Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Monday Night Raw rocking Toronto, your American Idol pick, or Nick Johnson lasting an entire month before requiring surgery, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
It used to be that you needed a console, a controller, and cartridge/disc to enjoy a game. While the prices of consoles and games haven’t gone up too much over the years, you have to spend more money than ever to play games. On the hardware side you have accessories, on the software side you have DLC, and on the services side you have Xbox Live Gold. All of that stuff adds up!
While I’m surprised that Sony has taken this long to offer a premium version of PlayStation Network (rumored to be debuting at E3 2010), I’m impressed by EA’s ingenuity when it comes to making games more expensive. The EA Online Pass makes used and rented games more expensive by requiring a code to access all online content and features. I understand that company’s issue with the used-game market, but from a consumer’s perspective the company has pissed on two ways gamers can save money.
What’s left? How can publishers, console manufacturers, etc. get more of our money? It looks like all the bases are covered, but I’m sure someone, somewhere (probably Bobby Kotick *snicker*) will find a new way to part gamers with cash. What do you think it will be? How can gaming get more expensive?
where there's a will there's a way… I think that DLC and subscription games are going to take over most markets. It's unfortunate, because I'm not a huge fan of either.
Also I am stoked for Red Dead Redemption today
I think subs will eat up funds.
Question….why can EA charge $10 to play on Xbox Live? You play with a damn p2p connection. Their server saves your stats…that's it. One hell of a premium. They release these damn things every year and sell a boatload with minimal amounts of differences year to year. They amortize a license, recycle gfx, and add a few new sounds. I don't get where they feel the need to charge such a premium? Used sales of their products are a function of over saturation.
DLC is the other way they will nickel and dime us. They will sell us a piece of the game and then we have to pay for the rest. It's like going back to the arcade days…I can hear it now "Buy more health now!" "I have never seen such bravery!"
Guess the game!
that's just one more reason to not buy Madden games… is it required? what benefits do you miss by not getting it?
@shockwave
If you buy it new on shelf then you the fee is included in the purchase price of $60. Otherwise if you rent a sports game or buy one of the 10k copies used you will not be able to play online at all.
To be honest the last few times I have played Madden or a sports game with a friend we do it sitting on the couch drinking some beers. It's better that way. Otherwise it would be like watching the game and using Skype….
@smartguy
Gauntlet!!!!
@tokz
A quarter muncher if there ever was one!
@smartguy
It was but i never noticed it. I played the F**k out of that game when my mom worked at Greyhound. She knew the guy that worked the arcade room and they actually fixed them there too. So when they would close down to pull the money from the arcade's he would let me pick out a game and ring me up 100 credits or as many as it would give me. I would play my little heart out. I miss old arcades.
@smartguy – well as long as it doesn't cost extra for a new copy i'm good. but I agree online madden is pretty lame
Well the CoD franchise has done well with offering very little extra and some rehased maps for $15 each time and people are willing to pay it.
There are also the "collector's" editions and stuff that offer you basically crap. After I got burned with the crap quality of the GTA4 lockbox and stuff I'll just pay the basic price from now on.
There are some videogame deals in today's Amazon Gold Box section. Looks like mostly Wii stuff, but we'll see what pops up later.
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2 Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fgoldbox%3Fie%3DUTF8%26ref_%3Dcs%5Ftop%5Fnav%5Fgb27&tag=rt0b3-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957″ target=”_blank”>Amazon Gold Box Deals<img src="https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=rt0b3-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
@shockwave
Still atrocious to charge you to use a p2p connection. Also my gadget bug bit hard yesterday. Bought a 27inch iMac with the i7
Let me add this: sunk costs aren't relevant. So them charging the premium for service usage isn't honest. That cost was accounted for in production and licensing. From the accounting point of view. Just a money grab.
@smartguy I was counting on you bringing your…uh…accounting perspective. Thanks!
@ray
I'll keep it to myself lol. Sorry.
@smartguy – ah, I'm jealous. I'd love to upgrade to the 27 from my 24. The i7 is calling my name
@Smartguy
Preach on brotha.
@Topic
I can see the next gen games going up to $70. When that happens I will mostly rent games.
Amazon has a special on Alan Wake. It's on sale for $50 and you get a $10 credit for a future game purchase.
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=rt0b3-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&asins=B001ELJFB4" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
@WWE
Where are they going by giving Bret Hart the IC title?
@RRODisHere He doesn't have the IC title. :P
@RROD
yeah Bret Hart winning the U.S. title confused me too. Did you or Rpad or anyone else watch the TNA ppv?
