The man behind the hugely successful Football Manager series reckons game prices would be reduced if a cure for piracy were ever discovered.
The closing of multiplayer services can happen for a number of reasons. Sometimes there just aren’t enough people using a product to justify keeping it running while in others it could be down to complicated legal wrangling, like expiring licensing agreements, or even a desire to bring out a new installment.
One thing is clear though – many of these discontinued games simply don’t deserve to die, to be cut down in their prime leaving players without a viable alternative and waste all that time the audience invested in them. With that in mind, this article will count down the 12 games least deserving of being shut down, the ones that players the world over wished had kept going.
Eurogamer: "It's a shame when relationships end but it's often for the best. Football Manager and me had it all – long intimate evenings, weekends away, the occasional holiday. I'd thought we never split up. But eventually cracks began to appear, the physical side deteriorated, and we became strangers.
As an early adopter of pretending to manage a football team on a computer (i.e. a semi-autistic weirdo), a chronic addiction to Football Manager seemed my inevitable destiny. My first taste was the original Football Manager on the ZX Spectrum, whose bearded creator, Kevin Toms, appeared beaming on the cassette case cover."
IncGamers' James Chalmers chats to Football Manager Live's game producer Marc Duffy about the MMO's relaunch and whether it was a success, the upcoming 3D match engine patch and what other plans the team have for Football Manager Live. Oh and he also tries to find out whether Football Manager 2011 is in production.
And as there is no way to stop hackers and pirates, prices will never drop. Thanks for the memo, my good lord.
I think he's looking at it backwards. Reduced game prices are a cure for piracy. So long as it is realized that not all people who pirate a game are possible customers. Those people could possibly be persuaded to rent through a subscription based system included in their internet price.
Games have been the same price for close to 25 years. Looking at my mega drive games with their stickers, they were 40 quid. Nothing has changed and this is just an excuse / pity searching.
Tragically that is a load of rubbish.
Case in point -from 2001-2007, Thailand attempted to combat rampant piracy by slashing the prices of their PC games dramatically. Where Half-Life 2 could be bought in the US for $50, you could pick up the same exact version (only with Thai lettering on the box) for around $10. Pirated copies still cost around $1.
Fast forward two years -2009. Real PC games are next to non-existent on store shelves. The piracy industry, however, is still as healthy as ever.
Nope dude, it works the other way around. Reduce game prices would lower piracy.
People and especially young gamers/kids paying 65 Euro is a lot, a lot of money especially when they find out at home the game isn't what the hypemachine said it would be.
I have an option for you:
We already get XBOX 1 games that are 3 to 5GB through Xbox Live for 1200 points. I don't see why the industry doesn't bring XBOX 360 games for download through XBL, which are 5 to max. 8.5GB for those that have fast internet.
That way they cut costs like:
- Distribution/shipment
- Retail profit
- Marketing
- Making the discs, the case and the printing of books etc.
- Problem of those copies that don't sell are made for nothing
Digital distribution with those cuts in costs would lower the price of a game to 30 to 35 Euro. Combine that with the game online a month before the discs are on sale through retail and you'll see suddenly the game sales will skyrocket.
You know the downloaded content on 360 HDD's aren't hacked yet, the game DVD's are... Wink wink, good tip game industry and Microsoft, get it done fast.