Kim Dotcom may be one of the last people on this planet who would be - at least at this moment - entrusted with the task of stopping copyright infringements and digital piracy.
Yet Dotcom recently posted a widely retweeted note on Twitter that reflects some of the common sense of digital content distribution. His thoughts how to stop piracy are:
"1 Create great stuff 2 Make it easy to buy 3 Same day worldwide release 4 Fair price 5 Works on any device"
1, 2, 3, and 5 are the obvious requirements even if content holders may disagree on the specifics, may not want 3, and cannot provide an economical solution for 5. "Fair price" is the problem area as we have very different perception of what a fair price should be, especially in an Internet environment that is just slowly emerging from a self-service-model that initially taught us that any type of digital content can be obtained free of charge.
Dotcom's new Mega sharehosting service is scheduled to launch on January 20, New Zealand Mean Time. In his words, there are now "9 more days until the US government fails and Innovation wins."
brilliant comment! Exactly what the music industry has been driveling out for over a decade!
Well done Sir!
Not really. What are you smoking? I remember my parents bought me Zelda 2 for the NES when it first came out and it was $65.
brilliant comment! Exactly what the music industry has been driveling out for over a decade!
Well done Sir!
what are you smoking?
try 20 bucks
Not really. What are you smoking? I remember my parents bought me Zelda 2 for the NES when it first came out and it was $65.
I have to chime in there since I remember NES games very differently. I think to remember them being $29.99 for new games.
Btw as well, new games are generally $60 on consoles now. Shoot, even PC games are now trying to charge $60 for a new game, I scoff at that as I will not pay $60 for it.
As well, sure inflation has gone up but so has the income disparity of low income to high income. I think money is worth much less taking into account more than just inflation, but the buying power of a dollar.
If you looked at new releases around 1990, you were spending $50, unless it was old or a low budget gaming company. Today the same holds true. There are $20 games too, from indie developers, but new releases are still $50. They also spend many millions in development of the new games today.
The last laugh is on us. No longer do we get talented music groups, we only get pop sensations, because only the extremely popular groups make money.
Where you been? under a rock?
No matter what platform it's been on, brand new release on any major game been $50+. Smash bro's brawl for Wii $50, halo 4 for xbox 360 $60, and the list goes on with them and the PC and PS3......
Maybe "bucks" after a few years of being out but not at release.
Hopefully the forum update at the end of the month will fix this issue.
Considering that most games developed lose money, and those who do make games do not make good money, I do not know where you come to the idea that game developers are greedy for asking a price that has not changed in 25 years.
People seem to think all businesses are greedy because of a few they have heard about.
Just because games have traditionally been priced at $50 doesn't mean that's where prices should be. Hell, prices have gone up if you factor in DLC, as it's often an excuse to release half-assed games and let paying customers be the beta (or alpha) testers resulting in less bang for the buck.
and fair price...
photoshop is the best example because they are the top because of piracy.
photoshop, the cheapest you can get it is 230$
now yes, for professional use, 700$ is somewhat reasonable, but i would be willing to bet there are more pirate than legitimate copies.
if there was a way to have a home and a business license for that, you may kill off a large amount of the pirate market for it. especially if the home was at 50$ or less.
oh yay, another one of these.
back than games cost FAR less than 50$ because you have to take into account cartrage cost, which ill estimate at a minimum of 30$ for super nintendo, than factor in that the wallmarts take a 7-12$ for themselves, and about 3-7$ a game in shipping costs.
now, it costs what, 3$-6$ to press a dvd and box
they make more profit off games now than they EVER have in the past.
I'm talking about PC games which case on floppies. I doubt they cost much different than a DVD today.
Not all games may have cost $50, and I am talking about PC games, not console games. However, many of the top notch games sold at release in 1990, came in the $40-$50 range.
that may be so, but let's compare what $50 got you then vs today:
20 years ago a $50 game got you a 50+ hour single player campaign and 2-4x multiplayer from a single cartridge, now $50 gets you maybe a 10 hour campaign and a single license.
anyhoo, here's my list of piracy killers:
1) immediate availability, 2) decent price, 3) super cheap rentals (and let us put $spent on rentals towards purchases too), 4) no DRM!
i think the biggest reasons people pirate is because 1) something isn't otherwise available, 2) it's way too expensive, 3) it's a way to "try before you buy", 4) DRM is hell.