BanShunsaku
Member
Those Vegemite chips are amazing, btw. Thanks for the headsup whoever posted it!
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AusGAF IV - A No Hope, Government - Double the price, region locked and now adults
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Ruthless_Barbarian
Member
I have the entire collection. I'm talking about the latest season...it's back on.
BanShunsaku
Member
So it seems that EA games are coming to Green Man Gaming 
reptilescorpio
Member
No Bethesda until next year though.BanShunsaku said:So it seems that EA games are coming to Green Man Gaming
Here is the rundown on future GMG publishers.
BanShunsaku
Member
Boo.reptilescorpio said:No Bethesda until next year though.
With EA I'm assuming they will just sell Origin keys? Prices should be interesting.
leca said:Well thanks for the heads up
Only Coles sell them and only for 8 weeks.
Bit of a promotional thing I assume.
hamchan said:Hopefully I can trade in Dynasty Warriors 6, Little Big Planet and Tekken 6 for Dark Souls tomorrow
Isn't like all those games on the exclusions list?
reptilescorpio
Member
It worked fine in the past because development costs were much, MUCH lower than these days so if a game did not live up to expectations they weren't out a few million dollars. A bomba these days means a publisher will stop taking your calls and you will be forced into making less positive business decisions just to try and keep the wolves out the door.RandomVince said:
The concept that developers purposely cut content to create extra money is extremely hard to make a blanket statement on. You see stuff like bonus costumes/colours that in the past would have been released for free, or map packs which the PC community (which I assume you have a history in considering you bought up the packs) have always been nasty about. Map packs are a sign of the times.
In the past publishers released them for free on the PC in order to keep people focused on their title rather than jump over to a competitor, while these days almost every title has a MP mode with a select few holding the majority of the market share creating a very profitable market for pay-for map packs (as shown by the insane amount of money made from COD map packs). Since most of these titles are on 12-24 month cycles with incredibly high production and marketing budgets, along with increasingly expensive overheads utilised to make the MP experience better than the last, publishers can see map packs of a way to make the initial investment (and continuous improvement) worthwhile. Without paid map packs I wouldn't be surprised to see an even more cutdown initial release.
Used game sales is a cancer on developers and is a part of why they are dying lately. Games can be gotten for much cheaper than in the past and the prices have not increased along with inflation anywhere near as bad as other commodity's. Used games means consumers can effectively rent games rather than pay full price for them. Imagine if multi million dollar productions suddenly slash their prices from the $100RRP to $15 like a movie? I agree that there are WAY too many middle men in the process, pushing up the price for consumers, but the retail used game market actively promotes not handing a cent back to developers making it even harder for them to negotiate budgets with publishers. If Deus Ex sells 800k copies but 3 million people play it that doesn't mean it will break even or get a sequel. Publishers have been trying to get these 2 figures closer together for years, Project $10/PSN Pass and MP modes are just the latest ideas for trying to make the markets practical to co-exist.
I don't have anything bad to say about PSN Pass other than the obvious, that in 10 years I won't have access to that content. Which I won't anyway since the servers will be long gone and all the patches with them. Aside from PC games and closed consoles this will be a problem for the connected generations.
Piracy isn't an issue that I put much weight behind as I would argue that AT LEAST 50% of pirated downloads are by people who never would have bought the game in the first place, otherwise they would have found some other way to invest some money in the product such as import or rent the title. Those who don't want to pay will still pirate regardless of how hard you make it. When piracy measures hinder the experience of the paying customer is when publishers lose face very quickly. If I buy this game with the impression it will work it better damn well work. Sure, this generation has been irritating with so many day one bugs (some never even getting attention) but games have ALWAYS released with bugs. The worst thing is for a perfectly designed game to be withheld from you by something introduced to stop people who won't even have the version of the game you hold. Similar to that feeling of annoyance at the start of a DVD when it takes 5 minutes to get past all the bullshit that you have already complied with, that you paid good, hard earned money to sit there and be told not to be a dirty, cuntish pirate when you obviously haven't. Because the pirates ripped that bullshit out already. The pirates never see the systems put in place to stop them, that is the entire idea of pirating. Once publishers learn that people will buy a game if you market it DIRECTLY to them, rather than trying to gain mass acceptance as well as budget not just their productions, but also their expectations, they will find projects to be much more acceptable.
