Is commercialism/corporate culture ruining the gaming scene?

[rockykabir]

Gaming is big business - with revenues higher than that in the movie industry apparently. But with success, comes the corporate leeches - and rather than it being about making games that people enjoy, it's increasingly becoming about meeting targets :roll:

Classic examples are Microsoft and Sony. IMO, a farce of a console was the PSP - which was none other than a portable version of the PS2 (along with rereleases of its old games) arguably sold to push Sony's inhouse (and profitable) UMD disks and memorystick flash cards . In fact, it had brought more problems as the low battery life (due to UMD disks) is a major criticism of the PSP. Things don't seem to be changing for the PS3 and Bluray.

Self proclaimed corporate experts Microsoft are doing a similar thing. Overpriced accessories (£60 for a wireless bridge?!, £32 for a controller?!) and XBox Live microtransactions (check out the Godfather and Lumines scandals) are not healthy for the gaming industry. You pay £40-50 for a game and then be told that will have to pay extra for content which should have been in the game in the first place

Shockingly this year, Konami have "done the EA" by rereleasing a direct copy of last years game in PES6. To make it worse, it seems to be unfinished as a lot of content is left out - will Microsoft be using microtransactions?

But at the same time, I guess the extra finances have helped the graphical quality of games - but is it worth the games companies selling their souls to the devil and us spending the extra money? :shock: :mrgreen:

 

[Chris Davies]

Bit of a no-brainer. If companies are actively being told by Sony to hold back on a few levels and then release them on XBOX Live later for an extra tenner or whatever (which I've heard from more than one source), then yes, it's obviously not right. If you pay £50 for a 360 game, which is an OBSCENE amount of money as it is, then you shouldn't have to pay £10 a few months down the line on top of that.

Their argument will be "you don't HAVE to buy it, it's an optional extra". But you've bought a game, you want the complete experience. If it said on the box "please note, this is three quarters of a game", and they charged three quarters of the price (and the things they were holding back on they were actually WORKING on for the three months you have to play without them, rather than holding them back purposefully to make extra cash), then okay.

Thing is though, I think they've got us by the balls (or at least one of them). If, for example, there was a lower-league addon released for PES or FIFA, I'd buy it. If they then released a stadium pack for the lower league, I'd buy it. Things that should be included in the £50 you've already paid, I would buy over XBOX Live, because otherwise I'd be thinking to myself "I could be playing as Tranmere and I'm not".

Same with PGR, I was on here complaining with everybody when they released the car packs. 24 hours later I'd bought them. If there's an update, as an avid gamer who spends more time on games than I should, I want them.

In FIFA 5% of the time the goalkeepers duck to let a goal in for no apparent reason. If they released a patch to fix that, and charged money for it, I would be INFURIATED ("I've paid £50 for the game, which was broke, and now that you've fixed it you want me to give you money again?") - but A) I can see it coming in the future, and B) I'd buy it, I wouldn't feel like I had a choice. I want a better game. So I've got to have it.

The future is not bright.

 

[rockykabir]

Bit of a no-brainer.

I was thinking that while writing the post - but graphics and realism has become just as important as gameplay these days. Without the financial backing to hire larger teams, it'll be very difficult to produce the amazing graphics in games today.

Also, it can be argued that instead of Konami spending all that money on licenses, they could have hired more programmers to utilize the nextgen power to produce a better game?

 

[TikTikTikTikTik]

My anwser would be yes and no,

yes being obvious examples like pes6 and "add ons" later being sold via xboxlive.

no being we pay for the games and the companies want our money so they have to improve each game to get our money. Its very subjective really, do you consider a game that gives you say 12hours of gaming worth 60euro? or do you consider an inferiour in everyway besides graphics game (pes6) being worth more for nextgen then current? It just depends what the valua of the game is for you, and whether the companies making them are ripping you off. I dont consider fifa a ripoff, wereas pes i do this year. Previous years it would have been the otherway round.

The problem arrises imo when the balance is lost between company investment and consumer investment. PES5, and pes4 to a lesser extent, was out of balance as the investment from nokami vs investment from the consumer was off tilt (in favor of nokami) with pes6 being the extreme.

And hopefully the consumer will wake up from their sleep / sheep behaviour and think for themselves whether the cost is a valid representation of the products being produced. Thats one of the main reasons ive gone for fifa this year, imo it better represents valua for money (even with lesser leagues etc being taken into consideration ) then pes6 does. With both being lower down on the scale, for the gaming experience i want fifa delivers it better then pes. And thats why i wont be buying pes untill its a bargainbin price or nokami has free updates availeble.

 

[babs]

Length of time of gameplay is practically a non-point for me nowadays. I don't have as much time to play as I used to, and would much rather play a brilliant short game than a long-winded crap one. Fahrenheit was well worth €60 if you ask me, not the longest game, but it was brilliant.

Commercialism has always been in games, and it always will be. I remember buying a Quavers game on the Spectrum 48K, and there were countless other cheap cash-ins.

I have no problem with micro-transactions which provide something new and value for money. Unlocking something already on the disc is low.

I think what will happen though, with the increased popularity of xbox Live and Sony's new service (the playstation brand carries huge weight and will get noticed more), micro-transactions will become more regulated.

 

[LemonJelly]

Define value of money! Define the amount of content that "should" appear in a game which retails at £45-£50!

I am a firm believer of "voting with your wallet". Unless you have zero control, DON'T buy everything they throw at you. I haven't bought any of the Oblivion upgrades even though I enjoy the game, I only got the Speed pack for PGR because it had the cars I wanted. I haven't got the map packs for GRAW.

Are these big corporations ruining the gaming scene? I think it is too early to tell. We are heading in a different direction than we were 5+ years ago, the business model has changed and will continue to evolve. Things like E3 have highlighted just how insane the gaming scene has got and the event has imploded. Microtransactions and the like are, I hate to say it, becoming ever more popular and even used for bragging rights. Rockstar providing "episodic content" for GTA4 is a prime example.

I wish more developers would follow suit with the method Bungie used with the Map Packs for Halo2. When they were released it was premium content and you had to pay for it, however; if you were willing to wait 2 months they all became free of charge. That is the model that should be used because the hardcore fans will spend their money, but those who aren't fussed don't lose out in the long run.

 

[studeep]

YES YES YES!!!, i dont think i need to explain myself either, you guys said it all, but my gripe is that, it's even more visible/evident with game developing companies these days, as Jack said, "the future is not bright", for the majority of gamers, but as they say chage is good init?, maybe in 2017 we'll all be used to splashing close to £200 on games software, who knows

 

[BumperMan]

It's not only games. it's music it's movies it's tv(How many cop and fbi forensic shows can i stomach!)it's the food it's horrible