Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Game Nutz Podcast: Fillercast 1

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Click the link above to download the latest episode of the Game Nutz Podcast, or subscribe by clicking HERE!

Boter and Sticky took the week off, so I invited a couple of my friends over to record a podcast to fill in the gap. We ramble a bit, and there's a bit more history, meaning a few inside jokes get thrown around, but I think we pulled off a decent episode. If you like what you hear, let me know and we might make this a semi-regular thing. Check out the cool stereo effect I used on our voices. It's like you're really in the room with us!

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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

What's wrong with digital distribution?

It's all the rage in music, movies, and now, video games. Digital distribution allows publishers to cut costs by reducing physical components, eliminating retail middle-men, and giving them more control over price. It also makes shopping more convenient for the consumer by allowing customers to make purchases from their own home. It saves time and money for both the publisher and the consumer. It sounds like a win-win situation.

So why, you may ask, am I opposed to digital distribution? I am very wary of what comes with it. Yes, it is more convenient, and in most cases, cheaper (especially if you take traveling expenses into account), but it also takes a lot of control away from the consumer:

  • The lack of a physical disc means if you are unhappy with the product you purchased, or simply done with it, there is no chance of either getting a refund or trading in your used games.


  • Digital Rights Management can get in the way of how you can use what you have legally purchased. You can't usually share, copy, or loan your media if it's DRM-protected. For example, if I bought 'Splosion Man on XBLA, it is tied to both my Gamertag and my system ID number, so I can't loan it to my friend like I did with my Ghostbusters disc. Same goes with Rock Band DLC. I can't go over to my friend's house with a memory card loaded with songs and play them on his system. Lame.

    DRM also limits other media. iTunes songs and movies I downloaded prior to iTunes Plus cannot be played on my Xbox or PSP because they are not approved or registrable devices.


  • Then there are future compatibility concerns. Remember all those maps you bought for Halo 2 on your original Xbox? The only way you can use them now is by hooking up your old Xbox. You cannot transfer them to the 360, even though the game itself is backwards compatible. Do you think all those PSN, XBLA, or Wii Shop Channel games and add-ons you've spent real money on will work on the PlayStation 4, third generation Xbox, or whatever Nintendo creates to follow the Wii? Maybe if they're feeling generous, but they're under no obligation to do so.


Digital distribution also creates a storage issue. Whereas an infinite number of games can be stored on individual removable discs, internal hard drive space is limited. The average Xbox 360 game takes up about 4.5GB. If all you have is the basic 20GB HD, you'll be lucky to fit four games on it after the drive is formatted and NXE installed.

My biggest complaint with digital distribution is over-all support. While companies like Valve promise that games purchased online will always be playable, even if the company goes under, not all game publishers are so kind. I've been burned by digital distribution before, and left with a worthless collection of ones and zeros. It was an iPod game by Rock Band developer Harmonix called Phase. Phase used a special playlist in iTunes to create gameplay tracks with your own music. At some point in the past year or so, probably following a software update, that playlist disappeared, and Phase stopped working entirely, even though the game still appears in iTunes and on my iPod. I paid $5 for a game I can no longer play.

Retailers hate digital distribution too. No one makes money on hardware sales. The profit is in games, especially used games. Some retailers are already refusing to stock the PSP Go because of its unreasonable price and download only game distribution. If the game industry wants to switch to digital distribution, they're going to have to start selling consoles to retailers at an even greater loss than they do now so the hardware profits for the retailers will make up for the lack of tangible software sales.

While downloadable content has helped define this generation of gaming by prolonging the lives of many games, and digital distribution could have a lot to offer both publishers and consumers, right now there are too many obstacles to overcome; and with Blu-ray starting to become an industry standard, I don't see physical media being completely replaced for quite some time. I, for one, have no problem with that.

Game Nutz Podcast: Episode 15

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Click the link above to download the latest episode of the Game Nutz Podcast, or subscribe by clicking HERE!

(Sticky and I take the reigns while Boter's out of town. This episode was a little late because Boter typically does the editing and posting. Also, I forgot to post Episode 14 last week, so if you're not already subscribed, check it out. Finally, there will not be an Episode 16 this week, but keep an eye out for a possible Episode 15½ to hold you over.)

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Friday, September 18, 2009

Can the PlayStation brand recover?

