"One Save Games" to hit market, limit used sales, only lets you play game once thru

There are already some games out, that if you buy a used copy you have to pay the game company in order to play it. I think "Mass effect 2" does this. You have to pay $20 in order to play a used copy. The game has an activation code, and you have to be connected to the internet, or you can't play.I assume if you play from a different computer or ISP it will ask for the activation code.

reply to post by ramuh


Mass Effect 2 doesn't do this. I borrowed my brother's copy and I played it just fine without the need for an activation code. Microsoft isn't stupid enough to hit us with yearly membership as well as paying to play a single player game. They would lose too much money.

If capcom do this i will never buy a capcom game again. Just the same as I will never buy INTENTIONALLY a game that uses windows live as it is just soooo painful to use (bioshock 2 & bulletstorm if i knew you used windows live i wouldn't have bought). And since Infinity wards tiff with Activision I will never buy another Call of Duty game ever again.

Beware game developers. I spent about $3000 on games last year. Do not piss off your consumers or you will not get money.

reply to post by Equinox99


I guess I was a little off on my statement. Not sure if it applies to console versions or just the pc, but if you buy a used copy on the pc you have to pay $15 to access the "cerberus network" for DLC. This is to get people to buy new instead of used. I wonder if game companies make more $$$ from the dlc than the actual games these days. This why I prefer MMO's more than single player games these days, you get a lot more for your money.

To be fair, if they do charge a small amount for a one save game you wouldn't get that feeling of not getting your monies worth when a game you've eagerly anticipated sucks the proverbials. I expect more from games for the money you spend. Sony claim that no developer has tested the PS3s limits yet, yet we pay premium prices for new games. If the game only cost a quarter of the price but I knew I could only play through once I'd be all for it.

Originally posted by Chewingonmushrooms
What also gets on my nerve is DLP. People buy a game, pay full price for it and 3 weeks after the release the company comes out with downloadable content that should have been included in the game the first time around.

On the bright side, oftentimes you can download the content either for free or very cheaply. Case in point, team fortress 2 is now free to play on Steam.

reply to post by warbird03


Actually all they'd need to do for consoles or pc is embed a unique code in the game that has to be authorized via say XBL before you can play. That code would contain the "save state" and re-download it to the new console. It's more of a moral no no then a technical one.

Either Capcom, or I have been following very different trends.

One thing I usually look for if I read a review is the replayability of a game. Usually that is its biggest selling point to me. Even if the point is not to play through to get what I missed the first time, I enjoy some games more than once and that makes that $60 price tag sound pretty good to me. If I can only play Devil May Cry 5 all the way through one time, I am having a hard time seeing myself whip out my wallet for that right away like I did the others. Maybe it will not be as bad as it sounds or only apply to games I would never play anyway though so I will not get too worried about it. If it is a bad trend, it will go away. I remember a digital protection scheme that kept killing disk drives back in the old days and the companies listened and found a different way. They know they have to find a line between protecting their product and having anyone to sell that product to.

By all means, let them do it. They will fall on their own sword. Someone else will come along and try a better business model in protest and rake in a fortune. The video game industry obviously has learned nothing from the music industry debacle and its attempts to strangle people's usage rights in the name of profits.

Originally posted by buddhasystem
On the bright side, oftentimes you can download the content either for free or very cheaply. Case in point, team fortress 2 is now free to play on Steam.

That's an interesting business model. It reminds me of the old ads on TV that portrayed drug pushers around schools offering kids free samples. They'd get the kids addicted then the kids would would come back for more, willing to pay for it.

I guess if they can get you addicted to that game, they can charge you for extra stuff (like maybe new weapons or armor perhaps? I don't know, I haven't played it, but gamespot gave it good reviews).

Regarding the capcom plan mentioned in the OP, it's hard to believe anyone is dumb enough to try that. However I just looked at the capcom games here:
en.wikipedia.org...
Street fighter -various versions or final fight are the only ones I ever played that I recall, and not too much because I didn't really like them, so if Capcom tanks as a result of this bad decision, I can't say I'll miss them.

I just hope no other game makers get the same dumb idea, it's really one of the dumbest ideas I've heard in a while.

This is what cloud internet is for.
you buy the game or soft ware.
and you will never get to see it.
you play it on line only.
so no pireting! lol!
and they own All of you data and info.
you own nothing at All !

reply to post by Arbitrageur


These are their best in my opinion:

# 1 - Maximo: Ghosts to Glory

# 2 - Maximo vs Army of Zin

Just the FUNNEST EVER!

"I guess if they can get you addicted to that game, they can charge you for extra stuff (like maybe new weapons or armor perhaps?"
have you never played an on line game?
they do that Now.
you can play the game for free...
but with half power wepons and ..

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

Originally posted by buddhasystem
On the bright side, oftentimes you can download the content either for free or very cheaply. Case in point, team fortress 2 is now free to play on Steam.

That's an interesting business model. It reminds me of the old ads on TV that portrayed drug pushers around schools offering kids free samples. They'd get the kids addicted then the kids would would come back for more, willing to pay for it.

I guess if they can get you addicted to that game, they can charge you for extra stuff (like maybe new weapons or armor perhaps? I don't know, I haven't played it, but gamespot gave it good reviews).

Regarding the capcom plan mentioned in the OP, it's hard to believe anyone is dumb enough to try that. However I just looked at the capcom games here:
en.wikipedia.org...
Street fighter -various versions or final fight are the only ones I ever played that I recall, and not too much because I didn't really like them, so if Capcom tanks as a result of this bad decision, I can't say I'll miss them.

