i guess its an extreme example, but we are not back in the arcades... the sense of ownership should be something tangible... not pay for pieces of games to make a complete experience. seems just broken to me.
i guess its an extreme example, but we are not back in the arcades... the sense of ownership should be something tangible... not pay for pieces of games to make a complete experience. seems just broken to me.
League of Legends has pretty much established the best practices for a character buy type of game - they would do well to emulate that.
If the game is free and you only have to buy the characters you actually want to play, that SHOULD end up being cheaper in the end. Isn't that better for consumers?
I mean, putting aside any ownership issues and such since if you're buying an XBone you've already committed to giving up that fight.
Personally, I don't have any problem with this model at all, it's free to start with, you get to play a game - almost like a demo, if people want to stump up the cash and continue, it's their choice.
If the game is free and you only have to buy the characters you actually want to play, that SHOULD end up being cheaper in the end. Isn't that better for consumers?
I mean, putting aside any ownership issues and such since if you're buying an XBone you've already committed to giving up that fight.
Depends on the business model. I'm certainly not opposed to buying unlocks or anything in a fair balanced game. Assume for a moment CoD is nicely balanced, you could simply buy weapon variety for a fee and not have to level and gather XP just to get that HK SL8 you want.
Along the same lines a game like DOTA or LOL could work where the free version gives you 3 hero tokens to choose, and then you collect XP for new tokens/unlocks, or you could buy them for $1 apiece, or a 10 pack for $8 or all for $25 or something (I don't know how much they currently cost).
Buying unlocks modular isn't a problem as long as everything's balanced properly.
If the game is free and you only have to buy the characters you actually want to play, that SHOULD end up being cheaper in the end. Isn't that better for consumers?
SHOULD being the tricky word here, since it's definitely shouldn't for any consumer who wants the 'whole package.'
Why not offer a purchase offer for the complete collection for 60? Vs if you bought all characters separately would cost you more.
Or does this make too much sense?
That's what I said. I think LOL and DOTA have 50 or so characters, so getting them all for $25 would be a 50% discount over buying them all separately.
I am not quite sure what to think of this model, with the first character being free and the next ones having to be paid for.
I mean, it *does* sound cool, and it worked in the past with the Contra game Hard Corps Uprising (I think they had two extra DLC characters that were optional). But KI is a competitive fighting game - just "getting good at one character" is not how it works. You have to learn the toolset of your potential ennemies as well in order to really get better.
It's a bit weird really - the game seems to be heavily inspired by rather technical old school fighters, yet the business model tends to make it look like a cheap casual F2P game. If the game is as good as what it seems to be, the target audience would have no problem paying 20$ up front for it, as opposed to "buying it in chunks".
At the end of the day I'd rather have paid DLC for cosmetic costumes rather than having to pay for core characters and functionality.
But maybe they'll also have the option to download the full game with all characters for cheap, who knows... I am just a bit afraid that this "get one free character, buy the others later" model just cheapens the game and hurts its perception.
Dire : the exec in the video above basically said that without a connection, it won't play games at all. (I suppose that DVD and Bluray playback would still work, but that's about it and besides the point anyways)
Now of course this is just software design. They could very well remove that restriction tomorrow if they really want to. But at the moment, by design and as far as games are concerned, the Xbone without an internet connection is a brick.
Without internet, is Xbox One really that cripple?
The Xbox has to connect and touch the servers to authenticate once a day. If you can't connect, it disallows you to play any game. Not arcade, not single player. Nothing. You can still use the cable and Blu-Ray functions but all gaming is disabled. So, here's hoping you don't move and have to wait for your ISP to get off their ass and out to your home to connect you. No game time. Here's you're not actively enlisted and stationed somewhere with no internet. Oh, and here's hoping that some hacker asshats don't target XBL like they did the PSN a few years ago and take the entire network down for a month. Because if any of those happen, you can't play any games on the system.
perhaps they'll just have to tweak the amount of time between check ins like Steam - I've heard conflicting reports that Steam does it once a week or once a month. This is almost the level of hate that Valve got when Steam launched - remember the steam logo raping the stick man?
