Sony Considers 'Online Pass' for First-Party Titles!

[garyopa]

Now with the release of PSJAILBREAK, and the publishers pushing like MAD against the growing fast USED (RE-SOLD) game market, with THQ and EA charging for online play, or including ONE-TIME codes in their games.

Sony has now decided to join into this market, to cash in on the multi-billion USED market, which most publishers now say is WORSE then any piracy they have faced in the past, or now with the release of the PSJAILBREAK device.

With an 70% online attached rate. (Out of all the PS3 consoles sold, they say 70% of the owners are now staying online with their consoles when playing a game!)

Sony's European president said the company is "broadly supportive" of measures like EA Sports' Online Pass - which enables online features through a one-use code free in retail copies - and is considering them for titles like MLB The Show.

"On the principle of making online portions of the game available or unlocked from the disc-based release for a fee, we're broadly supportive of that," Andrew House, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, told GamesIndustry.biz yesterday. "And we're exploring actively the same option for our own content."

News Source: http://kotaku.com/5619834/sony-consi...r-mlb-the-show

[dave73]

I generally buy games retail for multiplayer anyway, been this way with me for many years now.

Not saying I agree with it but I dont think this will affect me much, even with rampant PC piracy available to almost anyone we have always or most of the time still had to buy the game for online play.

I have a shelf full of games I bought just for online even though a fully working off-line only version was easily available to me.

Its a kick in the nuts for people who usually buy second hand games though, this will surely mean second hand copies of certain games wont be able to go online ? or have I misunderstood that part ?

[Paxxor]

So this means sony isn't gonna (at the moment) do anything more against PS Jailbreak, just hunting down ID'S? Since this probably will cost them quite some money.

[Ceazer]

they might as well go ahead and ruin it all with their WoW type subscription fees. we all know that is where this is leading. you pay xxx for the console and xx for the game and then 12 to 13 a month to play it.
a sad day for gamers everywhere. IMHO

someone explain to me how they lose money on used games? i mean they sold the game in the 1st place. so they made their money as far as i can see.

whats next? games that can only be played for 1hr before they breakdown in the cd/dvd drive and you have to run out and buy a new copy of it to play the next hr??? heheh lol

[dave73]

if sony can manage to keep psjb offline and I think they have a good chance of being able to do that it will surely reduce the numbers of people who will use the psjb ?

I know lots of gamers that value online play more than "backups"..

Hell, I got a 360 sitting there I could have easily flashed (like my last 3 lol) but chose to keep live because I do use it every now and then and now realising the vast majority of game releases are not what I want so buying a few exclusives here and there or the odd fifa game every now and then is fine with me.

I will probably end up buying another ps3 and doing the same thing.

[garyopa]

someone explain to me how they lose money on used games? i mean they sold the game in the 1st place. so they made their money as far as i can see.

You have to ask the publishers about that one, but their logic works like this:

You buy the game, play it thru, like I did myself with Halo 3 in 2.5hours, and don't like the "online". -- So I bought back to the store, got some credit, and bought another game to play instead. -- Store then puts it on the shelf for $10 less then the NEW price. -- Next person walks in see the mint USED Halo 3 and buys it instead. -- Publisher see this screams, but I just LOST money! -- I should have had TWO sales, not one.

Publishers claim the average game now changes hand up to 5 to 6 times.
Before, the final USED buyer keeps it, or the HOT new TITLE drops in price.

Their logic is they are getting only 1/5 of the NEW sales they should, because of all this TRADE in and RE-SELL.

In the states they are pushing for congress to pass a LAW that would prevent a store from selling a USED game until at least some time has past like a YEAR.

Oh' the world, we now live in, it's all "greed & money"!

[dave73]

I dont even use the second hand games market and quite frankly its a blatant piss take.

The game industry needs to reduce there prices by a big chunk if they want to combat the second hand market imo and even perhaps piracy.

I recall in the 80`s a brand new copy of Batman on vhs the day it came out was about £100 and this is the exact reason almost everyone I knew except me got a pirate copy, as soon as movies were released directly into the budget price range it was harder to justify buying second hand or pirating it.

The game industry might do well to follow this same route.

Undercut the pirate or the second hand game store to win this battle, for example, the next COD game will sell shitloads we all know that but I reckon it would sell more and ultimately make more money if the game retailed at say £20 from day 1.

(and yes, before someone asks, I did buy hundreds of VHS movies in release day for up to and sometimes beyond £100 so the direct to budget ruling was like xmas day for me)

[Kurto2021]

NFL 2K5 did that.....It cut significantly into EA's madden franchise marketshare....the next year EA pays a crap ton of money to the NFL and gets exclusivity.

they need to set it up where the game is 79.99 the first 2 weeks.....then 69.99 the next 2 weeks....then drop the cost by $10 per month until it reaches say 39.99.

There would be millions of people buying the game the first 2 weeks because they don't want to wait...those people will not be returning the game to a used store.....

[Muffy]

I don't see how they can make this work for them (regarding the 2nd hand sales) what about rental shops where people rent a game to test it before buying it outright are they going to restrict online play for those as well.
The best way for the companies to continue to profit from games is to offer regualr DLC for people to buy. The majority of people get rid of games because they become stale but if new things are added at a regular interval they will then think twice about trading the game in.

[BloodRose]

Yes, what a way to win the masses back over to your side Sony in a year when you have basically treated them like crap and a new thumb drive has been released which lets them obtain games for free, just increase the software prices for the consumer, they'll love that.

Absolute ****ing idiots, honestly.