Sony Threatens Game Collectors?

[slackur]

Agreed.  At the end of the day, the publisher follows the money, as is the way of any business.  If there is more money to be had by establishing more user limitations and the pushback is minimal compared to the increase in profit, it is only logical that is the direction a company will go.  I certainly don't personally like the direction our industry has been going this generation and the next, but I can follow the lines about how we got here and how things will likely be in the near future.  Ours is still an entertainment industry not far out of infancy, and the future rules will be written by dollar signs.

If that comes across as fatalistic, we cannot ignore that despite our frustration with such developments, the medium will survive and our treasured hobby is resilient.  It is impossible not to imagine that from here on out, there will always be new video games to play.

[techwizard]

You bring up a good point Slakur. The 8/16 bit collector will likely fade into obscurity eventually as younger people discover the hobby and seek out consoles and games from their childhood. This will probably the point in time when the Nintendo bubble pops and a collecting focus will shift towards PS1, definitely PS2, and Xbox. It's a matter of people wanting to go down memory lane and re-experiencing those games from they were kids; and as the average collector becomes younger those nostalgic games will come from more recent generations.

I can already seen that "retro" has now become a term to describe the aesthetics of the game. I also see a good number of people in their late teens and early twenties scouring the flea markets for games because it's the "cool trend." But these people are usually hipsters and will drop vintage gaming once the next fad comes along. Even though I am talking about people from my age group I'm a bit of an outlier. My reason for collecting is because there are so many great games out there waiting to be enjoyed, I could care less for the cool factor or being trendy.

To get the discussion more in-line with the original post I think this move by Sony will hurt these younger collectors.

i'm in my early 20s too and though my biggest collections are n64 and ps2, i do still appreciate the older generations. i grew up on nes at my grandparents vacation property every summer, and have as much nostalgia for that as i do for the n64 and gamecube. i also had a pong console, turbo grafx-16, and atari all at a young age. so even though i was born later than these systems' lifespans, i still feel attached to them as much as anything more modern. you don't have to have been around during the lifespan of a system to enjoy it .

anyway back to the topic, i would be surprised if this took hold. the vast majority of average gamers, and parents especially, rely on reselling their old games to be able to afford new ones. this would probably have a much higher effect on profits for the worse than the better.

[slackur]

Oh, no offense my good man.   I'm very grateful for folks who enjoy the games that came before them, so to speak.  If anything, I certainly wish you represented the majority of gamers out there who aren't biased when it comes to video games.

Communities such as RFGen are vital to keeping the legacy of our hobby alive.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

The future of gaming is going to be 100% digital sooner than later. As such, I don't see how this matters from a collectors sense.

There are though going to be these attempts to curb piracy and they will continue to provide annoyance. We can only hope the game devs can realize that the problem is the price of their games and not people's unwillingness to buy them. It's here they will either go the way of the music industry (screaming, on fire, and off the cliff) or get their act together and follow the Steam and Netflix example of offering a good browser and the products we want at more accessible prices.

[Cobra]

While price is a common reason given for piracy, I think people who pirate just do it because they want to and need no motive. I mean even the humble indie bundle wasn't safe.

[Fleach]

The future of gaming is going to be 100% digital sooner than later. As such, I don't see how this matters from a collectors sense.

There are though going to be these attempts to curb piracy and they will continue to provide annoyance. We can only hope the game devs can realize that the problem is the price of their games and not people's unwillingness to buy them. It's here they will either go the way of the music industry (screaming, on fire, and off the cliff) or get their act together and follow the Steam and Netflix example of offering a good browser and the products we want at more accessible prices.

A Netflix for games will certainly be something interesting. I see how it could possibly be the way of the future. When looking at Steam as an example I can very well picture console developers offering entire libraries for digital download. It's only a matter of time really. Video game retailers are just the middle men, and Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, can easily cut them out by selling games through their respective consoles via the Internet. We might just see the demise of physical copies of games.

[Crabmaster2000]

You guys are bumming me out. What a depressing thread

[slackur]

You guys are bumming me out. What a depressing thread

Aw, Crabby, are you kidding?  This may be the greatest time ever to be both a gamer and a collector!  We've got thousands of classic games and hardware that are able to be hunted down and found reasonably cheap.  We have hundreds of compilations and legitimate downloads on modern and post modern systems to replay ones we missed or never experienced.  We have big budget AAA games with crazy summer movie production values, and arthouse indie randomness.  There are more people enjoying more available games on more platforms than ever before, and the vast majority are cheap, some even free.  Creative teams and individuals are finally getting more recognition and are easier to follow up on.  For crying out loud, I just got a portable Neo Geo AES with twenty games preloaded on it.  If I showed that to my 14 year old self in 92, I'd have never lived it down!  Gaming may be going in directions that conflict with my preferences, but I can't imagine a future where I won't have anything I want to play, even if the modern gaming scene doesn't have anything for me at times.

