Sony has become the latest publisher to voice its support for the "online pass" scheme, where used games will be locked out of online modes and the customer will be required to pay a charge in order to play. EA Sports and THQ have already been doing it, with Ubisoft set to follow. Now Sony is considering the option.
"On the principle of making online portions of the game available or unlocked from the disc-based release for a fee, we're broadly supportive of that," says SCEE's Andrew House. "And we're exploring actively the same option for our own content."
It seems that this is most certainly the future of online play -- buy new or pay for it. I still think it's ludicrous. The industry relies more on trade-in credit than I think any publisher will want to admit, and if trade-in values are diminished because of this, well ... good luck trying to compete in an already competitive market when gamers find themselves even less able to afford your $60 luxuries.
If used games disappeared tomorrow, this market would crash. I guaran-damn-tee it.
Sony looking at Online Pass equivalent for first-party titles [GI.biz]
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
10:00 AM on 08.24.2010 | 
on that note, it also makes me glad I don't pay $60 for the majority of the games I play now.
My motto, "what's good for the customer is good for the company", it's not always that way around, rarely even.
Before you tell me, "use games are hurting the industry!" then maybe the industry needs to re-evaluate itself. Instead of consistently finding ways to screw it's customers over.
A new game - £40
Same game used for example - £25 + £5 code.
So to play the used game online will still be cheaper, but if you only want the single player part you can get a good deal.
People keep making out like gamers will be paying for this, gamers will just be paying the cost of a used game in 2 parts, one to the game store, one to the publisher.
The only people this will hurt is people who trade in as stores will pay less for used games. Which is an acceptable price to pay for developers to be able to continue making awesome games for us.
...which isn't really worth playing online to begin with.
Happy days.
So I asked the guy behind the counter if they all had the codes in and he said "luck of the draw mate". So for now the pass thing makes no difference what so ever.
@ Turbophoenix - Good lord, way to give me nightmares! Though I dont think you are far wrong.
First off, if you allowed retailers to make real revenue on consoles and new product, retailers would not need to seek revenue from the used market. Hell, if you were willing to give retailers the same treatment you give the likes of megastores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy, they wouldn't have to resort to the sale of used.
Secondly, if you stopped charging so much for games brand new, more gamers would be inclined to buy games new. Sorry, but we're not made of money and if you want to make this a rich man's bobby, you're only going to fuel things like the used market and piracy. You made your choice, you're seeing the consequence. Punishing the mainstream consumer is suicide.
Third. You seem to want to hang on to physical media, you have a love affair with it. The digital distribution model holds the answer to all your problems, except you know you could never get away with $60 games without a physical product.
With DD there's no retailers to sell the game used and no choice between used and new. There's just the game in digital form. Your problem is that you can't be greedy with that model and get away with it. You can't be tracked on the NPD to boast your sales.
If you persist on the path you think is a great idea, well, its not like Nintendo needs much help lately. They'll still be around after you've fucked up and are gone. I can live with that.
Fuck you,
The Silent Protagonist
They don't care though, the people who work at games stores don't read blogs and such like this, they just punch buttons on a computer and tell you what it says.
At least around here they do.
Considering the life cycle for online in most games not being called "Call of Duty" or "Halo" is a couple weeks; most of the games I am interested in getting used are already beyond expiration date.
any way there just desperate to make more money these days. Like it's been said 'greed is good'. But comes the question how much greedy can you get when your charging 60 dollars for a crappy game .
"If used games disappeared tomorrow, this market would crash. I guaran-damn-tee it."
Exactly.
Consoles cant really be sold for profit because they are made at a loss for many years.
But the game side is all true. Go to a digital market place, I love steam for the way they keep all my computer games in one spot and i can download and play w/e game i want.
But again this is a strong move for a company to make and as i said in previous article on this topic and jim has said here it does affect trade in value which is often used to take a chunk out of that $60 they want from me. making the game not have some content will hurt this value and slow the sales of new games more then increase it.
This is nothing like Xbox Gold - people who pay the full, new game price for an xbox game STILL have to pay for online!
all you've got to do to avoid paying this fee is to buy your games new, or simply weigh up the cost of a used game plus the online code - which I'd imagaine will still be cheaper than a new game.
Sure, it might make used games work out a little more expensive than they were, but it's the game store's responsibility to discount used games enough to make game + code cheaper than a new game.
This may make it a bit easier to week long rent games for free though.
1) buy used.
2) play for a week
3) take back to the store
4) claim you didn't know the online wasn't included and you weren't told, no labels etc.
5) return for refund
6) FREE RENTALS!
I ususally take them back and just give the reson of "it's shit!" but they had better get some "online not included" stickers ready!!!
Please at least be smart about this. Rather than trying to screw the gamers one at a time, screw us collectively by going through Gamestop/EB Games and allowing THEM to do it to us.
Right now GS/EBG will be offering $5 or $10 less credit for a trade-in, depending on the cost of the online pass. Rather than trying to get it back when the buyer gets home, try working a deal with GS/EBG to include an online activation code with every used sale, charging them $2.50/$5.00 per pass. You win because you get your slice of the used games pie. Gamestop/EB Games wins because they get to go on selling used media. And gamers win because we can buy used games at a discounted rate and still get the full experience without having to pull out our wallets more than once.
