Heh, I was waiting for something like that from someone.

Basically since MS & Sony are aiming to kill the second hand market they're making some pretty daft decisions with regards to how games will work on their machines.
Sony going down the route of a game only working on the 1st console it is used in, MS using a similar tactic except they plan to let you buy the right to play the game much like the current "online pass" except not being online specific features; add that the latest thing is their new console will expect to be connected to the net in order to play a game (for online authentication of ownership) and you have a rather grim outlook for the two companies.

So to summarise that:

Sony = You buy the game and it'll be locked to the first console you play it on. Buying codes/licences separate is currently not a planned option.
Microsoft = You need to have your console online at all times to play games and games will be locked to the first console it's played on; however someone else could buy the ability to play that game on their console.
(more than likely close to the original price of the game otherwise it wouldn't stop the second hand market)

How many people are going to buy into a console that they can't manage to trade in older stuff? It's pretty much the norm these days with consoles that you'd buy a game, play it, trade it in or sell it. Even lending it to a friend gets shot down by this stupidity.

It's been stock on PC for that sort of thing for a while, but since shops wont be able to scrape in as much revenue it'll have a further knock on effect - console games wont drop in price as quickly. ATM if you buy something on release you know it'll be cheaper in a couple of weeks, and a few months later it'll be sat at half the price. That process will take a lot longer, possibly mirroring the 90s when a game would usually be sat at full price for a year+ or until a sequel arrived. That of course is arguable since it's speculating based on the past, but it's also a likely scenario. The difference being that on PC a game will steadily drop it's price over time + there are regular sales (at which point a new Ѓ40 game will be Ѓ10 etc). We still can't trade a game since that's how it works, but when you can pick them up for next to nothing during Steam sales for example it more than makes up for it.

So to finish since I said PC or Wii-U:
Wii-U aint got any of those silly things. You can trade your stuff, lend it to people blah blah.
PC despite having higher costs of ownership for the machine provides lower prices for games as a whole. I'm deliberately ignoring the whole "looks better on a PC" crap because that isn't always the case with a hardware dependant platform.

At least if a PC craps out you can still get your games back, just log into your accounts for where ever you bought them from & you're good to go.
If your game is locked to a console and that machine craps out (which if last gen is anything to go by will happen a lot) then you're fucked.
Note I said console & not account - they aint planning on locking them to your account, if that had been the case it wouldn't be as bad.

Fingers crossed they see sense before release.


Lol'd. No problems with things looking pretty, but you should be picking a machine based on the games and how they play, not what they look like.

I suppose so long as it can provide an accurate simulation of brown & muscles kids will be lining up to buy the fuckers. ;)

remember when game consoles were used for games? good times

seriously though, the fact that consoles insist on restricting their audience to exclusives and anti-piracy methods and anything at all SHOULD be completely absurd. I didn't buy a game manager I was supposed to know backwards and hate because of their politics, I bought a dvd player for games, and having them try to be anything besides that is cunt-y as fuck. I wish the best of luck for the Ouya and whatever the hell Valve is developing right now, because they have the power to kill off the console dual monopoly and make it so games are the ones in charge of game production again.

My faith is in gearbox right now, if microsoft and sony want to take turns slapping eachother with their dicks, let them. Ps2's are still being widely sold, it isn't like they'll get rid of old consoles and games.

Viva la old generacion.

Old? That newfag stuff aint old lol.
Also PS2 ended production earlier this year, so it's sales will finally drop off.

I view graphics as a + for games.
What I look for are games with good game-play that have decent/nice graphics.
I'm looking to go to PC because of how many games there are, the price, you can play all of them easily with your friends, better graphics, and you're free! Oh and they aren't just gaming machines, they are computers.

But most PC games are over steam or other digital distribution these days, which also means 0 trading. Steam is also on PS3 right? And Microsoft has a store too. Both MS and Sony have their own digital stores, so I think the age of constant trading has ended.

At local stores they buy games at less than 1/4th of price, whenever I tried to trade games they would give me around $12... for 5 games. It's not even worth selling games at those prices.

I think trading has been dead for a long time, and I'm ok with that. It brings down the original price of games and means they remain on shops for longer (how many people buy old games on steam?).

I don't think it's a bad thing at all, and PC certainly isn't any different.

Steam on PS3... Lol, there's next to fuck all on it. Portal 2 & CS:GO is as far as that went IIRC. It was mostly for the community stuff.

"Different markets" as I keep ending up saying in these threads. People like to sell/trade old games to fund getting new ones. Add that people's finances generally went down the shitter over the past few years & it became a bigger deal. The online pass thing caused enough drama and that was only for online play. Console games have always been like that. If they weren't swapping or selling their games they'd be lending them to someone etc.

Must be interesting where you live if trading's dead, probably a lot easier to go into a shop & find a new copy rather than having stores filled with knackered 2nd hand ones missing half the manual & dubious looking stains on the boxes. It can be quite difficult to get stuff in stores here if you're after new, resulting in buying online. At which point you just end up looking to see if it's on Steam etc, where it'll not only be cheaper but you don't have to wait for it to be delivered.

But yeah, we're pretty used to it in PC land. Games have always been cheaper to get on the PC than a console over here, and digital distribution knocked the price down more. IMO it's a fair trade since I have no intention of parting with something if I've gone out my way to buy it. That however isn't how other people see it, and it'll have a negative effect on the sale of any console that doesn't allow it.

You can find second hand stuff, most of the big shops carry them (though the rebox them in to new boxes so no unusual stains ;))

But most people don't buy second hand anymore... At least I don't know anyone who does.

You can almost get most of the games that are on consoles on PC. PC allows you to do a lot more like run other programs, easy internet browsing and a shit load of stuff we already know what it can do. It out runs a console. If you want to get a console though, xbox360 (or you can go for the new xbox I guess). Mostly because the community is a lot better then the psn community, (people may argue it but it is true because I run both xbox and ps3. Play on ps3 a lot because my bestfriend has it, but I like to be on xbox because of the community etc)

The only reason to buy a console anymore is for console-only titles, which most of the time are not even good games that I'd consider buying, maybe besides Gears of War or something.

I don't understand why people restrict themselves to a console for more money instead of buying a computer which they have total freedom on. The new gen console specs for ps3 have been somewhat leaked, however, I'm not sure, but considering what I expect the price to be and the supposed specs, you can get the same thing in a computer for a good margin less in price. Not to mention that you can turn up the graphics to Ultimate or Maximum or whatever on a computer, while you're restricted to one graphics setting on consoles.

"Let's buy this because all of my retarded friends have it, that must mean it's great!"