When do publishers go to far!!

Ive been thinking about publishers latley and in particular the methods in which they,re trying to milk money out of us like we,re a giant cow with great big money udders. COD has Elite ,many games have the online code only in new boxed copies such as Battlefield and Batman AC has content that can only be downloaded with a brand new copy. If gamers keep buying these games and lets face it with all the above mentioned games they will then publishers will keep pushing on their side to grab those extra dollars. But Id like to know when would to far be to far. I have one example here which is not totally outragous. What if you could buy achievements. Would that be one step to far? What if you had to pay extra for cutscenes which Bobby kotick himself put the idea forward?

i have no problem with online passes. i buy my games new pretty much always.

either i buy games on release day, or i buy them a year later when they're like 20-30 bucks on amazon new. i dont really see it as fishy having onnline passes. i think you're exaggerating the issues. online passes are simply a way of defending against used sales.

Save us Gaben!

When all games go digital, this shit is all gonna seem silly. Still, it's kind of a bummer that I can't borrow those online-pass games from buddies at work and play online. No big loss though.

If I'm not hyped enough to buy a game new on launch day then I'm probably not going to mind about missing some minor extra content. I find it funny when I get used games with unused download codes inside.

You realize that a cow doesn't have a choice if it wants to be milked, whereas every consumer has a choice on what they're going to spend money on?
 
Consumers playing the pity card is a Goddamn laughingstock, considering they always have the ultimate power which is to not purchase.  Of course, since video game enthusiasts have some of the sloppiest ethics out there, they feel something being priced outside of their desired range gives them the moral justification to steal.

When publishers go "too far" then the public will let 'em know by not purchasing their goods. The business/consumer relationship is that of push/pull: the business attempts to get as much money as possible out of the consumer without losing value and the consumer keeps paying for things he wants until he no longer can or wants to. Right now, it seems like things are way too expensive to us but we are just a smaller portion of the total video game market. It's the mainstream consumer who ultimately decides the fate of the market because they're the ones buying all the games. If they're OK with on-disc DLC, online passes, and price gouging then that's what we'll get. All we can do is try to vote with our wallets as much as possible, and keep ourselves and those around us informed about where our money is going.

@Getz: The vocal videogame community that I see has a buy first, complain later mentality. I think you're giving consumers too much credit in assuming they'd realize they're being milked in the first place, let alone stop buying the thing they've convinced themselves they desperately need.

@artgarcrunkle said:

@Getz: The vocal videogame community that I see has a buy first, complain later mentality. I think you're giving consumers too much credit in assuming they'd realize they're being milked in the first place, let alone stop buying the thing they've convinced themselves they desperately need.

I'm not giving anyone any credit bro. It's just a law of human nature. Trying to argue what is of "actual" value is irrelevant; it's about perceived value. So yeah, maybe they won't know they're being milked and they're willing to put up with bullshit to play videogames. That's because the value of playing video games is incredibly high for them. They are not "wrong" for doing so. It's fucking capitalism man, it's just the way shit works.

@artgarcrunkle said:

@Getz: The vocal videogame community that I see has a buy first, complain later mentality. I think you're giving consumers too much credit in assuming they'd realize they're being milked in the first place, let alone stop buying the thing they've convinced themselves they desperately need.

A fool and his money..........

Where is this far you speak of?

You could argue that its already gone too far, but if I ever have to pay for something ridiculous as a cut scene, I quit video games.

@MEATBALL said:

Where is this far you speak of?

It's in the DLC pack.

If you don't want to get milked, wait for Steam Sales. Black Friday is right around the corner.
If you don't game with a PC, then you've already accepted the costs of being milked because most of the control is out of your hands.

I'm in favor of "project ten dollars" or essentially the content that only comes for free if you buy a game new.

Call me crazy but I am in favor of supporting developers by paying them for their goods.

I pay what I think is the right price for games, if some game is too expensive or it's cheap but becomes expensive when it's "complete" (including DLC that should be part of the game) then I'll simply not buy it, as far as the situation goes (after time they usually get cheaper), there are plenty of games out there that I'd like to play (check my wishlist) and I'd like to support only developers that are doing things right in that sense. Epic being one of them. The same for the systems, handhelds have prohibitive prices nowadays, a right price for a handheld should be around €125 IMHO, whenever I buy a handheld, that's what I'm going to pay, if that ever happens, otherwise, I've my mobile phone and I can read the news there, a handheld isn't something I need, but something that could be cool, €125 cool, not more.

This doesn't mean I'm against people who pay more, if some gamers want to pay crazy amounts for games and systems, they are free to do so. And that's what drives industry anyway. So as far as people are willing to pay. I guess gamers are very committed to games, and don't mind expending those amounts of money, "because they can", even if they "could not".

@Rawrnosaurous said:

I'm in favor of "project ten dollars" or essentially the content that only comes for free if you buy a game new.

Call me crazy but I am in favor of supporting developers by paying them for their goods.

QFT. Buying preowned games only supports retailers, not game creators, which are the people I want to support. Digital distribution should be cheaper, and give them a better share. I'd like that, I'd use that.

i think its utterly disgusting and outrageous that publishers expect to make any money AT ALL from their games.

surely just us playing them should be reward enough for them. they should really care about profits and paying staff and overheads and all that stuff i don't really understand.

they should just be happy they are making games and should be doing it for the love of the fans.

greed thats all it is

@MEATBALL said:

Where is this far you speak of?

I don't know, but I've always wanted to go there!

@MEATBALL said:

Where is this far you speak of?

I don't know, but I've always wanted to go there!

I know some publishers have offices in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, Is that far enough for you?

@MEATBALL said:

@Elazul said:

@MEATBALL said:

Where is this far you speak of?

I don't know, but I've always wanted to go there!

I heard you should be careful not to go to far!!

Don't worry, I'm not a publisher so I'll probably be fine. I might wear my vest though, just to be on the safe side.

@Brodehouse: The only problem there is that those who don't buy, don't see any REAL benefits, because not enough people are willing to not buy shit. In a perfect world, or a world where they were raping our children, that would work. But the only time that kind of thing works is when the situation is much more dire. Doesn't mean a problem doesn't exist, and often money isn't so much the issue as is all the hoops you have to jump though, picking retailers to get exclusive content just to miss out on other exclusive content, having to buy a fucking code that takes 5 minutes to enter into XBL because of the terrible input method, or a $20 unlock for every single person in a household that wants to play a game online. I don't mind paying full price. I do mind being jerked around by stupid practices when it should just be gamestop paying the people the money they deserve and not keeping it all for themselves.

Publishers only cross the line when they are named EA.

I read this as when do publishers go to fart.

They go to far when it becomes the movie antitrust

Also you use one ! Or three, not two.

Why would they make you buy achievements if they called them "achievements".

Wouldn't that make them something other than "achievements". The word "achievement" is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as -

The action of achieving something; completion, accomplishment, successful execution.

Why would they defy the very definition of the word they decided to use?

What logical reason is there in making players pay for cutscenes?

I see no real benefit in that.

Most people (I assume) would either not buy the game or say "fuck the cutscenes".

You are, in fact, a cow with money udders. Whether you are a giant cow would depend on your annual income. But hey, at least you aren't beef cattle.

@DonPixel said:

I know some publishers have offices in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe, Is that far enough for you?

It'll only be far enough when John Carmack starts developing games in outer space