Hell, this would work for DLC, too. If I'd bought Mass Effect 2 used instead of new, I'd have loved to pay a couple extra bucks to get the "new game" DLC included.
You've got the power to block out used sales. Do it in a way that's not so blatant and insulting. Don't go the THQ route.
Change the market by buying downloadable games or some of the more unique games that come up every year that may not be the best looking. You've supported this model for 10-15 years, don't start complaining now that it's getting expensive.
I'm not poor, or really even all that cheap but I have a real mental block about paying $60 for most games. I don't play a lot online so to get $60 worth of value out of a title it has to be meaty. RPG's, Top Tier Car Games and AAA open world games are pretty much the only ones I find worth full price anymore.
I'm still buying games from just Steam.
On the other hand, if you pay 8 dollars for something then turn around and sell it for 55, you make lots and lots of money *AND* your idiot customers think you're helping them in the fight against those darn greedy developers.
Jim Sterling, god bless your hard work and dedication to the world of gaming news, but you couldn't be more wrong on this one. Once we are finally rid of the used game industry and the parasitic middle man this business will thrive like it never has before. XBLA and Steam are just the tip, and once full penetration is achieved customers will get to pay less for more variety of games. The only losers will be the retailers, and fuck them, they've been out to get us for years.
@meteorscrap
You're absolutely right, they should have tried to grab a piece of the used game pie from used game retailers, rather than trying to punish consumers. There is so much profit in used games that they could have easily cut a deal with merchants, but they'd rather try to convince us that buying used is stealing.
Probably the console market.
Steam will still be around, Valve, Blizzard, CD Project, GSC, Paradox, and a bunch of other great developers will be fine.
I see no reason to be worried.
Yes the fucking consumer will pay for this, Gamestop isn't going to lower used game prices because you go tell them to, especially since this whole thing is already hitting their used game profits with people buying new.
And that means when I put my rrades toward a new game or especially a pre-order, they're really not losing all that much on that new product. They're not gonna lose on the pre-orders, that's for sure.
Gametsop stays afloat on used sales, but the biggest retailer Wal Mart has nothing to do with used sales. If Gamestop was to go under overnight I people could just move on to other retail outlets to get their games.
#1 they're gonna run themselves into the ground doing this.
#2 then they'll raise prices once again.
#3 the small companies that refuse to do this will shoot up lik a star
#4 the bog companies will finally collapse into themselves from huge nombers of teams and no profit.
#5 think pirates are bad now? try imagine nearly everyone pirating something.
#6 companies who remain or be thrust into the top include but not limited to : valve, atlus, rare (gasp!), bethesda, level 5 (hopefully), nippon ichi, and many more.
#7 big companies restart to cater once again to the community.
#8 ms scraps their pay to play plan.
#9 ????????
#10 profit!!!!!!
it wouldn't bother me so much but i have skate3, i bought it new, i been loving the sp but finally went online, with only 3 other people playing with me it was a massive lag fest, the game is unplayable due to this! worse lag i have ever seen! skate1 wasn't this bad and its lag had a very different effect.
ea wants people to pay for such a shit service then they will kill themselves,
you want me to pay to be online, then give me dedicated servers or NO GAMEBREAKING LAG in a game where precise timimg is how you win!
fuck you ea.
The Majority of games are rubbish. I'll buy new games when a 'new' purchase is needed. I liked Mass Effect so I bought Mass Effect 2 new. I liked Dragon Age I'll buy Dragon Age 2 new. I like some of the Final Fantasy games so I'll buy the next one new. I guess the point I'm making is... don't make shitty games and I'll buy them new... make shitty games and I might pick them up used where I have a 7 day return policy to get my munnies back.
I realize that if used games disappeared that we all would be playing fewer games, but the fewer games we'd be playing would be ones the publishers don't make revenue on anyway. While this type of move impacts the second-hand sales on eBay, Craig's List and GameStop, it DOES NOT CHANGE the revenue-bearing model related to new games.
Of course, we're hooked, so it won't happen soon. They have provided us with highly addictive products for many years now, and the desire for these products - the jonesin' for one more kill, for one more level, for one more skill point, one more perk, one more trophy, one more achievement - won't disappear without some pain. But how else are we going to stop them from charging us for every little stinking thing? Why are the consoles the prices they are now? Why are the games, in fact, the prices they are? New games are $60 because of you. New games are $60 because of me. New games are $60 because they upped the prices and we're still buying them. So until you're ready to make a painful personal sacrifice in order to get your message across, you can't really complain.
Ask Nintendo about that one....
Nintendo MAKES profit on their consoles right out of the gate, instead of putting the "latest" and "greatest" hardware, they make sure the hardware isn't cutting into their profit margin.
Sure the N64 and Gamecube flopped, but for each one sold, they made money off of them (that includes handhelds as well). That's something game companies could learn from.
God I'm getting sick of this industry and it's bull crap