16 Replies to “New Coke: Twice in a Month”

  1. Like it or not, the current business model – AAA game titles go through an average of six owners in their lifespan and the publishers/console manufacturers only get their money once – isn’t sustainable, which is why game publishers have been going out of business.
    I have a sneaking suspicion we’re seeing the end of video games as the multi-billion dollar business they’ve been for the last decade or so and a Great Contraction is about to begin.

  2. Ah, but they’ve built the framework into the system.
    How much would you like to bet they quietly re-implement it 2 or 3 years down the road, after the initial console war with the PS4?
    Also, as long as they make the Kinect mandatory – essentially transforming the thing into a telescreen for anyone who’s connected to the internet – I’m staying far, far away.

  3. @Daniel Ream
    For big publisher games, I definitely agree. Of course, those titles seldom appeal to me. The last AAA title I bought new was Dragon Age (before that was Mass Effect), and before that it had probably been 5-6 years.
    I’m not particularly concerned, though – there’s a real renaissance happening with indie and small-publisher games right now via the internet.
    There’s several upcoming games funded via Kickstarter that have MUCH more appeal to me than anything the big publishers have put out in years.
    A few examples:
    Wasteland 2 – After over 2 decades of publishers rejecting it, raised over $3.5 million on Kickstarter. Yet publishers continue to say that nobody is interested in isometric, turn-based combat.
    Torment: Tides of Numenera – A follow-up, if not a direct sequel, to one of the best cRPGs ever made – Planescape: Torment. Raised almost $4.5 million via Kickstarter and Paypal. Fans have been all but begging for a Torment sequel for a long time, and while it’s not in the (copyrighted) Planescape setting, I’m cautiously optimistic about it.
    Xenonauts – A modern X-Com clone that’s shaping up to be much, much better than the Firaxis remake – which wasn’t a bad game, but really missed a lot of what gave the original such an enduring appeal.
    Dead State – A real-time/turn-based hybrid (similar to Fallout) zombie survival game where you scavenge for supplies, fortify a base, gather survivors, and compete with other groups of survivors for resources.
    Planet Explorers – A sci-fi sandbox ‘building’ type of game, in the vein of Minecraft, but with much better graphics and, obviously, a sci-fi theme – you were part of an expedition to form a colony on a new planet, but crash landed, etc., etc. Definitely looking very good.
    And that’s just a few examples off the top of my head. Publishers can continue to push out the next Call of Duty 17: Tribbles vs Smurfs or whatever, but I think they’re going to continue bleeding customers who (like me) were never really interested in their product, and are starting to realize they have alternatives.
    It’s too early to tell whether the Kickstarter phenom will continue, but the idea of being able to vote with your wallet on how a game is made *before* it’s finished is appealing.

  4. Bah humbug.. as long as there are kids there will be growth.. The video game industry is rich as can be and thats not going to change any time soon..
    I think your missing the point with Kinect.. Every person over the age of 40 that needs reading glasses will be able to operate their entertainment center with voice or hand commands.. Every woman out there that cant handle anything even slightly technical will be able to operate the entertainment center like a pro..
    Think about it.. NO MORE remotes means no more physical / technical / memory skills needed..
    just say what you want and presto your in business..
    It will know your face, your voice, your heartbeat.. It will greet you, it will know your viewing preferences.. it will know your music preferences.. Think TEVO on steroids..
    This Kinect is going to be a 100% hit for Microsoft..
    People who dont game will buy this thing just to be rid of all those remotes..

  5. Meh, I’d rather be out in the yard pulling wrenches, which is what I was doing, up to 5 minutes ago. Video games are booooring.

  6. @Jay
    I think you missed my point, actually.
    My problem is making the Kinect mandatory – they’ve stated you won’t even be able to cover up the camera, because it will shut down anything you’re doing on the Xbox.
    Keep the Kinect, sure – I don’t have a problem with it if it’s optional. Forcing it on everyone, particularly when it’s torn from the pages of 1984? That bothers me.

  7. Not good enough. Still have a telescreen essentially and still have a lack of support to indie developers which was a huge 360 asset. All the Xbone has is some big name titles that are getting tired if they weren’t already. They’ve already broken my trust. Oh and the price is higher than the PS4 for inferior hardware. I’ll probably go full-on for PC gaming. Maybe get a PS4 someday.

