Do you agree with our terms and conditions?
I'm pretty sure many/most countries don't give enough of a fuck about games to even consider making a law like that, and then you have the issue that publishers would probably lobby against it right like there's no tomorrow.
There's maybe more chances of something like this gaining momentum in some other entertaiment industry first and then spreading into the gaming world, or publishers just doing it as a means of getting good publicity (my bet is on microsoft).
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meh, that shouldn't be policed by anyone.
it's up to customers if they want to buy it several times, one for each console/pc/phone they own.
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The publishers should be dictating how the distributors should work, not the opposite.
The platforms should only be pleased with some tax of service, being able to continue with their "plus and live" features for users be able to connect or whatever.
Example.
- GTA V - All Platforms Pack
You'll be able to get the game for all platforms, but you'll have to pay a little more.
What i'm trying to say is why we couldn't use something we paid for whenever do we want to? "The systems are different.. hurdur..." THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN! PUBLISHERS ARE POWERLESS!
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if you paid for GTA 5 rockstar club, then yes, you're entitled to play it in that platform. not in steam, origin, uplay nor in android/ios. ^^
each platform has its own costs and requirements (and hardware/software compatibility issues).
this sounds more like "i'm entitled to everything because i paid it once". given the amount of work and legal stuff involved in this, maybe some day they will do it, but games will cost $300 instead of $60.
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i agree the price should be high if you want cross console purchases, i came from playing console and i have bought a lot of games that i already have physical copies of for console, is it upsetting that i have to buy them again? yes, would it be cool to get a 20% off steam/uplay/origin copy coupon in the box? yes, they should start doing this again. but do i expect one purchase to pay for the game on every console? NO. that is one of the things that keep consoles afloat, you think you wouldn't get people going from xbox to playstation(and the other way) if all of their games would just magically work if they up and bought a playstation for 200 bucks off craigslist?
each game company has to have a team of people dedicated to making sure that game comes out on every console correctly. while consoles architecture is closer and closer to computers, it isn't just like a computer yet, and every console is different and has to be programmed for separately
and yes some programs boast cross platform support like unity, unity is great, but its not made to support a game like gta 5 or most any AAA games
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THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN! PUBLISHERS ARE POWERLESS!
The publishers aren't powerless, they could easily provide keys for alternate platforms or access through a shared account BUT they don't want too. They don't make money if they sell games in that manor.
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I think the gradually worsening state of games licenses, DRM and other limitations are a huge problem in the gaming industry.
In a perfect world:
- Co-op games would come with a "co-op copy" which is linked with the normal copy bought, and only works if the original copy owner is hosting the game. In other words, I could buy a game and then send "co-op copies" to friends, which allows them to play the co-op with me (and only me). Split-screen and local MP is dying, so it seems only fair to allow co-op games to still retain the ability to play with friends without being forced into buying 4 god damn copies of a game.
- You buy the license to play a game - not a license to own a game on [platform]. Once you've bought your "license to play" (007 reference there) you can access, download and play said game anywhere. In today's digital era, this would hardly be any loss of profit (except for download services, it doesn't cost shit to redistribute a game).
The problem is the potential profit to be made from gamers by publishers. Why the fuck provide all of this when people will gladly buy the same game multiple times, be limited and restricted by countless DRMs, anti-pirating measures, etc? We basically fucking respect people for buying their games rather than pirating them because it's "right" and because it's "immoral" to pirate. And yet, were getting pretty screwed over by publishers as it is, but we just shut up and buy half a fucking dozen copies of Skyrim (maybe more - depends how many game systems you own).
I'm not encouraging pirating, and I don't typically pirate games, but I'll say this - publishers are hurting the game industry much more than pirates are. Rant over.
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only works if the original copy owner is hosting the game
Gosh, it's been years, but this was a thing for some PC games. Maybe have been during the era of Shareware, or maybe a little later, bu I remember playing a few games like this with friends.
Edit: It seems some games do this to this day. I also remember a game or two on the original GameBoy that worked with one copy using the link cable.
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This was the case with older Blizzard games. You could host a Warcraft 2 LAN party with 1 CD and have up to 7 friends join in.
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I was leaning that way (was a huge WCII fan), but wasn't sure. Thanks for confirming. :)
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Marooners did that months ago and there's a puzzle game that i can't remember the name right now that generates a MP only copy for our friends. There are good ideas, the problem is that nobody follows.
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Free market baby
And would be against law in some places imposing something like that
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The law thing is just a small talk, i was pretending to be funny.
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Why should they provide you with something you haven't paid them for but their competitors?
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But i paid for the right to have that game.
For an example, Netflix... You have it and you can play it everywhere, Tizen, Android, Windows, Microwave... Please don't be mean, i couldn't figure something better in my mind, but i hope you understand that we and the publishers should be imposing the way that PS, MS, ETC should be working.
It's very simple, if i own a PS4 on my living-room and a PC on my bed, why should i have one GTA V copy for each one? I know that takes time to port a game and i don't mind paying some tax because of that, since most of everything don't require much investment to recreate.
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Didn't mean to sound rude :>, sorry if I came across like that. The problem with what you suggesting is that all these platforms are controlled by other companies and/or have to be paid for. It's like some nice deal on burgers at BK is going down, but you went to McDonalds and you insist they give you the same deal, just because and without them ever seeing a penny for it. Just doesn't sound feasible.
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+1
No company/person should ever be obligated by law to provide their services for free.
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I guess if companies were obliged to give access to their games to every system, they would be less inclined to develop games for multiple system in the first place.
They'd probably just aim for the system with the biggest market or for the one which company gives them the better tools/incentives/royalties/etc.
