RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[Drowsy Emperor]

 

The death of the consoles was proclaimed regarding the lack of their ability to provide another technological jump. This was a false dilemma as people will eventually play on whatever you provide them.

 

Additionally those same trumpets of doom failed to acknowledge the advantages of a closed ecosystem, unified control scheme and a thousand other conveniences for both the developers, the console gaming peasants, and the people rolling in money from console games at the moment. All of these have an interest (or habit) to keep the console thing going.

Is more on the fact that as technology improves consoles become more complex to the point of being specialized PCs, which they are now. So all the advantages of consoles are rendered null as they begin to have the same issues as PCs without any of the advantages. Eventually people will slowly migrate towards PCs.

 

But the argument should stop at the fact that consoles have to become PCs in order to remain competitive, PC has won.

 

 

They were always a specialized PC. The benefit was that the hardware doesn't change and that's a constant that the PC can't rely on. The only difference in this generation is that Microsoft and Sony realized there was no point in doing their own hardware from scratch and just put their consoles together from mostly PC components.

 

I don't see the PC unseating the consoles as the primary entertainment hub for most people. They are still cheaper and easier to use.

 

The only "victory" for the PC that I see is the multiplatform nature of most games today. Gone are the days of the really desirable console exclusives. A good PC can now play both all the AAA console games and the multitude of indie and PC centric games.

[Gorgon]

 

 

Bio fans already freaking the flip out flipping the freak out ****ting the **** diagonally over ME4

Recent rumors pointed out that the game might not see a beta on the PC, as Bioware are planning to instead focus on its console versions for this stage of its development/release.

 

This has sparked controversy among PC gamers, who have been worried that they might not even see “Mass Effect 4” on the PC at all, if the beta is any indication. Subsequently, various fans have taken up the position that if Bioware are going to delay the game’s release on the PC – but not for consoles – they’re going to pirate the game in protest.

 

So in a time that everyone is trying to get a foothold on the PC market because consoles are going the way of the Dodo; BioWare bravely goes the other way.

 

"Here lies BioWare, they rode the bull"

 

We need someone to mod chip the new consoles. Only way to get the devs to put the PC platform back on the agenda. Of course they are going to focus on the piracy free platform. Who wouldn't. 

 

And down the line of course they are going to do a PC port as well, it's still money right. 

[Sarex]

We need someone to mod chip the new consoles. Only way to get the devs to put the PC platform back on the agenda. Of course they are going to focus on the piracy free platform. Who wouldn't. 

 

And down the line of course they are going to do a PC port as well, it's still money right. 

 

The sad thing is that consoles are just as piracy ridden as the PC is.

[Gorgon]

The PS3 got a mod chip ? and that one was supposed to be a fluke. Can't remember. There is none for the current gen of consoles. So I can't say I agree with that. 

[Sarex]

I don't even think you need a chip anymore. All I know is the DA:I was a day one release on Xbox360 and ps3.

[Drowsy Emperor]

The Xbox360 and the PS3 were cracked although the latter wasn't as user friendly as PS2 chips. Games had to be loaded onto the hard drive and there was a risk of bricking the console when inexpertly jailbreaking it.

 

The PS4 has been cracked but so far Sony's threat of legal action kept the crack from spreading. Or something like that. Don't care much for that anyway.

 

In either case, its far easier to pirate on the PC. But, if Denuvo spreads, that may become a problem. Seems to be the only anti-piracy scheme that works at the moment.

 

Its all so tangential to games as a business though, regardless of all the "piracy is a major problem" incessant blabber. The real problem is that game prices haven't really increased so the costs of AAA production must be offset by constantly increasing the number of units sold. However the market will saturate at some point and then either the games will get more expensive (leading to reduced sales) or the AAA model will crumble.

 

Currently however, publishers and developers are lying through the teeth - profits for big name games are astronomical and put Hollywood to shame. Piracy is nothing to them, an annoyance that keeps them from maximizing their incredible profit, not something that's actually a threat.

 

Small time developers however, do have a problem. But games like Minecraft are proof that if you make a good product you can still make millions.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Drowsy Emperor

[Gorgon]

Well good riddance to the AAA model then. Much better to create for a more narrowly defined demographic. And by that I mean people who like what I like. 

[Mamoulian War]

I don't even think you need a chip anymore. All I know is the DA:I was a day one release on Xbox360 and ps3.

 

you only need an USB stick with CFW on it

 

edit: and you have chance of bricking it only if you connect to the internet

Edited November 30, 2014 by Mamoulian War

[Drowsy Emperor]

Well good riddance to the AAA model then. Much better to create for a more narrowly defined demographic. And by that I mean people who like what I like. 

