Sup'
So after some morning coffee and reading a gaf thread where a bunch of entitled dirt poors were complaining about how everything should be free in the world and given to them on a silver platter, I came up with what I'd like to call THE SOLUTION to the failing game industry from a financial perspective of developers/publishers and entitled manchildren that make up the end users of much of the game industry.
Here's the deal (basically I stole this all from Steam, because Steam is awesome and the future):
-Every game gets a 10% off discount at release, 20% discount if you pre-order.
-Every game gets a free 24 hour pass trial. Meaning you can play every single game for free when it comes out.
That's it!
Basically, it cuts out of the rental market and cuts out the used "I bought this game and it sucked or I beat it in a day so I'm selling it back" market and the "I'm seeing if this game even works on my computer (not applicable for consoles unless you want to see if it runs acceptably in framerate/iq)" try before you by market.
It lets everyone play a game, see if it's something they feel is worth their hard earned money and then if they like it they can buy it at 10% discount or wait 6 months for a sale or 1-2 years for bargain bin.
Pros
Consumer
+Only buy games that you actually like and feel are worth your money. Stop getting screwed on buying a game that turns out awful, or buying something you feel you should've waited for $20 on.
+Instant access to play EVERY GAME for free.
+Increases overall game quality of the industry since bad games will have lower sales and good games will have higher sales.
Developers/Publishers
+Chance to sell to a wider audience as everyone can try your game and if it's good, lots of people will buy it.
+Decrease bargain bin sales for good games as people who are on the fence or waiting until it hits $20, can play it and be convinced to buy it at near full price.
+Decrease in Piracy. Why go to the effort to pirate the game when you can play it for free anyhow and if you're that determined you can just blow through the whole game in a day. Sure there will still be piracy, but it should lessen in a bit.[/b]
+Bigger chance for small developers/games to rise if the quality of their game is good.
Cons
Consumer
-None?
Developers/Publishers
-There will be a set of gamers that are hardcore extreme cheapskates and will marathon games to finish them within the 24 hours so they don't have to pay and then brag about how they're beating the system. Wow, GJ, you beat a videogame for free. This subset will be small and always there and just treat it like how the good companies treat piracy: don't worry about it. It's just how it goes and don't focus on the minor %. Plus with achievements and stat tracking you can probably actually see what real % this group is after a year.
-Your shitty games won't sell. Or at least not as much. "golden" teams/franchises that are relied on without any effort could be hit hard. But then it'd be an incentive to actually make them good again.
-3-5 hour linear games will get hurt, but there's your incentive not to add filler to them, but to make them replayable/good enough that people will still want to buy them.
So yeah, there you go. Give people a chance to enjoy entertainment at no-risk and then let them pay for what they feel is worth buying. Create a cycle where good games are rewarded and bad games are punished and increase the overall game quality of the industry and create an environment where it's survival of the fittest, and small devs rise with great games and big publishers fall with bad ones.