If anything, this discussion proves just how valuable communities like RFGeneration really are.  This site's database, the collections, and the discussions are part of an important vanguard against the industry losing touch with its history.  With sites like Digitpress, Racketboy, Gamefaqs, the VGCL, and RFGeneration, we keep the candle lit for games and game experiences others may have otherwise missed out upon.  Not to overstate our own importance, but realistically there aren't many sites out there like this, that do as good a job as the crew here, and are as welcoming and (imho) important to keep building. 

I, for one, am perhaps more excited about gaming's present than its future, but I intend to bring that excitement with me there.

[bombatomba]

You guys are bumming me out. What a depressing thread

Aw, Crabby, are you kidding?  This may be the greatest time ever to be both a gamer and a collector!  We've got thousands of classic games and hardware that are able to be hunted down and found reasonably cheap.  We have hundreds of compilations and legitimate downloads on modern and post modern systems to replay ones we missed or never experienced.  We have big budget AAA games with crazy summer movie production values, and arthouse indie randomness.  There are more people enjoying more available games on more platforms than ever before, and the vast majority are cheap, some even free.  Creative teams and individuals are finally getting more recognition and are easier to follow up on.  For crying out loud, I just got a portable Neo Geo AES with twenty games preloaded on it.  If I showed that to my 14 year old self in 92, I'd have never lived it down!  Gaming may be going in directions that conflict with my preferences, but I can't imagine a future where I won't have anything I want to play, even if the modern gaming scene doesn't have anything for me at times.

If anything, this discussion proves just how valuable communities like RFGeneration really are.  This site's database, the collections, and the discussions are part of an important vanguard against the industry losing touch with its history.  With sites like Digitpress, Racketboy, Gamefaqs, the VGCL, and RFGeneration, we keep the candle lit for games and game experiences others may have otherwise missed out upon.  Not to overstate our own importance, but realistically there aren't many sites out there like this, that do as good a job as the crew here, and are as welcoming and (imho) important to keep building. 

I, for one, am perhaps more excited about gaming's present than its future, but I intend to bring that excitement with me there.

Well said, sir.  For such a well thought out and written capstone (far more fitting than I could have possibly thought would happen), I bestow upon you the highest honor I am authorized too:

[img width=339 height=192]http://assets0.ordienetworks.com/images/GifGuide/clapping/golf-clap.gif[/img]

You should be on a podcast or something 

[slackur]

Thanks. *sigh* I do really miss that.

[Crabmaster2000]

You guys are bumming me out. What a depressing thread

Aw, Crabby, are you kidding?  This may be the greatest time ever to be both a gamer and a collector!  We've got thousands of classic games and hardware that are able to be hunted down and found reasonably cheap.  We have hundreds of compilations and legitimate downloads on modern and post modern systems to replay ones we missed or never experienced.  We have big budget AAA games with crazy summer movie production values, and arthouse indie randomness.  There are more people enjoying more available games on more platforms than ever before, and the vast majority are cheap, some even free.  Creative teams and individuals are finally getting more recognition and are easier to follow up on.  For crying out loud, I just got a portable Neo Geo AES with twenty games preloaded on it.  If I showed that to my 14 year old self in 92, I'd have never lived it down!  Gaming may be going in directions that conflict with my preferences, but I can't imagine a future where I won't have anything I want to play, even if the modern gaming scene doesn't have anything for me at times.

If anything, this discussion proves just how valuable communities like RFGeneration really are.  This site's database, the collections, and the discussions are part of an important vanguard against the industry losing touch with its history.  With sites like Digitpress, Racketboy, Gamefaqs, the VGCL, and RFGeneration, we keep the candle lit for games and game experiences others may have otherwise missed out upon.  Not to overstate our own importance, but realistically there aren't many sites out there like this, that do as good a job as the crew here, and are as welcoming and (imho) important to keep building. 

I, for one, am perhaps more excited about gaming's present than its future, but I intend to bring that excitement with me there.

Well said, and I mostly agree. Just a bit sad imagining the future I guess.

[Zagnorch]

You should be on a podcast or something  

Funny you should mention that.

Methinks this would make a great subject to tackle in a future CollectorCast.

Or at least a segue into a discussion on retro collecting in a future CollectorCast.

As for myself: I'm pretty much part of the consensus about letting future generations of gaming go if such restrictive policies are put in place. There's plenty of older stuff out there to take advantage of, and it's not like I'm keeping up that much on the new stuff anyway. Well, save for the occasional release on Nintendo platforms.

[bombatomba]

Thanks. *sigh* I do really miss that.

And I am sure it misses you too.  Maybe you should do a guest spot on another podcast sometime...

Funny to think that one day, in this bleak and war torn imagined-future, there might not be anything as retro game collecting.  Just game collecting.