While used games are being killed, swapping games among friends is next on the chopping block

[Joelcool7]

green_sky said:

You want PC games type DRM and restrictions on console games than let them drop to $5-10 like they do on PC within 4-5 months. I don't buy used games but i want to share the game with my friend if i want to. Seriously Joel why are you sounding like Bobby Kotick. As someone said the industry is still growing in this crap of a world economy. 
As far as Nintendo goes there is a reason they are able to sell their games for full price for years and not drop it to 40 and subsequently 20 dollars within a year. Nintendo provides value to the customer and if they start restricting a game to 2 or even 5 consoles (even if no ones needs 5) that is just reducing the game's value. 
No need to take major steps as of yet. The digital distribution model is expanding and will take care of game sharing among friends. So please no more weird crap till than. 

Bobby Kotick is not as dumb as people like to think, though his decision to milk all of Activisions franchises by releasing at least one new version a year is highly suicidal.

Its funny you mention games value yet support a digital distribution model, which in turn means the game really has absolutely no value to you at all. You don't even really own the game and most often it sells at say 75% of the cost of the retail version.

I of course agree as a consumer I would prefer no limit to how many consoles I play my games on, the restrictions are inconvenient. However they are increasingly becoming necessary as software development costs continue to climb with no end in sight and revenue doesn't keep up with dev costs.

The five use system I proposed could be meddled with to make it as convenient as possible for the consumer. Maybe after 5 uses you can purchase the license for the software for say 15$ like online passes can be bought. There are other methods the software manufacturer could put in place to make the move as convenient as possible.

The way the industry is going your games will have no value to anyone but yourself. Whether we go DD or not the days of us buying software and owning said software are coming to an end. Yes I am highly against this if you have read my threads about DD, however it is happening like it or not and their are reasons it is happening.

As for Nintendo, yah they are an exception. As is Call Of Duty, I can't really explain why so many people purchase these titles while ignoring much higher quality software or the same quality of software from other publishers and developers.

But there is something wrong with our current model, if big budget amazing games fail to break even the problem needs to be identified and remedied. I am not 100% what the problem is in all cases but used sales do contribute to the problem if they aren't one of the leading causes. Of course as I said as a consumer I do not like the way the industry is headed including my own proposition used in this thread. But I do not see how these things cannot be avoided, with the growth in the industry as you mention profit margins and sales are not reflecting that growth.

Also games won't be alone, movies and music are also going the route where we no longer own them. This is the DD model you don't own what you buy at any time the company can remove the music, movie or game from your system or cease giving you access regardless of whether you paid for the content or not.

Consumers need to realize that they will not own the content they buy in the future. Its impossible to keep the industry the way it is today its going to change!