 

The AAA model is certainly not doing us any favors at this point. Most of those games (CoD, AssCreed etc.) would be played by exactly no one if it were not for their production values.

[Keyrock]

 

Well good riddance to the AAA model then. Much better to create for a more narrowly defined demographic. And by that I mean people who like what I like. 

 

The AAA model is certainly not doing us any favors at this point. Most of those games (CoD, AssCreed etc.) would be played by exactly no one if it were not for their production values.

 

Call of Duty games have legitimately good shooting mechanics and a thriving multiplayer community.  Assassin's Creed succeeded quite well in integrating parkour elements into an action game and also have some of the best representations of cities of any game or game series out there.  Walk through a city in any AssCreed game, then walk through a city in Skyrim.  One of them feels like a living, breathing city, the other doesn't.  Also, the whole Animus part of the games was initially pretty brilliant and could have turned out really awesome, but Ubisoft c0cked that up right quick.  The problem is that it's the same mother****ing game every single year, and at full price.  CoD: Advanced Warfare is being praised by some (and derided by others) for bringing the biggest changes the series has seen in probably half a decade, if not more.  Those changes are fairly minor, they just feel earth shattering compared to the nonexistent changes from previous titles in the series.

 

The problem with the AAA model lies in 2 factors:   The Madden Effect™ and The Michael Bay Effect™.  I'm fully confident I don't need to explain what those are, but I will anyway for the sake of completeness.  The Madden Effect™ is the annual (sometimes biannual) release model (the same model that murdered Guitar Hero), and The Michael Bay Effect™ is placing value and emphasis on production values, flashy effects, and ridiculous setpieces above, and to the detriment of, all else.  The Madden Effect™ works to maximize profit and The Michael Bay Effect™ works because publishers have (sadly, correctly) assumed that it's what sells.  The Madden Effect™ makes it essentially impossible to start from scratch, or even make sweeping changes, simply because there isn't enough time to do that, which leads to iterative (at best) releases.  The Michael Bay Effect™ makes for games that are pretty and flashy on the outside, but hollow on the inside.  This leads publishers to release the same candy bar (sweet and tasty on the surface, yet almost completely devoid of nutritional value) year after year, just in a slightly different wrapper.

 

I don't want AAA to go the way of the Dodo completely, because once in a while I like to indulge in a candy bar, but I have no intention of having several of these candy bars shoveled down my throat on a regular basis, plus they're making some people pretty fat.  The AAA model needs a major overhaul.  Sadly, I don't see that coming about without a spectacular crash.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Keyrock

[pmp10]

The PS4 has been cracked but so far Sony's threat of legal action kept the crack from spreading. Or something like that. Don't care much for that anyway.

If PS4 was cracked a hardware application would be already on sale.

Hacking consoles is no longer a simple matter and anyone managing to pull it off will be making big money on it.

[Oerwinde]

I'm not upset that ME4 might be console only, I've always considered the ME games a console franchise anyway. Just means it will take me a while to get it since I wont be able to afford a console for at least a year or more.

[ManifestedISO]

Yeah, right, ME4 console only, then democracy in Latveria, I'll believe it when I see it. 

[Orogun01]

The Xbox360 and the PS3 were cracked although the latter wasn't as user friendly as PS2 chips. Games had to be loaded onto the hard drive and there was a risk of bricking the console when inexpertly jailbreaking it.

 

The PS4 has been cracked but so far Sony's threat of legal action kept the crack from spreading. Or something like that. Don't care much for that anyway.

 

In either case, its far easier to pirate on the PC. But, if Denuvo spreads, that may become a problem. Seems to be the only anti-piracy scheme that works at the moment.

 

Its all so tangential to games as a business though, regardless of all the "piracy is a major problem" incessant blabber. The real problem is that game prices haven't really increased so the costs of AAA production must be offset by constantly increasing the number of units sold. However the market will saturate at some point and then either the games will get more expensive (leading to reduced sales) or the AAA model will crumble.

 

Currently however, publishers and developers are lying through the teeth - profits for big name games are astronomical and put Hollywood to shame. Piracy is nothing to them, an annoyance that keeps them from maximizing their incredible profit, not something that's actually a threat.

 

Small time developers however, do have a problem. But games like Minecraft are proof that if you make a good product you can still make millions.

I think that I've said it somewhere before, but if the rumors about Denuvo are true then game publishers better get ready for lawsuits. Either developers have overstated piracy as a problem in order to cover themselves because they have made a low quality product or because the publisher meddling/unrealistic expectations. Really they should consider how much they stand to lose on piracy vs. how much they stand to lose with damaging DRM, still I think that DRM is mostly a investor reassurance.

