The War on Used Games

As we plan the coming wave of next generation systems, we should be anticipating improvements on all the good things we keep company with the current crop of systems. Continue we expect: better graphics, faster processors, more engaging games, you obtain the idea. But not precisely what we're anticipating is a progressive movement for gaming. At the very least, as far as Sony and Microsoft are concerned, you can wave goodbye to playing used games on their systems. Although they are just rumors at this point, it wouldn't be surprising should they came to fruition. It's very plausible, especially when taking into consideration that several game publishers have previously fired shots at the used game market.

Most notable is Electronic Arts(EA), who became the initial publisher to institute the practice of charging gamers, who bought used games, a fee to access codes that come with the overall game. To elaborate, Downloadable Content(DLC) codes are incorporated with new copies of a particular game and only with those codes, can that content be accessed. EA expanded its project to include playing used games online. Gamers would will have to pay $10, as well as the cost of the used game that they purchased, to be able to have access to the web the different parts of their game. Ubisoft has since followed suit, requiring an online pass because of its games as well. You can identify the games which require an online pass because they bare the,"Uplay Passport", logo on the box.

Ubisoft decided they'd take things a step further and implement Digital Rights Management, a practice more regularly connected with DVD or CD anti-piracy efforts. Assassins Creed 2 was the first game to be effected by this practice. In order to play the PC version of Assassins Creed 2, gamers must create a merchant account with Ubisoft and remain logged into that account in order to play the game. Therefore if you lose your web connection, the overall game will automatically pause and try to reestablish the connection. However, if you're unfortunate enough to struggle to reconnect to the internet you'll have to continue from your own last saved game; losing any progress you could have made since then. This will be the case for several of Ubisoft's PC titles, irrespective of one playing single-player or multi-player. While Digital Rights Management has been used to combat DVD and CD piracy for a long time now, this will mark the 1st time it's been useful for a gaming. In  destiny303  of Ubisoft's implementation of DRM, Matthew Humphries of Geek.com, cautions that it's feasible that eventually even console games will demand online registration to be able to play them.

So what's the reason behind all of this? In accordance with In accordance with Denis Dyack, the top of Silicon Knights, the sale of used games is cannibalizing the profit of the principal game market. He also claims that the used game market is somehow causing the price of new games to rise. His proposed solution would be to move from physical disks and embrace digital distribution. Essentially he'd like to see services like Steam or EA's Origin replace traditional hard copies. You can find even rumors that the X-Box 720 will embrace the exclusive usage of digital downloads and not use disks at all. Whether Microsoft will in actuality continue with that plan remains to be observed.

One could argue that Sony has recently laid the ground work with preventing used games from functioning on the future system. At least, they've already made quite an attempt to create used games significantly less desirable. Kath Brice, of Gamesindustry.biz, reported that the most recent SOCOM game for PSP, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3, will demand customers who buy a used copy to pay an addition $20 dollars to get a code for online play.