I'm not saying it's impossible, just that the consequences of such a law could be very different from what you'd hope for.
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+1, it would severely limit the return on porting.
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No. If you disagree with the practice of developers/publishers/platforms then don't give them any of your money, that is how it works.
Since companies aren't dumb the fact they are all heading that way means they believe people will keep giving them money anyway and from all I know it seems to be completely true, the moment they judge they are losing a significant amount of sales is the moment they will seriously entertain doing something about it and not single instant before.
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So... should I get free Blu-rays of all my VHS and DVD copies too?
I would like that, but I don't think that's very feasable.
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This is a far-fetched comparison, we're talking about the same product, the Witcher III on GOG is the same game as the one on Steam, for example, which is clearly not the case for movie formats.
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They sure do and you don't need glasses to tell, try a 240p VHS mishmash of pixels on a high definition screen and compare it to a Blu-Ray movie that was scanned at 4K or 8K and you'll get your answer. It's a whole NEW technology that greatly enhances the quality of the sound or of the image and it doesn't come free or cheap, I won't even talk about the extra content that comes usually with the discs.
Your example would have been more appropriate if the subject was about game remakes/remasters. But it's clearly not the same thing as owning games on competing platforms, the game is the same and it's perfectly reasonable to not want to pay for the SAME product twice or thrice, not the full price at least.
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But they're still the same movie.
And as dingbat points out, you would see the same difference if for example comparing Skyrim or Doom PC and Switch.
So... it's pretty much the same thing, right?
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OP mentions PC, consoles, and mobile, not just multiple storefronts.
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So a digital distributor should be forced to provide you with usage of their service (bandwidth, support hours) even though you haven't paid them anything? I hardly think that's fair. I do agree though that it would be nice if there were a multi-platform gaming service that allowed you to play the same game on console and PC, but it seems very unlikely due to publisher agreements. GOG is very generous with giving free copies of certain games if you own them on Steam with GOG connect... and if you own a game there, you can play it DRM free on Windows, Mac, or Linux.
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Nice in theory, and from a consumer standpoint it sounds awesome (why wouldn't it?), but it'd never work.
These platforms have costs that need to be paid, and people who need to put food on their tables, so they can't just hand out everything for free because I bought it on a competitor's platform. It'd kill the industry entirely. If there's no money to be made in making games, no one will make games.
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I don't know how it works exactly but when I bought Dragon Age Origins during the summer sale last year I had to connect it to my Origin account and it added it to both. Is EA the only company that does that?
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It's doable only if publisher owns platform and doesn't sell games anywhere else.
I can imagine that one day I will install "battlenet" on my toaster/mobile/console/whatever and i could play diablo 8 wherever I want but can't imagine situation when I buy diablo on different platform and would be able download it from steam servers/play multiplayer through steam. Stuff like this cost and somebody have to pay for it.
also your poll looks like mashed tomato
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In a perfect world... sure.
But in reality, it'd be a stupid idea. Imagine if you bought a movie and they'd give you the Blu-Ray, DVD, Amazon copy and other places to access it.
You'd be stupid enough to buy a game for the second time anyways. Also, platforms like UPlay and Origin do give out licenses for their service if you bought the game on Steam, so I don't know what you're actually talking about. Same goes for GOG games (and in addition, GOG Connect).
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Different platforms have different technologies (software, hardware) and programming languages. Where are no something that working on all platforms without adaptation (technologies and programming languages).
Different platforms results competition between platforms and customer choice.
Also, don't forgot that union game technology will decrease quality of final product very much.
One more side is very high cost of development. It will be so much big costs that will kill game developing.
But I'm agree that owned game could be free inside all platforms which provide it.
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Different source codes/ platforms it makes sense to sell separately. ROMs being reused on different emulators, I don't think you should have to keep rebuying, see Nintendo.
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There must exist some sort of strong DRM consensus over the distribution of the games for that to happen, because at the current state of the market the only way to grant access to each platform is by providing some sort of activation key separatedly, but because people can't be trusted they will exploit the shit out of that, if I only use Steam I can trade my uPlay, Origin, Playstation, Xbox, Android, iTunes, etc keys with other people just like happens in steamtrades with bundle leftovers, so I generate a loss to the developers since they may have maintenance costs, plus remember porting over other consoles/platforms is not just a push one button to export thing, is a whole hell of integration which need to be done and requires time and resources. So, if you want all games in all platforms you either pay for all of them or you wait for a subscription based model of some sort with unlimited access to whatever, but that wont happen anytime soon.
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I mean, if you WANT the game industry to die faster...
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More often than not, the same game has different publishers and even different devs (a.k.a. porters) on different platforms.
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Steam, uPlay, Origin, Playstation, Xbox, Android, iTunes, etc - why should we buy the game twice on those platforms? Particularly saying the mobile ones?
Let's just say that it's completely facultative doing things in the right way, in fact it's easier and also cleaner and i like to be cool with my conscience, but what are they doing instead of supporting multi-platforms content? We should be buying our games directly from the publisher and they should be distributing the keys to be activated onto the platforms we have in mind.
There's only few indies that already does that, for example Tallowmere that allows you to download the .apk file in form of DLC right on your game folder, so you can grab it and install to play everywhere.
Steam for example already support alternative game versions for MacOS and Linux, why not Android?
Talking about AAA games, how can someone seeks for console comfort due to all those hardware prices inflation and get all those expensive games all over again? It's a fact that the prices of console games are pretty higher, but getting them twice it very worse.
This is pretty nebulous, i can already imagine people throwing tomatoes at me, but that's ok, i like them with salad.
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