Do online sales make sense?

 

Due to the paucity of Vita games at my local major supermarket and my incredible inpatience I took an unprecedented move in my gaming history and last week paid full price for a digital download of Gravity Rush.  The price was pretty reasonable clocking in at £29.99 when the boxed product of the game seen in HMV a few days later was £34.99 without the DLC that was included with the download product but I did immediately suffer a touch of buyers regret. 

The game itself is fantastic (I will post a review in a few days) and the purchase itself isn't what I regretted, it was the digital purchase. 

According to a recent BBC story digital downloads now account for 25% of gaming sales and gamers by their nature are surely one of the first demographics to get on board with this sort of purchase.  PC markets such as Steam are doing very well with convenience and reasonable pricing (particularly during regular sales) but there are several things that don't tally well for me with the way consoles are selling their products.

Firstly, the cost.  Boxed products must be physically created, shipped around the world and sold from stores that demand a cut of the profit.  Why then is the cost of a digital download usually very similar or often more expensive than boxed products, particularly when sold through online retailers.  Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo can obviously take a bigger cut through their own online stores but a quick comparison of best prices found online and Xbox Live or PSN is included here:

The difference is quite striking on this fairly random selection of recent releases and top sellers climbing as high as a ridculous £30 difference.  

Second problem (and the one that should make publishers want me to buy digitally) is the lack of ability to trade in.  For gamers whose income is limited the ability to trade in is surely a must and when digital downloads cost as much or more than boxed products why would people buy them.  My copy of Gravity Rush sits on my memory stick and can't be loaned to friends or traded in.  The money is spent and never to be seen again.  I don't trade in a lot of games these days and have a growing collection of boxed games on all of my home consoles but I know I could trade in any of them if I wanted to.  Pre-owned games is currently big business for high-st retailers, generating billions of pounds worth of revenue worldwide. Money that isn't making it to the games creators or publishers.

The third problem for me is the actual lack of a boxed product.  As a gamer I quite like having the product on my shelf, showing an impressive collection of games.  I also like having the instruction books and 'stuff' that go with buying a boxed product.  Where would I be without my lovely big map of Skyrim or Liberty City to help me find my ways through the early days?

Another issue is the worrying existing of who holds the digitial rights to downloaded games.  Amazon's Kindle faced ownership issues when it digitally deleted two George Orwell books over copyright issues.  Could Microsoft or Sony pull an Amazon and delete or remove a game if an issue becomes a problem?

Finally the actual cost falls to me for providing a storage medium.  This is less and less of an issue but with the cost of a PS Vita memory card costing £25 for an 8 GB card it only takes a couple of games to fill this.  My aging 360 that came with a once adequate 20 GB hard drive is struggling to have room for the DLC I want, let alone full games.

What benefits to digital download? 

It means that I can get the game I want, when I want with very short wait time and without getting off my couch.  Online stores demand a wait for delivery although this is negated slightly by the fact that preorders are often shipped and arrive before or on release date from major online retailers.

The only other benefit I can think of is being able to get difficult to find games.  Vita games are currently very poorly stocked at most stores near me and I live in central London and my 'local' stores are flagship Oxford St outlets of Game and HMV.

Now I understand that PSN or Xbox Live is simply selling at RRP but why are the games manufacturers shackling themselves to a price that other retailers simply do not.

At the moment console manufaturers are slightly beholden to games stores and undercutting them completely is probably not wise but at the moment they're not even competitive.  With the vast difference in boxed prices of games and downloadable games and the actual product that you buy, downloadable games on consoles are a tough sell.  I would doubtlessly be more tempted to make online purchases of big titles more regularly if they were more reasonably or competively priced (I'm as lazy as the next man). 

I do worry about a time when console manufacturers take the choice out of gamers hands.  With the ill-fated PSP Go, Sony ventured in to the digital download only market.  The iPhone and Android devices are proving that games can be sold en-masse to gamers in downloadable form.  What's certain is that games companies are trying to take more control of their own market with the increasing prevalence of extra codes to play games online and the rumours that just won't go away about one use games on next gen-consoles.

If games were noticablly cheaper through PSN or Xbox Live then I would buy more games from them as price is without doubt more important to me than the other issues I've mentioned here.  Let's hope that the future of our industry sees good changes to the way games are sold and pricing.

