The Punishment of an Online Pass

I'll throw out some free ideas that any developer/publisher can take for free:

1) MAKE.THE GAME. WORK. The gaming industry is probably the biggest industry that gets away with pushing out buggy, glitchy games at 60$ a pop. and they wonder why no one wants to buy a buggy game.

2) We, as gamers, are not criminals, so if you want to punish us, we'll punish you by not funding you. Instead of buying your incomplete, I-need-a-pass-to-play, I have other alternatives. This isn't the olden days where one thing was the only thing.

If they want any more advice, they're going to have to pay me for it.

100% agreed. Your second to last paragraph nailed it.

Online passes don't bother me that much.

It doesn't affect what games I buy and where I buy them. Most of my games are bought new anyways.

Have never yet used an online pass, don't think I'm missing out.

This reminds me of Gabe Newell's views on piracy. His take is that pirates want the most convenient way to obtain a game, and thus his goal is to make Steam a better platform than torrents, both through the software and tempting prices/deals. Compare that to Origin and how much more of EA's games are going to be pirated because no one wants that piece of shit on their hard drive. I'll probably torrent ME3 just because it's on origin. Companies need to find a more convenient way to maintain sales, instead of making it a pain in the ass for the customer.

I think you're way off-base.

First of all, saying that "unless someone comes up with hard data about used game sales hurting the industry..." is foolish. The only people who know those numbers, with 100% certainty, are the GameStops and BestBuys that buy and sell used games. But moreover, of course used sales hurt the industry. Do I need to spell this one out for you?

Look, when GameStop buys a used game, they buy it at a fraction of the cost that the game will sell for. They mark it up extensively, and for the entire period that any given new game would sell at full price, the used price is five, maybe ten dollars cheaper. Yes, it's how GameStop stays in business, but none of the ridiculous profits they get from those sales are ever seen by the publishers and developers. If publishers don't make money, they can't fund developers to make new games. If developers don't have the funding to make new games, no new games get made, except as passion projects by small, unpaid groups. Thus, the industry dies. Now, of course, this is taken to an extreme; new sales aren't going to be stunted completely. But don't sit there and try to tell me that a used sale, at a marginal discount, isn't hurting things. You want proof that used game sales are a big thing? GameStop is still in business, and constantly opening more and more outlets.

On top of that, your argument that, if it's an all or nothing proposition, people just won't buy games is ludicrous. Video games are a luxury item, and not one that people can afford to spend $60 on every week, but buying a used game for $50 doesn't really change that.

If it's that someone doesn't know whether they'll like the product? Wait for a price drop, or rent the game through Blockbuster or GameFly, or download a demo. The solution isn't to spend nearly the full price of the game and then feel stiffed for not supporting the publishers.

Equally ludicrous is your claim that it's a bother to have to punch in a serial number. Hey, guess what! That's been industry standard for PC games for literally decades! It's not a new thing, and it's really not that big a deal. You punch in a number to verify that you bought the game, and then you never have to punch it in again. This notion that it's punishing you is just ridiculous. Quit being a baby about it.

You're insane if you think you're entitled to a full experience when you don't support publishers and developers. Hell, you're insane to think that you deserve to play that game at all. Used game sales are as bad as piracy in a lot of respects.

"However, to the many people who buy used games, they feel like they’re buying an incomplete product. Instead of the online pass as just being an incentive to buy the game new, it becomes a punishment to people who buy it used."

I see absolutely no problem with online passes. Buying a game used is overrated, seriously. Saving $5-10 really isn't all that much. If you're really keen on saving money on a product then wait for it to come down in price naturally. If you can't shell out an extra $5 on top of that $55 you already spent, just to support a developer, then I think you deserve to be shafted just as mortar & brick retailers are shafting the developers.

You say that DLC is fine with new games. But you could argue that the DLC should be included with the game. I bet that 90%+ of DLC is content from 'the cutting room floor' seems as they announce it sometimes before games even get released or go gold. Developers dont even hide the fact that they are ding it yet people still buy into it

I don't know what makes us so entitiled these days. People buy a game at a lesser price, paying a business that gives the devs and publishers a total of $0, but they expect devs and publishers to just be okay with it and allow people to do it as they please. Honestly, we should be happy that used game retailers are even around anymore, because it's basically pirating for a profit.

Online passes are basically the only way publishers can give an incentive for people to spend the extra $5-$10. It's their way of saying "You want to rip off this game? Looks like you won't be getting this, then."

Great points. I do agree that something else should be done, but I reiterate that the bonus content you mentioned should not be like Arkham City's Catwoman DLC, because the Riddler trophies seem like big pink "fuck you's" to the people who bought the game used. It's obviously on the disk, just blocked off.

