April 26th, 2012
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UPDATE: Sorry for the confusion folks, however Crytek’s director of creative development Rasmus Hojengaard, has since clarified his statement, telling CVG:
“My comment made in the interview released on the 24th of April, touching upon ‘blocking sales of used games’, was not intended to be taken seriously nor representative of the opinion of Crytek.”
As creatives who put years of work into making each game, it’s understandable that Hojengaard and his team would want to maximise sales. But the blocking of used games isn’t a notion that sits well with consumers, and it’s equally understandable that Crytek doesn’t want to annoy gamers.
ORIGINAL: This past year we’ve heard plenty of rumors claiming the next PlayStation and Xbox systems would both feature anti-used games tech of some sort. In a recent interview with CVG, Rasmus Hojengaard, Crytek’s director of creative development, gave his thoughts on the subject.
CVG: “Asked if he’d like to see Microsoft and Sony introduce anti-used game measures, as has been rumoured for Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4, Hojengaard added:”
Hojengaard: “From a business perspective that would be absolutely awesome. It’s weird that [second-hand] is still allowed because it doesn’t work like that in any other software industries, so it would be great if they could somehow fix that issue as well.”
“Absolutely awesome” — Give us your thoughts below.
Source: CVG
11 comments from members, join the discussion in the forum >>>
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It’s weird that releasing ufinished games like Crysis 2 for full price is still allowed because it doesn’t work like that in any other software industries, so it would be great if they could somehow deliver quality product next time. Ah, and make it 30$ retail. From a customer perspective that would be absolutely awesome.
“It’s weird that releasing unfinished games like Crysis 2 for full price is still allowed. . .”
LOL! Great Response!
That is the norm, release the game less than “completed” and fix the issues with game updates/patches.
I cant really wait for these rumored anti-second hand measures to come true, these developers doesnt know they’ll cut their own throats, unleashing serious consecuences, nobody will have so much cash to make videogames a priority in terms of expenses, rentals will die, gamestops will die unless it adaps to this new reality, and videogame magazines will definitelly becomes the kings of the industry, because nobody will be so stupid to buy a new game with a score under 6.0 or 7.0.
Another fact is the imposibility to keep your own games: WHAT HAPPENS IF THE CONSOLE GETS DAMAGED?? nice question huh?
And yet ANOTHER FACT is that the true enemy of developers: PIRACY will be much more intense than ever, why? Its no use if the second hand sale is put in the same place as piracy is,
I bet my ass that consoles will be hacked and modified much faster than current gen ones,
Looks like they ignore that a lot of people sell their used games to but ney ones with these sales,
They do not know that theres crisis not only on USA but in the whole world and a great qty of ppl cannot buy a new game without selling the old ones,
They dont remember the SNES, GENESIS, NES, PSX, N64, ans SATURN era, when onlines games where not available in consoles or were to rare, but those games were bug-free and the best in terms of quality and gameplay, AND NOBODY COMPLAINED ABOUT SECOND HAND SALES!!
Looks like they forgot that the most pirated console, the PLAYSTATION 2, helped compensate the losts ans costs of the by then just released Ps3.
They ignore that is legally absurd and criminal to limit consumers right of use, cause second hand sales is a separare market they do not own, and these sales helps the USA economy, those sales increase tax payments, employment, increase sales of new games!
So please MS, SONY, NINTENDO, adopt second hand sales….do it
YOU’LL REGRET!!
MS and Sony won’t do it. It would hurt sales of new consoles, most of todays console users would returnt to PC gaming ans Steam deals.
If they drop the price of games from £45 new to maybe £30, then I might agree, but the fact is videogames are really overpriced atm, and used games are the only viable method by which people can obtain cheaper copies.
Online passes seem to be the most effective and fairest method of discouraging used game sales however, and this seems like an awfully drastic step to take.
Being able to sell used games should be a tool for the consumer to use. After all, not every game is worth those 60$. Let’s say a person buys an absolute shit game on launch day, which the developer hyped up and didn’t bother to release a demo, what then? Obviously the game was not worth the 60$. After all, some games take only 1 year in production (4 hour campaign, COD games) and others take 5 years (20+ hours, Dragon Age, Skyrim). If the consumer feels cheated, he should be able to trade in. I won’t bother arguing about PC copies because If there’s no demo I’ll make a demo.
Here’s an idea, Crytek makes a game on consoles without screen tearing, framerate issues, pop in, low rez textures, bugs, glitches, and crappy AI, and then we can talk about anti-used games!
If the anit-used game measure becomes reality, I still think they will allow the game to be played as long as you pay a fee similar to the on-line access codes that some games use today.
I would think they would make you pay a game activation fee if the game was used similar to a used on-line activation code today–a one-time use.
you americans should consider yourselves lucky, $60 for a game is cheap compared to my country, in New Zealand we pay up to $120nzd!
that’s $100USD.
most is around $100. but greedyguts like cod is between $120 and $150!
everything in entertainment is overpriced here.
So this is why I buy used games, because I can get them about half the price
thats very true, in america our willingness to buy entertainment is much lesser than other countries (partially because of just how lax our laws are regarding private use with piracy. in the US you can legally play pirated games for private use so long as you don’t distribute) so knowing that the US consumer can (and will) pirate a game if it isn’t within their budget they keep the p[rices much lower than in other regions (for instance if you ever look at the prices for consoles when the 3DS price was anounced for japan it was approximately $300 USD, and yet when it arrived over here in the US it was sold for $250.)