It’s no big secret that I’m against digital download only titles
It’s not actually the titles themselves that I’m against, it’s the business model that accompanies them that I deplore. Digital only titles are just a front for publishers to get all ‘Nazi’ with the end user. It’s this total lack of control and horrible dictatorship over something I have paid good money for that I am 100% against.
Publishers want total control of what we do, when we do it and how we go about doing it. Why do we accept it?
If a title is only available online, you’ll need an online account of some sort to gain access to it.
If you have an online account, then you’ve also got internet access.
Publishers, knowing all of this, lump these two things together and the end result is a game that’s only playable once you have an active internet connection.
This is (somewhat) unavoidable if the game in question is an MMORPG but this practice goes far beyond MMORPGs and extends to games that have no online play whatsoever. Anyone who owns a digitally downloaded game on Xbox Live/PSN that’s had to migrate their online account to a different console will know this all too well.
I’m absolutely staggered that people accept this. It’s because of these people that this practice continues to eke away our rights as consumers. Most of us really are as fucking stupid as the publishers think we are.
It could be that you’ve never given any thought to the problems associated with a digital download only business model?
If this is the case, and you’re not one of the stupid ones then maybe the following will convert your way of thinking?
This is what ALL publishers should say upon the purchase of a digitally downloaded title;
CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve just downloaded your first digital download only game. It barely took you two hours to create all of the necessary online accounts and fill in all of the personal details about yourself that we (the publishers) asked you for. We need lots of information about you so we can create a digital profile of yourself and then profit from you even more by selling these details on to marketing skanks around the world.
We usually hide these types of things aay in our 748 page legal disclaimer section but here’s the answers to the questions you’ll be asking us when things have gone a bit pear-shaped for you;
1. What happens if I can’t access/connect to my internet for some reason?
You can’t play the game(s) you’ve bought.
2. What if my internet connection is a bit ropey and sometimes unreliable and slow during peak hours?
You’ll get sporadic connection errors, frequent crashes and/or constant game boots.
3. What happens if you (the publishers) are conducting server maintenance?
You won’t be able to play the game(s) you bought.
4. What happens if you (the publishers) close down the hosting servers?
You won’t be able to play the game(s) you bought ever again. Don’t worry though, we might tell you a month in advance that the NON-REFUNDABLE/NON-SELL-ABLE product you paid us for won’t work ever again. We might even ironically thank you for your purchase but because you’re an idiot, we’ll have a massive laugh about you too.
5. What happens if my console/PC that my online account is registered to breaks?
You’ll have to replace your hardware and then jump through a billion fucking hoops to gain access to your game(s) again. If you’re lucky, some of them might work again but others will probably knacker-up and revert back to demo/trial versions until you pay us to unlock them for you again, that is until question number 4 rears it’s head again, and It will definitely occur at some point. That, I can promise you.
The knock-on effect for this ludicrous business model is that physical media is also getting hurt in the cross-fire of publishers’ big-brother-isms.
You’re opposed to digital download so you buy a physical game from the shop but you still need a constant internet connection to play it.
Why?
A fine example of this broken (for the customer) business model is Diablo 3;
It’s had numerous issues since its launch, a mere 7 days ago, from Error 3006 to server login issues preventing people from playing the thing they’ve bought.
Diablo 3 has an online mechanic, namely an auction house that’s been shoe-horned in so that Activision (Blizzard’s mum & dad) can earn extra money from its players. They do this by taking a percentage of money from every item traded/sold within the game.
Sure there’s a smattering of other online things to do in Diablo 3 but it’s largely a single player, offline game. I don’t see why there couldn’t have been a simple ‘toggle option’ to allow the game to connect to a server during specific required instances?
This would certainly have alleviated a lot of the games server criticism
The simple reason is that they could have done this quite easily but opted against it. After all, the last thing they’d want to do is hand any control back over to the people that own their product.
Also, in other news a shit load of Diablo 3 accounts have already been hacked resulting in customers having items and gold stolen from them. They’ve also probably stolen all of the customer’s personal details too and are currently cloning their identity right now.