On a more positive note, I bought a used copy of Patapon 3, but the packaging still had the online pass in it, unused.

Has anyone mentioned pre-order incentives yet? I think there should be a similar article about that, since some incentives do seem like a rip-off. (Example: RE: Revelations comes with a console case, which is great. SH: Downpour comes with two weapons which, while strong, you likely won't even be able to carry with you through even half the game (which is bad).)

As Bob said, with online passes, you can't rent a game to see if you like it or not. Reviews aren't entirely a viable source of information since they can be paid off (and have the reviewers review copy for the next game withheld) If you can't figure out if you like it, the only two options you have are to buy it or not buy it (again, reiterating what Bob said). EA and other companies are so focused on money, they've developed a mentality of "if you buy it and hate it, TOO FUCKING BAD".

Just going to give my 2 cents on this seeing as how I work at a used game retailer.

1) Everyone is absolutely right that used games drive the sales of new games in a series. You would not believe the amount of people who say, bough Gears of War 1 and 2 for less than $25 together so they could be ready to buy Gears of War 3 release day. The same goes for just about every other title. Just recently? Uncharted, Batman (we sold out of Arkham Asylum on both systems when we had 20+ copies over the summer), Battlefield, Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls, the list goes on.

2) Some companies themselves do actually support used sales because they know they can get consumers to purchase extra content or other games in a series. The online passes for Uncharted 3 and Mortal Kombat print on customers' receipts when they purchase a used version and used copies of Batman get you the Catwoman DLC the same way. Likewise, companies allow us to convert any new copies of a game we have to used because it will drop in price and people are more likely to buy it. We know longer carry Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood new because Activision wanted us to sell them used to hopefully bring more sales of Revelations.

3) Companies are driving new sales in other ways now. We've had quite a few sales where the NEW copy is actually cheaper than the USED one. By all means grab the new one!

4) Used games are great to people because it gives them the option to try the game out. Unless companies start providing in-depth demos like Kingdoms of Amalur, you will ALWAYS see people going towards the used game, even if it is only $5 cheaper, because they can return it if they don't like it.

5) All of this stuff is actually hurting game sales. I'd love to try Battlefield 3. The open beta was, for me, extremely slow and I had trouble getting into matches because of server issues. But I'm not going to because I can't try out the online in any shape or form. I can't even borrow a friend's copy.

6) It's completely fucking over people who don't have internet. Sony is bad enough with it's requiring people to have online for REQUIRED updates. I've seen people bring back 5 different sealed, brand new copies of a game claiming it doesn't work before we found out they didn't have internet and couldn't update. Now imagine how pissed off these people are when I tell them that they get get this character or that weapon because they have to download the quest/item for a game they paid $60 for. Believe it or not, some people STILL don't have internet.

7) People support buying NEW games when they do actually feel like they're getting extra. The most successful games I've seen? Alice: Madness Returns because it gave you the code for the first game and Alan Wake because it provided the first set of DLC. And it works because if people enjoy the game used, they're sure as hell going to buy the DLC or the first game or whatever else there is.

8) Like people said, companies have yet to find a way to give people s

i just hate it when things are on the disc or supposed to be on the disc, but they decided to take it out/lock it for DLC and shit like that. I mean day 1 DLC and pre-order shit makes me soo mad sometimes. It's like we cant buy a "full" game anymore these days. Look at mass effect...DLC here, DLC there, pre order here, pre order there...."ohh mass effect 2? yeah were gonna have 2 DLC characters, a new vehicle, shadow broker, ohh yeah we ugh decided to start mass effect 3 in a certain way....buy this DLC to explain that lil part." "dont forget to buy all the DLC for mass effect 3 too....its gonna give it a proper ending.." ugh i can only see that happening

I don't think I've seen more text outside of a Wikipedia page, the massive wall of comments included. I think that means there's something good happening here. Either that, or people really like to debate about the used game market.

Fifty years later, all of this became broken, never to be played again because the servers that authenticated these passes and the passes themselves were shut down to make way for the new generation of passes and consoles.

Consoles are just late to the party. Era of PC games with no serial codes ended in early '90s and 99% of titles that have online multiplayer are now linked to your online account, be it EA or Steam. I really don't understand why console users think they are entitled to buy used games, just because they could always do that? PC gamers can't buy used PC games. I'm sure if developers really wanted to block used games sales they would have done so long time ago just by selling games with a CD key that binds that game to your Xbox Live or PSN account.
I agree on one thing, consoles need to have an equivalent of Steam. They should have sales on games on regular basis. Sell games as downloadable copies at the price of used games and I'm sure people will buy those games instead of used copies from GameSpot.