  9. You forgot Project Eternity – a new isometric game by the same folks who created IWD/2, PS:Torment, and Fallout 2. Though some of the same people doing PE, are doing the new Torment game, and Wasteland 2.

  10. It’s all Greek, Latin, or Swahili to this old cowboy. And that’s the way it’s going to stay.

  12. Funny how a Microsoft camera is the eye of Sauron, but every phone and tablet on the market has a similar one.
    But. But. But…
    But I never cared about used games. What is really going to happen is that Xbox will sweeten the deal with exclusive levels, armour, weapons and whatever content will get you to download the game instead of buying the disc. Discs will constantly be in short supply. You’ll have to order them and pre order them. All the hassle is avoided instantly plus extras. Discs are done. I remember getting on my motorcycle in November to grab Halo2 on day one. (Yes it was a stupid risk) Just last year I lined up in the middle of the night to grab Halo 4 at a special opening of Best Buy. NO MORE! Halo5 will be running @ 12:01 am on opening day at my house.
    Between MS and PS fanboys Im the one winning. So keep fighting! Thanks for bending MS anyway. Lets face it. MS needs a kick in the head once in a while and Im happy to see they don’t act like the cable company.

  13. The reason Microsoft had to backtrack on this is the publishers left them twisting in the wind.
    Microsoft gives precisely zero craps about the used games thing (aside from the games they publish, of course), but the publishers need it to stop. Microsoft took all the flak for this plan and backing away is the smart thing to do.
    They should rain Hellfire down on the publishers for being such cowards.
    Needing the disc in the tray now absolutely ensures I will buy all my games digital.
    Gamestop can go screw.
    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/03/30

  14. Who has the time to play video games? The last serious bit of gaming I did was with Doom and Quake and regret the amount of time I wasted on that. Also, whenever I’d get off the elevator after a long Doom session I’d start reaching for a non-existent shotgun (my favorite demon slayer of the game) and cautiously peer around both sides of the door before stepping out.
    I enjoy the graphics in the new games and think pushing graphics to the levels that the consoles currently support is neat, but my only interest in a game console would be to turn it into a Linux box or crack whatever stupid locks M$ has put on the machine.
    The only people I know who play games incessantly are adolescent boys who think that being able to use script kiddie tricks to “hack” a game makes them computer experts. Usually they live in their parents bedrooms, are unemployed and live a life that seems to me to be a colossal waste of time. There was a time when kids like that would be coding games but now they just play them.
    I’m very suspicious of any device that requires constant connection to the internet as what this will do is track every action the user makes. It won’t take long to identify a user by the kinetic melodies their fingers produce when they manipulate gamepads or other input devices. The closest I’ve every come to massive multiplayer distributed games was Neal Stephenson’s book Reamde. If I want to immerse myself in a virtual reality, I pick up a good SF book and read. Or, if I don’t have a book handy, I just close my eyes and start watching the scenes unfold.
    It wouldn’t surprise me if people like myself who spend almost every waking hour interacting with computers are far more ready to engage in real world physical interactions instead of virtual ones. I find an hour spent plant hacking far more enjoyable than sitting inside in front of a screen (most of my plant hacking consists of quite extreme physical methods to control the species of plants that grow in my yard). In a couple of hours of programming and soldering I can produce a little microprocessor based system that performs a useful function – if I spent the equivalent amount of time playing Doom I’d kick myself for the amount of time I wasted in the process.
    One of the reasons I haven’t gotten a fancier cell phone than the $50 burn phones that I buy in bulk is that I don’t want to be able to be able to connect to the internet wherever I am. I have a pager which will allow people to reach me but then I make the decision of whether I turn on my cell phone and allow the location of the fake persona who owns the phone to be briefly seen by a few cell towers when I make the call and turn off the phone.
    The more people that live most of their lives in virtual worlds, the less people there are to attack the statists. We’re moving to a world that has more in common with The Matrix then the futuristic world of individual freedom and scientific progress I imagined 40+ years ago.

  15. Even that’s got me stumped. I remember my kids trying to get me interested in pacman / super Mario…all too no avail.
    I remain Sir,
    Your humble and (blissfully) ignorant,
    Techno Rex.

  16. Maybe we wouldn’t have revolted against MS if they had made digital games advantageous to the consumer somehow like Steam sales instead of just treating us like cattle. I like used games.

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