@Raymond Padills
I stand corrected, Bret won the U.S. title. Still baffles me.
@tokz
No. I'm not paying money to see Hogan and other old wrestlers.
I'm kinda glad I didn't get into this until after the Ubisoft following suit thing.
At first I was thinking "Well, there aren't that many EA games I care that much about with few exceptions like the absolutely awesome NHL games".But now that Ubisoft is falling in accordance…. there's a few Ubisoft games and franchises I enjoy the hell out of. I think it totally sucks. I mean if you look at the market in the same light as the cigarette market, they started raising prices in the 90's so that people would stop smoking…. I guess they want people to stop gaming now.
I think they're shooting themselves in the foot. I think it will be a tremendous failure on the same lines as as the Power Glove and whatever that ring was that you put on the floor and were supposed to play fighting games with.
I think that they are just gonna put more money in OnLive's and Steam's pockets.
@RROD
Oh i didn't pay money for it. It was streaming all day on Justin.tv yesterday and i caught bits and pieces here and there. it was disappointing. Ric Flair was almost dying while he was at the commentator's table. He was rambling like a wild man. The Hall & Nash match was a joke. The only thing i really enjoyed was Jay Lethal's impersonation of Natch and putting him in the figure 4.
@ tokz
The only really nice thing I can say about TNA is that their female division is spectacular. They do alot more to push the females than WWE does. As a heterosexual male adult with strange fetishes… I have to acknowledge that.
Other than that, I hate the way they ruin male talent.
@n8r
yeah i agree. TNA needs to have a Lost-esque purge of the Men's Division.
@ tokz
Are you saying Pope D'Angelo Dinero needs to gas them all?
@n8r
hahaha. I wish Kervorkian was still around he could put half of the TNA roster out of their misery. Oh watch that movie you don't know jack. the hbo movie with Al Pacino. it was pretty good.
@RROD
Thanks. I don't buy used titles but I just don't agree with this. If the premium to play the game online is included in retail, then why do you have to pay MS $$ per month to use that premium?
If games are $70 in the supposed more digi gen next go round I might not participate.
@ tokz
Yeah I saw it, it was pretty good.
When woke up today, the Dragonball: Evolution movie was on HBO. I was thinking that maybe since I never liked Dragonball, I may enjoy the movie… that was very, very wrong.
@n8r
hahaha. I never liked the series or the games so i just stayed away from it.
@rpad
i watched speed racer and it was ok. not as much as a failure as i thought. My next assignment watch Clash of the titans new and old then *61.
@tokz_21 My thoughts were similar. Parts of Speed Racer were fun. The visuals were cool. It wasn't the catastrophe that I read in the reviews.
@N8R Oh man. I remember ranting about that movie on G4tv.com. Ha! I ended up watching it on an airplane last September. *sigh* What a piece of crap that was (the movie, not the airplane).
@rpad
agreed the visuals were nice. I can only imagine how they looked on that IMAX screen. *sighs* too bad it wasn't worth me spendin $17 or $15 bucks on to see it in that format.
@ Ray
How do movies like that even exist? Somebody has to notice during production that the movie is terrible and is destined to make less money than it costs to make it.
Hollywood executives have no bearing in the real world apparently.
@N8R I don't know. It looked pretty cheap to make.
@ R Pad
According to Cha Cha, it cost $45 million to make. It did $9 million domestically BUT…. did $48 million overseas.
This now makes sense, it was an export title. I suppose in comparison to typical Asian cinema… it was pretty good. Still, somebody had to be wringing their hands raw during production thinking "$45 million down the tubes".
Once all games are constricted by DRM, they will monitor every time that you turn your console on and charge you every time that you play one of their games. They will charge twice if you have an update and get logged out and logged back in. After that it will progress to manufacturing people with a wireless signal that is connected to your console and will monitor every time that you think about their games, and charge you a convenience charge because you wouldn't be able to use that moment in life to think about their game if they would not have graced you with their game…this $h!t is going 1984…thank you Bobby Kotick for leading the way to gaming hell.
@All
I am currently taking summer classes and doing plenty of homework (hopefully I will be able to write in javascript reasonably well in the near future) and also working 2nd shift in a factory an hour away. Needless to say I am extremely busy and don't really have time to do much else other than try and learn java. I am going to try and post on here when I can, but those times will definitely be limited. Wish me luck in my endeavors, and I will try to talk to you guys as much as I can. I also unfortunately have no clue when the next time I will be on my xbox for something other than netflix or something like that. Feel free to leave me messages or whatever and I will try to respond back asap.
-Bsukenyan
busy summer