Rage Cuts Single-Player When You Buy It Used

[Lord Beautiful]

Interesting design choice, id. Feel free to suck the darkest part of my lily white ass. Any chance of me buying your game has gone straight out the window.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

Next time I want to buy a used Mercedes, I'll call official Mercedes dealership to ask them if they're gonna cut my brakes if I don't give them a piece of that action.

This is fuckin' stupid. Used games market should be no different than any other market for used stuff. This kind of behavior can only increase piracy. There should be a law against this.

That's a good point, actually. I'm the type who buys games new from my favorite company (Atlus), but even then I'm not going to demonize gamers who can't afford to pay the full price (and I only do so because most of the company's games are on the cheaper side and because the folks at Atlus never pull this kind of stunt with their fans!).
_I get that the devs don't get a cut from used game sales, but if this is how things are going to be between developers and/or publishers and their consumers then:
1. Stop used games sales entirely. Make Used Games the same as piracy: a criminal act. Since the way companies make it seem, it pretty much is. The only reason it's legal is because we're paying somebody "legit" for the copy. Hence why some coin it "legal piracy".
Or, for those with an intellect: 2. STOP WHINING ABOUT IT!

You want to know how to get games sold new? Make the deals that much sweeter. For example: Pre-order swag. I love it. Lots of folks love it. Thus, we buy the game new.
Want to know how to have games not sell much at all? DRM and this kind of abuse.
Id exec: "Just stick to giving them a bonus OST (a real one, not that digital download horse crap), an artbook, or even a simple map for swag persuasion? Bah! BAH, I say! We'll strip content from the game and make it Swiss cheese! Surely they will worship us then."

I get the feeling Mass Effect 3 is going to have something like this happen. Watch. With EA and the newer, shytsier Bioware behind the wheel, ME3 will be ruined for used game buyers.
If I'm wrong then I'll smack my Collector's Edition copy of Dark Souls against my face.
...By the way, that Collector's Edition? I 'll be getting that from simply pre-ordering the normal game. Yeah. Walkthrough, Making-Of, and some other intersting thing all for just pre-ordering.
I want to see what people who support this kind of thing say to companies who act like that. No excuse for this.

So you understand how good Atlus treats it's fans *looks up and sees my special edition SMTevil Summoner 2 box*. I can't think of another company (Besides NIS(A)), who gives you extra goodies for buying new/first shipment. I mean for 40 bucks I got that box for Devil Summoner 2, for 35 bucks I got Strange Journey with a soundtrack (which was busted but Atlus fixed) and a mini poster, with Izuna 2 you get a cool mini poster extra, the persona 1 remake had a TWO DISC SOUNDTRACK for free for buying it new. Almost every Atlus game I own on the DS has a mini-CD soundtrack that was given with it for free, and when Atlus ported Knights in the Nightmare to the psp they gave away Yggdra Union for FREE (both are great games).

Why is it Atlus/NIS(A) who are smaller companies and can't print 1000000000000 copies of a game can gladly do this kinda of thing but no one else? EA and everyone else seems to want to with hold stuff and when they give it to you puts on a stupid smile and say it's a extra for buying it new when it was a advertised feature that is under the cloak of "extra".

There's also CD Projekt Red with their Witcher games.

The "Normal" edition includes a game guide, map, papercrafts, soundtrack, making-of, and a couple of other goodies. Yeah the game included DRM, but after a week they removed it when they learned it brought down performance. Of course if you bought it from GoG, it had no DRM to begin with. Oh, and if your in a country and have to pay a stupid amount more than other places, if you buy from GoG they give you a couple of free games to help make up the difference.

Straight from their Witcher 2 page [http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/the_witcher_2/]:

Since customers from Australia, New Zealand and the ones paying in Euros pay more than the rest of the world, we give back the price difference (roughly $26 and $16, respectively) in free GOG bonus codes, as a form of store credit. Please read this FAQ for details.

Every other company just goes "tough shit buddy".

I love CD Projekt Red. So much.

See stuff like this is a real reason to buy a game new, not "buy our game new so we don't shaft you out of content". I don't know why people defend this idea so much.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I really would love to know where all of the used game buyers who claim to be after a deal buy their used games. No, really. I would absolutely love to know so I could save money too.

Any place I know of locally that offers a used copy of anything relatively new charges at most $10 less than the new price for it. That's just not much of a bargain when you're looking at a $60 item, and it's certainly not worth not supporting the developer.

 

[sgt. soap mctavish]

ID is now activison.

 

[Theysaid]

There's no reason for me to buy it new because I only want to play (what I assume is) a small portion of the game -- single player. So that means no used copy for me... or I'll buy it for $5 next year during the Steam summer sale for my PC.

