CliffyB Thinks Used Games Are Bad, Sony is "Playing Us"

[Steven Bogos]

CliffyB Thinks Used Games Are Bad, Sony is "Playing Us"

Dude Huge claims that it is impossible for used games and game rentals to co-exist in this world of massive marketing and production budgets.

Microsoft's decision to Twitter [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/7444-Xbox-One-and-the-Death-of-Ownership]. "The numbers do NOT work people."

Dude Huge also thinks that Sony has its own used game solution up its sleeve and is just playing on the internet outrage for free PR. "You're all being played!" he warns us. Rumors that Sony's own machine would block used game sales in some way surfaced in the lead up to the PS4's reveal.

Bleszinkski went on to explain his stance, saying that games have gotten so big that there is just no way the next generation can survive if the used game and game rental markets keep taking a cut. "The visual fidelity and feature sets we expect from games now come with sky high costs," he says, "Assassins Creed games are made by thousands of devs."

The former dev also warns us that the day-one $60 disc-based model is crumbling. "Newsflash. This is why you're seeing free to play and microtransactions everywhere."

Pretty inflammatory statements, but then again, Cliffy B is not known for holding his tongue, having spoken out in favor of unpopular business strategies [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122441-CliffyB-Microtransaction-is-Not-a-Dirty-Word-EA-is-Not-The-Bad-Guy] in the past.

Nonetheless, you can't argue with the success of man's games, and he is in no sense of the word a "bad dev." He does actually know what he's talking about, so maybe he is just saying the things we all don't want to hear, but know to be true?

But then again, maybe he should just can it, and have a look at Nintendo's stance on used games [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124927-Nintendo-Says-Used-Games-Arent-An-Issue]: make games that are so good that people will want to keep them forever.

Source: PlayStation Lifestyle [https://twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/344937445953007616]

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[tmande2nd]

Dude....

I see your lips moving but all I hear is:
"PONCEPONCEPONCEPONCEPONCE"

Ugh never liked this dude.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

He's right about the second part. Sony did come out against used games early. Then, after the XBone announcement, they changed their tune. Whatever else you may think of CliffyB, he is probably right that the makers of the PSP Go are probably just looking to ease us into "no used games" down the line.

 

[Wyvern65]

Cliffy B's entire argument is "games are so expensive we have to hurt consumers to pay for them, suck it up."

Amazing how he doesn't even seem to consider that game devs could, I don't know, stop making games that cost more than the market can bear. It's like Michael Bay saying we need to eliminate sales of used DVDs in order to have more explosions in film.

Not interested in being held responsible for your excesses and inability to realistically budget and control costs on your projects.

 

[The Lunatic]

I'm honestly of the opinion that above all else, people actually buying your game is the sticking point as to if something will work or not.

 

[Jamous]

Except that simply isn't the case. You -can- make games that'll profit without 5 million fucking sales, you just -aren't-.

"You cannot have game and marketing budgets this high while also having used and rental games existing," he said via Twitter. "The numbers do NOT work people."

There are two solutions here. One is yours, the other is better.

 

[TheAmazingTGIF]

"Huge budgets make used games a bad thing!"
You know what the problem is? THE HUGE BUDGETS.

 

[Tanakh]

Dude Huge also thinks that Sony has its own used game solution up its sleeve and is just playing on the internet outrage for free PR. "You're all being played!" he warns us. Rumors that Sony's own machine would block used game sales in some way surfaced in the lead up to the PS4's reveal.

I am also curious about this. Either Xbox is run by people that know less about business than me, they have an extremely unlikely Ace under their sleeve or Sony will indeed force some new DRM or use the current one to emulate microsoft new measures. All in all, i have learnt to think that people ain't idiots when it comes to money, so the most likely explanation for me is what Cliffy is saying.

As for the comparison with nintendo, it's really forced isn't it? They have different markets, different objectives and VERY different game libraries; I am sure that if nintendo had a yearly CoD or several big budget series and the likes the behaviour of their consumers would change. I would contest that they see less trading because they have way less games and the average nintendo consumer has more time to save for each one while liking to have a somewhat varied game library.

 

[Armistice]

I'm sorry, I just don't understand why the video game industry thinks it should have some special exemption from used sales. When I buy a used car does the original manufacturer get a cut? When I sell an old tv to a friend does samsung get a cut? Besides, I fail to see why we are responsible for the budgets and costs of any game.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I know he's worked in the games industry a long time an all, but he's still managed to some how NOT know what the fuck he's talking about.

it's admirable in a way, and sad in another.

the only reason costs are so high is because of one thing they have control over, marketing, pretty much every one save a few devs have let it get so out of had we hear things like 'Dead Space needs to sell 5 million to stay viable' and this asshole is part of that problem.

If they didn't spends millions upon millions more then they needed to on marketing, for games most people have already made up there minds on no less, no one would even care about 'the evils of used games'

 

[dragongit]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Epic make money for every game that uses the Unreal Engine? which is like 40% of them? Haven't their games like Gears of War gone on to sell 5 million copies each? What the hell do they have to worry about inflated prices? They will make money just because they slap the logo "epic" on the box. If you're worried about the used game market, make a game that people won't want to sell back to the store so there won't be as many used copies to go around.

 

[saxman234]

So clearly the solution is for companies to control their marketing budgets and production costs and not destroy game ownership.

 

[Callate]

The AAA market is crumbling under the weight of unsupportable development budgets? That's not a newsflash.

But here's one for the insufferable Cliffy B:

A product's development and marketing model becoming unsupportable is a piss-poor reason for trying to keep it afloat by inflicting unprecedented and draconian measures on its customers.

We've been hearing about how a unified engine like Unreal was going to bring down the cost and staff requirements of AAA-game building for years, and thus far, it hasn't turned out that way. The costs keep going up, and customers don't seem to be willing to keep floating higher prices on a disposable luxury product.

But y'know what? Killing the used market, destroying rentals- that's not going to keep costs and prices down any more than all the ads played before your movies have cut the prices on tickets and concessions. They're a stopgap, a drop in the bucket against a model that is floundering before its collapse.

If AAA-games as we know them die, they die. Fortunately, there's an independent movement that's increasingly showing it might have what it takes to take its place.

And if the death of AAA games means we can stop pretending that arrogant and insulting "industry experts" like Bleszinkski are inherently deserving of our consideration, it might be an improvement.

 

[GodzillaGuy92]

Did anyone else picture Cliffy typing those tweets by repeatedly slamming his face against his keyboard? Because there's no other way I'm able to reconcile the blind stupidity of the comments with the fact that they were expressed by a living, thinking person.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Add this to my folder for when people ask "Okay seriously why does everyone hate Cliffy B? The guys is a legend"

 

[Abomination]

It's strange how a person can be right and wrong at the same time.

He's right that the model can not be sustained but he's wrong in who is supposed to change to accomidate it.

When a game has to sell 3,000,000 copies to remain in the black the first thing one must ask is "why did you budget a game to require 3,000,000 sales in order to remain profitable?".

Three million copies being sold requires there to be 3 million people who think the game is worth the price that is being asked AND they can afford the price being asked.