SEGA Launches New Account System

[Adrastia]

EVERYONE is moving to a subscription model.
The days of buying a thing and keeping it are gone.
Now it's "pay me forever and you own nothing".

It's crazy how it happened with streaming services once billed as the answer to the hassle of traditional cable. You may need five subscriptions to watch five different shows legally. So in the end you are paying basically the same as cable. Plus with physically media being more and more replaced with digital stuff can go bye-bye forever even if you paid for it.

I hate Nintendo's current model and now Sega's going that route too. The best remedy would be not to fall for it. But too many people already have.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

If no-one's traveling back in time from the future to stop you then how bad could it be really? OK, jokes aside, you've got me on the whole ownership transfer thing. It used to be a right we enjoyed and now we don't have it. And it sucks. If only all those lawsuits from pro-consumer agencies did more than just have the storefronts rephrase their EULAs to something even more buyer-hostile than before.

I think if Copyright lasted a mere 10-20 years, then it would likely be honored a lot more. But as printing of books and physical media is stopped after a couple years, and 90% of their sales is in their first month... Copyright doesn't mean much after that, except to ruin lives.

I understand that at the very least some of it is to finance server upkeep and whatnot but man

It doesn't cost nearly 30% to maintain the servers. Steam has been pretty much self-sustaining for a while, and they could take a 3-5% cut and be fine.

No it's greed, like Bethesda with horse armor and wanting to sell mods. There would be people willing to buy it no doubt. But it defeats the fun of it when you are instead trying to sell a sword in Skyrim for $1 that is twice as strong as anything else, and yet it's just a line of code and a model. Worse Bethesda and Steam get 90% of the cut and the modder gets diddly squat.

I remember when they were trying to sell us on the whole digital storefront thing by claiming that games would become cheaper since going digital would do away with things like pressing discs, printing manuals, paying stores for shelf space and other such things.

The reality of printing discs and manuals, yes it's cheaper... but they won't lower the price because why let you have something for less? Also Steam is partly to blame, to hold their monopoly they have a rule set where you can't sell the game at a different price (other than planned discounts) and if you disagree you simply are banned from their monopoly store.

Also Alex Jones is a bigger hack than anything in the Repo.

From watching him for a few years, he exaggerates a bit in his examples to explain to first-time listeners, but from what i've seen 9/10 times he's on the money.

And that's where i'll drop this part of the discussion. Not intending to derail anything.

 

[χKai]

From watching him for a few years, he exaggerates a bit in his examples to explain to first-time listeners, but from what i've seen 9/10 times he's on the money.

And that's where i'll drop this part of the discussion. Not intending to derail anything.

Politics aren't allowed anyway; it's part of the rules for good reason.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

It's crazy how it happened with streaming services once billed as the answer to the hassle of traditional cable. You may need five subscriptions to watch five different shows legally. So in the end you are paying basically the same as cable.

They have low prices to lure you in, then like Netflix they ramp the price up to try and make the money that's missing.

The problem is... 90% of the customers aren't rich, so ramping up the price just encourages them to quit unless they don't have a choice. Was getting Satellite for $100 a month and said 'nope cancelling this, i'm not paying that just for Discovery so i can watch Mythbusters'. And they shove packages with 90% of stuff you don't want vs the 1-2 items you do want. Annoying as hell.

Plus with physically media being more and more replaced with digital stuff can go bye-bye forever even if you paid for it.

Which breaks the purpose of Copyright.

Copyright, 'To encourage progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited time times to authors the exclusive right to their respective writings'' etc etc.

Everything is intended to go public domain (eventually), ownership was meant as a way to ensure you could profit enough on your work and everyone benefited. Instead the current setup is 'burn it to the ground when we can't squeeze it anymore' with DRM and all that jazz. Or in Disney's case, to own everything forever as they try to keep extending copyright.

Perhaps worse is quite a few software companies and devs studios, lose their source code. So something DRM'd and offline might never be able to be restored ever. So if such a game would technically go public domain, it's just dead bits.

I hate Nintendo's current model and now Sega's going that route too. The best remedy would be not to fall for it. But too many people already have.

I refuse. Haven't purchased a non-physical game/product since 2017. For different reasons, but the result is the same.

True i might not get to play their newer stuff, but i'm so soured on them as a company i don't care.

 

[Clippy]

We'll just resort to living outside and burn down their empty houses. Fuck 'em.

Also Alex Jones is a bigger hack than anything in the Repo.

Alex is most certainly one of the people of all time.

 

[Abecero]

Is it something like the "You need a PSN account to play this game on PC" bs? If it is, kindly fuck off Sega.
If its like some crappy subscription like the nintendo one, uh, alright, sure, whatever. Don't think it's something that would interest any of us here, amirite, lol.

 

[χKai]

Is it something like the "You need a PSN account to play this game on PC" bs? If it is, kindly fuck off Sega.
If its like some crappy subscription like the nintendo one, uh, alright, sure, whatever. Don't think it's something that would interest any of us here, amirite, lol.

I think you would be surprised the amount of people who  are into that sort of thing.. Even on  this site.

 

[ShibbyDealer]

Anyone remember Games for Windows Live? Didn't everyone hate that shit?
Anyways, this seems to be what they were talking about when they announced that new online Crazy Taxi game. They're probably going to tie this into stuff like SMTV and Sonic Origins, too.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Not to get political, but Alex Jones was right.

Sorry but after the gay frog debacle I cannot take him seriously.

(I cannot believe we could put these two words together unironically)

There are companies buying up homes with the intent of making us permanent rentors...

A state is a renting company in some way.

 

[Deleted member 25310]

Didn't know Sega was going the Netflix route. I don't own any form of subscription (Netflix, Amazon, etc) so this little interests me.
I do have a "huge" library of digital games, but I promised myself that from 2025 onward, I would stop buying digital for physical (If I could).
Some people mentioned Steam going down the road of licence only, and while there was an update in the terms of service, I don't think Gabe is looking to fuck over any of the customer base, he's the prime example of "Piracy is a problem of bad service" so he knows better than that, but I do suppose that sooner or later he'll have to step down and let someone else into the president's chair, let's hope it's someone that cares for the industry and the gamers.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

he's the prime example of "Piracy is a problem of bad service"

Bad service, not enough supply, and not respecting the customer.

You know for a CD/DVD it cost about a nickel each to make, yet they want to charge $20-$60 for it, and shove DRM on top. That's just price gouging, and most of the entertainment media is that way. I'd think it's more reasonable to drop to $10 after a couple years, $5 a couple more, and then settle at $2. You won't make a huge margin, but people will buy three four copies, one to put on the shelf, one to play and a couple backups or gifts.

Companies looking for huge profit lines in the short term but low retention later because the customer can't afford it long term. Often they look at HOW much they could in theory make (getting 100 million subscribers, or 10 million units sold), but not considering how much those customers make and the vast majority of them don't have millions of dollars to spend on everything they ever wanted, there's more important things than TV and games, like food and shelter and clothes.

These companies want to make millions and billions, and 'all the money in the world' but don't want to pay out. They get whiny when people share the product, account/password share, and even have done lawsuits to stop VHS tapes from becoming popular because people might *GASP* record something that was on the air so they could actually watch it later! They are losing CONTROL of their product! What a horror!

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Give us good Saturn and Dreamcast emulation and we'll think about it.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Give us good Saturn and Dreamcast emulation and we'll think about it.

I'd rather package deals. I've said in the past i'd pay $20 for whole collections, like all of Genesis games, or all of SNES games, or all of Gamecube games, etc.

And no not talking subscription, talking either a drive or a disc.

Had a modded Xbox, and one thing i got was the BAED. Big Ass Emulation Disc. Didn't work perfect on some of the system choices, but it had at 2006... 80% of everything you wanted on everything 16bit and before.

heh actually seems i only had disc 1...

Big Ass Emulator Discs 1-3b for Xbox : shasta orange : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

DISCLAIMER: The emulators on these discs are obsolete. Uploaded for historical significance.These are the original, untouched Xbox emulator disc images created...

archive.org

 

[Deleted member 25310]

Bad service, not enough supply, and not respecting the customer.