Saying someone is entitled because they bought something used and want 100% of what they bought is ridiculous. It's the way the free market and capitalism is designed. Every luxury goods industry works this way, if I buy an item I have the right to sell that same item. The degradation of it being used (chance of wear and tear) is part of the quality and price decreasing. The manufacture should have no say in what the item is still capable of doing. The flow from the new sales (rich) down to the used sales (poor) is what makes the free market and middle class possible. Then in return the purchaser of used games might save up enough money to buy a new game.

The proposition of online pass is equally dumb. A publisher says that they need the money to support the servers of used games but where did this used game come from? Did it appear out of thin air? Did the person who buy it new duplicate it and is still playing it somehow? If ALL the new games that are on the servers today decided to sell there copy, how many extra people would be on the server? ZERO.

This argument against used games being bad for the industry is so infuriating. I buy games new most of the time and within a month will sell it back. Afterwards having only paid about $20 to $30. I also, as do millions of people, buy a used car (I can't afford new yet) but will then sell it for about $2,000 to $3,000 cheaper than I bought. I can't afford to spend the total and in return drive it into the ground to just buy another car for the whole asking price.

It's just how it works.

An online pass in nothing more than a registration number that comes with pc games. If you don't buy a game new and then expect to play everything on the disk thats just to damn bad. Support video game developers and not gamestop, DO NOT BUY USED and expect everything that come with a new copy thats ignorant.

If you want to know what I think, take a look at this picture I drew. It explains the gaming industry exactly.

http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Skid+Row+Trash/the-gaming-industry-as-it-is-now-in-a-picture-i-drew--220991.phtml

Can any one explain to me, how other products (Book, Cars, etc.) survive the used market? I just don't understand how the game industry is so different that they feel entitled to a cut of a used game.

Why don't they buy their own games back and sell them used themselves?

I havta agree, Online passes are not the answer to used game sales, I feel the best way to solve the issue is really giving an incentive for new purchases, extra content, merch (walmart gives tons of posters and such....hell they even gave batman arkahm asylum for free with a purchase of arkhum city), and little things like that, nothing big like DLC or online expiriences

Dont punish players for not buying your product new, they'll buy DLC and the next game if its a series

And as for digitally releasing games on the internet..... well as nice as it would be to have that and not worry about new/used, online passes and such, consoles simply cant do it, the amount of memory required is ridiculous enough with the games on demand section.... sure a remedy to this is to delete your old games but if your like me, you wanna have the ability to play all your games whenever you want....

Maybe once they start sticking bigger Hard Drives into consoles... or somehow streaming the game to you

Argh, I'm a pirate. I buy used games. I shop at thrift stores. I buy groceries at grocery outlet. That tired argument that punishes the customer for wanting to save money is not only ridiculous, it is evil. In this economy,buy used, recycle, get a hybrid car, whatever, just stop listening to people like mister Dylan who say by not spending 60 dollars on a game ,companies like EA will go bankrupt and hungry. Fix the used game system, so that developers share in the profits. Or else tell little old ladies to stop going to antique stores, you know the original used item store.

I pay money for a game, I expect to get the full product. Its not my fault some billion dollar company isn't smart enough to figure out to make money off of my used game sale. And yes, I AM entitled, I'm the consumer, if not for me then EA, Steam, Blizzard, etc wouldn't exist. Kiss my feet and give me what I want. Its called innovation and it's what drives our economy. If your too dumb to figure out how to get money from me then you probably don't deserve it anyways.

Yes, because used car dealerships are destroying the profit margins of Ford and GM.

This supposed industry makes me want to vomit, I am sick to death with the way some of these "fans" wet nurse HUGE multinational corporations like EA and Activision. Activision only made +700 Million $ off MW3 in its first week on the shelves, oh gawd how will they ever afford to shit out another 2 dozen of these beyond redundant wastes of time.

To assume that these companies do shit like triple validations, root-kits and online passes because it is necessary speaks volumes about just how far down the rabbit hole you really are. EA will charge as much as people are willing to pay, if BF4 would sell 12 million copies @ $234.65 a piece, they wouldn't put it on the shelf for a penny less. Wake up and stop defending these people, by defending something that is beyond a shadow of a doubt EA’s idea, you aren’t helping Devs or game studios.

This system of open extortion has been a defining feature of the music and movie industry for years, and what a respectable bunch they are. If you want to see where this industry is headed just look at the RIAA and MPAA. If I can be involuntarily deputized into the war against online piracy, I deserve a couple independent studies that prove online piracy (Not the Chinese piracy) is killing these industries. While there will never be proof that piracy is hurting the sale of console games. If the trend of online passes catches on it will hurt rental companies like gamefly and blockbuster. Why is it that it’s completely acceptable to hurt perfectly legitimate game rental companies just to pad EA’s profits?