(*All prices taken on 18/6/12 from PSN, Xbox Live, Shopto.net, game.co.uk and amazon.co.uk)

(Zom)Believe in giving little games a go.

For the last few days I've been satisfying my wait for The Walking Dead Episode 2 by playing a little indie game called Project Zomboid by Indie Stone.  The version I have been playing is the current 'full release' of version 0.15d which is several months old and is soon to be replaced by version 0.2r which addresses some of the issues I faced (if this is the case then I have not included any gripes about it here).  I can't claim to be an expert on this game having played for a length of time in low double digit hours but have tried to get a taste of much of what is available at present and some of what is to come.

The game itself is about survival; plain and simple.  It challenges you to tell the story of your own death in the game world.  There is no pretence that you can 'win', you simply last as long as you can.  I guess a little like Tetris in that respect, you'll never finish it, simply increase the delaying of your inevitable flesh chompy death.  In order to help you survive you have a deceptively detailed crafting mechanic to help you.  You can use planks and nails to board up windows and doors, you can chop down doors to get planks, you can use sheets to make bandages and to cover windows and so on.  There is plenty of food to eat although some of this spoils and goes off if you don't do anything with it and can be combined with other things to be cooked.  The player has some simple 'moodlets' that let you know if your character is tired, hungry, scared, sick, wet etc. This allows you to carry out actions accordingly.

There is a basic introductory story mode that includes a nicely tense lead in to the game and some good character introduction with a shotgun toting psychopath.  The true heart of the game however lies in its sandbox mode.  The opportunity to choose from a small set of similar player characters, choosing some skills from a skill tree and surviving for as long as you can is thrillling for a number of play throughs.  Do you want to sacrifice being overweight to have the bonus of strength or hard of hearing to have the bonus of great sight but remember, when you're dead, you're dead!  No save points!  No chance to try again so you better not make a mistake or it's game over for good. 

My personal longest survival was a fraught affair, holed up in a house with as much food as I could muster early on.  All the windows sheeted over and spiked baseball bat in hand I even managed to hold out through a few days with a sickness and fever.  The problems came as food (and Whiskey) began to run low after a dozen days and I needed to venture in to nearby houses for supplies.  On reaching a warehouse the goods were too good to turn down and I overstocked.  Weighed down by a shotgun, stacks of food and gas canisters progress home was slow and I was caught out in the open at night.  Even an expertly crafted Molotov Cocktail in their midst wasn't enough to hold off the drooling hoards of flesh-eaters and I was destined to be starting again.

The crafting system is still limited in what you can create.  There are bugs and crashes early on.  The graphics and moodlets are reminiscent of The Sims from 12 years ago.  But it's unfair to judge Project Zomboid for its flaws as it is clearly in its early stages with big plans for growth.  Playing like The Sims meets Left 4 Dead, if Indie Stone can apply some polish there is clearly a diamond here waiting to be discovered.

The Project Zomboid community looks as if it's thriving with tens of thousands of views of posts in the company's own forums and an impressive 11,000+ likes of the company's Facebook page.  Even celebrity gamer Graham Linehan is a fan.  It's certainly a community and a game that I will be keeping a close eye on in the coming months and years to see what they can do with this with more and more input.  Is it possible that this could become the next Minecraft and go big?  I say, why not?  This is doing something that I haven't seen anywhere else and clearly there is a desire for what Indie Stone are doing.  Whether the core of the game will be able to be kept as the game becomes more popular and there is more call for casual features to be added will be interesting to see.  Whilst some sort of ability to save and return is a necessity, I for one hope that we don't see too many more casual friendly features added as the fear of death is the mechanic that keeps tension in each playthrough.

If you want to know more you can find the game at http://projectzomboid.com/

Save our Vita!

Don't touch the Sad Face.

The Vita was launched earlier this year to a mild and underwhelming fanfare.  At a high-end price point, Vita was targeting the core gaming market with it's dual analogue sticks, top quality graphics, true online multiplayer and the ability to touch every screen possible.  A few months and one E3 later the Vita is limping along with sales of 1.8 million to the end of May.  The sales figures aren't what worry me most as a Vita fan but the lack of support from Sony is terrifying.  Sony have targeted sales of 10 million in this financial year but who is going to buy one at its current price with the games lined up?

