Sony considering pay-per gaming
EA Sports are using a new feature idea whereby users can pay to use a certain section of a game for a certain amount of time. Kind of like DLC, but unlocking a new section of the game. This is shown in FIFA2010 with the Ultimate Team game, which you have to pay for in order to use. It was also only revealed a few months after the games actual release.
Now Sony exec Andrew House is saying that the behemoth are considering this kind of move for PSN, where gamers can unlock features by paying for them. “On the principle of making online portions of the game available or unlocked from the disc-based release for a fee,” he said, “we’re broadly supportive… and we’re exploring actively the same option for our own content.”
This is rather bad news, as it introduces the business model where paying €60 for a game at retail isn’t enough, and despite paying upwards of €400 for a console and the accoutrements required to get the full experience, the software itself costs upwards of €150 (if you include DLC, unlock requirements and so on), inflicting a lot of damage on peoples pockets at a time when the gaming industry needs to keep momentum up to fight other mediums of entertainment.
Won’t happen. My bet is that for 1st party games they “mite” release a game for 30 quid with the option of paying an additional 20 for the online component. Disaster waiting to happen. People will finish the campaign and think “fuck it” I have call of duty, bring it back, trade it in for another 30 quid game and Sony are left with less people playing online then they did before this dumbass scheme.
Andrew House is a bag of shit if he tries to push this stuff through. PSN is great because it’s free. No paying yearly fees for a sub-par network… because all of the networks are sub-par crap and just fronts for stores without the volume or service something like Steam gives you.
I did wonder if developers had the idea of including extra content on the disc but were unable to finish it due to time constraints, then a small patch later for a fee could pay for this extra development to finish it off. In ye olden days, how many sequels of games, were just the bits they never got to stick in the first game. but to be fair, they aren’t forcing you to pay for it and if noone does then they will abandon it, but really i never thought anyone would pay to play online (e.g xbox gold) but that’s proven to be a literal goldmine.