Best-Selling game line commits ritual suicide

[Mercule]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060921-7802.html

So, you can buy GT5 and then you have to purchase all your cars (the worthwhile ones, at least) and tracks.

I'm smelling a lot fewer reasons to even consider a PS3.

 

[trancejeremy]

That's not GT5 though, that's GT:HD Premium

 

[Vigilance]

But... but... I thought anyone who said games for the PS3 were going to be more expensive just hated Sony!!!!

Chuck

 

[trancejeremy]

It's no different than how various MS Xbox 360 games have downloadable content for more $$$. Except in this case, the scale.

And there is still going to be GT:HD Classic (which is basically GT4 for the PS3) and an actual GT5. This is apparently just a way for people to be able to play GT5, while the developers are still working on it, and on an a la carte basis


I don't think it's a good thing, but it's not like Sony is the one that opened the Pandora's box of "microtransactions"

 

[Arnwyn]

As others have said - that is not GT5.

trancejeremy has the right of it. (And again, decrying Sony while ignoring MS's role in the pioneering of all these things continues to be dishonest.)

 

[Vigilance]

I think microtransactions are a good thing for the most part. Sure paying anything, even less than two bucks for horse armor in Oblivion is pretty dumb but you know what they say about fools and money.

On the other hand, paying 5 bucks for Mario on the Wii or for Time Pilot (Time Pilot!!!) on X-box 360 is cool as heck.

Most of the snark in my comment was directed at those who scoffed at my notion that PS 3 games would be more expensive because they were more expensive to produce. Clearly this is the case and we now have developers struggling to figure out how they're going to sell PS3 games and make a decent return on them.

At least that's what *I* read in that article.

 

[Simplicity]

Ah, now the circle is complete.
We'll all soon be plunking quarters into our PS3s...

Continue?
10...9...8...7...

 

[Welverin]

Most of the snark in my comment was directed at those who scoffed at my notion that PS 3 games would be more expensive because they were more expensive to produce. Clearly this is the case and we now have developers struggling to figure out how they're going to sell PS3 games and make a decent return on them.

Shorter games, of course this makes the Wii interesting to me. By not ramping up the processing potential (i.e. the graphics) the way MS and Sony did they eliminated the biggest cost increase for development.

Will potentially cheaper games and real evolution in gameplay win out over shinier graphics, or will gamers finally prove that they're just technologically addicted ferrets?

 

[Mercule]

As others have said - that is not GT5.

Yes, yes, I know it's GT:HD. It's, basically GT5 with a different title.

 

[trancejeremy]

Personally, I am wary of Microtransactions as a whole.

Sure, $5 for Time Pilot sounds nice enough. But I bought Time Pilot 10 years ago as part of a $20 collection of 10 Konami games on a cd for the PS1. Which played on the PS2, and which hopefully will play on the PS3. (Unless they break the backwards compatiblity like MS did with the 360.)

And I can turn around and re-sell that collection to someone else. Something that cannot be done with Microtransaction games. I see the whole microtransactions as a backdoor way of not selling software, but licences.

Also, why is that bit about plunking quarters in the PS3 true, but the same isn't for the 360, when the same thing is happening with Lumines on Live? Worse, even.

Basically for $10, you only get part of the game. Once you get through that, you have to buy the rest of the levels for $10 more. And more songs and skins for more $. I fail to see how that is any different than what Sony is doing.


Anyway, game prices are still pretty low compared to the SNES/Genesis days, even at $60. Back then RPGs were $100 or more in some cases. (I think Phantasy Star IV was $120). It's pretty much entirely due to Sony that games dropped to $50 in the first place (since they went with cds which are cheap to press) and they are also the ones to pioneer $20 games.