Burnflare

I know absolutely nothing about coding or programming (though I'd like to learn), but for some reason I find this fascinating.

@Tab

Seconded. Don't know why Nintendo doesn't in the first place. It wouldn't be hard to do.

Man, Snake Eater is amazing. I never owned it personally, but many a fun times were had playing it on my friend's PS2. I'll be getting the HD Collection and Metal Gear Solid 3D when it comes out.

Obligatory: Snake? SNAKE?! SNAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!

Probably some GTA 4 and Bad Company 2. School starts this week so I'm gonna enjoy my last weekend of summer.

@WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

We don't care about you, so stop trolling. Gamestop is a game distributor. Joystiq is a site relating to gaming news.

In regards to the article itself, I don't hold a burning hatred of GS like most people seem to have (I actually like my store and the employees there are always really nice since I'm a regular), but this will only lead to more Project Ten Dollar games. Which is bad news for the whole industry. I wish there was at least one other big game-exclusive distributor to compete with GS.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I remember when people thought you were cool.

Never played Dota, not that into strategy games, I'll be made fun of because I'm a Mac user, and I'll probably suck hardcore.

But, hey, what the heck. Let's give it a shot.

The poor narrator. Oh well, at least it wasn't Morgan Freeman.

Aw man what am I NOT going to be playing? Family is coming over this weekend and my cousin will be bringing his PS3 to compliment my Xbox. I expect a lot of Rock Band 3, Dead Space, Mortal Kombat, and various co-op games. Also got an itch to replay Shadow Complex recently with the (smaller than deserved) wave of Metroid love that hit with the 25th Anniversary.

Also, I have 800 MS points to burn. No idea what to spend it on though as none of the Summer of Arcade games are really tickling my fancy.

@wrongThinker

Wow, I leave for a few hours and the whole thread goes to hell- Actually this has been pretty civilized discussion. And I agree with both sides. I don't like the idea at all (I don't think any consumer does), but ultimately this whole idea is an efficient way of either; a) encouraging consumers to buy new or; b) getting a little extra cash to make up some of the revenue the company could've gotten from that game sale.

Also, I know that the common view of the game publisher is that they're all evil, greedy, swimming-pools-of-money types, but that simply isn't true. WrongThinker is right when he said that most companies are simply looking to turn a profit, and nothing more. The game industry is a hard one to get into, and even harder to stay in. If I were a mid-tier publisher, wouldn't an idea like this be attractive? You bet it would, because there's a reason companies like Gamestop make so much revenue off of used game sales.

The problem is when bigger companies like EA and Activision step into the pool. They're already making gazillions, but add in a few "online passes" to AAA titles, and you're instantly gaining more customers and revenue one way or another. This leads to more games including these "Content Passes" due to the massive success they've had, and in turn less and less people buying used as they realize the consequences of what they thought was saving money.

So it's a delicate balance. Like I said, I don't exactly care for the idea, because in the end the consumer is backed into a corner with one way out: Spending the extra cash on a new copy or buying the Content Pass. But as long as the majority of games don't start including this, I won't complain too much.

But if they do I might just start buying used out of spite.