Ubisoft Prepares "Uplay Passport" - UPDATED

[harvz]

in theory, im fine with it. i've been saying for a long time that ebgames is just trying to rip everybody off.

in practice, im not so fine with it. i know many people who waited for a few months until brotherhood was at a reasonable price and just bought the preowned to try the multiplayer that everyone was talking about. here's a better solution, drop the initial price of the game by $10 and charge people $10 for all the multiplayer modes and maps except 1 mode and 1 or 2 maps.

this results would be:
-game shops take a smaller percentage of the money
-everyone still pays the same
-those who are wondering about the multiplayer (but didn't get it just for the multiplayer) can have a taste, without spending the money
-the preowned buyers dont feel ripped off as everyone has to pay the same.

potentially, if you were to sell the multiplayer as a stand alone and charge $15, you could bring in a wider audience.

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

Completely fair deal and much better than the pathetic "always online" DRM they tried to use before.

 

[Dabono]

If Gamestop et.al. sells games to people who are waiting for the lower pricing, why not just drop the retail price after a while?
So, those who insist on having the game right away spend their 60 bucks, then after, say 1 or 2 months, you (as a publisher) drop the price so the game becomes $35. Then I can get a 'new' game for the same price as the 'used' one. Guess which one I'd go for, only now the publisher/developer still get their income.

 

[chuckman1]

This really annoys me,I just see this getting worse and worse.

 

[orangeapples]

I don't like the idea, but I can understand why developers would do this. Game consumer prices have been relatively the same over the past few years, but the production costs have skyrocketed. In order to break even, developers need to sell a lot more copies new, however the majority of gamers cannot afford to buy every game new and depend on those used sales to keep their budget low, so I can see both sides. I don't like buying games used, but I will buy them discounted if I can, so they're still new, but not full price.

 

[ImprovizoR]

As long as they treat me like a criminal I might as well be a criminal. But why should I pay to be treated like one when being one costs absolutely nothing!

 

[ryo02]

"The concept is fairly simple: buy a game new, get full access to everything"

everything? apart from most of the dlc most of the store specific promotional stuff and anything in special/limited editions if you dont buy those.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Load of rubbish, money grabbing publishers. Tieing CD keys to Live/PSN/online profiles is frustrating. I understand why they do it, just don't agree. One thing I like about the PC is that it's not usually necessary to have any sort of account for online multiplayer.

No movie, book or CD will ever suffer from this kind of shiz. They do because they can and I hate them that little bit more for it.

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

I only buy new games so this doesn't really hamper anything I do, though it isn't shocking to see Ubisoft side with another joke company [EA]. It's sad that I've grown use to companies treating honest gamers like yesterday's trash. *sigh*

The used game market is just like any other market - Used cars, TV, appliances, etc...yet only the gamers get thrown to the curb because companies can. How pleasant...

 

[Sephael]

Is this supposed to be a new feature? Cause afaik it's already implemented in Might and Magic: Heroes 6 beta... (the uplay login etc)

 

[LostNumber]

I can't see why anyone has any problem with this. As long as the used game is at least $10 less, you are literally losing nothing. Hell, you could even argue that it's still a better deal getting it used because you get a chance to try the game for a cheaper price before deciding if you want the online portion.

I understand that some people are on a tight gaming budget, but if $10 is going to make or break a purchase then you could simply wait a few months for the price to drop. Sometimes it doesn't even take that long; I bought Portal 2 at Best Buy for $40 new just three weeks after it came out.

 

[Dalek Caan]

What about rentals? They are meant to be cheap, you get the game for a few days and now we have to buy the multiplayer? This is what is going to happen now. Buy a game pre-owned or new, you will need to pay extra on top of the £50 for the game to play online. *sighs* It never ends.

 

[Richardplex]

I think it's fair. It's the only way companies can make money off pre-owned games, and it's unfair that only retailers make money off them. The effect on the people who buy the game new is limited. It's for the greater good, in my opinion.

 

[Richard Allen]

Why is thismultiplayer pass thing so "news worthy" now, why not we just assume this. Head Lines:All game companies now own your game you just buy a pass to use the software, if you trade it the disc will melt."

Were that true, that would be a sad day.

Anyways, things like this are reasonable if they are only $10 or so. Still, it does get annoying to put in a code with every new game.

