Developer Wants License Keys For Console Games

UK developer David Braben from Frontier Developments believes smaller development studios are in the worse position when it comes to re-sale of “pre-owned” video games. Since a developer only gets their cut of the profits when a game is sold new, pre-owned titles allow gamers to play games without paying the developer for the effort.

This also hurts larger publishers, but they’re able to recover because of the sheer volume of games and game titles. One idea David had, was to code each game with a unique license key like a PC game that gamers must enter before playing. This would kill the ability to re-sell video games back to the market for others to buy at a cheaper price (translation: better value).

The future shows a higher degree of downloadable games, which cannot be re-used or sold back to the market, but for now, developers have to deal with pre-owned video games cutting into their profit. Presumably you could have a great game with smaller sales and a high degree of resale in the pre-owned market.

Problem with this take on development? Besides large scale video game sellers like GameStop making 80% profit margins on resold games (rather than a 10-15% on new), gamers want a way to make back some of their money on expensive titles. When you’re paying $60 for a game and you beat it in a week or two, you want to resell it so you can invest in a future title.

My theory… make games more affordable so we don’t feel gouged on the price. We may decide to hold on to it longer and tell our friends about it. A good game reference and a reasonable price will increase sales every time. Don’t try to solve pre-owned problems when the problem is the publisher and the industry making huge game prices.

(Thanks, Kotaku)

0 thoughts on “Developer Wants License Keys For Console Games”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Episode 322: Xbox One, PS4 Launch LineupsEpisode 322: Xbox One, PS4 Launch Lineups

This week’s episode as a guest in the form of Jordan Lund’s wife Jennifer. There was to be a Gaming History, but it’ll be used next week when there’s more time.

This week’s news includes:

  • Microsoft Points transformed into cash
  • Gamers can return digital titles on Origin after a week
  • Bungie feels Destiny can be bigger than Halo, as big as Star Wars
  • Borderlands 2 coming to PlayStation Vita
  • Sony announces 33 “launch” titles for PlayStation 4
  • Microsoft announces launch titles for Xbox One
  • The Sims 4 emotional gameplay revealed at GamesCom 2013

All this and Listener Feedback, with the same “console or PC gamer?” question from last week.

Episode 422: Pop CultureEpisode 422: Pop Culture

This week’s a lot of discussion of comic book movies, including the upcoming “Captain America: Civil War”. In fact, it dominates most of the podcast. However, there is some discussion of video games.

This week’s news includes:

  • Free money suddenly showed up in some people’s Steam accounts
  • “Obviously there’s going to be another Borderlands,” says Gearbox
  • Rumor: Nintendo NX to be officially revealed this or next week
  • Rumor: Xbox One upgrade under development at Microsoft

Question of the Week: “Would you buy a updated console like the PlayStation 4.5 or Xbox One and a Half?”

Starcraft 2 Part Eins, Zwei and DreiStarcraft 2 Part Eins, Zwei and Drei

Nobody is perfect. When it comes to creating an epic story arc, awesome pre-rendered movies and a fully fleshed campaign Blizzard has done well. Now, Blizzard speaks of Starcraft 2 and the world shuts their mouth and listens to each and every word. What’s the word?

A Trilogy.

We’re not talking about the Lord of The Rings style trilogy, but three games with full stories which all end with the gamer being satisfied at the closure, not cliffhangers.

The three standalone games will be (says GameStooge):

  • Terrans – Wings of Liberty
  • Zerg – Heart of the Swarm
  • Protoss – Legacy of the Void

Gamers are probably thinking, “so, I can play multiplayer with only one race?” No! The campaign is split into three separete games, not the races and multiplayer features. Although, each title is sure to introduce something new to the game engine, Blizzard has said:

“Nothing changes for multiplayer or skirmish mode. All three races are fully implemented from the get go. Each campaign will feel like an epic story – not a cliffhanger into the next one. They will each have separate arcs that have a clear start, middle, end – and you will feel like you’ve really finished *something* at the end of each game. More content than we’d previously planned – many more Movies, Missions, etc.” (games.on.net)

From our perspective, it seems Blizzard is itching to release the multiplayer system to the world sooner than later, considering some countries use Starcraft as a professional league, but they don’t want to rush out fast to market campaigns just to satisfy this multiplayer desire.

Instead, they’re going to take their time, in usual Blizzard style, by releasing the game as they finish it… per races story. This should give us a less watered down storyline or having one or two races with a piss poor storyline while another has a kick ass storyline because it was done first.

End result? Multiplayer gamers will be happy in the end while those that play Starcraft for the story will need to wait for each game to be completed. We know Blizzards release schedule is “when it’s ready” so we can only imagine how long it will take to reach that third game in the trilogy.