Sim City's issue was their servers couldn't handle the traffic, I don't know the tech behind it but I've heard programmers say Amazon EC2 servers where not the right tool for the job.
I don't understand how Microsoft can keep making these insanely stupid mistakes for new products and get away with it.
They're only stupid if people don't buy them. I feel that many a time we forget that we exist largely within our own little game informed bubble. There are a ton of people that aren't going to do any research into the new systems. They'll just put down the money on the system they want/ can afford/ is in stock/ is on a Christmas list/ etc and when that happens MS will look at sales and feel justified with every decision they've made. They're targeting a larger marketshare anyways.
I'm halfway expecting a sort of fallout whenever the XBone is launched and people realize after the fact that they can't connect to the network or trade in games. There is going to be plenty of angry parents who bought systems for their kids and thought it was hassle free because that is the way it has always been in the past.
I work on one, I hate to inform you that we're doing great and our fans love us
You will be punished hahaha, as I said, most are awful but some do it really well like hawken, team fortress etc. but alot make it so painstakingly obvious that I just can't enjoy the game because of it. And I'm probably super jelly of all the money they make haha,
I like how careful EA rep. is with wording in that interview:
"We don't have a problem with second-hand sales as they are today. We clearly articulated our stance when we abandoned Online Pass." EA Games Label boss Patrick Söderlund
seeing how xbone division head comes from EA vancouver, and current EA head apparently comes from DICE Sweden, I can't really not comment on how abusive the north american corporate heads are when it comes to pumping money off customers and exploiting customer's rights, and yet, there would always be a pressed apologist or two, trying to back them up.
Never like reading corporate license agreements, no matter what company - Apple, Sony, etc. but this one seemed like I was on the green mile or prison. It sure put me straight on what I can or can't do.
ah good point i suppose, i dunno i just think it's a huge loss of sales for them to limit launch countries like this.
a good example would be star wars: the old republic. they only launched in very specific countries, players from other countries like south africa, and a lot of european countries had to resort to getting friends from the launch countries to purchase the game for them, and transfer money via bank account to pay for it. but hey at least they could run the game once they had a valid account... with the xbone they're not even allowing that lol.
The thing is, Sony can't push anti-used game DRM for one reason: Japan.
The used game market there is a real deal, plenty of places trade in classic systems and games from NES to PS3, and Sony is the bigwig there with Microsoft barely registering. All that stuff about Steam and how we should all shift to license-based digital-distribution? Well in Japan, PC game is niche and associated with visual/erotic novels more than mainstream gaming.
So yeah, Japan's biggest player is not going to piss off their native market.
@Erich, I think visually it will overall be a bit grittier/realistic, but I think the fact that one of the weapons they showed off in the demo was a sledgehammer chainsaw leads me to believe they haven't lost all the craziness that made the first 2 games fun. Not a day 1 purchase for me, none of the past ones have been either, but definitely a game I'm looking forward to.
To me, the time crunch was perfect in Dead Rising 1. You really had to choose, do you save the photographer and risk missing a deadline, or let him die and finish your current mission? It left it open to re-playability too. I went back and did things differently multiple times.
Maybe I'm just old, but I could give less than a shit about waving my arms for the Kinect. I could also care less about the smart glass feature, though cool as it may sound. What ever happened to the good ole unfoldable maps from the GTA series? Give me those, makes me feel like more of a man. To me, gimmicks like the kinect and smart glass just means devs have less time to make a good game. Though it will be funny to rip off a loud fart, have the kinect hear it, and attract zombies.
Though it will be funny to rip off a loud fart, have the kinect hear it, and attract zombies.
