Video Game News and Miscellany

Holy shit, Chasm came out.

That's nuts. I remember when Retro Magazine started like 5 years ago and it was slated to be released in 2014. I thought it was lost in development hell forever.



I think this game might've been a HUGE deal if it released when it was supposed to, but in the intervening years since we've seen about a bajillion trillion metroidvania sprite games. I'm still gonna give it a shot.
 
I wonder how much of this is simply because you can find it all on Youtube now anyway?

And sure, for the rare, obscure songs I can't find on Youtube, I can get it on Bandcamp for like 1-2 bucks. We spent all the of 90's and 00's telling the recording industry this is what we wanted and they are only just now getting it.
 
That's almost as much a surprise to me as the fact that they're still making Tekken games.
That's kind of my take on this... is The Walking Dead big in Japan? Like, when Soul Calibur had Yoda and Darth Vader, that at least made some sense; Star Wars is a big property in Japan. But this feels odd.
 

Dave

Staff member
I haven't pirated music in years, and I am not averse to buying it for a dollar a track off Google Play. Amazing how reasonable price points and convenience will get paying customers back, huh?
Yes, but the difference now is that the artists themselves get almost no money from the transactions. It all goes to the platform and the label.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Yes, but the difference now is that the artists themselves get almost no money from the transactions. It all goes to the platform and the label.
Well, the obvious answer there is to stop signing with exploitative labels, especially given that they no longer serve a purpose on digital distribution platforms.
Streaming revenue varies by platform. Also, streaming pays differently from straight up buying the track. Straight up sales on google play, for example, are split in favor of the Artist, 30/70. And that's what I've been doing - buying the music outright instead of streaming it.
 
It really is more a case of "Why does a label do anymore?" than "What do I need to get on a label?" these days. Smaller bands (or even moderately famous ones) can and do use services like Bandcamp to self promote and sell their merch and music. You no longer need to "make it big", your size and success is almost entirely in your hands now.
 
Man, crazy that Chasm came out after a millennia of waiting for it and now Death's Gambit comes out on Tuesday and it's been almost as long since I heard about this one getting announced. It looks crazy gorgeous but I worry about it coming out days after Dead Cells, which is incredibly good.



At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if I suddenly heard Bloodstained was getting released early and it's tomorrow!
 
Should it go to court, I don't see Bethesda winning. People buy and sell all manner of things that no longer have warranties. If they maintain that "has to have a warranty" is enough to invalidate first sale doctrine, then they are also calling used cars and every Goodwill/Salvation Army illegal.

--Patrick
 
Should it go to court, I don't see Bethesda winning. People buy and sell all manner of things that no longer have warranties. If they maintain that "has to have a warranty" is enough to invalidate first sale doctrine, then they are also calling used cars and every Goodwill/Salvation Army illegal.

--Patrick
I've been waiting for someone to go after a game company over the idea that buying a game only "licenses" you to use it. What kind of license keeps it's details from you until after you've paid the fee to acquire it? What license is freely tradable without some sort of official transfering it?

As for authorised reseller; where does Bethesda notify you of this fact? If it's not on the game's packaging (a big ol' "Not for Resale" notification) or a contract that you sign before you buy the product then they don't have a fucking leg to stand on.
 
I've been waiting for someone to go after a game company over the idea that buying a game only "licenses" you to use it. What kind of license keeps it's details from you until after you've paid the fee to acquire it? What license is freely tradable without some sort of official transfering it?
Well, the whole thing was started by Bill Gates, did M$ really not have to defend it in court already?
 
Actually, re-reading Bethesda's arguement... I think they have a point this time? The seller was marketing it as "new" but new means more than it being sealed in the box. It also means that it has a warranty for replacing and such and that would have long since expired by now. So TECHNICALLY the game wasn't new, it was just NRFB.

The rest is kind of bullshit though.
 
Actually, re-reading Bethesda's arguement... I think they have a point this time? The seller was marketing it as "new" but new means more than it being sealed in the box. It also means that it has a warranty for replacing and such and that would have long since expired by now. So TECHNICALLY the game wasn't new, it was just NRFB.

The rest is kind of bullshit though.
How does software do warranty? Patches are/should be free anyway...
 

figmentPez

Staff member
How does software do warranty? Patches are/should be free anyway...
"All we're saying is if it's a previously owned product, you have to sell it as a previously owned product", Pete Hines told Eurogamer. "You could have opened it up," he went on to explain, "played it for five hours, taken whatever inserts or stuff was in there, put it back in shrink wrap and said, 'Hey this is new.' It's not new - you owned it, you bought it, so just list it as a used title. That's it, that's the end of the argument."