Five years ago, the PlayStation 2 dominated the gaming market. Though under the hood it was less powerful than most of the competition, its vast library and practicality as a DVD player put the black box in almost every gamer’s living room. (While some attribute the PS2’s success to being first on the market, this is untrue, as the less-successful Dreamcast predates it by almost a year.)

What really helped the PlayStation brand was a huge budget, a long list of exclusives (Tekken, Twisted Metal, Metal Gear Solid*, Grand Theft Auto*, Final Fantasy*, etc…), and brand name recognition. By the time the PS2 hit the market, “PlayStation” had become synonymous with video gaming, superceding even Nintendo. In 2003, after dominating the console market for several years, Sony revealed the PlayStation Portable, a revolutionary portable entertainment device that Sony dubbed the "Walkman of the 21st Century." Like the PS2, it could play games with full 3D graphics, DVD quality movies, and digital music. The PlayStation 3 was announced in 2005, promising a revolution in home entertainment through the use of Blu-ray.

(*Series were "timed exclusives" that eventually appeared on other systems after several months to a year.)

At some point between then and now, people stopped caring about PlayStation. Microsoft took over as the default choice for hardcore gamers with the Xbox 360, and Nintendo jumped from last place to first this console generation, while PlayStation took their place at the bottom. How did this happen? Why did this happen? And can the PlayStation bounce back before it becomes the next Sega?

Sony became infamous for over-promising and under-delivering. The PSP was supposed to be a groundbreaking piece of technology that would replace the Game Boy, iPod, and portable DVD player with one unit. It would have PS2 quality graphics, analog controls, and a library of games & movies that rivaled its console cousin. Instead it became a bulky, fragile piece of equipment that had a short battery life, graphics that fit somewhere between the Nintendo 64 and the Dreamcast, faulty control inputs, and not one, but two expensive proprietary media devices: UMD and Memory Sticks. UMDs were slow, pricey, and inefficient, and if you already owned a movie on DVD and wanted to watch it on the PSP, your only options were either to buy it again, or watch it as a low resolution 368×208 mp4 file.

Then we have the PlayStation 3, which has been a media debacle from the get-go. First, there was the Killzone 2 "in-game footage" fiasco at E305, then there were the system shortages at launch, lack of games, multiple SKUs, backwards compatibility (or lack thereof), the HD format war, shoddy online functionality, not to mention Sony's arrogance (suggesting that gamers should have to work overtime so they can afford your product is probably not the wisest business move). Sony has managed to dig themselves more holes than Stanley Yelnats. In the past five years they've lost exclusive licenses, billions of dollars, and the trust of gamers and game press everywhere. Is there any way for them to recover?

The first step is ditching not-yet-established proprietary formats. They lucked out with Blu-ray — using the PS3 as a trojan horse for their next-gen format gave them an edge over the cheaper, more consumer-friendly HD DVD — but the Hi-Def war hurt PS3 sales by appending the question of "will it become obsolete?" UMDs were worthless from the beginning, and Memory Sticks were, and still are, the most expensive flash media cards out there.

Second, keep prices down. If the PS3 had been Sony's 1st entry into the gaming market, it would have died like the 3DO. The average consumers, and especially the average consumers' parents, are not going to shell out $600 for a game system. $400 for the 360 was even a stretch. Fortunately, Sony is finally addressing this issue with recent price drops to the PSP and PS3, though the PSP Go is still outrageously overpriced.

Third, improve online functionality. Why is it only Microsoft has gotten this right in a decade of online gaming? If Sony's going to compete in an online market, they need to have a reliable infrastructure.

Finally, ensure backwards compatibility. The PS2 had the largest library and install base of all the last-gen systems — it continues to grow even to this day — and was backwards compatible with almost all PS1 games. Current PS3's are only backwards compatible PS1 games. That means no chance of selling your PS2 when you upgrade if you ever want to play your old games again. Take a hint from Nintendo: The Game Boy Color could play Game Boy classic games; the Game Boy Advance could play GB and GBC games, the DS can play GBA games. Every Wii not only has Gamecube hardware, but controller and memory card ports as well.

Sony and the PlayStation brand still have lot of potential, but they have got to start looking at their business practices from the consumer end if they want to remain relevant for another generation.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Game Nutz Podcast: Episode 13

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Click the link above to download the latest episode of the Game Nutz Podcast, or subscribe by clicking HERE!

(The whole crew is back at last, with topics galore! This episode more than makes up for previous failings with tons of topics, interesting discussions, and even a heated debate or two. Looks like 13 was our lucky number!)

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