Current state of gaming

Since 7576 Days

Posted by deftangel

Activision make the majority of their profits on the back of WoW.

Nonsense. There's no money on the PC.

Posted by deftangel

Sometimes the DLC on disc that is unlocked by tokens (108KB file) is produced under a different budget and a different team from that of the main game. I still think it's pretty shady and not handled well by most publishers. You'll start to see less of it going forward, I'll wager.

Does it really make any difference to the consumer if it's content from another team? On the disc is on the disc. I think creating launch day DLC is pretty slimy regardless of how it's handled, really. But we've gone past the point where publishers are shy about trying to nickle & dime their way through our wallets.. why should they be, when so many people just eat that shit up?

But the most important thing to come out of this thread so far: There's a PC port of Chinatown Wars?

In reply to

deftangel

Since 7444 Days

Posted by GriftGFX

Does it really make any difference to the consumer if it's content from another team? On the disc is on the disc.

What might happen is something like this. A developer has a budget to produce a certain amount of content. This is all locked months in advance. At some point, someone might say "hey, this would be cool to have in the game" but there's no budget for it and nobody with free time to do it. The developer/publisher contracts will be very fixated on deliver content X at milestone Y and in the rush to get the game out, it's very difficult to deviate from that.

The DLC tokens are one way of squaring that little circle.

As I said, in most instances this isn't handled terribly well and it's very easy to view the content as stuff that's been ring fenced from the game. Sometimes it probably is. Sometimes it isn't. I mentioned really only to say there is another side to that coin, sometimes. As I say, these tokens aren't proving to be very successful so you'll find they'll be used less and less.

In reply to

[quote=GriftGFX]

Does it really make any difference to the consumer if it's content from another team? On the disc is on the disc.[/quote]

What might happen is something like this. A developer has a budget to produce a certain amount of content. This is all locked months in advance. At some point, someone might say "hey, this would be cool to have in the game" but there's no budget for it and nobody with free time to do it. The developer/publisher contracts will be very fixated on deliver content X at milestone Y and in the rush to get the game out, it's very difficult to deviate from that.

The DLC tokens are one way of squaring that little circle.

As I said, in most instances this isn't handled terribly well and it's very easy to view the content as stuff that's been ring fenced from the game. Sometimes it probably is. Sometimes it isn't. I mentioned really only to say there is another side to that coin, sometimes. As I say, these tokens aren't proving to be very successful so you'll find they'll be used less and less.

XBL/PSN: deftangel. Views are my own and not representative of my employers. Boulets aren't the end of the world, you will get over them! Reading and constructive discussion classes are available, enquire via PM

ManThatYouFear

Since 7519 Days

Deft dude, there was a hint of sarcasam in my post, there have been a few epicly fantastic games this gen, some of the best ever (ME for instance and UC2)

In reply to

I think i have stood in poo

Tomarru

Since 6648 Days

Also some of the examples you use are a bit curious. Rock band isnt ever gonna break even because theyre constantly releasing the same old shit ina hugely over saturated market, it's noones fault but EA's themselves that they cant make more money off the back of it, they perhaps shouldnt have entered that market to begin with, guitar hero seems to be the ipod of music games, sure you can carve out some of the market, but it is a beast that is hard to beat.
Chinatown wars...surely rockstar should know that A. Stepping back a generation and B. Trying to sell a mature game on a console largely aimed at kids and casuals isnt gonna be a good idea, i knew it was gonna fail from the moment it was announced at E3 with little to no fanfare, ninty just dropped the name and the title with no trailer, absolutely horrendous reveal.

EA still make an assload of cash on their yearly sports titles, and any big games they put their weight behind (Cn'C, mirrors edge etc) largely do make huge profits.

As for the average age of gamers argument, thats the same sorta excuse hollywood gives for releasing shit movies that cater to kids (PG-13 terminator movie anyone? maybe die hard). If you make something good, without compromises, it will be a success, but too often they cant be arsed and try to appeal to the lowest common demoninator.

