Fallout 3 ships 4.7 million in first week
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Okay, that is just crazy......I guess this means that Fallout 4 will come out sooner or later if there isn't an expansion or something like that
"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." - Issac Newton
Epic Games President Michael Capps says that Gears of War II is not coming to the PC because of piracy and, surprise surprise, used game sales.
Q: Do you see an enemy in this equation? Is it the retailer, or the purchaser of second-hand games?
Michael Capps: I'd hate to say my players are my enemies - that doesn't make any sense! But we certainly have a rule at Epic that we don't buy any used games - sure as hell you're not going to be recognised as an Epic artist going in and buying used videogames - because this is how we make our money and how all our friends in the industry make money.
I think a little bit of it is education so people realise that the reason there's no PC market right now is piracy. I mean, Crytek just put out some numbers saying the ratio was 20:1 on Crysis, for pirated to non-pirated use. So guess what? That's why there's no Gears of War 2 on PC, because there's no market, because copying killed it - and that's gruesome to a company like ours that's been in the PC market for so long.
We're trying to fix it, there's a new alliance of companies trying to make PC gaming work again. But if people are playing games without buying them, then the games aren't going to keep coming.
Yeesh.
I think it was just yesterday I read about a scheme to eliminate used games being resold: Someone with another developer (Frontier?) recently proposed a business model in which games could be rented for $50.00, while a "permanent" copy could be purchased for a mere $160.00. (I'll see if I can find the actual article in a bit here.)
I don't know what that guy's smoking, but I want some.
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
So, Crysis sold over 1 million copies- that means over 20 million people pirated it? Pardon me for doubting his numbers...
Regardless, I guess what Michael here is saying is that he'd rather throw away 1 million additional sales on the PC than risk having people who probably wouldn't have bought it anyway pirate it? Add to this his suggestion that he thinks those who play his game are the "enemy" and it's not hard to see what's wrong with his business model.
I do sympathize with him on the used game market though. Should people be able to trade and swap games? Absolutely. But what EBGames/Gamestop are doing is despicable, imo. They rip people off, paying people a fraction of what they bought their games for and rip you off even more if you don't agree to take store credit instead of cash (thereby forcing you to give them back the money they gave you). Next, they sell the same games back to rubes for as little as a couple bucks off the "new" price. Gamestop pockets all the money and the people who actually make the game, the developers, get nothing. Really sleazy, imo.
The game publishers should demand to get a cut of used game sales, or just stop selling Gamestop new copies of games.
Last edited by Xiahou; 11-11-2008 at 21:48.
"Don't believe everything you read online."
-Abraham Lincoln
Aha! I found the article I mentioned earlier:
David Braben, founder of Frontier Developments, is plenty upset. He joins the ranks of the likes of EA and other high profile developer/publishers that are mounting the beginnings of a massive offensive towards “retailers that buy used games”. Mr. Braben threatens that because of this practice the single player experience may be seeing its last days. Multiplayer only or multiplayer heavy games seem to be immune to this dastardly deed. The crime? Gamers play the short-lived single player game and then wish to trade it in for credit towards another game – imagine that!
Developers don’t get a dime when a game gets traded. The end result, retail outlets make a good penny for marking up old games while developers see nothing. In truth, being that the margins are so low in initial sales it would be impossible to run a business with the low returns on brand new games. In short, there is no profit in selling new games at retail stores and the used game market exists to fill a need.
We’ve all heard this story before, developers and publishers want a piece of the action. Solution? Give folks downloadable content to entice them to keep the games longer. Whether or not this solution has improved the situation has yet to be determined. Games like GTA IV, although selling well in its initial release phase, have seen massive returns to game retailers for store credit in part due to lackluster game play, even though downloadable content looms over the horizon.
Braben’s solution is a bit more radical. He suggests offering a two tier price entry: a not for resale version of the game and a rental version. The not for resale copies would be priced at roughly $160 dollars, and the rental version at around $50. The idea? Gamers won’t trade a game they spent their life savings on.
Be vigilant gamers! Game publishers and developers produce fun products; however they are in business to make money. There is no such thing as a compassionate, loving and caring conglomerate. Keep your wits about you and while you have fun playing, don’t lose your rights, or your wallets. Corporate greed is corporate greed and their insatiable appetite for your dollars may not only do away with the single player game, but games as a whole. Sadly the industry is maturing and the days of “doing it for the love” are gone.
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
If there's anything that will encourage people to pirate, it's 160 dollar games.
Piracy? Hell, there would be almost no games left to pirate. If titles become that expensive, the gaming industry would all but disappear.
