THQ Using Online Pass for Homefront Multiplayer

[TheEggplant]

The publishers still got some of your money as profit.

NO! THEY! DON'T!
You seem to be completely mistaken at how retail works. Once the game is on shelves or in shipping warehouses the publishers have been paid. From the wholesalers. Money from retailers is NOT divided up after sale amongst producers of packaged entertainment. If a game goes on sale it's so the store can generate sales from a loss-leader or clear out inventory that is taking up valuable space.
You ever check out Amazon Marketplace or ebay small resellers for slightly older games? Noticed how cheap they are? It's because they got a lot at discount from a wholesaler who needed the space more then they needed a profit from the games. These games are brand new still in the shrink wrap. None of that money goes from the seller to the publisher because the wholesaler bought the games a long time ago.
I agree with strangeotron. If they really are not turning a profit then they are doing it wrong. Since they are still in business I guessing they aren't as destitute as they claim. Expecting customers to pay for each piece that used to be a part of the complete package is pure greed. The masses and the fanboiz will allow this to continue. One out of ignorance the other out of I can only guess insanity.

 

[Bretty]

Shops that sell games aren't sponging off anyone. They are selling product, including new games. All gaming retail would stop (save perhaps online) if the secondary market was so curtailed. It has nothing to do with what was deserved, and handwaving an argument away with a childish 'whatever' constributes nothing.

The amount that was paid is irrelevant; I brought BFBC2 for half the RRP, do i deserve less content? No, the product I brought was reduced in price by the retailer and brand new.

This is just a case iof sour grapes on the part of the publisher (not the developer!).

HAHAHAHA... god you gave me a laugh. No you dont deserve the same content for paying half of what I pay. You are cheap therefore you get the cheapseats.

I pay more at the theater for better seats. I pay more when I travel for 1st class tickets. I pay $50 for a game and just what I need. You pay $25 and wonder why you dont?

The industry is exactly where it would be without used games sales. No one but brick and mortar make that money and last time I check they dont give any to the Devs or Pubs.

Your opinion is obvious, but that is all it is. Just like mine is just an opinion. I think you are also verging on trolling? Just saying.

 

[Broken Orange]

I am surprised by how much support these guys are giving this, with the two or three who oppose this. For a consumer who buys used, this might not be that great, but they are buying that product at half the price (sometimes) for the same product that someone paid doubled of someone who bought new. I guess this is also fair to those who buy new. They get something that the used consumer would've normally gotten for free. Plus, THQ gets (some) profit they would've never seen.

Fair? There's nothing fair about this at all. People that buy games used get them less because that's the economics of used products! To argue that's unfair to people buying games new is just ludicrous. Anything brought used is cheaper, why should games be any different? No one is forced to sell on their copy of the game, and if they don't like Homefront why on earth should THQ be allowed to insert a lock that prevents them from doing so? That's a massive infringement on the free market. This would effectively destroy ebay and amazon for starters as well as all gaming retail outlets.

THQ isn't entitled to profit they wouldn't have seen because selling items used is not selling their products. If I sell my copy of Homefront I am not selling a THQ product, I'm selling my property. It's no different than if i sold my car, it's not Ford's car. It's my car and they'd be laughed out of town if they tried to pull shit like this.

God, the turkeys really are voting for christmas!

God, the turkeys really are voting for christmas!

God, the turkeys really are ...

The Turkeys!

Oh, wow. you're...right!


I can't believe how wrong I was. Companies can't tell us what to do with our video games! This is exactly like if Ford tried forcing used car owners to buy a $500 pamphlet to be able to use the brake more than five hundred times.!

I have a perfect idea to protest this. Don't buy the game! Everyone who doesn't agree with THQ's idea of selling online passes, don't buy the game! Sure, there will be some "turkeys" that will buy it despite the god awful idea of online passes, but if there is enough people who apprehend how ridiculous online passes are, THQ will call it quits with passes. If this business model is as vile as you say it is, which it is, no one will buy the game and THQ will tank! So don't worry Mr. Strange Tron, everything will work out. Capitalism will win out in the end and GameStop can continue selling used games at ungodly profit gross!

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

[Sorry, you said you bought it at half the RRSP. You should've specified whether or not that meant you bought it used.

I did specify what I meant, I said the copy was brand new. You didn't read my post properly. Don't be sorry, be right.

No need to be a douchbag, I apologized for misreading.

 

[Bretty]

HAHAHAHA... god you gave me a laugh. No you dont deserve the same content for paying half of what I pay. You are cheap therefore you get the cheapseats.

I pay more at the theater for better seats. I pay more when I travel for 1st class tickets. I pay $50 for a game and just what I need. You pay $25 and wonder why you dont?

The industry is exactly where it would be without used games sales. No one but brick and mortar make that money and last time I check they dont give any to the Devs or Pubs.

Your opinion is obvious, but that is all it is. Just like mine is just an opinion. I think you are also verging on trolling? Just saying.

It's not a question of deserved. I paid half the rrp of BFBC2 for a NEW copy of the game, just the same as anyone that paid full RRP. It makes no difference; EA got the same money for their inventory and they money I paid didn't go to EA, it went to the retailer who is as well within their rights to decide what THEY want to charge for THEIR stock (it's no longer anything to do with EA) and if you feel aggrieved that I paid less for the game in a perfectly legal and legitimate transaction, well you know what you can do about it. And my copy of the game, again, was BRAND NEW - which included all the silly VIP code nonsense. I got everything you did, nice seats and all.