You know for a CD/DVD it cost about a nickel each to make, yet they want to charge $20-$60 for it, and shove DRM on top. That's just price gouging, and most of the entertainment media is that way. I'd think it's more reasonable to drop to $10 after a couple years, $5 a couple more, and then settle at $2. You won't make a huge margin, but people will buy three four copies, one to put on the shelf, one to play and a couple backups or gifts.

Companies looking for huge profit lines in the short term but low retention later because the customer can't afford it long term. Often they look at HOW much they could in theory make (getting 100 million subscribers, or 10 million units sold), but not considering how much those customers make and the vast majority of them don't have millions of dollars to spend on everything they ever wanted, there's more important things than TV and games, like food and shelter and clothes.

These companies want to make millions and billions, and 'all the money in the world' but don't want to pay out. They get whiny when people share the product, account/password share, and even have done lawsuits to stop VHS tapes from becoming popular because people might *GASP* record something that was on the air so they could actually watch it later! They are losing CONTROL of their product! What a horror!

Fair enough, I have been on a binge to buy as many physical games as I can, I already showed my collection from one of the threads I made, I know that what I have is forever so I don't have to worry about losing it.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

I know that what I have is forever so I don't have to worry about losing it.

Alas it's not forever. Plastic still breaks down, in the right conditions it's a lot slower. It may very well outlive you if it survives 80 years, but it won't be forever. Stuff from the 70's is getting to a point where it's no longer usable, in a form of dry-rot.

And then there's unforeseen circumstances... LGR (Lazy Game Reviews) had his place hit (by nature) and whole rooms of where he stored stuff got damaged.

But at the very least a company can't flip a switch and have you lose your content.

 

[Deleted member 25310]

But at the very least a company can't flip a switch and have you lose your content.

Like legit? I wanted to see if I could still play Transformers Devastation since it's a kick ass game from Platinum Games, I tried to download it again but couldn't find it in the store page, to my surprise I find this:

That's fucked, fuck you Activision.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Like legit? I wanted to see if I could still play Transformers Devastation since it's a kick ass game from Platinum Games, I tried to download it again but couldn't find it in the store page, to my surprise I find this:
View attachment 16525
That's fucked, fuck you Activision.

Was it a free game or did you buy pay for it? Most sites have a rule where it may be taken off for sale but if it's in your library you can still get it.... usually. unless it's a live service or other BS.

My goto includes igg-games, though a lot of the links end up dead after 2-3 years; Though the megaup ones tend to be more resilient...

Yep still available...

 

[Deleted member 25310]

Was it a free game or did you buy pay for it?

Admitly, it was a PSPlus monthly game, back when I used to pay for it, decided to see how much it was worth it nowadays amd found this out, just goes to show you.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Admitly, it was a PSPlus monthly game, back when I used to pay for it, decided to see how much it was worth it nowadays and found this out, just goes to show you.

Heh, i tried to sign up for PS Plus... bank wouldn't let me... i gave up and i'm glad i didn't.

We'll have to see where ownership and rights go. Like streaming services, i don't think it's something they can actually make money from this, especially with how they sullied their reputations with deleting content from people's consoles or disabling demos, intending to delete whole libraries of Discovery's due to 'licensing' issues...

 

[kitestar]

my two cents worth:
wait and see, as of right now it doesnt appear to be anything of a hinderance such as a subscription or DRM (such as denuvo, which they have a nasty habit of employing, even on single player games)

 

[sunofpearl89]

It didn't take long for Sega to mess it up, apparently. Classic.

Maybe they should delist some more games or put Denuvo DRM in another 20+ year old game and their site will work again.

Sega is an awful company that refuses to get out of their own way.

 

[norunove]

With SEGA's Track record... how long Till SEGA... Pull's a SEGA and screw's this up?

View attachment 16334

Oh god not another one of those, i hope it doesn't mess with my SEGA ID, i would hate to loose my PSO2 and new genesis characters, creating that account with the japanese details were a hellish process