Slitherine

Inasmuch as people have blathered on and on about the death of PC gaming (no I am not for or against or even interested in that debate), the recent developmental notions of the PS4 (which in some cases have seemed like an attack on some sections of the game world) and the even more outrageous sounding design notions of the recently revealed X-Box One, seem all but ready to make PC and mobile type gaming look a lot friendlier to all concerned in a variety of ways, or at least not as bad as they might have seemed to some thinking there was anything wrong with PC gaming.

Once upon a time I had a Nintendo. You bought the cartridge and hoped it didn't suck. And half of the games sure sucked. And this was before rental and it was a cartridge and was not something you could really copy. The internet wasn't around yet (in any useful fashion to joe anybody), digital media was still largely unfriendly and unfamiliar. I was happy to trade the thing to my brother for a lame tape deck.

Consoles evolved though, got better, got easier, and were a good alternative to early PC games. I remember that it was simple to mod a PS1. The games though were usually a single disk, and you put it in the machine and played it and that was all that was involved. No internet connection. No complications. The kids played them to death and moved on to the next game. I recall my son getting a PS2 and it was really just a more powerful PS1. And playing PS1 games on it was no real challenge to gamers.

I think the PS3 era was the plateau, the high water mark, the limit. The thing is able to do more than just play a game. It's damned expensive, but at least it earns it's spot by my TV. I can buy games online or buy them physical. I can play a movie on it and I can add it to my home network. It's useful. And regardless of the whole piracy discussion, the thing is, I have not felt a need to fiddle with mine. And I am not different than any other schmuck, I can be a cheap bugger as easy as the rest of us.

But it appears that Sony and MS are not satisfied, they want more and they think they can just continue to make supposedly must have machines. And they think they can just dictate terms and tell the industry we are doing it their way and shut up and like it. I can't speak for you, and while I am not much of a console gamer, I don't hate the idea of playing console games. Currently, I don't see my son having anything to do with the PS4, and the X-Box One as currently being described, is unwelcome in my home. My son barely acknowledges the PS3 exists (he's a diehard PC gamer). I don't need a PS4, and frankly anything it can do, a computer can too. And my computer can already talk to my TV. Sony, your machine doesn't offer me enough to be out of cash the equal of a new laptop. MS, your X-Box One is not welcome at all though. No really, as it is currently designed, I won't let it in my home. At all. I have no desire to have it present and listening and watching. I don't want to wonder if it is running when I am with my wife in the room. I'm just not interested.

I have to wonder, how many gamers that might want it, are going to get told it isn't welcome by other family members that call the shots, like parents for instance.

Killing used game sales, that's a shot at retailers that depend on used sales revenue.
You say that it will aid game developers..... well where will you be selling the games? If MS tells me I can't sell used games and I am a retailer, I might respond with 'well sell your machines in someone else's store, I'm giving the shelf space to a new product direction, maybe table top miniatures'.
I wonder, does MS think this can't happen?

There is a reason PC gaming is scarce in console dominated retail, it is both expensive and there is no used market to make them worth the space.
Digital download is cheaper, easier and doesn't require retail shelf space at any rate. PC gaming isn't dying, it just found a new pipeline to the consumer.
But look at the reaction some give to services like Steam? Some gamers WILL rebel. If not for the fact that Steam at least works, it wouldn't be used.

I have to wonder, how is MS going to make killing used games work?
I don't expect game prices to drop like a rock in water. I expect the industry to go on demanding 60 bucks for a 60 dollar game. I expect people to expect to be told to pay it up over and over. But will gamers just take it lying down? Will retail just suck it up and take it? Can they even do so? If we lose a swath of retail, what will that do to methods of selling the machines? Will console games be stuck in just a few large stores like Target that don't rely on a specific product sector to exist. Will the concept of the 'game strore' go as dead as the video rental location? Today as I type, there are NO video rental stores in my home town. None. You either have cable TV or satellite, or an internet solution like Netflix. Once a movie leaves a theatre, I only get to see it by buying it, or watching on a service. And sales of the things are extremely limited today as well. If you want to buy most things, you buy it online (at least in my life that is the case).

There's two stores in town devoted to gaming sales. I don't expect them to survive under the MS X-Box One approach.
Or rather, I don't expect them to have much interest in retailing X-Box One products.
I could be wrong, but, I do know about 'margins' and you make money on a used game, not a new one.
Most retail is a narrow balancing act. I see the X-Box One as a lead bar on the scales. And worth about as much as a lead bar too.

Prove me wrong.

Holy massive reversal, MS hits the brakes hard, and realizes the DRM notion may just kill their doodad.

I wonder how many job openings at MS came as a result of this bad idea gone out of control.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out

I recall reading on Arstechnica that MS dreams of a game sales environment where disks simply are not required, and as a result the media never needs to be sold, and thus, the existence of used media disappears and while that is a scary thing for a game store owner, the thing is, I have survived seeing Blockbuster roll over and die.

And while I don't like all things Steam, the thing is the service delivers, in it's own way.

I have not bought a wargame that was in any fashion physical for several YEARS now and countless games later. Mainly as a result of how Slitherine group safeguards their product. And as it currently stands, we still have a use for SOME manner of safeguard, as if there was nothing at all in place, sales would be pointless to a point of impossible to generate sufficient to stay in business.

I do wonder though, if Slitherine group could generate adequate sales, if the process of playing one of your titles you publish, was a matter of me paying the same sum paid out to play a typical online game. Could Slitherine exist if all of us gamers here in wargame land, were paying a montly fee if 15 bucks, logging into Slitherine's game world and playing any game at all you offered and never needed to install anything at all to play you games. But in the process, never possessed the file, never had the option to walk away and play the game alone and offline.

It's not all bad, and I must confess, I am not so devoted to listening to the crying of the people that would whine about lousy internet access. Cry me a river. I am not wealthy here, and yet I have broadband. It's because I chose to live where I live and how I live. It's not so damned hard.

But, it comes down to. could Slitherine even make it work? Because if there are not enough wargamers able to line up as monthly sources of 15 bucks like clockwork, then I guess the idea is moot and that would be the end of the notion eh.
MS seems to think there are enough gamers in the mainstream gaming population to make the idea work. That's the real thinking behind their thinking. The DRM is really just a vestige of stupid habits that need to be turfed along with a lot of other baggage. Clearly they have not thought out the process intelligently though. Perhaps they should have a replacement method, before they try and bugger up what they have currently.

Meanwhile, I suppose I am still mostly a non console gamer that yet still prefers a laptop over a desktop, and likes hand held gaming that is more user friendly and more mobile.

If MS doesn't drop the spying hardware, it won't matter how they sell the games. If there hardware can't outperform the PS4 hardware, it won't matter if MS says sorry and drops the DRM.

I continue to applaud Slitherine for breaking with tradition and given us games that perform on ALL of our machines

It's just a matter of time before I indulge the next round of tech evolution of tablets, and I will soon enough have the choice to get one with Windows on it even if MS was less than massively successful getting their Windows 8 into the marketplace. And at that time, we won't need to whine over whether one of scores of wargames can run on a tablet, as thankfully our wargames lack the demanding graphics of the glitzier of mainstream gaming. Any new tablet in 2014 unable to play my wargames, is worthless after all eh.