Here’s the thing; It’s not beneficial to Sony to kill used games. Even in a vacuum. Why? For the same reason they can’t go all digital. Retail is still HUGE, and they don’t want to piss them off. Gamestop, believe it or not, sells more NEW games than used ones. Yes, they make most of their MONEY on used games, but they also sell systems, peripherals, and new games. And Sony saying “No used games” is an open invitation to Gamestop to say “Well, **** you too.” and stop carrying Sony products. And if you don’t think that would be a big injury to Sony, well, then you have a poor grasp of how the game business continues to work for a lot of people.
Sony is not in a good place financially right now. That makes now NOT the time to try to try to call out Gamestop and potentially give MS and Nintendo a leg up by slashing the used game market. Heck, does ANYONE think that cutting used games out of the business model wouldn’t hurt the sales of the console? Did I mention that Sony is in a really bad place financially? Like, really bad?
I still think there will be a tablet device. They want in on Nintendo’s market very badly. They already duplicated the Wii-motes. And they’ve been talking about using their existing patents on the Vita in controller development, which would be a ridiculous thing to say if they weren’t trying to float the idea of a touch-based device.
I agree that they will at least claim to be able to have true 1080p on all games, for the exact same reasons stated above. If they are smart, they will also make all the non-game extras load up faster, as the WiiU is horribly slow about this. Since Microsoft has even been floating out the idea of a separate dedicated casual games/entertainment console, Sony has got to be thinking about how to make this part of the PS3 experience better.
I’m wracking my brain for other things that Sony can do to claim to be better than Nintendo, and I can’t come up with anything the PS3 doesn’t already have, like installable games and Blu-ray support. Sony has the online content covered; it’s Microsoft that needs to step up and offer more free online content to keep the “entertainment console” idea alive.
The Wii U isn’t really a competitor to PS4/X720, there isn’t that much overlap with games. I mean there’s some, but Sony and MS are really only competing with each other in the segment of the “shitty imitation PCs” console market. People that want to play COD 17 aren’t going to switch to the Wii U because Sony and Microsoft banned used sales.
Now I agree it’s unlikely that either of them will completely shut used sales out without knowing that the other one will too. I think a halfway solution like re-buying certain content on each console the game is connected to is probably the future.
I would guess that, compared to retailers who sell consoles and games and who don’t carry used games (Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us, etc), Gamestop isn’t really a top banana. Already they’re looking to close 500 stores. The kids in those areas aren’t going to stop buying games, they’ll be buying them from the same sources that are currently making Gamestop close 500 stores – large retailers and online. Also, a store cutting one one third of the major consoles out of pique is ridiculous. that would likely hurt Gamestop a lot more than it hurt Sony.
But I imagine that any movement to end used console game sales will be a joint effort by both Sony and Microsoft. I’m sure both of them want it but neither wants to go first if the other isn’t along for the ride.
Edit: My partial mistake in that I see that article notes that Best Buy and Target are selling used games these days. I don’t know what percentage of their sales they make up.
In its first three months, the Wii U is the second-bestselling console of all time. The only one that managed to sell more in its first three months is the Wii. Nintendo did what they set out to do with the Wii U. They sold a copy of New Super Mario Bros. U with practically every Wii U console and they just announced the second wave of Nintendo franchises for Fall 2013 and into 2014. Nothing else matters on the PS4/Xbox 720 front, the Wii U is already entrenched with Nintendo fans and that’s good enough for Nintendo.
Basically, there’s two ways Sony and MS could take their new systems. They could go for the incremental upgrade, which would make them direct competitors with the Wii U. Or they could go big and possibly price themselves out of the short-term console market.
I don’t really know how you think your post is a counterpoint to mine. Yeah, a lot of Wii users bought a Wii U. All of the Call of Duty 17 players aren’t going to. MS and Sony would love to pick up some of those casual gamers (kinect/move) but they’re not under serious threat of losing their, uh, it seems comical to say hardcore for consoles, but less casual gamers.
Especially not in a thread where the silly snobs come out of the woodwork to tell us how irrelevant technology is to making games.
I actually didn’t write that post to make a deliberate jab, but as I was typing out “hardcore gamers” I was picturing a guy furiously twiddling thumbsticks at a TV across the room and just couldn’t call it that.
