#2) It Will Hand Sony Something to Gloat About
Imagine this ad: “The XBox 720 Plays Blu-Ray Discs, Has Incredible Graphic Power, and Won’t Let You Play Used Games. Maybe You’ll Catch Up With Us Next Time.”
The PlayStation 4 is in the works, but Sony isn’t introducing it for a while. Why would they? The XBox 720 sounds pretty much like a PlayStation 3 in different drag. They’ve got a mature system that can stay on the market and make them money for another five years, with the added appeal to parents and thrifty gamers of being able to save money. And unlike its competitor, it won’t have legions of ticked-off fanboys complaining about it.
#1) You Really, Really, REALLY Cannot Afford to Tick Off Your Customers
But, above all, it’s incredibly short sighted. The days where your customers need to go to one of three companies to play AAA titles? Yeah, they’re numbered, and that number is a lot lower than we believe anybody realizes.
An Android tablet with enough processing power to game costs $500, although that price is dropping rapidly; we’re already seeing sub-$300 Android tablets and frankly, Moore’s Law makes sub-$200 tablets that are incredibly powerful only a matter of time. An OnLive wireless controller for said system costs $50. The OnLive app for the iPad is free.
So, if they’re going to pay the same price for games, and you’re just going to restrict their use of games anyway…why buy your system? Why spend $300 to $400 on a single-use machine, an extra $50 a pop on controllers, when for $100 you can get what amounts to a personal computer in a slab? When a Roku runs a hundred bucks, and has more applications, it’s hard to argue your system is anything other than a white elephant.
For that matter, what about TVs with tablet processors embedded in them? Qualcomm and Lenovo have already built a TV that uses a Snapdragon processor, and it plays games.
There’s a reason Sony is turning the PS3 into a video editor and, for that matter, Microsoft is trying to turn the 360 into a cable box: they know they need to differentiate their systems as more than just unitaskers while they’re already in living rooms, because once the next generation rolls around, they might not be let back in.
So, really, doing anything that hands people an excuse not to buy your system is a bad idea, Microsoft. And, as the music and movie industries have already learned, trying to keep people from sharing and trying to block used sales is a great way to drive your fans to use your products…without paying for them.
So, let’s keep the anti-used games in the lab. Or, in the end, gamers will keep the XBox 720 on store shelves.
image courtesy IGN
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It is a simple rule of business that you do not anger your customers. This rule is especially salient when your customers are known for holding grudges. You do not want to upset people with three line phones and nothing better to do with their time.
Used games not only get people into franchises, they keep people buying games and playing your system. That is going to lead to more sales and better word of mouth. Anyway, if they want to sell more new games, maybe a price drop would be the best way to address it. Sell more at a lower price. Most new games are not worth it a $60, but most people would be more willing to buy them at $40 or $45.
That’s really the thing: $60 is a lot to shell out for a piece of entertainment, and the industry always aims at such a narrow slice of the marketplace.
You are right, Dan. Look, MW3 can command $60 because it is a huge franchise and everyone wants to play it. Ditto with Mass Effect, Halo, Elder Scrolls, Madden, etc. Every crappy platformer they put out cannot.
I have varied interests and buying a $60 game every week or even every month is not justified especially when so much of it just rehashing old concepts.
I’m going the other way on this. Not only do i want to see an end to USED games, i want to see an end to DISCS in general. Its 2012. The technology for digital released games is there. Get rid of boxes, manuals, discs, shipments, EVERYTHING, and cut the game by 20 bucks. You find your price point where people are willing to pay (i’d say between 40-45) AND you cut the head off of gamestop. EVERYONE wins.
Except gamestop. They don’t win.
Digital games are the future, we agree, but disc-based media will be around for at least another generation.
That’s fine and dandy. But hard drives crash, data is lost, and “digital rights” are certain NOT to transfer to the next gen system, whereas my first-gen PS3 plays all my PS1 and 2 games out of the box.
I want a disc. I don’t need the plastic case, or the instruction booklet–those are superfluous and a waste of space. But I want a damn disc, because I don’t want the Company, be it Nintendo, Sony, Apple, or MS, to have even MORE control over what I do with my games than they already do.
And I especially don’t want to eliminate used games. I’ve been gaming since dedicated Pong machines and at this point, no, I do not want to spend sixty dollars on ANY game. I wait 6 months to a year, and then if I haven’t played it, IT’S NEW TO ME!
Duto….
…check out an E-reader…..the e-books are now costing close to a new paperback. Seems they can cut out production without cutting out cost.
Also…fifteen songs on iTunes costs about the same price as a CD in its package.
Price points are psychological not manufacturing overhead.
Totally agree with #5, that’s how I got into Mass Effect (and by that I don’t only buy the new games new, I also buy their other media too).
To add on to it I’ve also run into the situation plenty of times when I’ve wanted to buy a game but can’t find it anywhere except in the used game market. I would buy it new if I could, but the publisher didn’t make enough copies. (Or apparently pulled an E.T. and buried the surplus copies out in a New Mexico desert.
Yeah, part of the problem is that new games disappear from shelves fast. I couldn’t find “Saints Row 2″ anywhere for a while, and that was a HIT.
Hey guys, remember when you had to blow into cartridges? That was a crazy time!
*hops away on Pogo Ball*
Oh, Burnsy, it’s so cute how you’re trying to convince us you’re in your thirties. Now get back in the cab, you need to stay in the home like we told you.
To this day, I am not sure how we figured that out.
Guess I won’t be buying an XBOX.
One of the main problems with all digital releases (which was covered earlier in the comments) is the fact that there are no artifacts lying around. I can still go in my “gameroom” and pop in my SNES, NEO GEO, GENESIS, etc. games into my consoles and even after nearly 20 years on some of them they still work. I love going to thrift and junk shops trying to chase down my childhood diversions every now and again. Now with everything being digital we’re basically leaving that sort of thing behind and it saddens me.
This is the same mentality is that leads Fox to believe the insane amount of damages they want for pirating “Wolverine.” Someone downloading a movie wasn’t necessarily going to pay to go see it when faced with a lack of alternatives. They might have just simply not seen it. I paid to see Wolverine and it’s one of the biggest regrets in my otherwise happy life.
When some people complain about MMOs having a recurring monthly fee my favorite response was always “Do you have any idea how cheap $10/15 a month is for as much entertainment as these games provide?” $60 for a game that often takes less than 8 hours to finish. $12 to see a 90-120 minute movie in NYC. People are pricing themselves right out of existence.
And then there’s the gateway factor. If I don’t buy Assassin’s Creed used on a whim when passing by a GameStop one rainy day, then I don’t buy ACII, AC Brotherhood or AC Revelations new because I simply wouldn’t have bothered with the franchise. But go ahead, game companies. Keep putting up barriers to entry for your own products. That sounds like solid business practice.