Completely and totally unreasonable. If they are worried about the costs of online play sell it as two separate games. One single player and the multiplayer only version for some split of the 60. Or let people run their own servers again.

It's not about that however it's about publishers who now have stock holders to answer screwing people over for a few more bucks. Every single industry has a used market and they are killing it and skirting around laws that have prevented this for years.

I don't mean this to be a personal attack, we're all entitled to our opinions and to spend money where we think it's worth it, but people sitting there defending a practice that has no benefit to them whatsoever is crazy. How anyone can defend this is beyond my reasoning skills.

 

[Richard Allen]

I think it's fair. I mean, not really complaining..

And I agree that things like Project $10 can do a very good job at this in a way that is a fair compromise. What I don't like is gamers lining up to say how much they hate used sales and want to see them done away with, and publishers wanting all sales to be new.

Imagine this: You buy a DVD of a movie that runs 120 minutes. However, if you buy a used copy of the DVD, or rent it, you miss 10 minutes of character development/plot information unless you put down some extra money. That would be nuts.

When. The. Fuck. Are. They. Going. To. STOP!? Treating. Customers. Like. CRIMINALS!?

No kidding. Really, they just need to wise up about this issue. Not all sales are going to be new. I also don't like entering the code everytime I pick up a new game.

The thing is, a lot of Movies get their development costs and such back merely with the Cinema, the DVD sales are just a plus. On the other hand game developers live off the money you buy of their games, with you buying used games they get nothing. I'm not saying I endorse this, I just think it's fair enough, and I'm not complaining.

Does Toyota get a cut of used cars sales? Then why should developers. Coming from a 10 year veteran coder.

 

[Richard Allen]

I don't like the idea, but I can understand why developers would do this. Game consumer prices have been relatively the same over the past few years, but the production costs have skyrocketed. In order to break even, developers need to sell a lot more copies new, however the majority of gamers cannot afford to buy every game new and depend on those used sales to keep their budget low, so I can see both sides. I don't like buying games used, but I will buy them discounted if I can, so they're still new, but not full price.

Game prices have gone up quite a bit over the years (not sure if it's actually kept with inflation however, it's close either way).

10 years ago you could get console games for 40$ and pc games fora bit cheaper. That's a 50% increase. Production budgets have gone up, the audience they are selling to has grown magnitudes larger to justify those budgets. WoW makes more money then a lot of small countries, I promise you it doesn't cost that much to develop. I might agree with you if we're talking about indie games but the fact is indie games are priced cheaper, and have lower production budgets so they can be priced cheaper. They also don't include crazy shit like this to bleed you of money. If your argument is that ubisoft, ea, and activision are somehow in "Need" of this money they are getting from this then I think you should go check their financials.

 

[Richard Allen]

I think it's fair. It's the only way companies can make money off pre-owned games, and it's unfair that only retailers make money off them. The effect on the people who buy the game new is limited. It's for the greater good, in my opinion.

So it's ok if Toyota disables your onboard nav and stereo when you sell it to someone?

 

[Richardplex]

I think it's fair. It's the only way companies can make money off pre-owned games, and it's unfair that only retailers make money off them. The effect on the people who buy the game new is limited. It's for the greater good, in my opinion.

So it's ok if Toyota disables your onboard nav and stereo when you sell it to someone?

I don't drive, nor pretend I know anything relating to cars or their technologies, so I have no opinion.

 

[Richard Allen]

I can't see why anyone has any problem with this. As long as the used game is at least $10 less, you are literally losing nothing. Hell, you could even argue that it's still a better deal getting it used because you get a chance to try the game for a cheaper price before deciding if you want the online portion.

I understand that some people are on a tight gaming budget, but if $10 is going to make or break a purchase then you could simply wait a few months for the price to drop. Sometimes it doesn't even take that long; I bought Portal 2 at Best Buy for $40 new just three weeks after it came out.

You can't see any reason why some of us would be pissed that they are skirting laws, charging us more, double dipping, and creating excuses on why they need to charge for the multiplayer portion citing costs all the mean time taking the ability away for us to run our own servers?

If I buy a game used, that's the cheapest price, charging more doesn't not save you money, and you logic is a bit off. Honestly your arguing you get more value when they take away something from you.