If people want to see what gaming on Apple stuff was like in the late 80s and 90s, check out this hip YouTube channel!!!
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Yeah, they made World of Demons last year. Sounds like it got shut down pretty quickly. I didnât even realize it actually came out!
the problem here is people are inclined to fire-and-forget movies and binge watch TV shows, but gamers are very big on 1) collecting and owning things, and/or 2) playing things long term. literally no one gives a fuck about not being able to access shit movie B when their netflix sub lapses, or when netflix arbitrarily decide to remove it a month later. the second that shit happens with video games some angry nerds are going to find a woman to blame it on. there are other problems, of course, but those are the large mainstream obstacles.
unless theyâre just after turning mom and dadâs occasional mobile game dalliances into another reliable $15 a month. good luck.
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The PS Plus games, Microsoft Games With Gold, Playstation Now streaming service, and Microsoft Games Pass have gone down pretty well. I think behavior will change just as record-buying and DVD-buying behavior did.
Not that I prefer it that way, of course.
nedge I just wanted you to know I heard about this WoW Classic thing and I am absolutely, 100% playing it when it comes out
why, I thought you hate wow
I guess thatâs true. well, I donât know about playstation now, but the others have had some success. but they are also positioned as optional bonuses, rather than as the primary method of playing/buying games on those systems. they all more or less started as a way to add value to necessary online services. you want to play games online on your xbox or psWhatever, you need to purchase an added service. I think thatâs bullshit and I never paid for it on any system. itâs one of the main reasons I ended up as an exclusive PC kind of guy. but most people were ok with paying for those services. then they got games with them. isnât that still how gold/plus work? I donât even know. you still have to pay for online features, but now you get games? and it is vitally important that these services are not the only way to play those games on those systems. you can buy them just as well. game pass is the next step, and Iâm unsure how successful thatâs been for microsoft. I know game pass cycles games out. imagine if it continued to cycle games out and microsoft announced that it would be the only way to play games on its next system. completely unfeasible.
Yeah thatâs the clumsy joke I was making but I think it wasnât obvious enough or people donât know the stainless steel rat books. I havenât even read them, itâs just such a memorable name
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on a related note, Iâm really surprised valve doesnât offer a curated $10/$15 a month game pass feature of its own. or imagine this, from their perspective: a series of game pass options, each one curated by a variety of the top steam curators (ie, youtubers). yeah, theyâd have to work it out with publishers, but I can imagine most of them would see it as a boone.
now you know why this isnât a thing
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I think the streaming services are ultimately going to be pitched to parents who want to let their kids play video games but donât want to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars each year on hardware and actually buying the games.
At least thatâs the audience I see who would actually want this kind of service.
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Imagine a bunch of serious po-faced Film Buffs sitting around dusting their museum of 35mm reels, scoffing at the announcement of Netflix.
âItâll never take off. You donât even OWN any of the films you watch!â
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netflix is objectively shit for film buffs, and increasingly useless for movies of any sort, so Iâm not sure what your point is. buy the apple service all you want?
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My point is that Netflix was a smashing success because the vast majority of people donât give a ratâs ass about the issues those film buffs got their underoos in a twist over.
If they indeed work as advertised, then the success of these services is going to come down to two things, and only two.
1: âis my internet connection fast enough?â
2: âIs the price of the service worth the amount of content it gives me access toâ
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Yeah, I think you underestimate value and availability as reasons people play games next to historical importance and long-term cachet. People want to play the games that are popular, then they fade, then they do the same with the next hot thing. I donât think collectors and hoarders are a significant demographic.
Microsoft is about to start selling an Xbox One without a disc drive; Steam ate physical PC releases a decade ago and nobody minded. I think weâll find games players are more like regular consumers than not.
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âhave you heard of terminals? what if we told you you could hack them? not so fast bucko it gets trickyâ like some kind of theoretically perfected enthusiasm killer
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the next hot thing in movies takes 90 minutes to watch, the next hot thing in video games takes 50-100 hours to play, and appeals to a comparatively narrow demographic. there is a big step between not owning a physical copy of a game and full on games-as-service. Iâve not seen anyone clamor for the later as their primary means of playing video games, and gamers in general put up heavy resistance to any change in the way they play games. they are resistant to installing different launchers, buying from different stores, piecemeal pricing patterns, required online connections, closed platforms.
netflix/spotify/et al. gained traction by appealing to the kinds of people who do not play video games. I donât know what youâre going to sell to those people.
So did the Wii
yeah, and they bought wii sports because it seemed novel at parties. google and apple are trotting out doom, assassins creed, hironobu sakaguchi, platinum games, a sequel to a 25 year old adventure game â who is the market? netflix killed blockbuster because people didnât like to drive to watch a movie when they didnât have to, thatâs about it. gamers are already used to being locked into âecosystemsâ that they are invested in. how many of them are going to pay money for the privilege to leave those things behind? I donât need google to play doom, and if Iâm interested in it chances are Iâve already invested money in one of the 4 other ways I can play that game.