Video Game News and Miscellany
- Thread starter figmentPez
- Start date
How about running MAME in Chrome then? Gizmodo reports that if you install the Robby Roto game you can then use the engine to play other ROMs that you (presumably) have legally obtained.
figmentPez
Staff member
This looks like a lot of fun:
Quantum Conundrum - gameplay demo w/ Kim Swift
Quantum Conundrum - gameplay demo w/ Kim Swift
Speaking of video games news: http://www.strategyinformer.com/new...-udraw-failure-is-the-largest-and-most-recent
Really, why hasn't the CEO been fired half way through the stocks going from 30$ to under 1$?
Really, why hasn't the CEO been fired half way through the stocks going from 30$ to under 1$?
No kidding. More than anything else, this one should have caused some C-level shuffling.
figmentPez
Staff member
I am loving that Nintendo finally wised up and is now allowing select games to be purchased with Club Nintendo coins. Much better than some cheap little trinket. I've already gotten Super Mario Kart, and I think I'll grab Mario Party 2 while it's offered.
It's free if your part of their club thing.
figmentPez
Staff member
Some of Ubisoft’s PC Games Won’t Work Next Week. Not Even Singleplayer.
This is exactly why I refuse to buy games with this type of bullshit-DRM. It may not be a terrible inconvenience to not have games while maintenance is going on, but it's also completely unnecessary. One more case of "Hi, we're going to give you a worse experience than the pirates are enjoying, and we don't care that you're one of the honest people who pay for our games."
Oh, and console gamers, you won't be able to be smug for long. This type off DRM is coming for you too, if there isn't enough complaining about the PC version. The next generation of consoles is going to support measures that can lock-out used game sales, and you'd better believe they'll have the capability to require this type of DRM as well.
Kotaku said:
This is exactly why I refuse to buy games with this type of bullshit-DRM. It may not be a terrible inconvenience to not have games while maintenance is going on, but it's also completely unnecessary. One more case of "Hi, we're going to give you a worse experience than the pirates are enjoying, and we don't care that you're one of the honest people who pay for our games."
Oh, and console gamers, you won't be able to be smug for long. This type off DRM is coming for you too, if there isn't enough complaining about the PC version. The next generation of consoles is going to support measures that can lock-out used game sales, and you'd better believe they'll have the capability to require this type of DRM as well.
Glad I'm playing Assassin's Creed 2 on my PS3 for now. Hahaha, silly PC--
Damn!
Curious what that'll do to Gamestop and its ilk though. Actually, I can see this hurting sales overall. A lot of people buy games with the knowledge that they can then trade them in and probably get back half what they spent, thus funding new games. In this case, those people are only going to buy games they want to keep, especially with the rising cost of games overall. And actually, what about the game rental market?
I don't know; Fig. I don't think things are going to stretch as far as the DRM the PC currently has simply because it could have repercussions on the company's earnings. Not to mention, it'll lead to more piracy and cracked consoles. I could see it happening with EA and Ubisoft, but likely other companies will use that as reasons to purchase their games instead.
That made me wonder, has there ever been an advertisement for a PC game that said, "When we install onto your computer, we only install a game and nothing else," and used it as a selling point?
And if not, how long until we're at that point?
figmentPez
Staff member
I'll admit to some FUD on my part. I don't really know what's being planned, but it's pretty clear what's being thought about. Consider that Gamestop bought up Impulse, and Gamefly bought up Direct2Drive. The biggest name in used games, and the biggest name in game rentals both now own digital distribution systems, when neither has a history of caring much about the PC side of gaming. To me that's a signal that they're hedging their bets about the direction future console generations may take, and that's good enough reason for me to remain skeptical as well.
Even Forbes is reporting that the next Xbox will restrict play of used games.
As for "repurcussions on the company's earnings", logic like that didn't stop Nintendo from killing off the "Player's Choice" line of games, because they didn't want gamers to expect games to regularly drop in price. That obviously cut into their total sales, because they now have "Nintendo Selects" games that are the same thing, but they still tried it fully thinking that they could get more people to buy at $50 if older games didn't drop in price. Monumentally stupid, if you ask me, but somehow that seemed like the right choice to Nintendo execs. I imagine the same will hold true for any console game publishers who try to bar used game sales, or impose always-on internet connection DRM. They'll think they can force customers to buy new at the price-point the publisher chooses, but hopefully there won't be enough blind fandom to support their decision.
Added at: 12:43
And one of the selling points of the Humble Bundles as well.
To be fair, all they're doing is quoting the original Kotaku article that made the claim. I have a hard time believing that MS and Sony would do such a thing, because used game sales is exactly the kind of thing that helps prolong console lifecycles. Plus, that might be a violation of the first-sale doctrine.
Far more likely that we'll simply see more games as digital-download-only or widespread use of online passes (which, within reason, I'm not really against).
That said, as pez pointed out with Nintendo, it wouldn't be the first time a console maker did something monumentally stupid.
