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Posts Tagged ‘DLC’

A shot of reality when it comes to the games industry

May 23rd, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

Yeah…titles are not exactly my forte.

I see a lot of people putting up content around the Internet that I think flat out misreads a lot of the economics in the games industry. Hell, some of the stuff I disagree with gets put up on this site by Brad. That’s right, we actually aren’t in lockstep on everything. We all have opinions, and that’s cool…I guess it’s time to let mine out a little bit. A lot of people probably won’t like it…that’s cool, too.

First, obviously there are some serious problems with the economic model in the games industry right now. Nobody in their right mind would disagree with that. When you have games publishers earning record gross profits, and yet LOSING money on a quarterly or annual basis, something is clearly very wrong with the industry model. Let’s take a look at some of that, and also some other concepts that I don’t think are necessarily weighted in reality.

Game sales rates for items marked down ARE NOT indicators that reducing prices will increase sales

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Posted in Just my Opinion

Tags: development costs, DLC, Game sales, price drops

9 Comments »

EA plans more systems like Mass Effect 2′s Cerberus Network

February 8th, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

Along with the quarterly financial information and upcoming release slate announced by EA today, they also made some comments on the DLC system used in Mass Effect 2. As reported by G4tv, they’ve seen positive reception and sales from the DLC systems used in Mass Effect 2, as well as Dragon Age and The Saboteur, and plan to use things like the Cerberus Network from this point forward.

“In every case,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello, “what we’ve seen is a very positive response from the consumer and each case, particularly starting with Dragon Age, a strong pick-up in revenue per user. By and large, they like the extra content and we think it’s a strong positive move.”

“We’ve got similar strong PDLC [paid downloadable content] with each and every one of our titles this year,” continued Riccitiello.

Along with providing a regular stream of fresh content to released titles, a system such as Mass Effect 2’s Cerberus Network also adds incentive to consumers to purchase a new copy of the game. Any used copy is still fully playable, but access to the Cerberus Network must be purchased for $15 for any DLC to be accessible to the used buyer.

Posted in Games

Tags: BioWare, Cerberus Network, DLC, EA, Mass Effect 2

2 Comments »

Ubisoft to introduce accounts system with Assassin’s Creed 2

January 25th, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

Assassin’s Creed 2 released last year on the PS3 and Xbox 360, but the PC release was delayed until March of 2010. The first details are now starting to appear on what the game will require, including from a DRM standpoint.

From the Direct2Drive pre-order page for the game :

A PERMANENT HIGH SPEED INTERNET CONNECTION AND CREATION OF A UBISOFT ACCOUNT ARE REQUIRED TO PLAY THIS VIDEO GAME AT ALL TIMES AND TO UNLOCK EXCLUSIVE CONTENT. SUCH CONTENT MAY ONLY BE UNLOCKED ONE SINGLE TIME WITH A UNIQUE KEY. YOU MUST BE AT LEAST 13 TO CREATE A UBISOFT ACCOUNT WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT. UBISOFT MAY CANCEL ACCESS TO ONLINE FEATURES UPON A 30-DAY PRIOR NOTICE PUBLISHED AT http://assassinscreed.com.

Will this account system take the form of a DLC portal, as EA has implemented for Dragon Age : Origins and Mass Effect 2? Or will it reflect something more along the lines of Relic/THQ’s use of a Relic Online account that Company of Heroes players must log in to when starting the game? Until more details are released, these remain unanswerable questions.

Also, Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot hinted about the company’s plan to implement new tools to try to reduce game piracy on the PC platform in interviews last year. Is this part of what he was talking about?

Posted in Games

Tags: account, Assassin's Creed 2, DLC, Ubisoft

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Mass Effect 2 DRM/DLC Program

January 23rd, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

Seeing as the game releases in a few days, it seems like time to talk about what DRM the game is going to use.

As shared by Chris Priestly (BioWare Community Coordinator) on their forums :

Digital Rights Management (DRM) – The boxed/retail PC version of Mass Effect 2 will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. This is the same method as Dragon Age: Origins. Digital versions will use the retailers protection system.

Now, in order for buyers to access the DLC (some will be available at launch), they’ll also need to access the Cerberus Network. That network will be the portal for all DLC for the game. It will be free to any purchasers of a new copy of the game, but any buying it used will need to spend $15 to get on board.

Posted in Games

Tags: BioWare, Cerberus Network, disc check, DLC, EA, Mass Effect 2

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