Your comparisons are meaningless and irrelevant, and your understanding of retail is laughable. If the secondary market went down it would take the primary market with it. Second hand games subsidise shops, why do you think they sell them? Who are you, or more to the point, who are THQ to decide that's not good enough anymore? It's got nothing to do with you if I choose to sell my copy of Homefront. They have absolutely no legal or moral leg to stand on claiming lost sales or some such nonsense. If they want to compete with second hand prices, they are more than welcome to do so, until then they can grow up and fuck off. This sort of idea will be rejected by the retail sector.

Talk about arrogant.

Your gonna last real long here.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

The publishers still got some of your money as profit.

NO! THEY! DON'T!
You seem to be completely mistaken at how retail works. Once the game is on shelves or in shipping warehouses the publishers have been paid.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2068-Project-Ten-Dollar

Apparently this video actually disputes that as publishers make $27 dollars off of every purchase. You don't seem to know how delivery in business works do you? Do you honestly think that most businesses pay any wholesaler right away? No they do not. They receive the product and the retailer and wholesaler make an agreement on how long the retailer has to pay the bill. It's usually a term of 30 days. This way, the retailer can order more based off of demand (like pre orders or predicted demand). The publisher get's it's money after 30 days, which is when they usually release what the publisher earned.

You ever check out Amazon Marketplace or ebay small resellers for slightly older games? Noticed how cheap they are? It's because they got a lot at discount from a wholesaler who needed the space more then they needed a profit from the games. These games are brand new still in the shrink wrap. None of that money goes from the seller to the publisher because the wholesaler bought the games a long time ago.

That price you see doesn't take into account the fact that amazon.com charges a fee, the mailing system used charges a fee, and if you use PayPal, PayPal has a fee. Also the discounts aren't that big. It's $5-$10 unless it's a launch title.

Money from retailers is NOT divided up after sale amongst producers of packaged entertainment.

While that may be true, the fact remains that it IS divided amongst retailers, publishers, distrobuters, and packaging, etc. Used game sales still take up %100 of all sales which THQ is trying to circumvent in what seems to be a reasonable manner.

 

[Jumplion]

Raise the level cap to, say 15 or 20 and that seems a bit more reasonable. Stuck at level 5 out of 75 levels seem a bit too punishing.

But if their solution to this is a good one, like just an extra 5 or 10 bucks, then this would be a pretty interesting way for the developers to make money. We shall see.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

tl dr

I don't respond to being shouted at online or in real life. Try again.

No, I think I'll be ignoring you from now on; I don't dignify anyone inclined to ever resort to a "tl;dr"[footnote]Just typing that makes me queasy and I need to wash now.[/footnote] with anything but my scorn and derision and oh look at what you just did - into the "big list o' people I do not bother arguing with any longer on the internets" you go! Because if I continue conversing with you I shall doubtless come to resort to language that the moderators frown upon.

And quite frankly if I'm going to incite mod wrath, it's going to be for something more important to me than verbally smacking about the face and neck some misguided crazy person/troll/corporate shill either willfully disregarding facts or laboring under the hilarious misconception that Online Pass prevents anyone from selling on their used games (hint: misconception means you're wrong).

So you can go right on being deluded, and I shan't attempt to dissuade you because it's clearly an exercise in futility. Please feel free to mistakenly conclude this means you "win", or whatever else it is that unreasonable people arguing from untenable positions do when their sparring partners realize that about them and wisely conclude that there are far more productive things they could be doing instead of metaphorically banging their heads against brick walls - so long as you never talk to me again, I don't care what you think about the outcome of our interaction.

Ehhhh... feels like a slippery slope. What would they be charging for next? It kind of reminds me with what airplanes are doing, sneaking in hidden charges. I think that if they want more money, they should just raise the price of their game instead of doing the sneaky things such as releasing an unfinished game and then making bank on the DLC later, or making you pay for online, etc.

You are suffering from a reading comprehension problem - there is no $10 fee to play the game online past level 5 if, and this is key here, you purchase a new copy of the game. New retail copies of Homefront don't nickle and dime you for content that should already be in the box - the Online Pass fees only enter into the equation if you buy the game used.

Think of it this way - when you purchase a used car/book/couch/what have you, you do so with the understanding that, in exchange for paying less money, you are getting a product that is no longer brand new and so therefore probably has some wear and tear. But when your product is information contained on a disc, so long as the disc hasn't been scratched to the point where the data can no longer be read it will always be the same; software is one of the few products in all of existence where there is no real functional difference between a brand spanking new copy and the second-hand one.

Programs like this one introduce the difference that's been missing - now used copies aren't quite as good as retail copies, unless you cough up $10. People who already buy their games new don't see any difference, and if you buy a THQ game used you are not in fact a THQ customer, so they have no obligation to give much of a toss for what you think since you haven't give them any of your money to begin with; pay that $10 and now you are a THQ customer - think of it as buying a used car that needs its brakes replaced (but a lot cheaper).

Now DLC, that's a whole different ballgame and there are all sorts of possible takes on that, but I certainly hope that if nothing else I've disabused you of the notion that THQ is trying to wrangle an extra $10 out of its existing customers; they're trying to wrangle $10 from all the players who aren't their customers.

 

[Exort]

The publishers still got some of your money as profit.

NO! THEY! DON'T!
You seem to be completely mistaken at how retail works. Once the game is on shelves or in shipping warehouses the publishers have been paid.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2068-Project-Ten-Dollar

Apparently this video actually disputes that as publishers make $27 dollars off of every purchase. You don't seem to know how delivery in business works do you? Do you honestly think that most businesses pay any wholesaler right away? No they do not. They receive the product and the retailer and wholesaler make an agreement on how long the retailer has to pay the bill. It's usually a term of 30 days. This way, the retailer can order more based off of demand (like pre orders or predicted demand). The publisher get's it's money after 30 days, which is when they usually release what the publisher earned.