Jesus, is this an Onion article or what?
http://kotaku.com/5882185/bioware-to-patch-error+laden-mass-effect-novel-in-response-to-fan-uproar
http://kotaku.com/5882185/bioware-to-patch-error+laden-mass-effect-novel-in-response-to-fan-uproar
Necronic
Staff member
That would effectively put Gamestop out of business, which I'm sure some of you guys are cool with, but to me there would be something kind of sad about seeing the last of that kind of store go out of business. Kind of an Old Yeller moment.
That said it would totally help blow up PC games. With the direction that Steam is going and the fact that an entry level gaming computer can cost as low as 500$ this move could push a massive amount of players over to PC.
When I first read this and the stock quote I assumed that there had been some splits or something in that time period that pushed the stock price low like that, but there wasn't. I can not for the life of me understand how it's price is that low; the market cap for the company is a paltry 44 million dollars. I mean, they have some of the best gaming IP out there (homeworld, games workshop, company of heroes etc) and 5 studios. I would think that between the hardware and IP alone you could easily see the 44 mil.
But when you look at their list of games you can tell that there is something seriously wrong with them. 90% of their titles are crappy one shot movie games, which I have a hard time believing ever recoup their costs.
Who the fuck thought that was a good idea?
I get what you mean. I have fond memories of the long-gone Electronics Boutique from my local mall when I was 12.
If this helped contribute to game publishers in general finally coming around to pricing games at a reasonable level that was actually in line with the value of their content, it would be worth the loss of Gamestop, I feel.
Necronic
Staff member
I would argue that they are already priced at a reasonable rate right now. You can get a good 50 hours of entertainment out of a good game. At 50$/game that comes out to 1$/hour. There isn't another form of entertainment that cheap (except for going to the park, that's free, unless you're murdered). That said its a high barrier for entry for each game, and there needs to be some kind of netflix alternative for gamers that are willing to pay a monthly fee to play older games that aren't moving off the shelves, but are still fun.
Steam has already done a lot towards this with the crazy sales they have as well as the new game trading ability.
Steam has already done a lot towards this with the crazy sales they have as well as the new game trading ability.
I'd love to see how the ratio of $50 games are over 40hrs and how many of them are under 15hrs. Cause I'm pretty sure it's heavily in favor of the latter. Making it a horrendous form of entertainment / value.
Necronic
Staff member
Well yeah, some games suck. It's up to the consumer to be a bit more savvy and not just buy based on hype. In the last 3 years or so I don't think I have bought a single game that wasn't worth the money I paid for it (<1$/hr entertainment). That's true for any product though.
There have been many many games over the years, many forgetable. Mostly because games that are finished in 1-2 sittings are not my type of game. There's a reason I'm still playing Skyrim. Why I go back again and again to games like Mount & Blade (over 200 hours played) or Minecraft. These are open, non-linear worlds that you can explore and do whatever you want. Even games with heavy plots like Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect can easily take 30-40 hours to play.
Games like Star Wars Force Unleashed to that takes half an evening to finish is not acceptable.
Yet as we saw in the past, many companies are making shorter games, simply because with stats, they can tell 90% of people don't finish games. And since they don't finish games... why put all that time and effort when smaller games can be created?
Games like Star Wars Force Unleashed to that takes half an evening to finish is not acceptable.
Yet as we saw in the past, many companies are making shorter games, simply because with stats, they can tell 90% of people don't finish games. And since they don't finish games... why put all that time and effort when smaller games can be created?
figmentPez
Staff member
Personally I think the question of a game's value is a lot more complicated than dollars per hour. Batman: Arkham Asylum may have taken me more hours to complete than Tales of Monkey Island, but I was still very happy to pay $37 pre-ordering ToMI, more than the $25 I paid for B:AA when it was on sale. Some games or genres I'm want to be long and meandering adventures, others I'm fine with being shorter experiences. I'm very happy the market is expanding, not only in number of customers, but also in the ability to have a broad range of price-points, and the realization that it's okay to have games drop in price over time, with people still willing to pay for immediate access.
Added at: 11:20
EDIT: and before someone calls me on my using dollars per hour in my comparison of BG:ToSC to ME2 DLC, I meant that more as a comparison to the relative value of the expansions to the gameplay cost of the main game than a comparison of dollar value across genres.
Added at: 11:20
Oi! It's the DLC (that never drops in price) that really gets me. Someone was trying to convince me that complaints about DLC are just whining, and that we get more content than ever in games. Yeah, sure. Compare Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast expansion to all the mission DLC for Mass Effect 2 (both Bioware games). ToSC had an MSRP of $20 and added 20 - 30 hours of gameplay, with numerous refinements. All the DLC for ME2 costs $40 (because it has to be bought with Bioware Points bought $10 at a time), and adds less than 11 hours at most. Yeah, we're getting so much more with DLC these days than we used to.
EDIT: and before someone calls me on my using dollars per hour in my comparison of BG:ToSC to ME2 DLC, I meant that more as a comparison to the relative value of the expansions to the gameplay cost of the main game than a comparison of dollar value across genres.