TeamXbox writes: "As I'm writing this, the Lakers and Celtics are headed back to Boston for game six, and longtime Boston fan Will Tuttle is pacing around the office mumbling something about "stupid flopping Gasol". I'm as nervous as he is, not because I'm any big fan of the Celtics, but because I hate the Lakers worse and I put a lot of money down to prove that. Paul Pierce, don't let me down.
With all the basketball we have on the brain around here these days, it makes sense to talk about EA Sports' upcoming installment of their long running series, NBA Live 09. We recently saw it at EA Sports' Season Opener event at the beautiful campus at EA Canada, and again just yesterday for a little hands-on time. While it's clear that EA Sports is making some headway at making the gameplay much more realistic as well as more fun to play, they're still got a ways to go to prove the game worthy. The last couple of iterations have been, how do you say, lacking.
But NBA Live 09 is looking to turn that all around, mainly through straight up gameplay improvements. Improving the pick and roll system is one major way, as well as making it easier to play lockdown defense. There are some other cool features in the game that we've seen but we're just not allowed to talk about yet - you'll have to wait for at least E3."
Techtorial: Amazon has updated its warehouse giving away big discounts to used games with prices starting from 22 cents going up.
Publishers insist on devaluing used games at their own peril; a strong secondary market supports a healthy primary market, and packing games with one-time-use codes for certain content erodes that relationship.
I'm not convinced that there's a major problem with this policy. Do you think this will dissuade people from buying games at all? People who buy used still get the core game; new buyers simply get an added bonus. If the used buyers end up loving the game and want to pay for the extra content, they can. If they bought the game used for $40 and end up paying $10 for the extra content, they're still saving money.
And if the policy does in fact drive people to buy more games new, couldn't one argue that including codes in new games is important to new game sales?
Personally, I prefer this option to other measures to curb second-hand sales, like excessive DRM or increased prices.
That's my only real issue with this policy; the fact that they claim it's for "server maintenance" or whatever BS excuse they are coming up with. As it was said in the article, when the first guy trades it in and the second guy picks it up it all balances out. I wouldn't really have any issues with it if they weren't lying to us. Just tell the truth, you are charging because you are tired of getting hosed out of money on used game sales.
The video game market is so huge that it shocks me that some Publishers are complaining about lost profits, and going so far as to try and discourage people from buying a game used.
Stephen King has more used books circulating around than almost any other author, and I have never heard him complain. If people are making games as an art form, then isn't the point for people to play them any way they can?
Amazon.com has bundled "NBA Live 09", "The Bigs" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" Playstation 3 video games into 1 $20 package. That's around $7 per game and approximately $30 discount if you would buy these games separately.