I just hope no other game makers get the same dumb idea, it's really one of the dumbest ideas I've heard in a while.

i play XBOX, so this wouldn't affect me for a while (if ever at all), as you cannot save DVD's. Of course, give MS a chance, and they will make it do something like that.

I buy games for online play only. I could care less about a game unless it has a robust LIVE experience. I have pretty much narrowed my once extensive, 50 game collection to 4 games: COD IV, COD World At War, COD: MW II, COD Black Ops. Those are the only games we have any more other than Top Spin 3 (my oldest son plays it).

Nintendo is a crappy gaming platform in every way. I just sold my Wii, as i hadn't touched it in 2 years.

Capcom peaked with Street Fighter. Since then, they pretty much have sucked. I don't think they will be successful with this, unless parents are stupider than I think.

I think this is mainly to prevent renting video games...
I haven't bought a game in a while, but I have rented a few. It's so easy to beat a game in just one rental.
$60 for a video game is overpriced beyond belief. You have to be insane to buy a single player game these days. Multiplayer games like Black Ops are a different story. You have an unlimited amount of game time with one purchase.
There are a couple of single player games worth $60 but they are extremely rare.
Heck, I beat FF13 in just 2 rentals. *I beat every side quest as well. That is 2 5-day rentals. Any other game can be beat with a single 2 day rental.
I would've kicked myself if I had bought that game. There is absolutely no reason to play through it a second time, unlike every previous Final Fantasy.

I bought medal of honour used recently and once its activated onlone the next person must pay £15 to re activate it, the owner hadnt played it online though so I didnt have to which was a great score! Because of this reason they had it reduced in price right down as well

Companies like this that fail to evolve with the market and technology, deserve to fail miserably. Capcom is working against the market rather than using the techonology and business models of the modern day to increase success.

First off, I am an avid online gamer. My gaming realm of choice offers me access to the best business model for success gaming has seen in a decade. Free To Play.

The unique thing about the F2P business model is that it isnt completely free. In order to be successful, you have to spend real money on virtual items. While the core game (client-side) is free and a large majority of the content is free, there is an even larger world that must be purchased. This means that the company is being paid to create copies of digital images for mass distribution. This creates a great long term profit margin.

Think of it like a CD production. It is costly to get a CD recorded, editted, engineered and final production. But, once that is done, the rest is just stamping out copies....forever.

Gaming in a F2P market is similar. It is costly to pay engineers, designers, artists and programmers up front to develop your gaming environment and test it, but from then on it is mostly just duplication, of which the software is typically designed to do anyway.


Once-Through gaming will fail quickly, falling with a loud thump. The core of the gamer market is too smart for this and will not buy into it. Capcom really needs to develop something better and leave this dog alone.

Originally posted by nwdogg1982
This is just like the old Divx dvds that they sold at Circuit City way back in the day, where you could only watch the movie once then had to throw away the disc or buy "viewing credits" to watch it again. How did that work out? Yeah...history already shows us what will happen with this strategy.

That is a great comparison, I forgot about those. I do remember now they even required special players as they didn't work on all dvd players and consumers got pissed when some of the disc were degraded from the get go and didn't work even when freshly opened.

Originally posted by Ghost375
$60 for a video game is overpriced beyond belief. You have to be insane to buy a single player game these days.

As a gamer, I disagree strongly with all of this. Granted, I never paid $60 for a game because I am willing to wait a few months (and may be a couple of years in select cases) to score an ultimate game for $5. Case in point, "The Witcher", which I bought for $4.99 some months after its initial release and the big buzz that followed. Awesome game! People who get skimmed are afficionados, but afficionados always pay premium, don't you think?

Now, take time to look at credits in Mass Effect 2. It's 2 to 3 hundred people, with dozens in QA alone. There are a dozen or so writers, a legion of coders, a complete sound design team, tens of visual artists, a hundred hours of pretty good voice acting and even marketing team is massive. What exactly do you expect as far as the price is concerned? It's pretty much a Hollywood movie in cyberspace. I mean, if you think this is "beyond belief", check the facts. Your beliefs are due for an adjustment. ME2 can be played with all side stories in about 20 to 30 hours. If you divide by time, the price of a movie ticket is above what you pay for the game, and you can re-play, too (case in point in this thread).

In the end, if you aren't willing to cough up the $60, at least don't complain and let the market work its magic, OK?

I love multiplayer but there are awesome single player games out there, as well, such as the ME franchise and the Far Cry, just to mention those I played a lot.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur

Originally posted by buddhasystem
On the bright side, oftentimes you can download the content either for free or very cheaply. Case in point, team fortress 2 is now free to play on Steam.

That's an interesting business model. It reminds me of the old ads on TV that portrayed drug pushers around schools offering kids free samples. They'd get the kids addicted then the kids would would come back for more, willing to pay for it.

I guess if they can get you addicted to that game, they can charge you for extra stuff (like maybe new weapons or armor perhaps? I don't know, I haven't played it, but gamespot gave it good reviews).

That's not the case. I don't really ever buy extras, just wait out until the game that I like falls in price sharply, such as before the next major release. This way, you can get seriously good stuff for a fraction of the price. So far my extremely cheap purchases were:

The Witcher (superb)
Call of Duty 4 (I think that's the version -- brilliant)
Far Cry (great open spaces, loose sandboxing, great)
Mass Effect 1 and 2 (what a franchise... Will buy #3 soon)
X2 the Threat (just OK)
Supreme Commander 2 (lame but will do for a while)
Overlord (wow)
...and few others I can't be bothered to remember at the late hour now.