In the original Manhunt you could plug in a microphone headset and use it to distract enemies and could hear the warden straight from the earpiece. Hardcore mode with the sensitivity up to max - don't breath to loud.
What scares the heebies out of me is this.. Also noted on Microsoft's page, "Xbox One games are for activation and distribution only in specified geographic regions. See game package and/or retailer product information, for each game’s specific geographic regions."
Will this mean that anyone not in a supported country can not even activate their game, let alone get the 24 hour check to work without using constant VPN networking to "spoof" their IP?
Thats just... amazing :P
To quote a random reddit user... "It's called the xbox one because they took 359 steps backwards"
How omitting and changing a few words can distort a statement right ?
The original text: "For an optimal experience, we recommend a broadband connection of 1.5Mbps. (For reference, the average global internet connection speed as measured recently by Akamai was 2.9 Mbps)."
Nothing new here. If you want to play multiplayer games or download updates under good conditions, developers recommend to have a good connection, it's been like this for ages. This tweet is pure Xbone bashing and misinformation, can't believe this gets news and retweeted.
Replies
League of Legends has pretty much established the best practices for a character buy type of game - they would do well to emulate that.
I mean, putting aside any ownership issues and such since if you're buying an XBone you've already committed to giving up that fight.
Depends on the business model. I'm certainly not opposed to buying unlocks or anything in a fair balanced game. Assume for a moment CoD is nicely balanced, you could simply buy weapon variety for a fee and not have to level and gather XP just to get that HK SL8 you want.
Along the same lines a game like DOTA or LOL could work where the free version gives you 3 hero tokens to choose, and then you collect XP for new tokens/unlocks, or you could buy them for $1 apiece, or a 10 pack for $8 or all for $25 or something (I don't know how much they currently cost).
Buying unlocks modular isn't a problem as long as everything's balanced properly.
SHOULD being the tricky word here, since it's definitely shouldn't for any consumer who wants the 'whole package.'
Or does this make too much sense?
there's a handful of games that do it right but 99% are just awful!!!!
That's what I said. I think LOL and DOTA have 50 or so characters, so getting them all for $25 would be a 50% discount over buying them all separately.
So, the issue isn't freemium. It's shoddily implemented freemium.
I mean, it *does* sound cool, and it worked in the past with the Contra game Hard Corps Uprising (I think they had two extra DLC characters that were optional). But KI is a competitive fighting game - just "getting good at one character" is not how it works. You have to learn the toolset of your potential ennemies as well in order to really get better.
It's a bit weird really - the game seems to be heavily inspired by rather technical old school fighters, yet the business model tends to make it look like a cheap casual F2P game. If the game is as good as what it seems to be, the target audience would have no problem paying 20$ up front for it, as opposed to "buying it in chunks".
At the end of the day I'd rather have paid DLC for cosmetic costumes rather than having to pay for core characters and functionality.
But maybe they'll also have the option to download the full game with all characters for cheap, who knows... I am just a bit afraid that this "get one free character, buy the others later" model just cheapens the game and hurts its perception.
[ame="
Wow. That sums it up!
Now of course this is just software design. They could very well remove that restriction tomorrow if they really want to. But at the moment, by design and as far as games are concerned, the Xbone without an internet connection is a brick.
The Xbox has to connect and touch the servers to authenticate once a day. If you can't connect, it disallows you to play any game. Not arcade, not single player. Nothing. You can still use the cable and Blu-Ray functions but all gaming is disabled. So, here's hoping you don't move and have to wait for your ISP to get off their ass and out to your home to connect you. No game time. Here's you're not actively enlisted and stationed somewhere with no internet. Oh, and here's hoping that some hacker asshats don't target XBL like they did the PSN a few years ago and take the entire network down for a month. Because if any of those happen, you can't play any games on the system.
Is it sad I'm actually hoping that does happen just so people see how stupid of a system it is?