I'm kinda torn on this. On one hand, game companies probably do get a number of tech support calls from people who bought a "new" product and are mad that something is missing from the box. On the other hand, there needs to be a better way to deal with the issue than what was done.

In addition, sometimes actually new products have faulty discs. I've run into this myself; I had to get a replacement disc for my copy of Myst IV because disc 1 couldn't be read. I'm not sure how a situation like that would be handled with resale of a Never Removed From Box copy sold as "new".
 

figmentPez

Staff member
And this is the argument Bethesda is pushing in order to prevent ANY sale of it at all.
From my link above:

'Hines was at pains to explain that they're not seeking to block sales of used games, so long as they're described as 'used' in the listing. "If you want to sell your copy of the game, it's 'pre-owned'. You can't say that it's new because I have no way to verify that, and ultimately that person is our customer we have to deal with and if there's stuff missing or things that have happened we're the ones that are going to have to make it right." '
 
In addition, sometimes actually new products have faulty discs. I've run into this myself; I had to get a replacement disc for my copy of Myst IV because disc 1 couldn't be read. I'm not sure how a situation like that would be handled with resale of a Never Removed From Box copy sold as "new".
I remember this was a big problem with Shadow Hearts: Covenant back in the day. Turns out part of the first shipment of the disc was full of discs that wouldn't read past a certain point. I went through 6 discs before I found a good one.
 
Their argument is complete horseshit. Utter and complete horseshit. They're using a notoriously shitty lawfirm who pride themselves on finding shitty little loopholes to find any kind of slight loophole to take advantage of to circumvent first sale doctrine.
 
From my link above:

'Hines was at pains to explain that they're not seeking to block sales of used games, so long as they're described as 'used' in the listing. "If you want to sell your copy of the game, it's 'pre-owned'. You can't say that it's new because I have no way to verify that, and ultimately that person is our customer we have to deal with and if there's stuff missing or things that have happened we're the ones that are going to have to make it right." '
If that argument meant fucking ANYTHING, you can't "verify" if anything if you've ever purchased ANYWHERE is "new".

You can buy a game from Gamestop that some manager has taken home, played and resealed that's "new".

Oh and Bethesda is suing Warner Brothers too because apparently they invented games like Fallout Shelter where you build rooms or areas in a thing and anyone that makes a game that's anything like it deserves suing despite the courts ruling time and again that unless they copied art assets, you can't copyright game design.
 
Oh and Bethesda is suing Warner Brothers too because apparently they invented games like Fallout Shelter where you build rooms or areas in a thing and anyone that makes a game that's anything like it deserves suing despite the courts ruling time and again that unless they copied art assets, you can't copyright game design.
The Bethesda suit alleges that the developer (who also co-developed Fallout Shelter) used pre-release code from Fallout Shelter to build the Westworld game, which is substantiated by the fact that the Westworld had the exact same bugs that Fallout Shelter had from that period in it's development. That's a far cry from what you're implying.
 
"All we're saying is if it's a previously owned product, you have to sell it as a previously owned product", Pete Hines told Eurogamer. "You could have opened it up," he went on to explain, "played it for five hours, taken whatever inserts or stuff was in there, put it back in shrink wrap and said, 'Hey this is new.' It's not new - you owned it, you bought it, so just list it as a used title. That's it, that's the end of the argument."

I'm kinda torn on this. On one hand, game companies probably do get a number of tech support calls from people who bought a "new" product and are mad that something is missing from the box. On the other hand, there needs to be a better way to deal with the issue than what was done.
It is most certainly not the end of the argument. When eBayUser1275 advertises a copy of a Bethesda game for sale and calls it "new," this is not a representation on the part of Bethesda, it is a representation on the part of the seller. eBayUser1275 is making the claim that the copy they are selling is new. If it later turns out that this copy has been opened/used/etc., this only reflects on eBayUser1275, not Bethesda, and the proper party for the buyer to contact for resolution is eBayUser1275 or, if eBayUser1275 refuses, for the buyer to go through eBay's dispute resolution process. Bethesda's lawyers have no place in any of this.

I mean, he can't technically be forced to call it a "used" game either if he didn't, y'know...USE it at all.

--Patrick
 
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Heh, you think that doesn't happen? :p
I know that Gamestop has (or had) a policy for letting employees check out games if it wasn't the only copy in the store. I'm sure more than one manager just gutted open a new copy of something just so they could try it out before they bought it or instead of buying it.
 
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