I have to admit upfront to being a Vita fan.  I bought one on day one and have loved Uncharted, Rayman Origins, Everybody's Golf and I can't wait for Gravity Rush next week (the demo is great).  With enough good games I could easily see the handheld become my primary game console with high quality games without the requirement to take over the lounge; something that is more and more important with a grown-up life.

We're in the early days of Vita's life but what worries me is the distinct lack of big name exclusive titles.  Assassin's Creed Liberation and Call of Duty Declassified both look like big name potential system sellers and Playstation All Stars might sell consoles in the US where Super Smash Brothers is immensely popular.  As a quick aside, it takes some skill to ignore Jack Tretton's gaff of describing COD as the first dual stick, online multiplayer game on a portable system which must have made Resistance Burning Skies developers, Nihilistic, cry in to their collective dinners.

Where though were the big name internal announcements for the handheld?  Where was Gran Turismo, God of War or Killzone?  We're left looking forward to spin-offs and remakes this year like Metal Gear Solid HD (a game released on other consoles months ago), a remake of Jet Set Radio, portable versions of Lego games and no doubt stripped down versions of a collection of EA sports games.  Until Sony can build some confidence in the console by releasing games that sell what would make a Rockstar or Capcom release a decent, exclusive Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil or Monster Hunter, a guaranteed system seller in Japan. 

PS One Classics and PSP games, whilst a nice addition to current Vita owners, are simply not going to sell systems.  I will download my already purchased Final Fantasy games and recently picked up the Persona games from PSP but this isn't going to get people buying the console in their masses.  The fact that PS One Classics was a 'reveal' in the Sony conference is remarkable and I hope that Jack Tretton was embarrassed to announce it as a big deal.

What future for the Vita then?  The sales, whilst slow, aren't significantly behind the sales of the DS and 3DS in their early days and both of those managed to catch up.  With the Vita's links with the PS3 coming, it will be interesting if there is anything that can increase sales over the next year and in to the Wii U's life where the Vita has the potential to rival the tablet controller on Nintendo's next gen system and SmartGlass on the 360. 

Despite a 50 euro price cut in France, Sony insist that they have no intention of cutting the  price elsewhere.  I can't help but feel the 10 million proposed sales is somewhat ambitious for a system that was outsold in weekly sales by the Wii  at the end of May (and by the PSP in Europe and Japan).  Unless Sony act now to save the Vita then it could be too late before they get off their behinds and do something about it.

Game design by numbers.

Having seen both the Sony and Microsoft conferences over the last 24 hours, I can't help but feel a worrying convergence in the games market.  Only a few of the games weren't big number sequels or copies of other, already popular games.  Playstation All Stars: Battle Royale looked like PS3 Super Smash Brothers (with less lovable characters), as I said yesterday Forza Horizons looks like Need For Speed or Burnout and the similarities between COD, Battlefield, MOH Warfighters and Ghost Recon Future Soldier are startling.

Some of the stand out games of E3 (Beyond, Watch Dogs and The Last of Us to name the top three from Sony's conference) were new IPs and both doing something different to the rest.  With many of the games sticking to accepted formulae how do we expect to find the next big thing?

I worry we're stuck in something of an 80s action movie era.  The films came thick and fast with various muscle-bound, wise cracking heroes and sure, there were some hits, but the majority were forgettable movies with a by the numbers plot that could practically be interchanged.  Save the world... blah blah... kills the bad guys... yeah yeah... get the girl... and so on.  This could be said of many of the current set of hits.  Take a heroic protagonist/group of soldiers, put them in a world ending conflict and blow stuff up.

Why does this problem exist though?  I can only suggest that it's our fault.  Probably not yours if you're reading this as it's a pretty obscure gaming blog and only likely to be read by hardcore gamers.  But is it the masses of gaming that cause this.  Call of Duty sells like the proverbial hot cakes every year no matter how bad it's considered by the majority of players and why wouldn't EA, Ubisoft and co all want a part of that action?  Forza 3 (Metacritic 92) sold less than 4 million copies but Need for Speed The Run (Metacritic 68) sold around 4.6 million, it must be noted that NFS, whilst much worse, is on all formats.  Why wouldn't the excellent Forza try to become more like the mediocre Need for Speed if it can boost sales?

How do we change this problem then?  I implore everyone who reads this to try something different in gaming.  Go and download Journey on your PS3, The Walking Dead on everything, To the Moon or Frozen Synapse on PC.  Support smaller developers and let them give us games that take risks.  This has happened in movies with smaller indie film makers rising up to give us such film beauties as The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation and Up In The Air.  I'm not saying that I don't want to play the next Splinter Cell, (I really, really do want to play it) but I am saying get out there and try something little and give it a chance. it may surprise you.