In reply to

Also some of the examples you use are a bit curious. Rock band isnt ever gonna break even because theyre constantly releasing the same old shit ina hugely over saturated market, it's noones fault but EA's themselves that they cant make more money off the back of it, they perhaps shouldnt have entered that market to begin with, guitar hero seems to be the ipod of music games, sure you can carve out some of the market, but it is a beast that is hard to beat.
Chinatown wars...surely rockstar should know that A. Stepping back a generation and B. Trying to sell a mature game on a console largely aimed at kids and casuals isnt gonna be a good idea, i knew it was gonna fail from the moment it was announced at E3 with little to no fanfare, ninty just dropped the name and the title with no trailer, absolutely horrendous reveal.

EA still make an assload of cash on their yearly sports titles, and any big games they put their weight behind (Cn'C, mirrors edge etc) largely do make huge profits.

As for the average age of gamers argument, thats the same sorta excuse hollywood gives for releasing shit movies that cater to kids (PG-13 terminator movie anyone? maybe die hard). If you make something good, without compromises, it will be a success, but too often they cant be arsed and try to appeal to the lowest common demoninator.

deftangel

Since 7444 Days

I could take issue with most of your points there Tomarru but I'll do you a favour and do so with only one.

Perhaps you can list me the quarters and/or years since 2005 where EA have made these huge profits by milking everybody as you are claiming? It won't take you long because there aren't many.

Maybe if they had released ten versions of Rock Band (like Activision) rather than just three, over the last two years, they would be doing better.

In reply to

XBL/PSN: deftangel. Views are my own and not representative of my employers. Boulets aren't the end of the world, you will get over them! Reading and constructive discussion classes are available, enquire via PM

Tomarru

Since 6648 Days

I said their big games make profits, The sims and its addons make a ton of cash, their yearly sports franchises make a ton of cash, 1943 made cash, Dead space made cash, and a whole host of other games made profits, along with their DLC. This of course was offset by the shit they released, Shift into an oversaturated racing market on the dawn of the FM3 release, rock band beatles into a market that A. couldnt give a shit about the beatles and B. around the same time as GH5 released, Spore being a pile of shit, 3rd party games on a ninty console.
Their profits were also hit by a load of movie spinoffs that nobody is interrested in and that are generally poor quality, theyve since given up a lot of the IP rights as they see the failure.
Also dont forget, those official earnings reports also include outlays for any games they have coming out in the future, which is quite a lot, several sports titles, BC2, Dantes etc. They also bought studios like Bioware...

As I said, dont fall for their sob stories, if they werent making money you would see them stop making as many games and scale completely back to sustainable franchises.

In reply to

I said their big games make profits, The sims and its addons make a ton of cash, their yearly sports franchises make a ton of cash, 1943 made cash, Dead space made cash, and a whole host of other games made profits, along with their DLC. This of course was offset by the shit they released, Shift into an oversaturated racing market on the dawn of the FM3 release, rock band beatles into a market that A. couldnt give a shit about the beatles and B. around the same time as GH5 released, Spore being a pile of shit, 3rd party games on a ninty console.
Their profits were also hit by a load of movie spinoffs that nobody is interrested in and that are generally poor quality, theyve since given up a lot of the IP rights as they see the failure.
Also dont forget, those official earnings reports also include outlays for any games they have coming out in the future, which is quite a lot, several sports titles, BC2, Dantes etc. They also bought studios like Bioware...

As I said, dont fall for their sob stories, if they werent making money you would see them stop making as many games and scale completely back to sustainable franchises.

deftangel

Since 7444 Days

I'm not falling for sob stories, I'm looking at hard numbers. You are continuing your assertion that the publishers are making "massive profits" by "milking us" for DLC without any evidence to back this up, even though I asked twice. Nicely.

The truth is, most of the publishers are not doing brilliantly financially. There's a bunch of reasons for it.

There's a legitimate point to be made for when publishers take the piss with extra content, we know it's happened. But please, we need some perspective. There is an ever increasing choice of games & pricing to suit everyone. The end of gaming isn't right around the corner. If you disagree with the policies of a particular publisher, buy their competitors products.

In reply to

XBL/PSN: deftangel. Views are my own and not representative of my employers. Boulets aren't the end of the world, you will get over them! Reading and constructive discussion classes are available, enquire via PM

ManThatYouFear

Since 7519 Days

Deft does have a really strong point here..

But none the less it is still no excuse for the download content been priced as it is.

In reply to

I think i have stood in poo

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