Multiplayer Gaming Blamed for US Sales Decline

[xrodney]

One thing is chanrging for MMO and other for multiplayer.
For 1st one they generaly offer much more and server side is more complicated and there is new stuff and updates comming for free.
But if they start chaging for simple multiplayer stuff in combat games, then thanks, but I am gona quit. Especialy for Activision crap charging 15$ for few more missions.

Go on activision, you are loosing both developers and gamers and with current development you are gona hit floor...hard.

 

[madass]

Long live Hamachi....

 

[baddad]

The great American Sucker! That’s what corporation and our government sees us as, their endless resource = our money. The government with Global Warming we’re all going to die and it’s for the children BS. The game companies, if you don’t pay more we won’t make games anymore BS. These are hard times and they’re going to get harder, more so for the free lunchers, causes there’s only so much money in the pot.

 

[techguy911]

My bet is they are tracking retail sales only and digital downloads are not part of there numbers more ans more people opt for digital download.
Then there is the lack of good games most games are garbage fps, fps,fps we had enough of fps, not enough rpg and rts although starcraft 2 is on the way why did it take so long for a sequel?.
Most of the problem lies the producers try to milk the game for as long as it makes money ie. diablo,diablo2 the length of time between diablo2 and 3 is much too long.

 

[Guest]

Spell out the "contract" for monthly fees... what u will provide on a monthly bases... I would want to c expanded admin control of servers... levels of hardcore control including health, wpns realism, ballistics.. environment physics... and spawning control...Punkbuster streaming servers to find and kick hackers.. and if u pay the monthly fee.. u can create maps for modding. Mod maps can only be played online by contracting players...this would assure devs of a continued stream of income for their product. If u the developer can spell out what u intend and will periodically provide the player... and players and clan servers can benefit and why not larger capacity servers... I say yes to monthly contract for multiplayer.... It is in effect a buy-in to a continuous expansion of the game. Take BC2... and MOH... With Adm Control and constant expansion these games would last as long as ARMA, ARMA II and I think would be a better buy for consumer...

Rol =XE=CyStriker

 

[axilon]

I find this amusing, I have 687 hours of TF2 under my belt, this must mean I'm a gaming companies nightmare.

 

[toolinthemist]

yes, because charging money for a service that some already pay for (xbox live) and others get for free is really gonna make the consumers happy. furthermore, adding additional costs to a game will definitely boost sales
And last but not least, its not like these companies are actually gonna provide any new service or content when they start charging, so why should people start paying. There may be some reason to charge if the companies were doing something like blizzard with WoW in which they continue to update and provide new content, but thats not the case here.

 

[udg]

LOL this guy hasn't took a look at the bigger picture here.

If you were to take away Multiplayer on CoD the game would be lucky to sell, the single player may not be that bad but lets face it would you buy any of them purely on teh single player.

If folks were to pay for Multiplayer on their games then you would only see a drop in the Multiplatyer, with consoles I'm classed as a casual player, I play CoD get my a**e kicked so I can't really see me paying for that pleasure.

If this happened then it will hit the casual player most, I can see what he saying the best way to make money is for folks to pay for teh pleasuer on a subscription basis. Take Warcraft, Blizzard must be making a packet from that, but they have a team still working on the game, adding content on a regular basis and so on, being a Warcraft player I don't mind this as I feel I'm getting Value for my money.

But with a game like CoD how much more content could you put in, I mean I will not pay extra a month every month for them to release a few maps that the game designers have thrown together in an hour.

 

[prightiam]

I hope this is just for consoles, this will not work on pc. Decent games actually have dedicated servers payed for by clans etc, they don't want to pay more to play.
This is a complete joke without free dedicated servers that are fully customizable.
I buy a couple of games a year, maybe 1 or 2 multiplayer games, and maybe a single player that is worth money.
There is only one way around this and that is for developers to make good games, and limit advertising by these large companies.
It's advertising that made cod popular not the gameplay, most people who play cod have never played a good game in their lives or just play it because their friends do, this is much like football in the gaming world. Overrated, boring, not especially fun but hey everyone else is into it.

