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Future of Console Gaming -- DRM?

gkarris said:
Same here...

Publishers and studios hate us - they want to go to a Pay-Per-View/Play model... Those $5 BR's will turn into $2 per viewing... :(
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Many places would likely lose my business unless I was making a TON of money, I am just too reserved with how much I will pay to rent or buy. What a lot of places (most) want to Pay Per View is what I want to pay for a Blu-ray, and I can at the pawn shop. Sure I have to wait to see what comes in, not a huge deal. I really will not pay more then a couple dollars to rent a film and I prefer redbox prices.

I like the idea of consoles not having to be connected and now they want to destroy that, bad move. I thought it was a bad move for PC games as well, all it really does it push people to find hacks or pirate it. I bought one such game for $2.50 so I did not care that much, for that cost it can be a one time play.

I imagine most studious have no great love for secondary market buyers, just not going to spend fifty plus on a game, not going to happen.
 
Xiroteus said:
Many places would likely lose my business unless I was making a TON of money, I am just too reserved with how much I will pay to rent or buy. What a lot of places (most) want to Pay Per View is what I want to pay for a Blu-ray, and I can at the pawn shop. Sure I have to wait to see what comes in, not a huge deal. I really will not pay more then a couple dollars to rent a film and I prefer redbox prices.

I like the idea of consoles not having to be connected and now they want to destroy that, bad move. I thought it was a bad move for PC games as well, all it really does it push people to find hacks or pirate it. I bought one such game for $2.50 so I did not care that much, for that cost it can be a one time play.

I imagine most studious have no great love for secondary market buyers, just not going to spend fifty plus on a game, not going to happen.
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I read that Sony and MS were looking into RFID and NFC with games and consoles to lock the physical copy to the console if the user's console is not on the internet.

I guess we'll know tomorrow what Sony is up to. But, we'll have to wait until the PS4 is out and people do a tear-down in case Sony doesn't advertise the RFID/NFC "features"....
 
I think the best system is a digital download model where games are priced at 29.99 instead of 59.99 and leaving disc sales at 59.99

I think this is a win for both publishers and me (the consumer). I win by paying 50% less for a new game on release day, I don't have to get in my car and drive to gamestop, I don't have to wait until 10am when they open. Furthermore, I don't have to deal with a physical disc and case taking up space on my shelf, I don't have to deal with finding it, opening it, and popping the disc in. I'm lazy, when I sit down in front of my tv, I want to just fire up my console, select my game and go! Furthermore, with the price gap, I would prolly come out ahead as even if I had bought the physical disc, I'd prolly get a lot less than $30 for it at gamestop by trading it in.

The publishers win by not having to worry about me reselling it, they maintain the same or even greater profit margin they get on games because they now no longer have to manufacture the game, ship it to a retailer, who can then sell it to me. All those costs go out the window, they make a bit more of a profit, and they don't have to worry about lost second hand sales. That's a big win there.

I envision a future where I don't have to deal with discs lying around. I have a massive SSD in my console that stores my game library so I can on demand, fire up any game I want and go. If I want to buy a new game, all I need to do is download it, 24/7/365 all from the comfort of my living room couch.

The future is digital, the publishers just need to learn how to harness the opportunity they have and not squander it by pulling ridiculous shenanigans.
 
Your model is a win-win situation for everyone involved...except for the retailers!! They will not play along, and the manufacturers are still too dependent on them to tick them off like that.

Think of any product, jeans, TVs, toasters, etc. Most of these can be bought directly from the manufacturer, but they're always cheaper at the retailers. Not a coincidence! :)
 
Antares said:
But you can resell CD's. I have no problem with not being able to resell a digital download. However, if I have a physical copy, I should be able to resell it.
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Exactly this. And I should be able to buy physical media and play it as if it were a "first sale." None of that "have to buy a new online access code" **** either.