 

You'd think that publishers would be thinking about changing their production model, investing on creating programs that automate portions of the pipeline, creating and controlling low cost games that can become a safety net for bigger titles. They've been getting the shaft from distributors that undermine their profit by reselling their product for years but they have done nothing about it. When they could have easily used online distribution to bypass the distributors.

[Malcador]

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/report-denuvo-drm-system-has-been-cracked/

 

Denuvo DRM broken, apparently.

[Majek]

 

The PS4 has been cracked but so far Sony's threat of legal action kept the crack from spreading. Or something like that. Don't care much for that anyway.

If PS4 was cracked a hardware application would be already on sale.

Hacking consoles is no longer a simple matter and anyone managing to pull it off will be making big money on it.

 

He's talking out of his ass. Like on every single topic he posts on.

[Orogun01]

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/report-denuvo-drm-system-has-been-cracked/

 

Denuvo DRM broken, apparently.

The worst part is that during the time it was effective it led to no significant change in profit on the games that used it.

[Rosbjerg]

 

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/report-denuvo-drm-system-has-been-cracked/

 

Denuvo DRM broken, apparently.

The worst part is that during the time it was effective it led to no significant change in profit on the games that used it.

 

 

It'd say that's the best part - perhaps it'll show investors that it's a waste of money to insist on using DRMs and hopefully GOG and CDProject can show that pouring the money into quality will increase sales instead.

[Orogun01]

 

 

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/report-denuvo-drm-system-has-been-cracked/

 

Denuvo DRM broken, apparently.

The worst part is that during the time it was effective it led to no significant change in profit on the games that used it.

 

 

It'd say that's the best part - perhaps it'll show investors that it's a waste of money to insist on using DRMs and hopefully GOG and CDProject can show that pouring the money into quality will increase sales instead.

 

I'd said somewhere before that piracy has been exaggerated to scapegoat publishers and developers. In a culture of yes men you don't want to be the guy that tells the publisher that their product failed because they messed up or if the developer messes up and doesn't want to take responsibility. Piracy is an unknown, vague and obscure thing that they can point to and treat like a bogeyman.

 

But yes, let's be optimists and think that it will change for the better. When has that not worked?

[Rosbjerg]

Well I mean it's not different from the current development model:

 

[Amentep]

I'm not upset that ME4 might be console only, I've always considered the ME games a console franchise anyway. Just means it will take me a while to get it since I wont be able to afford a console for at least a year or more.

I don't really get what the big deal is, to be honest.

 

If I lost sleep everytime some game that looked like i'd enjoy came to some system I didn't have I'd never have slept through the 90s.

[Zoraptor]

But how will I complain about ME4 being consolised trash if it doesn't have a PC version to complain about being consolised? How can I complain about the poor RPG systems, bad dialogue, romances, how it was totally not worth buying, too short but also too long and replete with filler content, unimaginative yet also too much departure from the first three games and how I hated every second of the 140 hours I spent on playing it through 7 times just to make sure it was rubbish? That's the best part about Bioware games, and I'll be missing out without a PC version. I won't even be able to make a nebulous and poorly formed complaint about Origin!

 

Typical modern Bioware, wouldn't have happened in their glory days under Reg and Gray.

[Bryy]

Typical modern Bioware, wouldn't have happened in their glory days under Reg and Gray.

I don't understand why people think BioWare *was* the doctors.

 

There are 800 people at that company.

 

It's just a company. Yes, the founders left. But it's not like the company went bankrupt or anything. You'd think by how some people talked that Ray and Greg were holding up a doorway in a burning orphanage yelling for people to go on without them.

[Orogun01]

 

Typical modern Bioware, wouldn't have happened in their glory days under Reg and Gray.

I don't understand why people think BioWare *was* the doctors.

 

There are 800 people at that company.

 

It's just a company. Yes, the founders left. But it's not like the company went bankrupt or anything. You'd think by how some people talked that Ray and Greg were holding up a doorway in a burning orphanage yelling for people to go on without them.

 

Really, they been doing stuff like this since BG....but to be fair the dialog wasn't as cringy.

[Volourn]

"I don't understand why people think BioWare *was* the doctors.

 

There are 800 people at that company."

 

Because, it was. 800 people NOW.

 

  And, however how many there was THEN there were only TWO who made final decisions. That were the docs.

\

\Now BIO is simply EA under a different name as EA bosses make the final decisions.