Prediction: DLC will be the next Great Video Game Crash

[flamepanther]

If there's another gaming crash, which I doubt, I don't think DLC will have anything to do with it. If we were going to have one due to a flood of generic games that are all the same, like the original crash, EA and Activision would have already caused it by now (funny, Activision helped cause the first crash...) The first crash was a demand-side crash, but if there's another, I think it will be a supply side crash due to the continually rising cost of making new games.

[J T]

Download games and DLC are only bad because of their many restrictions. If I want a music mp3, once I download it, it's mine forever and I have complete control over it in every way. I can save it to a physical media format if I want, or play it on various mp3 players. It's great. I don't mind losing the music CD since mp3s are so great.

So what the fuck is wrong with our digital video games? We have no control. We don't really own the games at all. We have restrictions on copying/moving/backups. If the game is pulled from the server, it is gone forever. If we want to buy an old digital game, we can't buy it used and we can't buy it new because it won't be available anymore.

This is why gog.com rules.

I used to buy most all of my games used like you (though for me, it was not because of a principle against the business model of the games industry. I just did it to save money.) However, I did feel guilty that my money was doing more to feed the secondary market rather that put money in to the hands of deserving game developers. Now with GOG, I feel like I'm getting a good deal, I actually own my digital game and can do what I want with it, and my money goes to the game developers (assuming they still own the rights the game or get royalties, which isn't always the case).

[DerekG52]

I don't think we will ever see another crash. The market has inflated to such a size that it is now impossible for such an event to reoccur.

Yea, and that was also said about the US housing market...

I think a more likely catalyst to a market crash is in a related post: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 44&t=25470

If publishers hold all rights to future sales, that would legally take gamestop, amazon, ebay, etc off the list of places to get games. I think you would start seeing listings selling the case and manual, with a free gift included

Publisher can set all prices, they would come up with a pricing scale where maybe a game drops $10 every 6 months to a minimum of $30. From their perspective, forcing everyone to buy from you is the ultimate wet dream.

[noiseredux]

this is the only DLC I mess with: