Video: David Jaffe Says Consumers Have No Business In Used Games Debate
GamePolitics has posted another video rant from God of War developer David Jaffe, during which Jaffe tips his hat to the notion that gamers have the right to pursue the best possible deal - and then tells consumers that they have no place in the larger, industry-wide discussion about used games. Be forewarned, Jaffe's salty language may not be safe for work.
Here's the meat of his argument:
The customer's always right, and look... if there's somebody out selling them legally a game for $5 whether it's a used copy or whatever, go for it. Get the best deal you can get. It's not your job to look out for the developer or the publisher or anybody except yourself. I have absolutely no beef with gamers who partake in whatever kind of deal they can get for themselves. Good for them.The issue really has to do with publishers and developers and retail. I don't mean this in a mean way, like it's none of the consumers business. But literally, it's none of the consumer's business. It should not affect the consumer at all. All the consumer should worry about is. "Can I get the best deal possible...?"
GamePolitics has a solid retort:
Have you ever seen a young mom walk into GameStop with a little kid who is clutching maybe five bucks? It's a huge treat for a child like that to pick up a used GBA cartridge or two. The game may be old, but it's a brand-new experience to him. Who's to say that kid's only option is to buy a new game? At $19.99, maybe that new GBA game doesn't get purchased. Maybe that kid never really gets into gaming.
I always enjoy David Jaffe, and I appreciate anyone who speaks their mind without being afraid of reprisal. That said, with retailers going out of business, developer studios being axed, and publishers reporting losses, the consumer is the only constant power. And with folks cutting discretionary spending across the board, how would removing the sole financial option for used games help the consumer?
No matter where the revenue ends up, how can doing away with the lowest-cost option for buying video games do anything but hurt the industry? And in a conversation about how gamers are going to buy (and how much we're going to pay for) video games, how in the world do we have no place in the discussion?
God of War's David Jaffe Rants on Used Games & We Rant Back [GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games, Videos on 3 March 2009
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: consumers, david jaffe, used games
It's utterly ridiculous for anyone to suggest removing used games as anything but a controversy administering tool to incite the exact reaction I have [Well done for doing so]
Used games are fantastic, they're cheaper and work just fine, they don't offer a degraded experience or inferior playing time, they save on money, which is the only thing I care about, and there's more people like me out there than there are people who buy everything new.
Yeah, taking these away will be handing the keys to the doors to pirates as I have no problems pirating everything under the sun if you don't serve media to me exactly how I want it delivered, and would go out of my way to hurt companies that did such a thing.
It would be a huge nail into the gaming coffin. No good can come of it, I'm sure some developer will justify it now though.
I share your sentiments exactly Neo
You guys realize of course, that the current generation of optical media may very well be the last we will see. There is little reason for the storage space now, even less than it was back when DVD entered the market. Soon after that, you may remember, MS had its MPEG4 codec stolen, renamed DivX and the movies put on CDs without much of a loss in quality. Bluray Movies fit on DVDs now - The Departed for instance would fit perfectly well on a DD-DVD, highres and all.
All console manufacturers have efficient marketplace platforms in operation. Broadband is almost omnipresent and getting expanded all the time.
When the industry throws the switch, there is not going to be any more discussion of reselling or even borrowing games. You want to play the game, you pay what Sony, MS or Nintendo charge you. Sad, but true.
When they force it through, my buying media days will be effectively over, I love encrypted Usenet.
You know there's people who actually think that digital download media will beat the pirates. They've been wrong on every single thing before.
If the only way to get games to play on your console is to download them and the manufacturers enforce constant license verification, I'm afraid there is little pirating you can do. Today, MS bans you from LIVE for modding your Xbox. When LIVE is the only way to get games onto your machine and verify your licenses, getting banned will effecntively brick your hardware.
There's a way around it, there allways is a way around it.
They said nobody could copy protected floppies, nobody could copy games, nobody could copy playstation disks, nobody could break SSL, nobody could break RFID, nobody could break Blu Ray, they've all fallen.
This is no different, the hackers and developers are a step ahead, I've played Steam only games outside of Steam as an example.
Artificial verification is the way to go, and it will be done, I can guarantee it.
Naivety is the downfall of many.