They should also try to incentivise digital downloads more. Slightly lowered prices, reflecting the fact that you don't get any sort of case, physical copy, manuals, goodies, etc (I'm looking for $10 or $15 here, not half off) would go really far for me.
 
bniu said:
I think this is a win for both publishers and me (the consumer). I win by paying 50% less for a new game on release day, I don't have to get in my car and drive to gamestop, I don't have to wait until 10am when they open. Furthermore, I don't have to deal with a physical disc and case taking up space on my shelf, I don't have to deal with finding it, opening it, and popping the disc in. I'm lazy, when I sit down in front of my tv, I want to just fire up my console, select my game and go! Furthermore, with the price gap, I would prolly come out ahead as even if I had bought the physical disc, I'd prolly get a lot less than $30 for it at gamestop by trading it in.
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Except the publishers will want to charge $59.99 because they are offering the convenience of you not having to get in your car and drive to Gamestop at 10am. ;) There are not typically big price differences between physical and downloadable software, movies, music and books so I wouldn't expect games to be any different. If publishers want to push a download 'discount' I could see them just increasing the price of physical games for the next gen systems to say $69.99 while keeping the download price at $59.99 or something like that.
 
It's a bit ridiculous that the digital prices of games are 59.99€ or 69.99€ when you can easily find them from actual stores for much less, for example Tomb Raider or Halo 4. So like mentiined before, digital releases should really have a cap of 49.99 or something to be worth it. I don't see why the publishers won't do this, considering they will get a much bigger profit from digital sales.
 
I figured this was coming. Sure its a huge disappointment, but not unexpected. It won't impact my decision to buy future consoles. I think other ... things bother me more.
 
Miharu said:
It's a bit ridiculous that the digital prices of games are 59.99€ or 69.99€ when you can easily find them from actual stores for much less, for example Tomb Raider or Halo 4. So like mentiined before, digital releases should really have a cap of 49.99 or something to be worth it. I don't see why the publishers won't do this, considering they will get a much bigger profit from digital sales.
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The primary reason you see stores reduce prices is because they have physical inventory they have to get rid of. Selling it for reduced profit, no profit or even at a loss is better than just throwing it away. For digital sales though there is no inventory that has to be cleared out on a regular basis.

Another reason for price reductions is to get people into the store and this works for both physical stores and online ones. Attract people w/Game XYZ priced as a loss leader and hope enough people buy a game or two at full price while they are there.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if right now publishers don't want to step on the toes of their retailers so digital prices are set to as to not compete with retail price.
 
Miharu said:
It's a bit ridiculous that the digital prices of games are 59.99€ or 69.99€ when you can easily find them from actual stores for much less, for example Tomb Raider or Halo 4. So like mentiined before, digital releases should really have a cap of 49.99 or something to be worth it. I don't see why the publishers won't do this, considering they will get a much bigger profit from digital sales.
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Publishers CAN'T do this because they depend on the retailers for a huge portion of their sales. Retailers will not play along if the publishers undercut them on price. Simple as that.

That's why prices in the app store are actually very low. It's the ONLY distribution channel, so they don't have retailers to worry about and can charge as low a price as they want.
 
I'm resuscitating my old thread.

Kotaku had this article on CD Projekt Red attempting to release the Witcher 3 on XBox One. The developer's problem is how to find middle ground between their anti-DRM stance, and Microsoft's XBox One policies.

It is a slightly depressing read. It appears that CD Projekt Red is in a bind, because while they don't like MS's stance, they can't publicly disagree (and lose a huge potential market). I really got the feeling that MS is throwing their weight around...and gamer's will likely be the losers.

One of the commenters to the article stated, "The only choice XBOX One developers/publishers have is if they want to allow used games or not. They cannot choose to do zero DRM. They need to have some form of DRM where it makes the game tied to a users account."

Does anybody know if that is true?
 
blesscheese said:
I'm resuscitating my old thread.

