Twisted Metal director David Jaffe would rather not have an online pass in Twisted Metal, declaring that any lost sales due to used games would be acceptable if it generated new fans. He did, however, admit that it's ultimately up to Sony.
"Only because we have such a mountain to climb in terms of gaining people's good faith, especially in Europe, and really letting people know that this is a title that's worth getting excited about," he said. "I'm okay with the fact that we might lose sales on this first game if, because of it, we generate a lot of fans that otherwise wouldn't have played the game.
"The online is so much the bread and butter of this game, so I'm okay with it because it means we're setting ourselves up for a possible return to the franchise one day. It's not my call and I'd totally understand if Sony as a company said 'Look, this is a mandate that permeates all of our titles. We're not making selective choices.'"
Unfortunately, Sony seems intent on cramming online passes into every title going forward, so one can reasonably expect to see it in Twisted Metal. Still, at least Jaffe isn't pleading poverty like Naughty Dog did. Online passes are slightly easier to swallow when they're not accompanied by cowardly, awful excuses.
Jaffe hopes to avoid Twisted Metal online pass [Eurogamer]
Contest:
9:00 AM on 12.08.2011 | 
Oh wait. Sony does = self defeating behavior. Just looked at their tack on the Everything this gen. especially the vita.
As for this story, either way Jaffe is coming out on top. He can say he doesn't want online passes to save face and maybe get some more fan sales, and Sony will probably put it in anyways.
Gamestop isn't the only store that sells used games. Actually, Gamefly is the best when it comes to used game sales.
In this instance Twisted Metal is a SONY IP.
In addition maybe SONY likes to see some royalties from the devs. My GUESS is, that they pay royalties for every unit they ship to a vendor. So SONY might not be keen on used game sales, since they miss out on royalties, because the vendors don't do any backorders... but that's just a wild guess.
You can also make the same argument in the other direction. For lowering the price of their game by less than the price of a (Generic hamburger sandwich) developers could potentially turn those used sales into new purchases ...... but why the hell would they ever lower their prices and increase their profits by volume.
Don't worry I read this article with all the crocodile tears/smiles implied. You hear one waffling empty promise, you have heard them all.
David Jaffe: "Implying you aren't requiring every new game to have an online pass."
(Both): "Hahaha!"
Sony: "So you aren't worried about any negative feedback then?"
David Jaffe: "Pfft! No. I'll just post some bogus remark about how I don't mind piracy and pass the blame onto you!
Sony: "Excellent! So! Shall we take your solid-gold jet to the golf course, or should we take ours?"
David Jaffe: "Yours, mine is still in the shop, so I've been running around with an *ugh* solid-silver jet"
Sony: "Gross!"
David Jaffe: "I know right?!"
(Both): "Money fight!"
http://www.perdaily.com/money-fight-burns-smithers-simpsons.jpg
Man if there is someone I trust not to screw me over in this industry its David Jaffe but like he said its not up to him. The man is probably one of the few with an honest opinion in this industry and he is willing to tell it to you straight... Hell this game likely wont sell huge amounts and still he wants to make it, if all the man wanted was money he could have just kept on making God of War...Pretty much a franchise that will always sell...
That's true, and gamefly does rock. If only there was a way to specifically target Gamestop...Anyways, if you are actually getting a reasonable discount on your used game then you should be able to pony up for the online pass that much easier. Then you can actually give the people who made the things you like some money, so they can make more things you like.
It will be a Twisted Brutal Axxess Passport.
Because of shit like EA who give away codes that don't even work and then force somebody to jump through hoops on a wasted $60 purchase.
Yeah but there are addition differences....
Like the state actually providing and maintaining the roads in their transit system. Where as game companies are offering little more than a match making hub and leeching the customers bandwidth to host the games.
That would be like the state taking all the additional registration fees, handing you a shovel and asking you to tell them how the roads work out. Of course they would charge you for the shovel that would be "DLC"....
Dear gamers
Fucking stop it with the car analogies.
Sincerely,
Common Sense
But do you get an identical experience buying used as to that of someone buying new? The answer is decidedly no. Things that aren't software will inevitably degrade through use and age. Software code will not. One person could buy one game and pass that code on to every single person on the planet. The software will perform identically to new throughout every person's using it. What other products work this way? This is why secondhand software is an entirely different beast, and frankly they have to do something to differentiate new from used. How exactly to go about that should be the debate. The debate should not be, "Used software is the same as used physical products, and therefore should be treated identically."
Ok fine, let's try a different analogy. DVD and book publishers don't charge you an "eye pass" when you buy/rent a movie or buy/get a book from the library.
No analogy pans out at best you can get to point, counterpoint, counter-counterpoint, counter-counter-counterpoint and so on.
Online passes only pan out if they are running dedicated servers which almost no companies do because its easier to shirk the bandwidth off on the consumers. When they do however run dedicated servers I can totally justify online passes (See: almost never)
to dtomek, sometimes you find cars with newer/better parts for the same/cheaper price than a newer version of it.
Hence why the cars analogy is stupid. It makes us all right and all wrong at the same time.
My argument still stands that this kind of stuff has always been in games and gaming culture, and forcing one to pay for things that were once free is an obvious cash grab.
If they all start doing dlc like tf2, I stop bitching. plain and simple.
Dude, just stop. Analogies aren't going to get your point across here, because there's not one to be made. The video game industry is, by definition and necessity, a whole different ballgame from anything else you could possibly come up with. It has to be discussed on its own merits.
The best you're gonna get out of an attempted analogy is a straw man anyway (it's stupid with this other unrelated thing so it's totally stupid here too!) so that's really not going to help you very much.
Innocent until proven guilty, it's rather silly to hold EA's botched, kneejerk cover-ups (just on the 360, wasn't it?) to 1 component of a game a couple of months from release, developed on a platform by an internal studio I might add.
Aside from arguing over how it screws over 2nd hand gamers, other issues for 1st time buyers have come up which show that online passes just ass further annoyance with no payoff.
@Magnalon
The last one aside -only because for whatever reason I passed by it, so I can't comment on it- every Twisted Metal game was sloppy. It didn't stop them from being damn fun, though (but you know that part).
Yeah, he's a rock ribbed 'man of the people' who really gets preservation of consumer value alright. Sure.