Codemaster idea for slowing down piracy and 2nd hand sales.

[gunsmithx]

F1 2010 creator Codemasters has a novel idea it could use to combat the threat of second hand videogame sales – sell half a game in shops and the other half as downloadable content.

 

That, according to CEO Rod Cousens, would not only help tackle the earnings lost from used game sales but piracy, too.

 

"It's not inconceivable to say that we send out a Formula One game that's not complete - maybe it's got six tracks," he told Eurogamer sister site GamesIndustry.biz.

 

"Then they have to buy their next track, and you follow it around the world. When you turn up in Abu Dhabi you have to pay for the circuit, and whatever the changes are to the cars that are put through.

 

"That, I think, would deal with a lot of it, and also address the pre-owned."

 

If Codies follows through on its idea, it expects resistance from shops.

 

"What we have to figure out is how we're going to work together to make this happen," Cousens said.

 

"If retail takes a confrontational point of view and says that if we go online, they won't stock the box - and publishers then say that all they're going to do is put out DLC after launch that retail can't participate in... it's ridiculous.

 

"Actually, you need them to get to the stage where they stock the box. It's not inconceivable that you're going to ask them to give the box away at some point in time. But then, they participate to an extent in the subsequent DLC exploitation."

 

Ah, exploitation. How we've missed you.

 

I saw this and it got me thinking, now if they do a full price game with only half of it their and try to sell you more then thats a non starter. But what if they sold you half the game for half the price? Basically turning it episodiac content? When you pay full price you get the full game but half of it is DLC. And if your ok with half the game then you don't have to pay full price. Whats funny is everyone on Gaf is like hell now but there are several PC racing games that kinda work like that were it's basicly pay as you go, you only pay for the stuff you want and they do very well from my understanding. Hell the Free to play mmo model with Mirco Tranactions does stuipdly well from what I understand. Of course all of this only work if you pay half price for half a game, anything else would be a non starter.

[Iambaytor]

That's a horrible idea and still shits all over the people that actually pay money for a game. Not to mention, like usual, pirates are just going to laugh at it and bypass it.

[Drifter]

I thought the whole point of owning legit physical copies of games was that you could move them between hardware. What if you upgrade or switch machines, then all the downloadable is gone and you've got to ask: are they going to put a limit on how often you can re-install or download?

[Iambaytor]

I have an awesome plan, how about we just sell games to people? No DRM, no codes, just sell the consumer a game, on a disk, in a box. If there's downloadable content, give it a password or something so that even 20 years later the consumer can still download their content. Pirates will remain as they are, because what all this bullshit fails to realize is that pirates don't care, they find a way around. All this stuff done to stop predators only encourage more honest consumers to play by dishonest means.

[gunsmithx]

I think people miss the point of drm sometimes. The point isn't to stop pirates(dispite what people say) the point of it is to slow them down, if you only get a few weeks then you get most of your game sales done. The other part of something like this is to try and get back some of the used market.

 

Now they havn't done anything yet and I'm curious to see how they do it. I'd guess as I said before that it would hopefully be something along of the lines of half the game for half the price(in terms of cars and tracks) and then you'd go ahead and DLC any cars and tracks you want. Iracing basicly does this now(though with a monthly fee instead of buying a product) and does very very well. In fact I really wonder how it would go if you just sold the basic engine and maybe 1 car and 1 track for like 10 bucks and sold everything else through dlc.

[Iambaytor]

I think people miss the point of drm sometimes. The point isn't to stop pirates(dispite what people say) the point of it is to slow them down, if you only get a few weeks then you get most of your game sales done. The other part of something like this is to try and get back some of the used market.

 

Now they havn't done anything yet and I'm curious to see how they do it. I'd guess as I said before that it would hopefully be something along of the lines of half the game for half the price(in terms of cars and tracks) and then you'd go ahead and DLC any cars and tracks you want. Iracing basicly does this now(though with a monthly fee instead of buying a product) and does very very well. In fact I really wonder how it would go if you just sold the basic engine and maybe 1 car and 1 track for like 10 bucks and sold everything else through dlc.

 

Yeah but it clearly doesn't slow them down enough or else the game industries would stop whining about it. Not to mention I know scores of people who pirate new release games specifically BECAUSE of the DRM. As for the used market, fuck the gaming industry, if we apply this same standard to any other industry their argument seems stupid and whiny. If I buy a used car is it fair that it should come without seats? Is it fair that I should have to buy the ending of a book I bought from a used bookstore? Would it make sense for me to buy a computer that only works if I have to pay the manufacturer to turn it on?

 

If the game industry wants to increase their bottom line they need to stop whining and think about the consumer, not the kleptomaniac. Every other industry has done this and if gaming can't get in line with everyone else then they deserve what they get.

[The NZA]

ah, piracy...always there to blame when your unsustainable business model starts falling apart.

wait, what games do Codemasters make again? oh, phew! dodged a bullet there.

[gunsmithx]

f1 2010 which did pretty well. and I believe dirt.

[Mr. Sexy Hat]

Whatever happened to thoes old code books that we had for pc games.

You know the ones where the game would ask you for word on Page 2, Column 4, Row 14.

 

Took me hours to figure that shit out and if you lose the book then you were proper fucked.

 

Kid these days would never figure that shit out.

[The NZA]

they surely wouldn't, what with the internet collapsing from the deluge of yahoo question submissions.