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By Laith Salama / Staff Writer
Changing times (Allison Perez / Photo Editor)
By Laith Salama / Staff Writer
Nobody has money anymore, but somehow kids find enough money to afford video games, the ability to play online with their friends, and downloadable content.
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Gaming has always been expensive, but now that it’s more popular than ever. The corporate money-making wizards have invented new ways to take gamers’ money.
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Downloadable content is a system of online marketing that lets you purchase extra material for games you’ve already bought.
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It also consists of entirely downloadable games and avatar accessories.
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When it all adds up, it’s a lot of money going into a single game.
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“Mortal Kombat,” for instance, is $60 if you buy it new and the online season pass is $30.
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All together fans end up spending $90 for one game, and that’s assuming they bought the online pass and didn’t buy it all separately.
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“Gears of War 3” is along the same lines. However, it could cost much more. “Gears of War 3’s” first downloadable content was released about a month after the game came out.
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That’s hardly enough time to even get to know the original game and that means that it was planned before the game was released.
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That’s content that could have, and should have been released with the game for the overpriced retail of $59.99 plus tax and convenience fees.
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The idea of downloadable add-ons was not only a genius way to make money, but also a great way to keep old games fresh.
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For example, “Resident Evil 4” was released on the Gamecube and then re-released on the PlayStation 2 with more content in it.
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Had downloadable content been around back then, fans wouldn’t have had to buy the game twice to play these extra missions.
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Downloadable content is a good thing, but it’s being abused and can only get worse.
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Recent rumors have stated that the next generation consoles will be exclusively downloadable and will no longer have disc-based games.
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This puts a lot of emphasis on the systems’ capabilities and will allow for simpler shopping.
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However, there is no real sense of ownership as the physical copy is no longer distributed.
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In addition, games that are not hard-coded onto a disk may be more susceptible to glitches and corrupt data.
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The only real pro is that it would be cheaper for them to make and distribute and should therefore be sold at a cheaper rate.
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However, gaming companies know gamers are willing to pay $60 to play a game, and that’s exactly what they’ll charge.
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Their corporate greed for money will continue to require gamers to dish out needless amounts of cash for a game that has very little production cost to the companies.
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A world of entirely digital gaming is only beneficial to the developers.
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Gamers should get their money’s worth in return, or at least feel that the relationship between them and developers is mutual.