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
That is one of the stupidest things i've ever heard. His idea to increase sales is to raise prices? Does he not realize high prices are one of the main reasons people buy used games?Braben’s solution is a bit more radical. He suggests offering a two tier price entry: a not for resale version of the game and a rental version. The not for resale copies would be priced at roughly $160 dollars, and the rental version at around $50. The idea? Gamers won’t trade a game they spent their life savings on.
The hillarious aspect is that as consoles become more advanced, they also utilize more direct computer components. This makes it far easier to hack them or otherwise make them capable of playing pirated discs. The devs are in for a rude awakening when piracy makes the full-scale jump to consoles in the near future. We'll see what excuses they can come up with then.
Well the only reason that console pirating hasn't gone crazy already is because you need to mod your console and not everyone is competent enough to do so without breaking something important.
If you do have a modded console, piracy is just as rampant. In fact, almost every major console release (especially for 360) was released by pirates a week or so before the actual release date. Thats because the companies are so focused on computer piracy that they're being more lax with security features to stop their console games from falling into pirate hands early
"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." - Issac Newton
Garriott exits NCsoft as profits plunge
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Square Enix orders Supreme Commander 2
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Wow that is really wierd.....Never pictured the Final Fantasy makers go into RTS....
Last edited by TevashSzat; 11-13-2008 at 00:30.
"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." - Issac Newton
October Sales Defy Market Plunge
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Some fairly interesting stuff here. It seems like the console gaming market is at least somewhat recession proof. It seems as if the PC market wsan't accounted by the figures here, but I'm not too confident of how high they would be.
"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." - Issac Newton
ESRB Adds Game Summaries to Ratings
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I really love how there may be really huge spoilers within the description which they don't tell you at all....
Valve Steams $99 Complete Pack
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Wow, that is really a great deal. 22 games for the price of two brand new games...... I'd probably get it if I didn't have the Half Life 2 and its episodes already since I get really nauseous while trying to play the original Half Life
"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." - Issac Newton
doh!
Last edited by Xiahou; 11-14-2008 at 21:30. Reason: double post
"Don't believe everything you read online."
-Abraham Lincoln
"Don't believe everything you read online."
-Abraham Lincoln
Not gaming related, but amusing none-the-less for us gamers:
Turkish inmate escapes via cardboard box. The La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo are not amused.
Stardock Talks Star Control, Master of Orion Sequels.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I'm not sure it qualifies as news per se, but it's certainly intriguing....
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
Surprise!
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/11/...adden-monopolyI was able to forge this deal with the [Pro Football Hall of Fame] that provides them with 400K per year (which is significantly below market rate) in exchange for the HOF player rights. EA owes me a huge favor because of that threat was enough to persuade Take Two to back off its plans, leaving EA as the only professional football videogame manufacturer out there.
...The per player price for most of these guys was tens of thousands of dollars less than what they were guaranteed by Take Two Interactive so it’s a real coup that we were able to pull this off so cheaply. You have to remember that EA’s total cost is only $200,000 per year. We know that Take Two offered six figure deals to several former NFL players so the total cost is millions below market prices...
Muahaha, EA is THE baller in this industry!
YAY EA IS DIEING!!! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION AND THE RISE OF THE LEMUR!!
Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!Originally Posted by North Korea
DNF still alive? One might hope
So reading through the most recent issue of game informer, I saw that DNF(Duke Nukem Forever) might still be alive. When you complete all the achievements and challenges for Duke 3D you unlock two new screens for DNF
Tho' I've belted you an' flayed you,
By the livin' Gawd that made you,
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!Originally Posted by North Korea
It turns out that wasn't the whole article, by the way. My bad.
Brad actually had quite a few interesting things to say:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I love the part highlighted in bold. Take that, Quicksilver and Legend Entertainment!
"MTW is not a game, it's a way of life." -- drone
Or Bethesda, for that matter.
I really liked the open-source version of Star Control 2. Stardock seems to be a good choice to make a sequel.
National Geographic Charts Game Division
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Not too excited about any games that may come out of them.....If your company isn't based off partially in gaming and you don't have a ton of money to invest in it, please don't try and save some face...
"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." - Issac Newton
Lich King Claims 2.8M souls in 24 hours
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Surprise surprise......WOW expansion beats other WOW expansion for #1 selling PC title....
Grand Theft Auto IV DLC Due Feb 17
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
I hope that this content will at least get to the PC sooner or later...
Last edited by TevashSzat; 11-20-2008 at 23:02.
"I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." - Issac Newton
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