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So I feel the same way about the games. I don't buy that someone went into the cource code for God Hand and reengineered it to make it PS3 compatible. I find it much more likely that they mastered PS2 software emulation, with perhaps some tweaks for each title in much the same way that is necessary using a standard emulator, but their priority is to generate an additional sale offering those tweaks along with the full game in a digital only format. I think they could make the same emulator and tweaks available for you to play God Hand on a PS3 off the disk, but they just don't want to, if they can make you buy it again.
I'm no fanboy about it. XBox360 is just as shady in their tactics. After all, they are the ones who have taken the first step in making content you have paid for digitally unavailable. Anything purchased over original XBox Live is just gone now, no longer downloadable.
It may not have happened with PSN purchases yet. I'd love to think it won't, ever. But it will, someday. Whether that day is soon enough for you to care is your own personal question to answer. For me, I'm still playing Atari 2600 cartridges from 30 years ago. Do you think Sony will still be hosting that download in 30 years? I don't."
Just be ready for the future guys, if you are collectors. Read those EULA's. You aren't really buying or owning anything if you buy it digitally over PSN. If that download isn't available in ten years, then you don't have what you bought.
I know a lot of people don't care. They essentially lease even their physical copies, by trading them in for the next thing. But if you like to keep your collection, bear in mind that if you bought DLC for an original XBox game, you can't get ahold of that anymore, should you happen to pick up an old XBox 1. Kindle books can disappear not only from the store, but from your kindle, when agreements expire and negotiations between big companies break down.
Sadly I find the enthusuasm of the games media press, and its never-ending focus on "play the newest thing," ensures that when downloadable titles or DLC are removed from digital store shelves, very little concern is given.
But it is important to point out that the move from physical to digital is not just a change in distribution platforms, it is a forced change in the actual concept of "ownership" of purchased content. This kind of leasing is very easily accepted on iOS because of the pricing model. How many people are going to be upset when the PS4 comes out and you can't play those downloaded PS3 PSN games? The ones you paid $15 for?
IF Sony showed more concern for backwards compatibility without a new digital sale, as is their detestable practice witht he PS2 Classics (which you can play on a PS3 if you rebuy them digitally, but not if you have the original PS2 disk), I wouldn't be so untrusting of them. As it is, they'd have to do something like this to get me to trust "buying" their digital content if I have any other physical option available: http://bitmob.com/articles/sony-2012-the-road-not-taken"
I know a lot of people don't care. They essentially lease even their physical copies, by trading them in for the next thing. But if you like to keep your collection, bear in mind that if you bought DLC for an original XBox game, you can't get ahold of that anymore, should you happen to pick up an old XBox 1. I see no reason why any of these outfits aren't going to play it the same way, and act as if they are magnanimous in giving you the opportunity to re-buy those games on the future platforms.
Me, I don't trade games in. If I buy it, I want to own it, not lease it, and thus I have my future access limited only by how well I maintain (or track down) the hardware in the future. Why anyone is so willing to trust Sony's digital platform (we are just one year away from it being hacked and unavailable for two months) is beyond me.
At least on a 360, if they release a game on XBox Originals, it means you can play the original game if you have it on disk. Sony is much more blatant with those PS2 Classics about the fact that if you want to play old stuff on new platforms, even if the PS3 can still read the physical media (unlike the Vita) you are welcome to buy it again.
Pardon my French, but fuck that shit."
But of course they probably would have already abused that power in the way we presume Microsoft is considering for used games, in that an already-activated game would simply not work at all.
Still, it's scary and interesting to know it would only take a technology developed years ago for a simple optical disk to make this happen, as long as the console was connected to the internet (or, conceivably, a phone line)."
I was proud of being able to take multiple pictures of Kevin Butler and change them so he was always the same shirt and tie, though. And of course, the PSP Too image itself.
"
Some exerpts from the Wikipedia:
"...a customer would buy a DIVX disc (similar to a DVD) for approximately US$4, which was watchable for up to 48 hours from its initial viewing. After this period, the disc could be viewed by paying a continuation fee to play it for two more days. Viewers who wanted to watch a disc an unlimited amount of times could convert the disc to a "DIVX silver" disc for an additional fee.[1] "DIVX gold" discs that could be played an unlimited number of times on any DIVX player were announced at the time of DIVX's introduction, but no DIVX gold titles were ever released.
Each DIVX disc was marked with a unique barcode in the Burst cutting area that could be read by the player, and used to track the discs. The status of the discs were monitored through an account over a phone line. DIVX player owners had to set up an account with DIVX to which additional viewing fees could be charged. The player would call an account server over the phone line to charge for viewing fees similar to the way DirecTV and Dish Network satellite systems handle pay-per-view."
"Many people in various technology and entertainment communities were afraid that there would be DIVX exclusive releases, and that the then-fledgling DVD format would suffer as a result. Dreamworks, 20th Century Fox, and Paramount Pictures, for instance, initially released their films exclusively on the DIVX format.&quo"
Funny this article went up today, I just wrote a similar one, postulating a parallel world wherein consumers did push back against the Double-Dip, motivating Sony to continue to support backwards compatibility in both PS3 and Vita: http://bitmob.com/articles/sony-2012-the-road-not-taken
After all, the possible harm from used games sales is really no longer relevant to a publisher once a title is no longer available new, in its release window. Your categorical proof is really just empirical. I can name plenty of examples of kids off the street who would have bought a $60 title new but were instead talked into a $55 pre-owned version of it with an adiitional 10% discount. And yet we as consumers are finding even older titles commoditized into digital purchases that we must rebuy, even if we bought the original release new and never sold it back to Gamestop.
Publishers need to stand up to their true enemy, another large corporate entity, and start enforcing sanctions that reduce or eliminate the new inventory sold to Gamestop unless they agree on a release-window embargo for used sales of certain titles. All of these other tactics are introducing chicanery and inconvenience to their customers instead, and will only hurt them in the long-term."
Overall I feel Remedy has narrowed in on a strong gameplay system that could be applied to a sequel set in a full variety of environments. This is a superlative entry in a franchise that was declared dead, went missing, and came back with new powers... much like the character of Alan Wake himself."