 

[bebangs]

Im' surprised he didnt blame piracy.

Gamers want to buy games with high replay value. better to buy 1 best game rather than 10 sucky new game.

 

[jeffdeath48]

If they do start charging for online play, i think that will decrease sales for those games because i might seriously consider not buy the next call of duty for $60 just to play the campaign and then pay more for multiplayer.

 

[Guest]

Idiots... So they push to release all the good titles in the ramp up to Christmas, then complain when sales stagnate in the spring/summer.

Not to mention that there are only a few titles a year that even catch my attention. Maybe if most games coming out these days didn't suck...

 

[sonicmask]

@wydileie

Dude are you retarted or just a retarded fanboy. Microsoft is embarrassing, they charge us for xbox live with no dedicated servers its money a month to play on someone's connection. PVP. were paying party chatting and there content servers so we have to pay in points to get the content faster. IF ANYTHING, MICROSOFT IS GOING TO SAY... GOOD MOVE, WHERES OUR CUT...

 

[sonicmask]

@wydileie

Dude are you retarted or just a retarded fanboy. Microsoft is embarrassing, they charge us for xbox live with no dedicated servers its money a month to play on someone's connection. PVP. were paying party chatting and there content servers so we have to pay in points to get the content faster. IF ANYTHING, MICROSOFT IS GOING TO SAY... GOOD MOVE, WHERES OUR CUT...

 

[K-zon]

Think about it, before you could spend 50-60 bucks on game, play it for 20-50hrs given the title, on its storyline, then play in some player alone Free-For-All, Skirmish, Capture the Flag, Character Stat Gainer Lvl, and the etc. Then you could choice to play online with many titles, in a none MMO type environment. AT the charge of just buying the game. That was it. What was there to complain about? Mods, Expansions, and almost playing a whole total completely different game after awhile.
Games sales would dwindle if they were just MMO based, cause everything would be going to pay for the constant run time of one game title. Without any breaches or expansions into, but new content from whats being downloaded. An MMO in which you can play all the time would suit best any body.

Scrached Discs, Registering to play, DRMs, friend took a copy of my game cause of whatever reason. You moved and lost the whole collection you had while driving around pike 90. Little brother or sister throught Call of Duty meant next chew toy. To even backup anything you had meant you was pirate by the time it got around to the bay. Let alone being a wise consumer.
Most companies dont even give replacements at a cheap cost cause of it anymore if at all. So why would sale decline? Why cant people keep their stuff in order to not need such things?
Not saying there isnt a need for an MMO, its just alot of it is founded by the want and need of more. Which many standalone can do, if you got the computer to do it. Which we all had at one time. It just seemed to take off on its own and leave us with some fragement of it. Theres a gap in the wall and no one knows why.

Im still using DVDs,CDs but yet Blu-ray is the next thing in digital replacements. SDDs? Before Microproceessed HDDs?
If the sale decline in the industry are for any reason, it the one we are going to know the least if not last. So this decline should be the next big rebound in industry releases.
: ) D

 

[abbadon_34]

at least their not blaming pirates or pc users this time!

 

[invlem]

Just wait until Starcraft 2 is out, massive spike, then sales will flatline for a month

 

[g00fysmiley]

if this nicle and diming keeps goign at this rate i'm gonna revert to board game nights again... pictionary anyone?

 

[anamaniac]

I still play Warcraft 3.
Why? Because it's one of my favourite games. Do I want to pay $70 for some crappy game, $70 for Xbox Live, and a subscription?

 

[jgiron]

I agree with duckmanx88

$60 a game in the U.S. and even more expensive in Europe+ Australia(poor Aussies get raped), why would i spend another $60 for another 10 hour campaign when i can spend $60 for 100hr+ multiplayer.

New games are way over priced, and besides why would I pay that much money when the game comes out when Steam has sales every weekend. And last month that had huge sales going on. $60 could buy you 1 came or 15+ games.