Edge reports durango to block used games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TonyTheTiger]

I don't think it's diverting attention from the "real" problem as much as it is highlighting one aspect of a multifaceted problem with profitability/stability that the entire industry presently has.

Eliminating used game sales is not a cure-all for the industry's bleeding problem, but it's got to have a measurable impact to some degree and is hardly something that's negligible to continue to ignore.

But I think it's only a problem because they let it be one. Think about it. If you find yourself putting more money in to something than you can get out, what's the cure for that? That's what it boils down to whether it's flipping a house, publishing a video game, or running a lemonade stand. What makes video games so unique that the industry gets to skirt this and settle upon all these other fringe issues that may or may not (I'm heavily leaning toward not) actually help in the long run? I can't bring myself to feel bad for them because they aren't doing the one thing they need to. Instead they've effectively engineered other problems by ignoring this one. Competition from Steam? Adapt. Competition from iOS? Adapt. They've done so spectacularly, I think, by making XBLA and PSN as good as they are. But your big budget games aren't selling enough to justify their cost? Why is adapting to that so impossible?

People stopped buying comics sometime in the 90s. We've gone from X-Men #1 selling a million copies to current top sellers like Superman barely cracking 100,000. Yeah, that sucks. But you know what would be worse? If Marvel and DC didn't get their shit together in order to adapt to the change. Going after used games isn't "adapting." It's making excuses. The way I see it, if you put more money into a game than you can get out then it's your fault for putting too much into it. It's not GameStop, it's not piracy, it's not this guy or that guy that you already knew existed. You know those things are out there. Maybe some of them shouldn't be, but they are. Plan for it.

This has to be about restoring rationality. Back when Marvel vs. Capcom 2 came out it's roster of 50+ characters was pretty impressive. But based on reviews for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 you'd think Capcom had magically pulled 56 characters out of its ass from scratch rather than it being the culmination of five games over the course of about six years worth of work. Marvel vs. Capcom 3, with a roster of 36 characters actually built from scratch, gets a review like this.

"Compared with MvC2, we've lost 20 characters." Really? Because a mostly copy/paste job is the same thing? Isn't that like pointing out that the animation in an episode of The Simpsons isn't quite up to par with The Lion King? This is where we are now. As consumers we either don't understand or don't want to. And it keeps getting worse. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has just about every character to ever appear in the series. What do you think people are going to expect come Tekken 7? Getting rid of used games is not going to mitigate the problem because the problem is of perception rather than just revenue. We've been weaned to want bigger and better without any form of rational thought tempering our expectations. We're like a toddler who is offered three cookies and then gets pissed off when denied a fourth.

We've hit the point where a game sells a million copies and doesn't even come close to breaking even. It's not going to stop. With expectations constantly going up the only solution is to bring them down. Get rid of used games and it's like giving one more spin to a compulsive gambler. Even if revenue does get a bump (which I think won't really happen since I imagine people would just play less) that extra revenue is going to look like nothing when expectations raise once more and now selling 2 million copies isn't enough to break even or 3 million isn't enough to break even. Get rid of used games so they don't feel the crunch as hard? No, make them feel the crunch. Don't give them the easy, temporary out. I think everyone needs a wakeup call and indulging the "let them be special" attitude where ordinary things in just about every industry like used merchandise is suddenly considered expendable for video games is an attitude that's only going to give everybody (publishers and consumers) reason to dodge the real issues until the next crisis when something else is labeled the problem. I want decent games over the long term. I don't want to get rid of used games to fund five more years of AAA blockbusters followed by more mass shutterings. Lower budgets, lower expectations, and find an actually sustainable business model. I can't condone these extra shenanigans because they're not part of an actually sustainable business model. They're just band-aids at best or the "one more spin" at worst.

As long as closed economic ecosystems like STEAM and App stores are operating as successfully as they are we can't expect console developers to not try to ape that model on a larger scale.

Like Mr. Dylan says: "Times They are a-Changin" We've GOT to believe that Microsoft and Sony at the very least have recognized and calculated the success and profit of XBLA and PSN in this console generation down to the penny. If they feel that this is the generation to move stronger on digital distribution, we'll see.

But that still doesn't address the elephant. It's not the delivery method that's going to solve the problem of games winding up in the red after moving a million copies. Whether that happens on store shelves or on Steam the end result is the same. While it's true that it can be cheaper in the long run to publish digitally, I'm doubting that it makes enough of a difference given the extravagance.

That aside, I STILL don't believe that on February 20th that Kaz is going to walk out on stage and say "Here is the PS4, games will come on disc with a one-time activation code, you're won't be able to buy or sell them used. Also, Ridge Racer! Goodnight! Remember to tip your wait staff!" and if he doesn't - and Nintendo AND Sony aren't doing it, what sense would it make for Microsoft to burn all the good grace that they've earned in the past generation?

I actually agree. I don't think it's especially likely and I'm sure everyone's apprehensive about being the first.