I'm assuming that renting it from Redbox will also lock out the single player game, which is terrible... the whole reason I rent FPS games from Redbox is to play through the single player game, which can usually be done in a day or two.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

well that's... different.
cant say im too pleased with them. then again, if you save £20 and have to pay another £10, then fine. if its more than that, not really worth it.

 

[camazotz]

Ah, Bethesda and Id, you guys really are hoping that in this economy, with SO MANY other games coming out this year, that people will overlook crap like this?

I want to play Rage, and I'm playing it PC, but I've just downgraded it to a "Buy for $20 on Steam in 6-8 months." Which is still better than my continuing policy of Never Ever buying Assassin's Creed II, period.

 

[Xaio30]

[There was rage here, but it went out with all the fuck I was giving.]

 

[robert01]

I don't condone used games sales, not because you don't support the developer, but because the companies make insane amounts of money for essentially no work at all. At least with most used markets for like every other product on the face of the earth(excluding video, and music) there is a little work that has to be done. Cars have to be fixed up and cleaned, houses have to be renovated, etc. But these companies make a SHIT ton of money selling new titles for $5 less than retail sometimes.

But for a company to cut out content from their product is them basically saying, "FUCK EVERYONE ELSE, WE ARE TOO GOOD TO HAVE A USED MARKET. WE DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO COMPETE WITH ANYONE WE WANT ALL THE MONEY." Forget that shit, competition is a good thing. A lot of people purchase used games because they have maybe seen the game at a friends house, or were hesitant on the what they saw in the trailers and don't want to invest full money in a game they feel may not be worth it. I can't say I blame them, I am a PC gamer so I don't have that option, but they do, and the should be allowed to do this without being treated like a criminal. If the law thought used games sales were illegal it would have been dealt with by now. I think if this gets too far out of hand the law will get involved and start to govern this a little.

Why should the entertainment market be any different in regards to used markets? Because games cost lots of money to develop? So do cars, and houses and everything else you can buy used. Game development companies are just full of a bunch of money hungry assholes. People regardless of what platform they game on, everything from their iPad to PCs, need to stand up and start using their voice as a collective, stating they don't tolerate this shit, start voting with your wallets, let one of these games that took millions of dollars to produce flop and the companies will know that we aren't fucking around.

But I am dreaming that will never happen.

EDIT: Also they don't state where these sewers go to, it could be to some prime shit, top notch weapons. Stuff that would make the game easier, just now got locked out. Fuck you id. I used to like you, but know with all your current statements regarding always on DRM, and now this, I wouldn't even buy your shit on sale from Steam.

 

[Dastardly]

... what I don't understand is why Willits is trying to downplay the fun-factor of running through the sewer missions Rage is locking with an online pass. If it's true that "most people will never even see it" and that skipping the section doesn't "detract" anything from your experience, then why would this actually affect whether or not a gamer buys the game new or used?

Because they're testing the strategy on a rather innocuous piece of the game. They're not going to jump head-first into something like this. That's all that's happening here--testing the waters.

I suspect we'll hear a big uproar about it... but the numbers will show pretty average new sales, with fewer used copies moving.

 

[SiegeJack]

Ech, I really don't care, if I buy it first hand, I won't play online. If I buy it second hand, I get it cheaper, but I wouldn't have to pay $10 for something I wouldn't use.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

Considering that used games are just as wasted as pirated copies, I see no problem.

 

[MrTub]

Sounds good.


Pc players cannot even start the game without a serial key.

 

[Xan Krieger]

I swear game companies have some kind of hatred for money, what did money ever do to them?
Did developers learn nothing from Spore? Loaded with DRM, most pirated game the year it came out.

 

[jboking]

If you buy it used, you ain't supporting the developers, just like the pirates do. Don't see anything wrong with it, as long as this new little feature doesn't affect the legit buyers.

Nope, you just support the retailers. I honestly feel like it would be interesting to see retailers fight back this shit. Like just choosing not to carry it. It really could be quite the ***** for a developer and publisher if a large brick and mortar like gamestop just decided to not stock your game because you are being an unimaginative dick about your DRM instead of finding a way to reward first hand buyers instead of punishing used buyers.

 

[Worr Monger]

Eh.. I don't care.

I'll be buying new anyway.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Or you could, you know, buy the game new and actually support the developer? Rather than the, "Fuck you, I want to buy your game at a cheaper price, and not let any of the money go back to you, and you're a piece of shit for wanting to make a profit off of the sale of one of your games." attitude you've got going now.

I don't get why people are all up in arms about this. RAGE is going to be a massive game by the way all of the news stories seem to say about it, if it's a good game it'll be worth the money to buy it new. If you really want to save money and buy it used, then you're paying for a lesser experience. I see no issue in this.

You really want to blame somebody: Blame GameStop for not giving a portion of their 100% gain on a used game being sold back to the developers.

