Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

An Alternative Future – Part 1.

It’s an interesting time to be a gamer. We are on the precipice of a new generation full of powerful consoles, innovative controllers, and novel ways for publishers to milk more money from consumers.

In one of my previous articles, Death Of A Salesman, I talked about this change in the retail market. Since then a number of games have begun to define the online game distribution and playing world: Oblivion, Lumines, Phantasy Star Universe, and The Godfather. These games mark a trend that doesn’t look good for the consumer.

Keep reading for my opinion on what we need to do.

First Steps Into A New Market

Oblivion introduced downloadable content for what many considered a disproportionately high cost (compared to all the rest of the content that comes with the game). Lumines has been labelled as “paid shareware” because it requires multiple content packs for many to consider it a full game. Phantasy Star Universe requires an additional monthly fee on top of your XBox Live Gold membership. Finally, the XBox 360 version of The Godfather takes content that is included in other versions of the game and makes it a downloadable extra (that you have to pay for!). Moreover, the stuff pulled out of the game isn’t trivial; it’s the tutorials!

How Much Can They Make You Pay?

As Major Nelson has mentioned on many occasions, Microsoft is testing the waters to determine how much they can charge for new services and downloadable content. Clearly they want to maximise their return on investment (for developing and hosting these games), but how much is too much? How much can they push the envelope before people stop spending their money?

However, they try to spin it, their intention is clear. Consider the following rhetoric:

- “We listen to the gamers.” Just like every other business they consider the market they are selling to. I’m sure they listen to their shareholders a lot more though.

- “All about experimenting.” This clearly means seeing how far they can charge before the consumer snaps and won’t pay.

We’re Negotiating

Widespread online game play and distribution is a new market with new products, and nobody really knows what these products are worth. Basically, there’s a negotiation going on between publishers and gamers. When the Wii and PS3 enter the online market, there will also be competition between publishers. Will you still pay a subscription fee for Xbox Live Gold when you can play the same games online for free on your PS3?

Play Hardball

Here I present one simple thing that gamers can do to ward off the more insidious directions game sales could be headed towards:

- “Don’t buy horse armour.”

Yes, it’s a little obtuse (a bit like the “always wear sunscreen“), but it means something. Remember Oblivion! Remember the uproar when they announced that they would be charging 200 Microsoft Points (US$2.50) for horse armour with little real benefit aside from pimping out your ride in a single player game. It was outrageous!… but someone bought it. That got things started. 150 points for a theme? Outrageous!… but someone bought it. Lumines comes out as virtual shareware. Outrageous! But someone is going to buy it.

If we really are that incensed by micropayments, we need to put our money where our mouth is. Or rather, keep our money in our pockets. Don’t buy Lumines in installments! Don’t pay full-price for a game if you have to then pay extra for the tutorials! Stand your ground! Drive those prices down! We need to do this together.

(Then again, maybe all this outrage is a load of hot air, and people will still pay for these games and extra content. In that case… um… stop bitching about it!)

Let us know what you think! Also, please look out for the next article in this series entitled “Don’t Give Away Your Content!”