Monday, Mar 3, 2008
Again, as I must always remind people, hyperbole in operating in this area.
I've been catching up on my GDC and DICE viewing of late and recently watched Peter Molyneaux's Fable 2 presentation. He opened with an interesting little mini-game which will be sold through XBLA and from which you can transfer winnings to your in game character.
Now, it could be that I'm firmly entrenched in the "embittered and cynical" camp but the first thing that came into my head was the following.
"EA is going to make a ****ing mint out of this."
Don't get me wrong, I think that asynchronous play has some seriously cool potential, but at the same time I can't help but think of all of the "this should have been in the goddamn game" moments that we will be having over the next few years as more and more studios start fracturing their games into yet more levels of micro-transaction hell.
For example, I can see EA pulling the roster editing, trading and other franchise aspects out of Madden, NHL et al and putting that up on XBLA as something for asynchronous play. After all - that's not part of the core game experience and why should everyone who buys the game be forced to pay for something that isn't going to be used by them?
Nevermind that the game would remain at the $60 price-point with this content stripped out and that you'd have to buy it later for some strange amount of points that may or may not be $5 or $50 because no one can tell what a points amount is in real money. And what comes after that? We've been waiting for the "current rosters as pay-DLC" shoe to drop. I can't wait until things like the mini-camp games turn up as asynchronous options too. What about player creation and editing? Surely people won't miss that and would be willing to pay 500 points to get that feature back in the game?
Some of these ideas aren't actually terrible. If EA could guarantee me that they could get a Franchise Mode working on a Zune with asynchronous play, so that I could spent time editing rosters, making trades and setting seating prices at times when I'm not at my 360, then that would be awesome and a reason for me to a) get a Zune and b) pay that little more. Why? Because it would mean that when I did get the time to sit down at a 360 I could actually just play the games and not have to worry about losing gaming time to the Franchise bits.
But that won't happen. What will happen with this asynchronous play is that suddenly we'll be faced with a barrage of new money-spinning rubbish which will almost always result in a scream of: "Why wasn't this in the game to start with?"
Peter Molyneaux's Fable 2 gambling thing is quite cool and if released at a reasonable price could be something that I'd seriously consider getting. But I just get the feeling that asynchronous play will just become another revenue-generating tool for publishers and developers. I can only hope that Microsoft is going to have stringent controls on what they allow to be released with an asynchronous component, or that developers ensure that the total cost of a gutted game + guts sold seperately never exceeds the price for the full game that they should have released in the first place.
But we know that both those things will never happen.
I've been catching up on my GDC and DICE viewing of late and recently watched Peter Molyneaux's Fable 2 presentation. He opened with an interesting little mini-game which will be sold through XBLA and from which you can transfer winnings to your in game character.
Now, it could be that I'm firmly entrenched in the "embittered and cynical" camp but the first thing that came into my head was the following.
"EA is going to make a ****ing mint out of this."
Don't get me wrong, I think that asynchronous play has some seriously cool potential, but at the same time I can't help but think of all of the "this should have been in the goddamn game" moments that we will be having over the next few years as more and more studios start fracturing their games into yet more levels of micro-transaction hell.
For example, I can see EA pulling the roster editing, trading and other franchise aspects out of Madden, NHL et al and putting that up on XBLA as something for asynchronous play. After all - that's not part of the core game experience and why should everyone who buys the game be forced to pay for something that isn't going to be used by them?
Nevermind that the game would remain at the $60 price-point with this content stripped out and that you'd have to buy it later for some strange amount of points that may or may not be $5 or $50 because no one can tell what a points amount is in real money. And what comes after that? We've been waiting for the "current rosters as pay-DLC" shoe to drop. I can't wait until things like the mini-camp games turn up as asynchronous options too. What about player creation and editing? Surely people won't miss that and would be willing to pay 500 points to get that feature back in the game?
Some of these ideas aren't actually terrible. If EA could guarantee me that they could get a Franchise Mode working on a Zune with asynchronous play, so that I could spent time editing rosters, making trades and setting seating prices at times when I'm not at my 360, then that would be awesome and a reason for me to a) get a Zune and b) pay that little more. Why? Because it would mean that when I did get the time to sit down at a 360 I could actually just play the games and not have to worry about losing gaming time to the Franchise bits.
But that won't happen. What will happen with this asynchronous play is that suddenly we'll be faced with a barrage of new money-spinning rubbish which will almost always result in a scream of: "Why wasn't this in the game to start with?"
Peter Molyneaux's Fable 2 gambling thing is quite cool and if released at a reasonable price could be something that I'd seriously consider getting. But I just get the feeling that asynchronous play will just become another revenue-generating tool for publishers and developers. I can only hope that Microsoft is going to have stringent controls on what they allow to be released with an asynchronous component, or that developers ensure that the total cost of a gutted game + guts sold seperately never exceeds the price for the full game that they should have released in the first place.
But we know that both those things will never happen.
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Posted Mar 3, 2008 10:16 pm PT
I would have bought a Zune if they were available in Finland. Now I had to stick with iPod.
Posted Mar 4, 2008 2:56 am PT
You can be darn sure other devs and houses will capatilize on such features, making games, or other experiences on XBLA that tie in closely with the main game experience. A cool thing I think. I sure hope 2 is better, 1 was a bit of a joke at times, not as well realised as it could have been. I do not care about EA and their money making ploys, I just play their games if they are good, simple.
Posted Mar 4, 2008 6:29 am PT
I have this fear of micro-transactions in the current generation as well. There is nothing stopping greedy devs from releasing a half-finished game for $60 and forcing gamers to buy the other half, piece by piece, for the combined price of more than the original game itself. Ace Combat 6 is an example of a game that did this right, Namco gives us really sexy new skins for aircraft every several months. In other words, Namco is supporting the community with optional, cool aircraft skins that you can so choose to buy for your favorite fighters.
I think Molyneaux is onto something here, but this type of asynchronous play has the potential to be abused by forcing us to pay our souls for features that the developers "didn't have time to put in" aka "left out so we will spend $60 for the game and $160 on extra content that should have been in the game." Of course, micro-transactions in general have this potential.
I think Molyneaux is onto something here, but this type of asynchronous play has the potential to be abused by forcing us to pay our souls for features that the developers "didn't have time to put in" aka "left out so we will spend $60 for the game and $160 on extra content that should have been in the game." Of course, micro-transactions in general have this potential.
Posted Mar 4, 2008 8:11 am PT
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laughlyn12
1) I don't care if a Zune contains the cure for 3 different kinds of cancer, I will never buy one.
2) Your points are well made... so well made in fact that I'm scared and will not be able to sleep tonight. I wish my mommy was here to check for the "EA's Going to Nickel and Dime Me to Death" Monster underneath my bed.