As far as Black Ops 2 selling on the Wii - activision hasn’t geared their new COD series towards the next gen consoles yet, so you’re not missing much by being on the Wii, but you probably will for the next batch. They’ll probably finally use a new engine - they’ve been using the quake 3 engine from 1999 for all these games.
Which is funny, because you’ve both tagged, and ignored, a critical aspect of gaming:
I don’t own a single COD title…Nor FIFA, or Madden. They don’t rustle my jimmies. Halo does, though.
I’m not a RPG kinda guy, yet I love Skyrim and Fallout.
And a MAJOR aspect you’re ignoring is the home theatre/media delivery aspects of these devices. HBO Go, Netflix, Amazon Video, and the like.
Can you connect your gaming Rig to the 55"-er in the livingroom? Certainly! Are the vast majority of folks going to hook up $300 Xbox+Kinect instead? Probably.
Will there still be chest-thumping kneckbeards defending their own personal choice, looking for validation? Isn’t that what we’re doing here?
If your own personal setup gets your rocks off, cool, be happy. If I’m skeptical that 8x the graphics-es and 14x the SparkleMotion won’t make that much difference to gameplay…I’m permitted that, too.
Gaming has become MASSIVELY fragmented, it’s a HUGE moneymaking industry. The only takeaway I can think of is: I BOUGHT the consoles to play games, I play games on my computer only because it happens to do so, in addition of the other things I ask it to do. Will my next computer play Minecraft/Bioshock/Whatever better than my current computer? Sure, but that’s not why I’m buying it…I’ m buying it because it edits video better, and accesses the web better than my tablet…which is not a useful viewport into Skyrim.
The winner doesn’t matter, because people can easily afford multiple ways to play games.
But yeah, wiggling controllers doesn’t make one ‘hardcore’ :rolleyes: I can just as easily dismiss your chosen passion as being a mass consumer of pablum, spoonfed to you while you do nothing useful, indoors, alone.
Or do we take a step back and say ‘I like playing games’ and be done with it?
This. Times 100. I used to like Beefs posts but pretty much skip them at this point. Maybe in his head he doesn’t think he sounds like a douche . I dunno. He’s the most abrasive poster in the sdmb platform warriors, and that says something since JuatinB and Kinthalis are also on this board.
The most interesting aspect to me about next gen consoles is precisely what Unintentionally Blank mentions. Their media center applications. Well, that, and as a Pc gamer I want them to be at least equal to a mid range modern PC (and it looks like that’s where Sony Ms are aiming) so that a graphics whore like me can look forward to getting his socks knocked off for the next 2-3 years at least.
If the next gen consoles or possibly some type of Steam box, provide me with a unified media center experience that can use my TV cable signal, Netflix and amazon streaming services, and my media library on my PC, I’ll probably pick one up.
A media center PC is great, but Microsoft doesn’t seem interested in supporting media center any longer on Windows, and a PC is a bit overkill really for what is essentially a DVR, with very occasional gaming use. The only reason I built one was because I liked the flexibility, and it was the only solution that allowed me to do EVERYTHING I wanted to do in one box.
so if Steambox/xbox/Ps4 can deliver that, I figure I’ll have the best of both worlds. A single box under my TV that handles the living room entertainment, and a powerful PC that serves up media to that platform + provided me with the best gmaing experience possible.
Even $500 is a really dangerous price point for this stuff, unfortunately. I mean, there was some serious skepticism about the Wii-U’s price point. They just can’t get the numbers of people they need for one of these devices to throw down $500 for a living room system. Or at least, that’s the way it looks to me.
I’m guessing $400, and I expect to see a lot of folks complaining that that is too high. They may also launch a more expensive model at closer to the $500 point. This is totally guesswork though. And I can totally agree that $750 is off the table. I would be HUGELY surprised if it launched at any MORE than $500, and I expect less.
I don’t know if you’re speaking in pure hypotheticals or if you’re referencing this, but this is a thing that’s happening. I found it odd that nobody ever started a thread on it here, but ah well.
Yeah, if Sony markets it for 400 or 500, the WiiU will get a breather, much like the Wii managed to sell so well against its more expensive but more powerful rivals.