First off, game-wise, I've never bought anything used. That is because I like my games to be new and shiny with the game-box looking new and actually having everything inside(like the instruction booklet).

But, I can see why people buy used. They don't care about those materialistic things that I care about, they just want the game itself. Let's say people that don't normally get to buy games all the time, because they never have the free income to get them regularly like some people do, come into a store like GameStop and look around. They only have about fifty dollars available to spend. It's been awhile, so the they think back on what they wanted to play over the past few months. They remember that there were two games they wanted that came out six months before. They find out that both games' prices haven't went down all that much and they are forty dollars a piece; they also find out that both games are 20 dollars a piece used. They of course are going to buy both games used because it is more game for their money and if they just bought one game new and saved for the other, it could be another 4 or 5 month before they can afford one again.

I would say that people that use the used market the most are probably kids that only have a small amount of money they get from an allowance or chores. A kids aren't going to care where the money goes, they are going to see that they can get both games for half the price used of getting both new.

Besides, as people have pointed out, no other industry works like the publishers want it to work for them.

I've bought used books from a half-price bookstore many times. Are you saying that the store should keep a record of ever book sold and that Stephen King should get a portion of the money that was received when I bought his book "On Writing" used. No other media or retail item argues over the fact that some people buy used and they don't see money from it.

Writers maybe a little disappointed that a person didn't buy a book used an they don't get money from it, but they see it as they have gotten some recognition. The people that buy those writers' books used are still reading their books. If the writers have more than one book, then there is the possibility that when there new book comes out, these people that bought their one or so previous books used, will buy the new book new, since it will be awhile before people can buy it used. Writers look at a used buy as still getting recognition/publicity. If the used buyers love the books, they will spread the word and then other people will buy new usually because that is what most people do since there really aren't that many used bookstores around these days, at least ones that will have multiple copies of a new book, or a popular book.

So, publishers need to understand that they aren't special, sales-wise, the media is the same. If some people buy their game used, they don't get the money from it, but they do get the recognition/publicity if the game is loved and the players spread the word.

Long story short:

In the end, just think clearly about it, it really is just common sense. Movie companies don't say a word when people buy the movies from some used store, or rent it at a rental store. Authors don't complain about used book sales. Car companies don't whine when some guy buys one of their old used cars from some small private dealer.

Other people work to make those things and they don't see the money from used sales. So I ask you, why are video games different, why should they see a profit from used sales? Because if you say they should, that means all those other companies should see profits from used sales. So if I buy a used Monopoly set at a yard-sale, does that mean that Hasbro/Parker Bros. should get a portion of the three bucks I paid for it?

 

[Quaidis]

I'm confused. What triggers the 'used' part of the game that locked the part of single player? I mean, if you let your friend borrow the game, will it immediately lock up that part and never let you have it again? If you create a new profile or start the game anew, will it lock up and throw away the key of that section as well?

I've never been aware of a used game store randomly doing something to the CD that would magically trigger this.

 

[Cyrin]

This is really dumb.

This sounds similar to a publisher of a book tearing a few chapters out because someone bought the book used.

Or maybe taking a few scenes out of a movie because your friend gave you the DVD.

 

[suitepee7]

that sounds... pretty shitty. now i will probably miss this game entirely. meh

edit:

I thought bad things when i read the title, but now I know that its only small parts of the SP taht are being cut for used palyers. In my opinion this is the right way to do DRM.

no, it is not the right way to do DRM, because it is punishing gamers who have still legitimately bought a copy of the game, but could not afford to do so first hand.

Yes it is
The pre-owned market hurts the developers since they dont see any of the money made from it.

People who complain about this DRM/Code practice obviously dont care about the market as much as they claim.

Bitching about content being locked is like buying half a bottle of pop off someone then bitching that you didnt get the whole thing.
YOU ONLY GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!
Save up the money and get the game new and quit whining

i'm not whining, i'm just saying that is a reason i would not purchase the game. if anything it would sway me towards pirating a version of the game with all the content. the problem i find, with a LOT of games, is that after a while, the game stops being readily available new.

so i have a choice, either buy a game i'm not 100% set on new, or wait for a little while, and get it preowned. and then some content is removed, fine, i'll just get a game which has all the content still in it.

quite frankly, if the problem is devs not seeing money off of used sales, then try to get a deal with trade-in stores, don't punish the gamers for it. if it costs £40 new, and £30 preowned with £10 of content blocked, what is the fucking point.

A new copy is 60$, a used one is 55$. I don't see your point.

not all the time. if i don't buy a game on release, then it's probably because something better is out at the time, and i would rather buy that new. by the time i come to purchasing the other game, it would be down significantly from used stores. as i'm from the uk, a new game is around £40, and used is normally near abouts the £20-£25. so money can be a big difference preowned.