Sim City's issue was their servers couldn't handle the traffic, I don't know the tech behind it but I've heard programmers say Amazon EC2 servers where not the right tool for the job.
They're only stupid if people don't buy them. I feel that many a time we forget that we exist largely within our own little game informed bubble. There are a ton of people that aren't going to do any research into the new systems. They'll just put down the money on the system they want/ can afford/ is in stock/ is on a Christmas list/ etc and when that happens MS will look at sales and feel justified with every decision they've made. They're targeting a larger marketshare anyways.
I'm halfway expecting a sort of fallout whenever the XBone is launched and people realize after the fact that they can't connect to the network or trade in games. There is going to be plenty of angry parents who bought systems for their kids and thought it was hassle free because that is the way it has always been in the past.
It will just be managed by the publishers, and not Sony themselves.
And I'm willing to bet, it will be in the most intrusive and obnoxious of ways.
Sadly that's probably true, but hopefully publishers and developers learn from this whole reaction.
I bet publishers are pissed the hell off at Sony.
I work on one, I hate to inform you that we're doing great and our fans love us
Then I guess the Zune, Windows phone, Surface, Windows RT and Windows 8 are pretty stupid.:poly124:
I'm guessing Xbone will soon join them.
You will be punished hahaha, as I said, most are awful but some do it really well
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-12-ea-we-dont-have-a-problem-with-second-hand-sales-as-they-are-today
EA isn't.
seeing how xbone division head comes from EA vancouver, and current EA head apparently comes from DICE Sweden, I can't really not comment on how abusive the north american corporate heads are when it comes to pumping money off customers and exploiting customer's rights, and yet, there would always be a pressed apologist or two, trying to back them up.
literally just destroyed any chance they have of beating sony.
a good example would be star wars: the old republic. they only launched in very specific countries, players from other countries like south africa, and a lot of european countries had to resort to getting friends from the launch countries to purchase the game for them, and transfer money via bank account to pay for it. but hey at least they could run the game once they had a valid account... with the xbone they're not even allowing that lol.
The used game market there is a real deal, plenty of places trade in classic systems and games from NES to PS3, and Sony is the bigwig there with Microsoft barely registering. All that stuff about Steam and how we should all shift to license-based digital-distribution? Well in Japan, PC game is niche and associated with visual/erotic novels more than mainstream gaming.
So yeah, Japan's biggest player is not going to piss off their native market.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/17/microsoft-determined-to-make-xbox-360-more-popular-in-japan/
Apparently not though. I guess they want to ignore the one country that can actually provide 'always on' internet
It seems like he 'resigned' for sharing the same opinions that MS had.
Maybe I'm just old, but I could give less than a shit about waving my arms for the Kinect. I could also care less about the smart glass feature, though cool as it may sound. What ever happened to the good ole unfoldable maps from the GTA series? Give me those, makes me feel like more of a man. To me, gimmicks like the kinect and smart glass just means devs have less time to make a good game. Though it will be funny to rip off a loud fart, have the kinect hear it, and attract zombies.
It has my interest peaked though.
Day 1 buy.
What scares the heebies out of me is this..
Also noted on Microsoft's page, "Xbox One games are for activation and distribution only in specified geographic regions. See game package and/or retailer product information, for each game’s specific geographic regions."
Will this mean that anyone not in a supported country can not even activate their game, let alone get the 24 hour check to work without using constant VPN networking to "spoof" their IP?
Thats just... amazing :P
To quote a random reddit user... "It's called the xbox one because they took 359 steps backwards"
How omitting and changing a few words can distort a statement right ?
The original text: "For an optimal experience, we recommend a broadband connection of 1.5Mbps. (For reference, the average global internet connection speed as measured recently by Akamai was 2.9 Mbps)."
Nothing new here. If you want to play multiplayer games or download updates under good conditions, developers recommend to have a good connection, it's been like this for ages. This tweet is pure Xbone bashing and misinformation, can't believe this gets news and retweeted.