Another point of discussion is the high cost of entry to the market that comes from middleware and source holders but that is a discussion for another day. I would love to see costs come down a lot though.
reptilescorpio
Member
EA as a whole has pushed Project $10 with titles from The Saboteur, which was the death of Pandemic despite being a great game, to Mass Effect 2 which sold huge numbers and took there series in a much more consumable fashion. What they had in common was a focus on SP gaming and EA saw that as a reason for people to trade the game in, as well as pick it up second hand on the cheap.RandomVince said:
FIFA updates was a way for them to continually add more value to the game while still bringing in money to pay the staff who are doing the continuing work.
ClivePwned
Member
if GMG has BF3 and MW3 at launch, I definitely will bite.
reptilescorpio said:
See I dont get why they needed to chuck it in to single player games. I would accept the justifcation if they said "hey, all you Fifa players - we have given you free replay hosting online, it costs $XYZ and if you want it to continue, you can <online pass argument>"
That's an infrastructure provision.
But wtf do you get out of it for DA2 or ME2? Adverts to buy extra quests as DLC.
I can see no other way than to take that cynically, as it was no doubt intended.
reptilescorpio
Member
ME2 gave you a bunch of free DLC for buying the game new or paying $10.RandomVince said:
DA2 I have no idea what their Pass was as I never bought the game, just borrowed off a friend to join in the lulz.
The Saboteur gave you nudity and some extra hiding spots that I think I only ever used once for however much they charged used copies.
PSN Pass charge you x amount for access to MP if you buy a second hand copy. Considering how quickly the online user group for console games plummets a few weeks after release I can't see anyone buying a game late in it's life for online MP action. If you had to pay $10 to access it on a new copy on Day One that would be fucked but this situation seems a little ineffective for Sony. I don't see it being a decent money earner to offset the losses that can be seen from pre-owned retail.
reptilescorpio
Member
Gears 3 Day One skin DLC for 3600 points was a bit shocking, taking the CRAPCOM example even further.markot said:
Planet_JASE
Member
Cheeky fuckers! 3600 for skins? You've got to be shitting me. Was it at least a legitimate download or was it an unlock code?reptilescorpio said:
roosters93
Member
Planet_JASE
Member
That better be a metric fucktonne of skins for 3600points.jambo said:
Fucktonne.
Try DisplayFusion.Jintor said:
There are a few, I can't find the one I normally use (on a different computer) but this one looks good: http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightStatus/flightStatusByRoute.doBernbaum said:
reptilescorpio
Member
Planet_JASE said:
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reptilescorpio
Member
Being able to custom spray your gun like in Forza (or tags in the recent innovation Counter Strike) would have been awesome. Otherwise these are no different to colour changed in Street Fighter. I can understand complaining about this kind of thing since it used to be included for free, now they lock it on the disc. Hell, the pink lancer was even shown off a year and a half ago. Bit rude to now lock it away behind a pay wall.
Bioshock 2 had a bullshit MP map pack that was on the disc but you had to pay $12 to unlock it, even for new copies. That was fucked.
Bioshock 2 had a bullshit MP map pack that was on the disc but you had to pay $12 to unlock it, even for new copies. That was fucked.
reptilescorpio
Member
I share your pain Ham.
