Game Curmudgeons

Yeah, it was only a minor thing in the past, when it was small bits of swag and only one or two games.

But now more and more real content is becoming exclusive, for more and more games. And it’s bullshit. And I’m not alone, I’ve seen a ton of complaints about it.

Skins and such things? Would be nice to have, but whatever. Actual content? Ridiuclous, particularly in multiplayer situations. It’s one thing if I have a guitar with a Tenacious D design. Or a golden lancer. But why does this other player get a top level weapon in multiplayer for buying from the right store? Why does this guy get to play as Juggernaut? Why don’t I get to explore the Palazzo Medici level for buying from Amazon? Why do I not get to be the Joker?

And why are companies going along with this? Why ruin the integrity of the game, or limit content that took hard work from the programmers and designers to people who picked the right store? And on top of that, one the gaming industry isn’t fond of due to its habit of acting as a pawn shop, dragging down sales of new games. If I don’t have one close, or find a better deal, or even don’t get to pre-order (Oh, darn, I can’t afford the game until a week after release), I shouldn’t be punished for it, especially if I’m buying a new copy.

Hell, even DEMOS have gone exclusive. I know Madden 10 is a pretty sure seller, but why not give the full sized demo to players who are on the fence, instead of only ones who pre-order there?

I ask a lot of questions, yet have no answers.

So I’m going to start asking. It’s always been one thing to have swag go to a store, or in-game items that don’t anything, They’re just reskins. Now that it’s real content, though, it’s like every game is pulling a Shaun White, with less locked away content at least.

When I have a company that actually answers, I’ll post here. I’m sure Gamestop is paying the producers for the content. Maybe there’s an advertising deal. Gamestop handles it, producers don’t have to. Maybe the numbers show more pre-orders and seem to suggest higher sales, or fewer resales if the content is downloaded from a promo code. Makes people hesitate to trade it in, maybe, lose that content?

Well, we won’t know until we get answers. To the internet! Let’s find out if there’s good reason and we can forgive, or see if we’ll have people with Gamestop content in exile.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 12:49 am and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.