Welcome to the future of gaming….
I couldn’t agree more with this article.
It’s ridiculous when you get customers coming in ( to GAME ) who want to buy a cheap, simply PC game and it turns out they cannot play it because they have to have an internet connection. Publishers seem to assume that EVERYONE is online. What is the point in even selling the hard copy in the first place? A lot of people end up not buying or paying for anything once they realise that they are unable to play the game they wanted.
As far as I’m aware, the PS3 allows up to 5 consoles to hold the same account and thus the same PSN games, which, I’m pretty sure work offline. I’ve got 2 PS3′s at the mo, so I’ll come back and confirm or deny this at some point.
Yeah, the digital market does indeed suck. These problems were all foreseen by myself years ago and are currently archived deep within the games™ forum. I’m dead set against online activation, codes and presence in order to play offline games. I also believe we should be able to make archive copies of all our downloads in the event that we are no-longer able to re-download them. And in this volatile economy that might end up being the case.
Because of this, pirates are now no-longer viewed as pirates, but more like Robin Hood type outlaws. Before, they were just basically pinching the product for their own use, but now, they actually provide a service the general gaming public appreciate, hacking these things so they no-longer require activation or presence… Or an Origin account.
Buy all your stuff from GOG, they don’t fuck around.
The PSN side of things isn’t as bad as Xbox Live but tying the content to 5 machines is still very restrictive.
I have the following Sony machine all tied to the same PSN account:
PS3
PSVita
PSP
PSPGo
This means that I can only share the content I’ve bought once more (probably on the PS4 once it’s released).
What happens if one of these consoles breaks?
Have I reached my limit of sharing?
Is it possible to deactivate an activated device to free up a slot?
At the end of the day, It’s something I shouldn’t really have to be worrying about, but ultimately have to.
What does this achieve?
It certainly doesn’t deter piracy. The pirates get round it easily. Only the folk who have legally bought the product suffers.
It’s just a way for companies to hold all the cards and if they want to take the game back off you, they can. They’ll then be able to re-release it as and when they see fit and if you want to play it again you’ll have to pay them again.
The majority of digital games do work offline and with regards to PSN an internet connection isn’t required to play the games once you’ve bought and downloaded it.
The point is that the digital market place isn’t a problem per se and in many cases it can be a boon to gamers, the issue stems from how ‘some’ publishers are employing the format and that is what needs to change.
I totally agree that digital download can be great and it gives a lot of smaller devs a foothold in the market place. It’s being handled incorrectly by the big boys though.
Just to be clear, I’m only against the business model that accompanies the digital download marketplace and the fact that the publishers have us over a barrel.
How about when you digitally download a game, you also get the option of a physical copy too?
Option 1: £4.99 Digital download only
Option 2: £7.99 Digital download available immediately and a physical copy will be posted out to you
I know which version I’d go for.
A couple of years ago I did this very thing when I bought a Way Out West music album so this model already exists.
Rob Fearon wrote something pretty apt on this recently – http://www.merseyremakes.co.uk/gibber/2012/05/talking-about-videogames/
I see this as being a problem in the future. As companies move on, servers go down and social media trends change, a lot of the digital stuff we have now will stop working or disappear.
I’m not a fan of digital download-only games as I think it’s far too easy for the big companies to keep gamers on a short leash. The only games I download are old abandonware titles and the awesome stuff people from the retro and indie community make just for the love of making games.
I’m particularly aware of the perilous nature of digital-only as I have been having computer problems and also problems with my backup storage and as a result I have lost some games I have made. There’s no way of getting them back. That doesn’t matter too much, as they’re only games made by me. But imagine a game such as Bayonetta (if it were a digital game) just disappearing. The servers from which you can DL the game from close, and SEGA pulled a shitty trick and sent out a code to make the game obsolete. The game would probably be lost to future generations, and I’m concerned this is the track we’re going down.
I 100% agree with all points raised as I’m hugely against digital gaming, I also live in a area where the broadband is crap and I barley can get a connection.