A flaw with this generation of consoles?

[Jrecee]

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/103/1036312p1.html

Interesting article. I'm not extremely familiar with that game, but I'm pretty sure it was a mostly online experience. And now the servers are coming down and you won't be able to play it anymore. This made me think about my Xbox 360.

One of the best things about my 360 is the online factor. And I'm not even talking about playing games online, I don't have a gold membership. But just being able to download the latest demos, videos, or movie trailers is cool (demos especially). I mostly play my older consoles, but this online feature is what keeps be drawn into my 360, especially over the wii, which I can't get online (I don't think they even have game demos on wii anyway). I was thinking about what will happen to the dashboard when the xbox 720 comes out. Maybe it will last that long, I don't know, but at some point, microsoft isn't going to get $_$ in their eyes when they look at the xbox 360, and all those trailers, demos, and arcade games are going to vanish. What will I be staring at when I start up my 360? An error message, or a "sorry, marketplace is no longer available" or will it just show the last few things that came out for all eternity.

One of the things that has made the system so cool will be gone. Yeah I'll still have whatever I downloaded and whatever retail games I've purchased, but something tells me that when that interactive element disappears, the 360 is going to collect dust while I play my sega genesis. Which works just like it did in december 1993.

[Hobie-wan]

This is starting ot happen on all platforms though. PC games used to have the advantage of being able to run their own servers for games, but more and more are having central servers only. Obviously MMOs do this. Hellgate London did this, and is now gone so you can only play single player. Diablo III is going to do this which makes me very sad. Modern Warfare 2 is apparently going to do it too.

[Limewater]

I wonder if this is going to result in used Wii's selling for more than used 360's and PS3's in five to ten years.

[lordofduct]

This is exactly why I never bothered getting into these kinds of games.

Under the MMO model I pay anywhere from 20 to 60 dollars for the game, then I pay anywhere from a dollar to 20 dollars a month to play the game. Then after however many years and however much money I spend, the game is then useless as a playable experience, or atleast severely handicapped experience.

Imagine it, you can easily spend 500 dollars playing WoW for 3 years. And then the servers go down and that is 500 dollars gone... nothing to show for it... done.

Where as all the genny games I brought between 1991 and today I still have and still play. Just like jreece!

[HellHammer]

Intresting article. I've never played that particular game before, but this type of thing is exactly why I constantly rant and rave about DLC being awful for current, and especially future, retro gamers.

[(-_-)]

How will getting patches work in the future? For stuff like Fallout which was released almost broken, how are you supposed to get the fix if the service no longer exists?

[fastbilly1]

How will getting patches work in the future? For stuff like Fallout which was released almost broken, how are you supposed to get the fix if the service no longer exists?

This is when I get to be an ass and say "Buy the PC version."

[h8b1llg8ts]

And don't forget the last. I always have been a huge supporter of MS when it comes to online gaming. I miss the feature where you could buy a game and every content is available no matter what. If I want to jump on Crimson Skies and download those maps and planes or even play online I'm able too.

But don't forget the Steel Battalion debauchery. A $200 controller with a online game and a server shut down with a year of release.

Do keep in mind that Halo 2 is also server based. So like COD MW they will eventually be shut down ...

Hopefully later then sooner.

[UBERTRON777]

That makes me think that Microsoft might have a good idea with Xbox Live. Sure you have to pay for it but the server is universal correct? There's not going to be one game where you can't play it online unless the entire system is down (or the game itself is severely broken). If they do make another platform like a 720 or whatever, I can see it being very easy for them to make the server compatible with both systems so that you can still get the proper experiences for both. Maybe I've put too much faith in the system but I doubt Microsoft would let a thing a catastrophic as having a huge aspect of their gaming experience be temporary. I guess you would just have to be afraid that the Microsoft entertainment development house goes under, in which case you would lose everything.

[DNT 2.5]

Some servers need to be shut down to accommodate new games. you have to notice this game was released a while ago.