Podcast 13-1 Unreliable Narrators

agreed.

Well, according to many reputable people it will not help their bottom line at all. I suppose that’s one possible outcome. I think it will continue the gradual cultural shift in how we consume and think about our content. Price-wise, who can say? I think as a platform holder, Valve makes a ton of money doing what they’re doing, sales and DRM and all. And you know, maybe this whole thing isn’t a reaction to GameStop and used sales, but a reaction to Valve/Steam that takes in a rumored ~$970M in revenues annually… Stuff like that doesn’t go unnoticed.

They could also come up with a totally new and creative way to handle used games, and even allow people to “de-license” their own games after a certain period of time and allow them to be resold. Maybe not much changes at all, ultimately. We probably have the least insight, because we don’t know what they’re doing or what their rationale is.

In response to this whole ongoing discussion, I have a few comments.
First of all, I think it’s important to remember that, in comparison with Nintendo, there is a big difference in market. The Wii U makes A LOT of sense for families in Japan, where a family is more likely to only have 1 TV and more likely to want to utilize a gaming system for family fun, as opposed to individual play on a personal TV by one member of the family. So their market stays pretty successful in Japan, even if it doesn’t resonate as well with people here.
Also, EDGE magazine put out a good review on the XBONE, pointing out that it is an “entertainment system” more than a gaming console. i think when looked at in that light, it helps frame part of why the XBone seems to be flubbing out so much as a gaming system.
Thirdly, the sony and microsoft pressers having come and gone at this point, I think part of why gamers are so disenfranchised with…well, the xbox franchise, is because Microsoft is so disingenuous and arrogant about their stance. They refused to discuss any of the controversial issues at the press conference, made outlandish statements like “we’ve always been the biggest supporters of independent games” (blatantly untrue), and in the end they didn’t show that many new games.
Microsoft obviously realizes that they can’t compete against Sony with what they announced, and I say obviously because now, just a week and a half later, they are already changing their position on some of the DRM and used game issues. Which was an obvious choice after the Sony conference destroyed them (mwahahaha). I still think that part of the problem is that Sony, when the PSN network got hacked, recovered some of their humility in regards to consumers/gamers and the market,whereas Microsoft still retains the same hubris and arrogance that they’ve continuously displayed over the years.
Im not sure why, but the 360 became THE console for 13 year old tea-baggers and frat boy gramers, significantly moreso than the other consoles. It would seem that microsoft has not learned the lesson of a multifaceted consumer base, and has mistook its market for 1)those gamers, and 2) non-gaming investors. If they want to bow out of the gaming industry and become the “entertainment system” competitors of companies like Apple, then thats fine, but they will be leaving behind all gamers but the casual gaming and shallow-plot-FPS types. If they WANT that, power to them. If not, they better reassess their position, and from a Point of View of a deeper level of humility than just “investor money”.

For the Record:
1) the interesting view point of seeing the XBONE as a competitor to apple and other entertainment center systems and not to the gaming systems came from the article in EDGE magazine, not me
2)I dont think all FPS’s are shallow, at all. Just the ones with a shallow plot.
3) the word “gramer” came from the old screw attack hosted show called “game tags”
(I like to give credit where it’s due)