, probably more importantly, console makers willing to alienate that large a chunk of the audience? I find it unlikely, but stranger things have happened. We'll see.
 
I think those things are harder to put into practice than they are in theory. I seem to remember before the PS3 came out there was a very strong rumor that Sony was somehow going to tie each new game to a console's hardware, and that game wouldn't be playable on anything else after that. In fact Sony themselves may have said it, I'm a little hazy on the details now.

Assuming that old PS3 rumor was somewhere grounded in reality, Sony only abandoned it because it was poorly planned (last minute) and left them the odd man out. It would have been market suicide launching dead last, 5 or 10 million units behind, at $600 with no used/rental support. This round such an initiative is likely to be a collusive arrangement between (at the very least) MS, Sony, and every major publishers.
 
Well what do you expect people to do? Not buy a game they were planning on getting because they have to enter in a code once? I think that's asking a lot. I'd prefer if games didn't have an online pass, but I personally couldn't justify skipping a game because of such a minor inconvenience. Have you skipped a game you wanted because it has an online pass? Not trying to start an argument, just wondering if it's that much of a bother to people that they would boycott buying a game they were looking forward to.

That's precisely why an Anti-Used/Rental scheme will be attempted and likely succeed (read minimal consumer backlash). "What are you going to do, not buy the PS1080 and CoD:MW4?" There will be a couple small hate threads on places NeoGAF, but that's about the extent of it. I have personally "skipped" almost every release since online passes and preorder exclusives became the norm--they were the catalysts they pushed me to rental services exclusively. I own around 70-80 PS360 titles that were all bought new for full price during their respective launch windows--they're all from 2009 and earlier. Online has devolved into nothing but derivative shooters (a genre I never really cared for in the first place, much less now that it has been driven into the ground), so passes are/were no big loss for me. Yet they still made me say hey, you know what, I'm not going to directly support this on the level I have been.
 
Damn I'll wait for a Price Drop

I have enough of a backlog, by the time I'm done, SSX2 will be coming out
 
I kind of wish this was available on PSN day one. I would gladly have it always available on demand.

You know it will show up 6+ months later, when the community has died down, the top Elite players smoking nubblets any chance they get, it will be on PSN for $49.99-$59.99, no DLC, while a retail copy is running you $20
 
And everyone who was going to buy it will buy it anyway. Do we need a thread for every game with an online pass?


Are you going to ask this question every time someone makes a thread?

People who pass this as okay are the reasons why we're getting ass fucked this generaiton.
 
Penny Arcade...

I’ve been reading a lot his weekend about Fat Cats and how fat they are and how they want your money, but the only choice you get in this matter (aside from the wholly valid “not buying it” choice, of course) is which supposed Fat Cat to enrich. You can enrich the people who made the game you are enjoying, or you can enrich people who had nothing to do with the game. Policies like this are designed to incentivize new purchases: that is to say, sales. We call those sales.

We have somehow arrived at a point where you must fully enunciate an idea like buying products. I find this conversation incredibly strange.

<cartwheels outta here!>
 
I think that part of the problem is also that some people seem to choose their hatred towards online passes (by publisher, game, etc). For example, I don't remember (maybe I actually missed it) any threads and disappointed voices asking to boycott Saints Row 3; even when said game had an online pass.. that also locked LAN-multiplayer. It got mentioned here and there, but in general people were just hyped and couldn't wait for the game (which is a darn great game anyway).

Yet, when EA releases a game with an online pass, and heck they were the ones that started this "trend" so is not like it is actual news; there goes the multi-pages thread. :p

If anything, there should be an "online pass thread", that is constantly updated with the game that has them and what kind of content said pass locks/unlocks. Instead of selective threads, that seem to be based on more bias towards specific publishers, than actual information. alr1ghtstart is usually the one that post them, so if anything he should be more than adequate to handle an OT of sorts with it; since he seems to be up to date with that kind of news.

That way, people can check at one place and see which game has or doesn't have one; and in the end all the threads end in the same (ones side accusing the other side for been blind loyalists or corporate shills; others accusing the opposite side for been too poor and not caring for this hobby, the ones that care, that ones that doesn't, the ones that say the do so to support publishers and developers; the ones that scream boycott...until the game is lowered in price -then said pass is okay-) and so on.
 
Curt already said in the Amalur thread that it wasn't up to them and that they get nothing from online passes, that it was EA's business, not theirs. Pretty telling.

lolol That is fucking hilarious to me. So glad I don't bother with games that include this BS. What a scam. People that think the online pass money goes to the devs need to know about this, too.
 
Can we create threads for now on if game from big publisher doesn't have online pass? Because it looks like it would be easier.
 
That's precisely why an Anti-Used/Rental scheme will be attempted and likely succeed (read minimal consumer backlash). "What are you going to do, not buy the PS1080 and CoD:MW4?" There will be a couple small hate threads on places NeoGAF, but that's about the extent of it. I have personally "skipped" almost every release since online passes and preorder exclusives became the norm--they were the catalysts they pushed me to rental services exclusively. I own around 70-80 PS360 titles that were all bought new for full price during their respective launch windows--they're all from 2009 and earlier. Online has devolved into nothing but derivative shooters (a genre I never really cared for in the first place, much less now that it has been driven into the ground), so passes are/were no big loss for me. Yet they still made me say hey, you know what, I'm not going to directly support this on the level I have been.

Well, people can't really follow that example if they plan on actually playing those games online. I agree there's tons of derivative shooters that i'm not interested in. I probably wouldn't be interested in the single player in those games anyway, so I just wouldn't buy it at all. Can't really think of an example where i'd rather rent a game than buy it because it has an online pass. idk, you're definitely the minority in that you'll boycott a release based on this practice. Seems a little drastic to me.
 
Should we have only one thread discussing shitty pre-order bonuses?

Probably. A sticky with a list of online passes/pre-order bonuses would be more handy than cluttering up the forum with information that will be lost quickly anyways.

But yeah, its more fun to rage in many threads than one. =)
 
Are you going to ask this question every time someone makes a thread?

People who pass this as okay are the reasons why we're getting ass fucked this generaiton.

Speak for yourself. The sky is far from falling in my world. There has never been as much choice for gamers as there is this generation.
 
Again, gamestop is not the only place to sell games. Incentives are a bonus, not something taken away and then given back as a bonus.

Right.

Anyone remember Ron Popeil's infomercials?

ron_pic.jpg


Remember how he always added more and more shit to the offer to make it more enticing for people to want to order?
 
Should we have only one thread discussing shitty pre-order bonuses?
Those are more common and cause less "outrage" than the cherry-picking thread about "online" passes (as I've been told in online passes thread "people got used to them, so no need to complain any more). Because it seems that when either WB or EA are about to release a game with an online pass, you bet there's going to be a thread about it that ends in the same arguments...even when both publishers has been doing it for quite sometime.

But when others do the same; many either turn a blind eye or just accept it as move on. Like the classic example of Yakuza 4 and including a PSN code to unlock content that was already on the disc. No big threads, no outrage, plus Yakuza deserves all the sales it can get (and well deserved too). Yet, WB adds the Catwoman DLC which was an actual download and not an unlock key, and boom..huge-thread were everyone was discussing everything about gaming and business; but the Catwoman DLC. Developers this, publishers that Gamestop this, you suck, no you suck more, etc. :p
 
Right.

Anyone remember Ron Popeil's infomercials?

ron_pic.jpg


Remember how he always added more and more shit to the offer to make it more enticing for people to want to order?

Just set it... and forget it!

But anyways, this shouldn't be surprising at all. I mean, it is an EA game.
 
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