Kotaku had this article on CD Projekt Red attempting to release the Witcher 3 on XBox One. The developer's problem is how to find middle ground between their anti-DRM stance, and Microsoft's XBox One policies.

It is a slightly depressing read. It appears that CD Projekt Red is in a bind, because while they don't like MS's stance, they can't publicly disagree (and lose a huge potential market). I really got the feeling that MS is throwing their weight around...and gamer's will likely be the losers.

One of the commenters to the article stated, "The only choice XBOX One developers/publishers have is if they want to allow used games or not. They cannot choose to do zero DRM. They need to have some form of DRM where it makes the game tied to a users account."

Does anybody know if that is true?
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In the end they will fall in line with Microsoft's policy I guarantee it. They will publicly announce they are uncomfortable with it as a cover up for basically accepting it. Lets face it even if they said 'ok we wont enforce DRM on this game for xbox one' the fact remains that the One still has to generally check in every 24 hours for some form of DRM check anyway - so what real difference is it going to make ? None.

No basically they'll suck it up. Give out about how in a bind they are and how its such a hard decision but in the end they feel they want to give gamers a game albeit with DRM and that is more important to them basically not giving them the game without DRM.

It's just so inevitable.
 
MacRumorUser said:
It's just so inevitable.
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Not really. Sony has flat out said that the PS4 will not have anything like the Xbox one's DRM scheme. And they are not shy about using this fact against Microsoft. Eventually the latter may have to cave so as to not completely lose the marketing battle.
 
Does anyone know exactly what MS's XBOne disc DRM rules are?

Couldn't the developers just make it so that the original disc must be in the console to play (even though the entire game is on the hard drive - just like some PC games I have)?

I thought MS was going to make it so that developers can take a pass on the disc DRM...
 
Antares said:
The solution is to just not buy the Xbox One. That is the only way gamers can make a stand against these practices. Stay away until MS changes their policies. Anyone who buys an Xbox One is part of the problem.
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This


Then I also need Sony to make their version of kinect and get dance central franchise on there!

I'm be good at that point!
 
Never been more glad to be a PC gamer. This generation of consoles are pretty weak, the Xbox One especially with all its DRM. I hope developers and gamers boycott it. Maybe it'll slap Microsoft into some sense.
 
Yea the XBox One is offensive to me as a consumer and a gamer. Won't be giving Microsoft any of my $.

I like Nintendo's approach of these are toys and should be enjoyed for decades to come. It would be awesome to experience some of the best games we have today when I am old old man. That won't happen with Microsoft's approach.
 
More little tidbits about the Xbox that came rolling out after E3:

-Hard drive is NOT user replaceable (PS4 is)
-Games are region locked (PS4 aren't)
-Even with DRM measures to save publishers money, games are priced exactly the same
-Still some confusion about losing access to your games if you're banned from Live
-Some confusing details about sharing your games with 10 of your friends (could be very cool, but it's still so confusing that I'm not hopefully it'll be as good as it sounds)
 
roadbloc said:
Never been more glad to be a PC gamer. This generation of consoles are pretty weak, the Xbox One especially with all its DRM.
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There's a joke in there, somewhere...

Okay, I'll bite: Are you glad to be a PC gamer, cause that means you have already dealt with all the DRM crap, and now you've accepted it and can enjoy your games without feeling too violated?
 
Dagless said:
More little tidbits about the Xbox that came rolling out after E3:

-Hard drive is NOT user replaceable (PS4 is)
-Games are region locked (PS4 aren't)
-Even with DRM measures to save publishers money, games are priced exactly the same
-Still some confusion about losing access to your games if you're banned from Live
-Some confusing details about sharing your games with 10 of your friends (could be very cool, but it's still so confusing that I'm not hopefully it'll be as good as it sounds)
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Well, I'm not surprised points #1-3 were not announced out loud at E3.

I'm guessing now that anything we are confused about--we should just assume we are screwed and M$ gets it their way.
 
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