Posts Tagged ‘ DRM ’

Sell Me Local and Online Play Separately

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

With EA’s decision to charge $10 for online play and Ubisoft and THQ looking to follow suit, is it about time that game publishers started selling local and online play separately? Drop the price of the local play to $50 and charge another $10 for those who want to play online.

It seems obvious that $10 is the price that EA has given online play is all they value that feature at. So why make everyone pay for it when getting a new copy when those who purchase used have the choice?

I find it hard to believe that everyone who buys a game new will play for any extended period of time. EA has already decided to give everyone a 7 day free pass designed around the idea that people will borrow or rent their games and want to play online for that time. Why not give that option to everyone who buys used or new and then charge everyone the $10 if they want to go online for longer than that. (more…)

Our Ever Connected Gaming World

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Over the last few months, I have been thinking more deeply about the ever connected gaming world and what exactly that means, not just for the consumer but also for the games we play.

This console generation is the first generation of consoles to all have a connection to the internet. All three consoles have online multiplayer, downloadable content and servers that need to be maintained in order for that functionality to continue.

This generation of game consoles have also brought about the ability to patch and update not just the games on the console but also the console itself.

Have you ever thought of what that means for the games of this generation when the switch on those servers is turned off?

There is already some evidence of what will happen. (more…)