I had the exact same thought. Won't happen though since the industry is widespread enough to weather the storm unlike when it was a tiny little economy. The AAA may become uneconomical to keep up but Steam/iOS have brought up a great range of game developers across the price spectrum. If publishers pull too much shit with the online locks then consumers will start spending their money elsewhere, most likely with smaller publishers who treat them with a little more respect. CD Projekt and Paradox have carved out a nice little spot in the market for themselves where they can avoid any kind of fallout from these practises.RandomVince said:
RandomVince said:
Mainly surreal failures on the part of the keepers. They seem for the most part to wait until the ball is about two metres from them before their body kicks into action. They are also hilariously vulnerable to lobs on easier difficulty settings.
The Netherlands seem to be my team for pulling off ridiculous volleys, flicks, shots from insane distance, drives from the corner flag that ricochet off three defenders and roll in. I have a fine collection of Rio Ferdinand own-goals, two with his head, and I saved a clip of Mark Van Bommel running directly into Arjen Robben and sending him flying. It's cool that the game detects and represents collisions between team mates.
It's not on a par with that glitches reel from the console/PC release, but it's so brilliant to have a football game on iOS with so much depth and drama and humour.
It could do with a slow-mo function for the replays. They already run pretty slow, but it's nice to watch things unfold split-second by split-second.
reptilescorpio said:I share your pain Ham.
I had the exact same thought. Won't happen though since the industry is widespread enough to weather the storm unlike when it was a tiny little economy. The AAA may become uneconomical to keep up but Steam/iOS have brought up a great range of game developers across the price spectrum. If publishers pull too much shit with the online locks then consumers will start spending their money elsewhere, most likely with smaller publishers who treat them with a little more respect. CD Projekt and Paradox have carved out a nice little spot in the market for themselves where they can avoid any kind of fallout from these practises.
The crash we all refer to happened in the USA pretty much, and was localised to the older consoles. PC-progenitors in the UK/EU/Aus were fine for that time.
The crash occurred because people realised that games weren't worth the asking price, and they had better things to do with their time. The fact the NES came in and led the resurgence was down to quality control and value for money.
The current trends that worry me are:
The glut of full price releases -> Which leads to massive discounts in under 3 weeks.
The glut of exorbitant DLC -> Which leads to people holding the packaged good in lower esteem as it is seen to be incomplete
The glut of app-style games -> Which leads people to consider games as disposable, short term diversions and little more
Now this isn't me laying blame at EA, Activision, MS, Sony and Apple. Just trends within the current market. There are seeds within various elements that show promise and the ability to withstand a hypothetical collapse. For example:
* The breadth of ideas from small indie teams on mobile phones is kind of like the nursery for games that the spectrum, c64 and amstrads were in the 1980s.
* Developers like Valve, Blizzard and Nintendo polish the shit out of their games, have large followings of customers and a reputation for high quality value for money.
* Quality bite sized but substantial digital distribution for games that would never fly at $99. Look at World of Goo, Geometry Wars, Pixeljunk series as an example.
* Word of mouth games are becoming more viable at the niche end of the market. Three classic recent examples include Demons Souls, Minecraft and Deadly Premonition.
I personally think the next console transition (from Wii U launch through to the first year after the last console out of PS/XBox) is going to be a bloodbath. One of the three systems will flop big time, I expect. The missing customer base will have gone to Steam, mobile phones or quit gaming altogether.
The key to viable gaming popularity has always been arcadey style, accessible, fun, addictive games. The end of the market that goes for more and more hardcore pandering and eventually goes down the path of exploiting the dedicated core is what is most at risk, and that's where current AAA games reside. Further, the end of the market that accepts online passes, DLC, first day DLC, mandatory installs, 500 MB patches, GOTY editions, Elite Memberships, Season Passes, Trophies, Achievements, critical bugs in brand new games, Firmware Updates and EULA amendments and takes them in their stride is the end that is going to dwindle.
For the same reason people get sick of waiting in Australia for tv shows to come out locally, the minor inconveniences will start to tally up and make people ask "is it really worth it?"
And that's the point I'm at right now.
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