E3

Jun. 11th, 2013 04:46 pm
dexfarkin: (me)
[personal profile] dexfarkin
So, the reports so far are that the Playstation 4 and Sony sidled up to Microsoft and the X-Box One in the middle of the convention floor, shived them in the kidneys, and left them to bleed out and die amidst the discarded leftlets and power bar wrappers. Because all great corporate struggles for market share are best described as scenes from 'OZ'.

Seriously though, it seems like Microsoft has doubled down on the same kind of nonsense that they flashed with Windows 8, trying to bully their marketshare into improved profit, without any consideration that other options remain. You have to question whether or not their board understands how much the market has changed, and that the more heavy handed an attempt to force control happens, the more likely others are to adopt alternate platforms as a form of self-defense. To use an old analogy, the main driver behind the rise of Napster, Kazaa, and the other music sharing systems was the constant price fixing of CDs by the music companies themselves, demanding the same unsustainable profits from when they controled production and distribution. When people realized that paying $28 for a new CD (almost 4 hours work at minimum wage at the time) was ridiculous, they went hard for other options. How many X-Box gamers are going to take a serious look at Steam or the PS now?

The most worrisome aspect for me personally is that the X-Box One is yet another company moving increasingly to erode the idea of ownership, demanding usurious licensing fees for any use with specific conditions attached to them. I'm old and thus a dinosaur waiting to be put down by younger predators, but the idea of ownership and private property is a core element of personal freedom. As more companies demand that their customers become users as opposed to owners of their product, the ability to accrue and disperse goods at one's own wishes is challenged. There have been several cases already about people with not inconsiderable e-book collections passing on, discovering that their heirs had no claim on them. In some cases, we're talking about tens of thousands of dollars simply being deleted from an estate.

It also shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the secondary market, and that ignorance is actually a pretty severe danger to creators. Most authors have long been supporters of used book stores, understanding that secondary sales eventually drive new sales. Game developers should be equally strong supporters of the secondary market, as systems like X-Box Live and PSN allow for tertiary sales for DLC and related materials. But they fail to understand that the secondary market drives new business, and it is ultimately self-defeating to try and hamstring it. At least half of the video games I own have been purchased because of either playing a borrowed or rented game and later purchasing it, or buying a used game and purchasing later installments in the series. Many of those are games that I would have never paid full price for in order to try them. By relying on the direct market and advertising/demos, the X-Box One is disconnecting itself from a powerful sales tool in a way that will ultimately hurt their direct market sales. It is myoptic and ill-considered, and thanks to Sony, puts them at a major disadvantage in next-generation consoles.
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