Earlier today I tweeted that in light of the new Microsoft
'news' making the rounds, I will not be buying a console. Rather, steam will be
getting the bulk of the (not negligible) amount of money I spend on consoles.
This led to an uproar I didn't quite expect!
"How is Microsoft different now from Steam?" seems
to be the rallying cry. How is their new changes on the console any different
from what I am going to do with my PC gaming. Needless to say I can't tweet an adequate
response to everyone individually so I am taking it to my oft ignored blog.
I think this boils down to the concept of ownership. What is
mine and what is not? This concept has been changing for years, but there is a striking difference between PC and console games. In the PC market I can't remember the last time I paid
full price for a game, thanks in no small part to Steam. And while I have ended
up with a few bad games, the fact that these games were less than $5 each made the bitter pill easier to swallow.
Physical games are a different commodity, rather than go
down in value or retain value over time they become 'collectibles' or vanish
entirely. Realistically we can't expect
major retailers to hold onto games and stock for a console's lifetime and
duration, or even a year out. Eventually a few years down the line we can hope
for the games to get 'greatest hits' status and drop to half price and resurface in our local stores.
How many times have you picked up a used game loved it, then
bought the sequel at full price? Or only had a few dollars and picked up that 5
year old game that you haven't thought about in years?
Let's face it, not everyone is thrilled with the way PC
games are handled. Steam itself is under fire from more consumer friendly
countries about their no reselling policies. They are only able to sue over it because it's illegal for terms of service in other countries to block the right to take Steam and Valve to court. Think about that for a moment.
To be honest, if I could check a box and resell some
games *back* to steam they'd have my loyalty for life. I would seriously never shop
at another retailer again, so I am closely following the news of this lawsuit
in the hopes that PC game reselling will become our future.
For now, I am quite aware that these new console specs are
in fact rumored and not concrete. But I am also not going to wait and see, I'd
rather let Microsoft know that this is a path I do not support. We have madechanges in the past, and it's only by letting companies know how you will vote
with your wallet that you can hope to get some change.