E3, can't wait to see

I have to be honest and admit that I've wondered whether I enjoy the world around gaming almost as much as I enjoy the playing. I eat up previews, new releases and anticipation of new things. As many gamers do, I await E3 with a keen excitement each year to find out what's coming. Here are my hotly anticipated games this year (everyone else writes one, why not me?).

The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

Following up Naughty Dog's Uncharted trilogy is a task for a brave set of men but like pioneers embarking on a trip to uncharted territories the California based company look like they might pull it off. What little I know of the game so far can be gleaned from a few short videos although they show a well crafted game world and solid believable characters. Joel looks like the sort of character that I want to spend some time with. He's a brutal killer who has been surviving for a long time in a world that seems set to try to kill you.

It will be interesting to see how Naughty Dog balances the question of which is more brutal, the monsters that roam the world, your fellow humans or your own character and his loss of humanity. Whilst Joel is a brutal survivor, his fellow young survivor, Ellie, might be the heart in the story. I don't expect Joel to have Nathan Drake's wisecracking demeanour but hopefully Ellie can give us something worth fighting for in this desolate world.

Looking like it's one part Uncharted, one part I Am Legend and one part The Road, The Last of Us looks like one to eagerly look forward to. Whilst we're about it though, if Naughty Dog want to announce Uncharted 4 then that would be pretty good too.

Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar)

Sadly we're currently working on even less with GTA 5 than we are with The Last of Us. Just one video that has been doing the rounds for 6 months and a bucket load of, 'What we want from GTA V' pieces on websites. After the hours I put in to GTA IV and its expansion DLCs, how could I not wait expectantly for this.

Hopefully this keeps the more serious and realistic tone of the previous game but it looks like having a pinch of humour and in game jokes with the glimpse of a tired and drunk Niko Belic-alike. I can't wait to find out a little more at E3 and hopefully, with a rumoured release before the end of the 2012/13 financial year then now is the time for Rockstar to stop hiding the goods.

The Last Guardian (Team Ico)

Sure, this may not be at E3. In fact, it may not even exist anymore. It has been a long time since this game was first seen (E3 2009 for those that are counting) but how could this story of a boy and his massive bird, dog, cat creature not be near the top of everyone's most anticipated list? Rather upsettingly for a gamer with the commitment I have, I only played Shadow of the Colossus and Ico when they were re-released on PS3. However I found both to be remarkable games. Fumito Ueda is a designer who tells stories written very specifically for games. Unlike many other designers he doesn't appear to be a frustrated film director but understands the medium he works in. With open-ended and interesting tales to be told Team Ico's next game could well be a classic; should it ever appear.

On that note Sony recently stated that progress was slowly continuing and that Ueda worked on the game on a daily basis. This is from a team that assured us in February of 2011 that it would release during that calendar year though. When it comes, will it be worth the wait? After playing earlier Team Ico games, I sure hope so and in the mean time bring on the Colossi... again.

A Journey to be savoured

I can't hep but liken Journey to a story of a life. From the tentative ambling hops of your beginning, to the confident, swooping strides of adult life, to meeting a stranger to spend your time with, to your slow shambling loss of this physical freedom as you reach the end of your tale.  A little deep for a game that involves flying around a desert and making beeping noises but the best metaphor for this wordless masterpiece.

As I'm sure anyone who is reading this is already aware you begin in a nondescript desert with a shining mountain top in the distance.  The hand-holding so apparent in many modern games doesn't exist here and you're more or less left to decide where to go from there.  A few button presses and you're taking your first small hops and glides around the landscape and sliding down the odd dune.  Like a newborn fawn, you're beginning to find your feet and begin your journey in the only direction that seems to have a point (literally and figuratively).

Before long you've collected a few of the glowing symbols the dot the landscape and your flights and glides have increased.  It's enjoyable to soar around the landscape and all would be lovely as a single player experience.

What sets Journey apart however is the subtle yet affecting multiplayer.  The first fellow wanderer I came across filled me with a feeling of desire to share this desolate, lonely world with someone.  And whilst I adventured through Journey I met around 10 or so other souls to share my journey with.  Whilst I was with them the world became a slightly better place and after the brief but effective story sections, I found myself seeking out my nameless fellow wanderer in the new section of the game.  I was also reluctant to turn off the game whilst I was with someone and at times had to drag myself away from a playthrough so as not to just plough through the game in one sitting.

Multiplayer gaming is in quite a state if you ask me. I'll write in more detail about why I think this some time soon but the Journey  gets multiplayer, amongst many other things, right.

Some won't get it, will miss the point entirely and I can only imagine in years to come people will be amazed as this nears the top of best game ever lists.  The premise is simple.  The input minimal.  But the Journey is an experience not to be missed. 

No need to cry.

Quanitc Dream's David Cage said this week that we didn't need a new generation of consoles yet and set an ambitious 2017 date on the requirement of 'the next gen'.  Anyone who saw Kara, the remarkable video from the studio, will certainly agree that Cage is doing something that many don't.  However, is he correct that the current generation of consoles is too tilted towards violence and RPGs and that we don't need a new generation of consoles for another five years?

Firstly, are we oversupplied with violence?  To get an idea of this I took a look at the top selling games on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.  Thirteen of the top fifteen 360 games could be construed as violent or RPGs and eleven of the top fifteen PS3 games fit in to to the same category.  This certainly does seem to back-up the idea that we are perhaps oversupplied with these games but is Cage taking too simplistic a view on things.  Perhaps the games being made are there because they sell.  Hardcore gamers complain about the likes of Call of Duty and its identikit clones but perhaps that is because we, the gamer, continue to buy them.  Quantic Dream's own Heavy Rain sold well at around 2 million copies (as of GDC 2011) but this doesn't begin to touch COD MW3's 6.5 million day one sales in the UK and US or MW2's 18 to 20 million total sales.  Perhaps game designers aren't lacking imagination as Cage said, perhaps they are simply caught by the unavoidable fact that our hobby is many people's business.

On the second suggestion of no new consoles until 2017, I'm torn.  The most interesting games I have played in the last few months have not needed more polygons or better hardware.  To The Moon, Journey or Lone Survivor have all been interesting, quirky, different and thrilling in their own ways.  The industry is full of people and teams pushing boundaries and finding new and exciting way to use the hardware they are given.  I believe that David Cage and his team are capable of doing remarkable things with the current generation of hardware and I can't say I'm too ready for more.  After seeing the Wii U and it's difficult to comprehend tablet controller, I worry that one day we will pine after this generation of controller based gaming.  Without some brave souls I worry the ever increasing expense of console manufacture and game design will drive developers to need to appeal to the chattering masses.

What do you think?  Do you want more David Cage and something from Kara or are you happy to see more COD and it's itterative sequels?  Do we need a new console generation or are those wanting it setting us up for an incremental decline to casual gaming?

And here is that video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-pF56-ZYkY

The Walking Dead - The adventure game I always wanted.

I write this first post whilst keenly awaiting the second episode of Telltale Games 'The Walking Dead'.  I have wanted to love adventure games all my life, having attempted to play a huge number over the years.  The only one I can remember completing from start to finish is Grim Fandango and, despite starting Sam and Max, several Monkey Islands, Full Throttle, Leisure Suit Larry (to my shame, but I was of an age) and the more recent Back To The Future and Puzzle Agent, they were never the game I wanted.

Where The Walking Dead gets it right and so many others failed is character.  From the stark opening dialogue with a cynical US cop through to the shocking finalé of this opening chapter I was living Lee Everett's life.  I didn't have to labour through obscure puzzles, linking up strange objects and jumping through far-fetched logical links.  I didn't have to spend a long time in the same three room setting.  I did get to make genuinely troubling moral decisions.  I did connect with an array of well written and scripted characters in a mature and well-paced storyline.

Of course, this is a zombie game and there is the chance to smash undead skull but I'm not coming back for the action.  I'm coming back to find out what happens to Lee, Clementine, Carley and company and to find out if Lenny is going to get his just desserts.

Sadly I've only been able to play through the short few hours once because I want my snap decisions and reactions to be the ones that I must live with without being tempted by other (possibly more attractive) outcomes.  I'm looking forward to coming back though when all five episodes are released and playing through the whole story with some different outcomes. 

Hopefully Telltale can manage to keep the pace, variety, tough choices and great cast entertaining me throughout the remaining four episodes.  I trust that they will.